It’s upon us! Pilots are shooting, and that means new opportunities to stand in!

If you’ve always wanted to stand in on a project, pilots offer short-term possibilities to try your hand at stand-in work. If you’re lucky, the production will be picked up and you’ll be asked to come back as a regular stand-in. Even better, you’ll develop a relationship with a casting director who will send you to stand in on other projects!

Here are a few quick tips for standing in during pilot season.

Gather Your Gear

If you’ve standing in at this time of year, you may not have a lot of information about the shoot. Heck, you might not know a lot about standing in!

We recommend the following:

  • Download The Stand-In Handbook and The Callsheet Cheatsheet! Both of these ebooks will teach you super-valuable information about working as a stand-in as well as how to read the callsheet so you can better prepare for your days of work.
  • Gather your toughest winter-weather gear! In general, overdress than underdress — it’s better to be warm than suffering! And if you need really warm shoes, you might be interested in purchasing super-warm overshoes. We review NEOS overshoes here.

Seek out Familiar Faces

When you show up to set, look for familiar faces in the crew!

Knowing people and being liked can go a long way to keeping your stand-in job. Saying hello to crew members you might know from past jobs will help make you feel more at home on a new set and also help you look more accepted, even if you’ve never stood in before.

Knowing people and being liked can go a long way to keeping your stand-in job.

Do Your Best

You might never have stood in before, but that’s okay because that’s why Stand-In Central exists!

Review “What Is A Stand-In?” for a nice summary of what stand-in work entails. That way, you’ll at least have a minimum understanding of what’s expected of you on the job.

And if you get surprised by something above that, well … at least you tried your best to do it!

Fake It a Bit!

If you feel you need to fake your abilities as a stand-in, here are a few tips that might convince others that you know what you’re doing:

  • It may sound silly, but know your right from your left. Go over in your head what it means to turn right or turn left. That way, when you’re on your mark and asked to move in either direction, you’re not caught off guard and you also don’t get confused!
  • When you are excused from set, go to video village or the monitors where hair, makeup, and wardrobe watch and watch the monitors. You’ll want to watch to make sure your actor’s blocking doesn’t change, but even if you don’t watch, being close to the monitors makes you look better than off in LaLa Land.
  • Any time you need to use the restroom, tell the 2nd 2nd or a key PA that you are “Ten One.” That is film and television lingo for saying that you’re going to the bathroom. Using that phrasing may suggest that you’ve had prior set experience!
  • In fact, tell a 2nd 2nd or key PA whenever you step away from set, so if you’re going to craft services to eat something, let them know. That helps to build trust that you won’t disappear — which actually happens a lot with stand-ins!

Final Thoughts

Of course, when you’re standing in, what’s most important is actually standing in! So stand on your mark with your feet in the right place, and try to avoid too much talking. Pay attention to the DP (the director of photography) as well as the camera operators, because they may give you direction. (They are more important than the stand-ins around you, so it’s better to pay attention to them than the other stand-in’s conversation.)

Best of luck!

Did you use any of the above advice this pilot season? Share how it helped below!