As a media composer, I expect pretty much all my work to be done behind the screen, supporting the visuals as best I can with my music. However, there have been times when I have been asked to do some work in front of the screen and in some very rare cases, the big screen!
When I was music director for well-known audio post production studio in Malaysia, I got a call from my colleague who was recording the location sound at a shoot for a movie. He remembered that I had a saxophone and he explained that the movie scene they were going to shoot needed a saxophone-playing guy in a music club scene of the movie. "But I can't play the saxophone to save my life!", is what I recall saying to him. "Don't worry! Just bring your ass here to the club and dress up like a saxophone guy and just pretend to play to the music." is what he said to me.
And thus, began my first foray into being a movie extra in a scene. I arrived at the club where the scene was being shot and immediately I was shepherded to a makeshift make-up area, where I was "worked on" by the movie make-up artist. After I was done with make-up, we waited for some lighting to be set up, and then the actors went to their places in the scene, and that's when the director asked me to get on the stage and start pretending to play the saxophone to the music. Soon after, the cameras where rolling and the actors did their scene with me in the background, gyrating my moneymaker, channelling my inner Kenny G onto the saxophone for all the world to see. I was on the set for about 2 hours in total and when the scene was done, I was actually paid on the spot. The movie was a Malaysian horror movie called "Susuk", which was released way back in 2008, and I had actually forgotten about this gig, till I stumbled onto it on YouTube.
The production was even nice enough to include my name in the credits, even though they never really got my full name.
Here is my grand scene of being a blurry Kenny G impersonator!
Something tells me that it's a good thing I kept my day job!