Being an Extra

A week ago I was cleaning apartments for work. We had LOTS to do, so we had Becky with us. She is my boss’ daughter and has many years of experience cleaning. We got going, and we started chatting about things. We somehow got onto the topic of all of my dorky interests. My love for Sci Fi, and all things dorky. Becky is an actress as well as being involved in film in this area. When she found out about my interests, she invited me to come and be an extra on the set of a movie she was working on.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love to do stuff like this. I jump at the opportunity to try something new and this was a cool opportunity. The drawback was a conflict in scheduling (Nick’s premiere was that night) and the fact that filming would go through the night. I didn’t commit until the day before, when it dawned on me to invite my BFF Krysta to come with me, and when Becky said we could come late if we needed to. With that, Krysta was of course on board, the husbands had the kids, and we were green to go!

The movie premiere was over before 8:30, and we got there a little after 9.

We signed contracts, and then we waited. I’d seen enough behind the scenes special features to know that for extras (or as I found out later we were called background talent) there is lots of waiting around. How great it is to be with your best friend!

We had so much fun. We spent the first couple of hours talking together. We had craft services, and laughed, and cried. Just like best girl friends do.

Ok, so everything after this, is going to be missing information. We basically aren’t supposed to post anything that would disclose too much information about where they are filming, what they are filming, and what is going on. SO, what I will say is that eventually they did our make up. How, I won’t say. BUT is was done in the women’s side of a public park bathroom. 🙂 Yes, that is a baby changing table being used as a makeup table.

After that, we went to location…this is a sign there, that says something…

We laid in the middle of the road for HOURS. It was windy, and as the hours past, it got colder and colder. Krysta and I had a blast. It was really fun to watch everything unfold. We were basically human props. It was fun to see Becky at work that way too. She bossed us all around, and brought us blankets between takes, it was so cool. We were SO cold by the end of the night. We finished filming a little before 4 AM. I think they finally finished with us because one of the other extra’s was turning blue. There was SO much wind, and around 2 AM, we were all shivering uncontrollably. We were back to the car a little after 4 AM, I dropped Krysta off at home by 4:20, I was home around 4:30. I showered, and was in bed my 5 AM.

I also saw someone doing my dream job, SCRIPT SUPERVISOR. I would be so good at that.

I guess I will post again after the movie comes out. Give more details about what were were, where we filmed, and post more pics at that time. I just don’t want to get in trouble. As Nick would say, I am quite the stickler.

If you are interested in info on the movie: