The roles have to be actor (6 lines or less) or Principal actor (more than 6 lines). That means that just" being" in a student movie is no justification for your getting a credit. Each college or university has a Student Movie Agreement with ACTRA which defines which projects are "ACTRA Accredited" and are movies in which Apprentice and Full members can participate.

When posting these auditions, I first try to ascertain whether the projects are "ACTRA Accredited" . For the most part, the information I receive is accurate, but you should be aware that if you act in a non-union movie and it comes to the attention of ACTRA, there could be serious consequences.

If you are asked by any college or university or student in a film programme to "help out" by acting in one of their movies, you should make your first question "Is this project ACTRA Accredited?". If it is not, or they don't know, they can find out for sure by asking the person who is in charge of the course.

To those of you who wonder why anyone would want to work on projects that don't pay, and, in fact, cost the actor money (travel, permit fee etc.) I can assure you that the experience of working in front of a camera is invaluable. Additionally you get material for your "Show Reel", and you can't get that just doing background work. Just make sure that when you sign up, you ask that you be provided with a finished copy of the movie as part of the deal!