Movie Extra McScary
Last Wednesday I was a movie extra in the major motion picture 'Betty Anne Waters'. The shoot took place in Ypsilanti, and the scene took place in a blue-collar bar circa early 1980s. I was there for over 14 hours. It was quite the experience!
I got there and signed in and filled out my payment paperwork and I was then turned over to wardrobe. They said my pants were fine, but they gave me a black shirt to wear and a gray denim to wear over it. The hairstylist said that my hair was perfect, and left it at that. The makeup artist said that I was fine without makeup for the shoot.
After that, there was a whole lot of waiting around inside the extras holding lodge and eating catered food while the film crew prepped the scene. Some time later, they sent us over in waves, and occasionally all at once. Once over there, they situated me near the pool table and had me mingle with other characters and rock out to the band onstage, while they filmed. In the scene, Hillary Swank and her co-stars had a dialog a couple tables over from where I was standing. It's interesting how long it takes to do a scene; they shoot for a minute or two, then reshoot the same thing, several times, then they tear down and reassemble the equipment at different spots in the room and then do several more takes, then they move onto the next part of the scene and repeat. Most of the time is spend resetting the set and putting the equipment back up, so there was a lot of just standing around and waiting to be needed. I was asked to do several "walk throughs" by the P.A.s at various times, where I had to casually walk into frame and then out again. Even though walk throughs serve no real purpose, they add an essential element of realism to the film. Later in the day, a bar fight breaks out involving one of the main characters and a stuntman's character. During this scene I smoked herbal cigarettes and feigned surprise at the events unfolding as they crashed to the floor in front of me. After the fight, one of the characters strips down to nothing but a tube sock and jumps on stage with the band. During this moment, myself and everyone else's characters applauded and cheered wildly and drunkenly.
I had a great time, and I was impressed with how organized everyone was and how courteous everyone was to one another. Plus, I get paid for this too. Despite how long we were there, what we shot will probably only equate to about ten minutes of screen time. Though I was pleasantly surprised at how many times I was on camera, so I'm pretty sure in the final cut I will be visible for at least a couple seconds. This experience was a dream come true for me.