Extras Essay

Extras essay

The first scene opens in a court room. The mood is very serious which is reflected by the low yet warm lighting and by the serious faces of the jury as the camera pans across them. However, the mood is broken briefly by one member of the jury being out of character. She is slumped and has a scowl on her face and just generally looks rather vacant, unlike all the other jury members who are sitting upright listening to what Orlando Bloom has to say. She evidently does not want to be there, whether this is as an actor or as the character she is playing. This is error in the continuity, for-shadows how the scene will later be broken and will be shows to be a film within a film. The scene continues as a typical court room drama. Orlando Bloom gives his evidence to the court and as he begins to piece to case together eerie, violin music begins to play in the background, perhaps reflecting the fear felt be the defendant as he is beginning to be proved guilty. However, the music then abruptly stops as the other lawyer shouts “objection”, perhaps also allowing the defendants fears to subside. A few seconds later, playful music starts as the two lawyers (who are revealed to be ex husband and wife) start having a marital argument in the court room over whether Orlando sent her flowers when they were married and so the mood therefore is abruptly changed from one of tension to interest/amusement. We are also given an example of a male and female divide. As Orlando's ex wife asks the jury if a wreath counts as Orlando sending her flowers, the men agree, much to the shock and horror of the women who begin to silently protest with them. Up to this point, the scene could pass as a real film, although the audience may have their doubts. Their doubts are somewhat confirmed however, when the judge orders Orlando and his wife to kiss and make up. Although this scenario could happen in a court room drama, it would not be done in such a patronising and comedic way. The couple kiss, bringing the scene to a climax and the jury get up and applause, reflecting the joy that the audience would feel had they watched the entire film. The director then shouts “cut” and the court room is shown for what it really is, a film within the episode. This is shown by the change to more naturalistic lighting and the fact that you can see the film crew. This scene is parodying the typical court room drama, which might take the extremely unlikely/unrealistic situation of two lawyers, put on the same case who also used to be husband and wife and end up having a marital argument which ends up getting resolved by none other than the judge. Not only this but it tries to present this in a realistic and even rather casual context. Because of this, scenes like this can become comedic and “Extras” has hightened and exagerated this in this scene to make it even funnier.

The next scene is very different from the first. Firstly, it is much more realistic, as portrayed by the lighting. It is also proved to the audience that the last scene was a fake, since there is an actors chair with “Orlando Bloom” written on it. The main female character is sat slumped, much like she was during the filming, suggesting she genuinely didn't want to be there in the last scene. As she recieves a call from Ricky, her mood seems to lighten up a bit but she still has an air of boredom about her, shown in her sighing and the fact that her eyes often wonder round the room. Ricky has very much the same dull facial expression, however we learn that this is more with worry than with the boredom that she has. The sheer dullness of this scene, contrasts greatly with the previous scene, making it seem all the more realistic. The tone of the phone call was something that most people could relate to, unlike the topic of the last scene which probably be related to by anyone at all. The conversation also furthers the realism of the scene, by making the characters seem much more human. The female characters forgetfulness, Ricky's sarcasm and the casual way they speak to each other, relate much more to an every day situation. These are also imperfections that would not have been shown by any of the characters in the previous court room scene which although was presented as realistic, was in fact very unrealistic.

As the main female character (still slumped) watches watching Orlando giving various other extras his autograph and she rolls her eyes. This already gives us a good idea as to her opinion of high class actors. She obviously does not think of Orlando as highly as everyone else and does not rank him higher than the average person. This is further shown when he comes over to her and asks what she was rolling her eyes at. Expecting to be met with excitement and enthusiasm, Orlando comes over all confident and cocky. However, she shows him very little interest, not even bothering to move from her slouched position. She even tells him she thinks that people only flood around him “because he is famous” which his facial expression shows puts him of. She even suggests she doesn't think he is good looking, which obviously hurts his pride greatly. Orlando tries to prove what a big deal he is, by telling her how all the “chicks” flocked around him on the set of The Pirates of the Caribbean and how they completely ignored Johnney Depp. Still getting a very uninterested reaction, Orlando begins to get defensive, showing he is getting rather desperate to provoke some sort of reaction from her. In a rage, he even calls Johnney Depp a “wanker”, turning him from a smooth talking gentleman into somewhat of an unlikeable character. This quote could be commenting on actors opinions of each other in real life, suggesting that they might often struggle to better their rivals. This scene almost breaks down the barrier between actor and extra. Usually, the main character would expect to be treated with the utmost respect, where as in this scene he is brought down to size by someone who would usually be far lower status than him.