What does a soap opera stand-in (Kramer) do?

I'm sure you fans remember the episode a few weeks ago where Kramer and his dwarf (I hope that's the acceptable term...) friend were stand-ins in a soap opera. A question - what is the role of a TV show stand-in such as they were portraying? Camera setup? Costumes? Lighting? Sound checks? I guess I'm just not too knowledgeable on show business, and it was never clear to me watching the episode, nor was I aware of such a thing. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks.

In article , [email] (Paul Richter) wrote:

Yes, that's basically it: The stand-ins are basically people of the same size as the actors. You use them to confirm lighting, sound, camera positions and settings, etc... (Those professional cameras have a lot more setup parameters than your little Sony HandyCam!) Rather than wasting loads of time setting stuff up while the actors are standing around, you make most of your adjustments with stand-ins while the actors are in make-up.

Stand-ins usually go to rehearsal, so they can adjust their voice pitch and volume to match to the voice selected by the actor. The sound crew (yes, "crew", not just one guy!) needs this information to adjust their equipment.

A stand-in is different than an understudy. (I guess that's obvious.)

In article , [email] (Sean Drake) wrote:

What didn't make sense on the show was that they were standing in after the scene was shot with the actors. They were reading the same lines that the "real" actors had already finished shooting.