tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83552082085525807982024-09-22T21:01:12.540-04:00I work as a background performer (extra) in movies and TV shows. I'll take you behind the scenes of these productions for insight on how they are made. As most productions have non disclosure contracts that prohibit taking of photographs on set, of costumes or characters, do not expect to see pictures of anyone.philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-82867601186632961702013-07-20T19:18:00.000-04:002013-07-20T19:18:00.390-04:00

Recently, I discovered JESSE HEIMAN: World's Greatest Extra Documentary in my Twitter feed. Naturally, the headline caught my attention as I have been thinking that it would be neat to create a movie or TV series about background performers, as we call ourselves here in Toronto, or extras. In fact the original purpose of this blog was to document the events behind the scenes through the eyes of

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-24104490487224242342013-07-20T18:14:00.002-04:002013-07-20T18:16:21.712-04:00

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of discovering author Lee Carlon on Twitter as he promoted his latest book A God-Blasted Land: The Bastard Cadre #1 on Amazon. Lee has made this ebook a free download so I figured what the heck.  So I installed Kindle on my Android phone and downloaded the book. Surprisingly, the book is a good read with only a few spelling and grammatical errors (can be

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-62553760762526006482013-02-24T17:52:00.000-05:002013-02-24T18:25:46.074-05:00

Recently I worked on the TV series Paranormal Witness. It was the first set I worked on this year (2013).  It was a pleasure working with the crew. Unfortunately I did not get the episode title or number so have no idea when it will air. The crew was great to work with. Everything was well organized. The make-up and costume was simple but effective. My call time was 7:00 p.m. in the west

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-5394096833957796322011-12-19T01:33:00.001-05:002011-12-19T02:02:29.025-05:00

Yesterday I went looking for a video editor for Linux. Since openSUSE is my preferred operating system, YaST (openSUSE version of Control Panel in Windows) was used to search for a video editor. OpenShot was one of three search result items. The others were Cinelerra and LIVES. All three were installed but only OpenShot would work on my system. Anyway, I needed the video editor to edit the video

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-25231589989078321172011-03-16T13:40:00.000-04:002011-03-16T13:40:49.079-04:00

I worked on JAIL BREAK - THE PACT in Peterborough earlier this month. It was a pleasure working with director Alex Dunlop, Unit Manager Pat Maitland, Production Assistant Melissa Munroe, Wardrobe Amy and Make-up Natasha Nikolic and especially my co-star Ray Henderson. As you can tell by the series name, JAIL BREAK, it is about escape convicts. Ray and I play two escape convicts that have a pact.

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-55861017321681477742011-01-04T17:10:00.002-05:002011-01-04T17:16:39.214-05:00

The article Total Recall remake to be filmed at Pinewood Toronto’s waterfront studio in the Toronto Star is good news for those of us that work in the film industry in Toronto. Everyone that works in the Toronto film industry knows there has not been many film or TV productions here for a few years now. All of this is about to change thanks to Pinewood Studios. Back in 2007, Toronto Economic

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-11089979102378493412010-11-14T21:24:00.002-05:002010-11-14T21:29:30.043-05:00

The article Toronto streets to be living movie set by Tony Wong shows how important Toronto is for film production by Pinewood Studios intent to expand their capacity from 250,000 square feet to 2.5 million square feet. A ten fold increase. The article also describes a very unique way to build film production facility - create a mixed use residential/commercial/film production community. As a

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-92067927659980979152010-10-11T16:30:00.005-04:002010-10-11T16:54:24.895-04:00

Is a made for TV movie/TV pilot based on the book Sundays at Tiffany's. It is set in New York and is a woman and her childhood experiences of separation, betrayal and true love. As usual, this blog posting is not about the movie. It is about the production of the film - specifically about my experiences while working on the set. I normally work as a background performer. This set is

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-59000456036065652652010-08-08T14:51:00.000-04:002010-08-08T14:51:24.405-04:00

Working on the set of Alphas was great as I have not worked in about two months. I ran into a number of friends from previous sets so it was like a class reunion. From what I gathered, Alphas is about an elite team of FBI agents that go after super villains like Ghost. It is a pilot for a new TV series. It was a beautiful sunny day to be working outside, not too warm but a bit windy. My role was

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-180793913873645572010-07-18T12:28:00.001-04:002010-07-18T14:43:14.767-04:00

My friends - Bing Chan, Stan Trac, Abayomi Turlon and I did this short film before Abayomi became an ACTRA member. Watch for more short films from BingFilms2009 staring my friends and I.

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-49386385958248630172010-07-14T02:12:00.002-04:002010-07-18T14:41:08.949-04:00

Island airport to get tunnel, money, passengers and Air Canada | The New Normal | torontolife.com I guess Toronto Port Authority (TPA) and the federal port authority agency do not care about Toronto's film industry. By expanding the capacity of the island airport the TPA has virtually killed filming along the downtown shoreline as well as in the harbour due to planes constantly takeing-off and

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-21181072701369583342010-06-13T21:54:00.004-04:002010-07-18T14:46:20.387-04:00

Saw VII is the first horror movie I have worked on that I played a normal person, a business man to be exact. It is also the second production that I got to wear my own clothes for continuity. It took three days to film the scenes I was in. As per usual this movie is a gory bloodfest. To make this movie even more gross, it is filmed in 3D. In this installment of Saw, Dr. Gordon goes for a

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-79500803179613539292010-05-22T20:36:00.006-04:002010-07-18T14:47:32.110-04:00

Working on Resident Evil was fun. The first few days I wore prostheticface makeup. As usual, the days were long. It took approximately 20minutes to change into our wardrobe plus another 45 - 75 minutes to apply the prosthetic face and the rest of the makeup. Once we were in our wardrobe and been through hair and makeup we really looked like we were real zombies. All the zombie scenes I was in

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355208208552580798.post-54661524878300139472010-03-31T11:29:00.003-04:002010-07-18T14:48:02.161-04:00

Working on Alien Invasion was fun. The days were long - 12 to 14 hours. I got about eight days of continuity. The first day of filming was in a small plaza on the east side of Mississauga near the border with Toronto. This is the first set I got to wear my own clothes for continuity. The character I played was a wounded civilian. The plot of the TV show is aliens has invaded earth and a small

philip ramseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16528039732870037624noreply@blogger.com0