When marketing freshman Joshua Jones pulled up to the Pitch Perfect 2 set last summer, he knew it would be a day to remember.
Lining up with the other background actors before the 6 a.m. call time, Jones was both excited and nervous about his first professional experience in the film industry.
“The director came out and basically gave us the rundown of the whole day and what was going to happen,” Jones said. “It was background work so we had to basically just walk back and forth several times and hand out papers. We did that over and over again until they got the shot that looked best.”
Jones spent 14 hours on the set that day.
He said the atmosphere surrounding movie production, as well as his newfound aspirations to act, inspired him to research ways to get involved in the film industry.
However, participating in Central Casting Louisiana’s open registration event at the Student Union on Monday came as a complete surprise for Jones.
“I was just sitting outside the room they were at by accident and one of the casting assistants asked me if I was interested in acting,” Jones said. “If you get an opportunity handed to you like this, you have to take it.”
During the event, students interested in background acting and stand-in work were asked to fill out standard employment paperwork to enter a database for film and TV work in Louisiana.
Casting assistants take the participants’ headshots and they are placed in the database for three years.
“[Background work] is so much fun, people from all walks of life do this type of work,” said Central Casting Louisiana casting director Adam Hochfeld. “We are currently casting newborn babies for a movie, while at the same time casting senior citizens for a different scene. It’s the most diverse landscape of people you’ll ever come across.”
Central Casting, established in Los Angeles in 1925, opened Louisiana offices in the summer of 2014 and hope to expand to Baton Rouge due to the growing demand for background and stand-in actors in the area.
The organization is the longest-standing background and stand-in casting agency in the world, supplying productions in Los Angeles, New York and Louisiana with background talent, Hochfeld said.
According to Hochfeld, a new network television series and three feature films are expected to begin production in Baton Rouge this month. The television series, Hochfeld said, will involve a college campus setting.
Hochfeld said he believes students would find background work a fun way to earn extra cash, while also being exposed to job opportunities within Louisiana’s entertainment industry.
“[Central Casting] chose to come out here because we believe this is Hollywood South, as people like to call it,” Hochfeld said. “I know they are working hard in the Capitol, trying to fine-tune the incentive program so that it benefits everybody involved.”
According to the Baton Rouge Film Commission website, the state offers a 30 percent tax credit on qualified direct production Louisiana expenditures, and an additional 5 percent tax credit for payroll expenditures for Louisiana residents.
Central Casting Louisiana will hold another open registration event at the Student Union from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday March 4, and Tuesday March 10 at the Celtic Media Centre.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Ronni Bourgeois

Marketting freshman Joshua Jones gets his headshot taken during registration on February 2, 2015, by Hunter Karas, a casting assistant at Central Casting Louisiana.