Twelve-year-old Garibaldi Highlands Elementary School student Zack Rode is taking advantage of the current 麻豆社国产and B.C. film boom. Rode has been an extra on several movies and TV shows over the past nine months.聽
But he has a very un-Hollywood but Squamish-like reason for wanting to work as an extra: to save up to buy a new mountain bike.聽
The work and the pay have been steady. By the end of March, 11 productions had shot in the district, compared to five in the same timeframe in 2015, according to district staff.
Rode鈥檚 been in the fantasy TV series Once Upon a Time and the locally shot Hallmark movies of the week, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse and Dashing Through the Snow, which took over downtown streets in July. He had to carry a 鈥減retty heavy鈥� Christmas tree while wearing a snowsuit for that Christmas-themed shoot.
鈥淭hat was pretty fun,鈥� he said with a laugh.聽
He was also an extra in the Squamish-shot movie Before I Fall.
Rode likes seeing the production crews in his hometown. 鈥淚t is pretty cool driving down the highway or the street and seeing all the trucks and cars lined up and all the cameras,鈥� he said.聽
The biggest budget production he鈥檚 been in was the movie Colossal with A-list actress Anne Hathaway, although he didn鈥檛 get to meet her.
Last week, he spent three hours shooting scenes for season two of the psychological thriller Wayward Pines in Vancouver. 鈥淚 had to pretend I was talking and then kind of walk into a building,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was supposed to be a school.鈥�
Rode said the people on the sets are very kind, although there are rules about talking to the main actors and actresses.聽
鈥淭hey usually ask you not to try to get their autograph or anything,鈥� he said.聽
Other than the money, for Rode, the best part of the job is 鈥済ood food 鈥� there鈥檚 little snacks and gummies.鈥澛�
One of Rode鈥檚 parents has to be on set with him, which sometimes means taking the day off work. 鈥淚t was a sacrifice we took on so that he could fulfill his part of saving up enough money to buy his bike,鈥� said his mother, Kerri Rode.聽
Through his work as an extra, he saved $1,300 and recently bought a new black and yellow Giant mountain bike.聽
But some days on set aren鈥檛 easy or glamorous. The days are long, and actors can wait hours until their part is called, he said.
He was in Riverdale, an Archie-comic based TV pilot a few weeks ago as a Boy Scout and he was outside on set for 10 hours on a cold rainy day at the shoot in Maple Ridge, his mother recalled.
She said the whole experience has given Rode a good work ethic.聽
鈥淲hen he is on set, he knows that he is working and must pay attention to the directions he is given and follow them exactly,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hese are all great skills he can carry with him, and it is great for him to see the hundreds of jobs that are involved in making a movie to appreciate all that goes into it.鈥�
Rode has a seven-year-old sister, but he doesn鈥檛 think the film industry is right for her. 鈥淢y sister is not very patient, so she couldn鈥檛 do it,鈥� he said.聽
When he grows up, he imagines he will be 鈥渁 mountain biker, a Major League baseball player or a lawyer,鈥� he said.
His mother said although he now has his new bike, Rode isn鈥檛 going to retire from his film and TV career just yet.聽
He has his eye on a few bike parts he wants first.
