Post by spgavin on Mar 5, 2009 17:57:41 GMT -5
I was used as an extra Tuesday March 3rd on the “Up In The Air” production and wanted to share my experience with you all. I had so much fun and learned a bit about what happens on a movie set.
The location was at an abandoned office building in downtown St. Louis near Busch Stadium. There were about 25 extras used and they all were pretty cool. The holding room wasn’t that bad due to that. Everyone got along great. Our first scene was in the morning outside set up as a street scene in Phoenix, Arizona. The only problem was the temperature may have been around 25 degrees. It was COLD!!! We were probably out there for about 45 minutes wearing light clothing to suggest a warm climate. I don't know how they're going to eliminate our visible breath. After that we waited in the holding room the rest of the morning while some extras were selected to do scenes. Later we Slum dogs were the last to eat lunch, but it was pretty good food. And we all saw George Clooney, some writers, along with Jason Bateman, who plays George’s boss, and of course Jason Reitman eating at the head table. We ate at a nearby table. I may not have been in a scene with Clooney or Bateman, but at least I can say I was about 15 feet from them during lunch. It was a pretty surreal moment. The female extras were close to fainting…okay, me too. After lunch we did tedious and tiring walking scenes as busy employees for a couple of hours, walking with props across the crosswalks, down stairs, and along the hallway, while Clooney’s scenes were being shot in an office. I doubt we'll see ourselves on film. We'll simply be blurry office workers seen through office windows as he does his scenes. After all, we are background extras. At one point, while we were waiting for our calls, we noticed Clooney rehearsing his lines with script in hand in another office through a glass window. That was pretty awesome! He just kept walking back and forth repeating his lines for a scene. I was later selected, along with 3 others, to be in a meeting room scene with two actors. We did about 4 takes with one actor improvising most of the scene. We were to nod and pretend to be taking notes. I'm not really sure I'll be in the scene though, because the camera was outside the room at the doorway and I'm a little too much to the right of the door in the room. But whatever...they may not even use the scene. It doesn't really matter, because we were directed by Reitman in this scene. What a thrill! The other stuff we were doing was directed by assistant directors. What a day it was. I made $88 for a day's work, but the experience was priceless. Hope all is well with everyone and hope to see you all soon.
Stafford
The location was at an abandoned office building in downtown St. Louis near Busch Stadium. There were about 25 extras used and they all were pretty cool. The holding room wasn’t that bad due to that. Everyone got along great. Our first scene was in the morning outside set up as a street scene in Phoenix, Arizona. The only problem was the temperature may have been around 25 degrees. It was COLD!!! We were probably out there for about 45 minutes wearing light clothing to suggest a warm climate. I don't know how they're going to eliminate our visible breath. After that we waited in the holding room the rest of the morning while some extras were selected to do scenes. Later we Slum dogs were the last to eat lunch, but it was pretty good food. And we all saw George Clooney, some writers, along with Jason Bateman, who plays George’s boss, and of course Jason Reitman eating at the head table. We ate at a nearby table. I may not have been in a scene with Clooney or Bateman, but at least I can say I was about 15 feet from them during lunch. It was a pretty surreal moment. The female extras were close to fainting…okay, me too. After lunch we did tedious and tiring walking scenes as busy employees for a couple of hours, walking with props across the crosswalks, down stairs, and along the hallway, while Clooney’s scenes were being shot in an office. I doubt we'll see ourselves on film. We'll simply be blurry office workers seen through office windows as he does his scenes. After all, we are background extras. At one point, while we were waiting for our calls, we noticed Clooney rehearsing his lines with script in hand in another office through a glass window. That was pretty awesome! He just kept walking back and forth repeating his lines for a scene. I was later selected, along with 3 others, to be in a meeting room scene with two actors. We did about 4 takes with one actor improvising most of the scene. We were to nod and pretend to be taking notes. I'm not really sure I'll be in the scene though, because the camera was outside the room at the doorway and I'm a little too much to the right of the door in the room. But whatever...they may not even use the scene. It doesn't really matter, because we were directed by Reitman in this scene. What a thrill! The other stuff we were doing was directed by assistant directors. What a day it was. I made $88 for a day's work, but the experience was priceless. Hope all is well with everyone and hope to see you all soon.
Stafford