Born: Hamilton, Canada, 1958

Mark Lewis has made a series of films that isolate particular elements of mainstream and avant-garde cinema, which he identifies as cinema's real inventions. By presenting these standard elements as stand-alone films he forces us to re-evaluate familiar tricks of the trade and look beyond the cliché.

In the work shown here he delivers a pitch about his desire to make a big-budget film devoted exclusively to film extras, usually seen only as the human backdrop against which the central stars perform. Lewis argues that extras are integral to the illusion created by cinema, since their presence makes the film seem real.

As Lewis expounds upon the qualities of the extra, the camera's focus slowly widens to reveal people of all types and ages, who move around him. At this point it becomes clear that Lewis is standing in a public place, and that the 'cast' of his film are in fact passers-by. In presenting his pitch, he has fulfilled his aspiration.