Where Was I?

[toosuto]

Oh yes my b-list celebrity glasses and near encounters to make the Law-and-Order-o-philes moist: last week the word went out that North by Northwest would be filming in our building and would anybody like to show and be extras. Through the magic of Hollywood our humble weekly rag office would be transformed into a hustling, bustling Washington DC newspaper office. We needed to show up dressed up "Business Casual: DC Style" whatever that meant. I figured that it just meant that on the East Coast they are too uptight to let you be comfortable at work and just wear jeans. Shooting would be on Sunday or Tuesday starting around with the specifics to follow later once NxNw had gotten their scheduling ducks in a row. By Friday at 5 pm the volunteer list was complete but we still had heard nothing except that it probably, most likely going to be Sunday. Unless it wasn't. Saturday night while I was performing at Comedy Sportz I finally got a call that we should show up on the set on Sunday at 3 pm (who knew?)

I threw together a few different outfits (on the suggestion of the Wife™ since she is all smart like that) and rolled on in. I got there the same time as the grips and promptly began waiting as they brought in cameras, dolly, lights, a tree to hang the steadycam rig in, the video village, the sound cart and odds and ends. They worked the Hollywood magic on our office. Which consisted of digging paper proofs out of the recycling and tearing apart the cubicle next to mine and stuffing all the parts into mine. Eventually the Extra Wrangler showed and I signed away the rights to my image (no pay, I was working for beef jerky and lemon cookies from the craft services table). By about 3:30 or 3:45 the director had shown up and started going over the shots they had planned. The first shot was the introductory shot (maybe?) of Ramsey the editor of the paper, we were all to look "frantic, stressed and busy" in the background while he walked the length of the first floor by these two big pink counters where we serve up cake. They work out the camera movement and where the holes in the background action might be. By 4:30 the actor playing Ramsey shows. His name I believe is Benito Martinez but I never quite caught it and currently his character isn't listed in the IMDb entry for the movie. They start discussing his costume and such. At one point a 5' 4" swarthy Italian named Johnny (the Wife™ points me to here and adds he is a great guy) asks me in a New York accent if he "can borrah ya glasses?" Sure, why not. He returns them to me shortly and thanks me. Later they ask if they can use them in shot. Certainly, I don't need to see to gesture maniacally at paper and walk briskly back and forth. Benito introduces himself to me and thanks me, the director works with him a little while longer and gives him his screen business with my glasses, "wear them down on the end of your nose then push them up. Good." We then spend half an hour or so rehearsing the shot and the Extra Wrangler and director to fill in holes in the action and then we shoot it twice. It's now 5:30 or so. We do this through two more shots. Angie was in the second and third shot and showed up just as they were ready to begin shooting the second shot. There was a brief time where she stood around and talked to the fancy production crew people and ignored us plebe extras while they set up her second shot. She related some tale about Cuba Gooding Jr. singing karaoke and swing his shirt over his head while I munched on beef jerky and tried to stay out of the way of the crew. Then her second shot (still no extras) and she was whisked away again. Benito had one more shot and lo! we extras were called upon to walk up and down stairs. at 8:30 they released all the extras who wanted to go home and started breaking everything down. I caught up with Benito as he was getting loaded into a van and he graciously posed for a picture in my glasses.


They packed up and moved to Heroes and Legends where they had one more shot (again with Angie and Benito and also Peter Greene) before they finished for the night. Figuring I had nothing better to do I volunteered and showed up. If the first half of the night was nothing but hurry up and wait the second was insane. They set up and were rehearsing shots by 10 pm but didn't use a single extra until nearly 11:45. The last shot was done around 12:30 or so and then it was free beer: hooray! Final analysis: lotsa, lotsa boring especially if you have no interest in watching union guys haul crap around while a japanese man shouts "Bang! Bang! Bang!" and the dreaded call of Sensei Chinen: "Mo Ichido!" I still flinch when I hear it, I know it really means extra pushups.

Comments

[kaysibraden.livejournal.com]

Those are some hot glasses. You'd better be careful or people will start to stop you on the street when they recognize... the glasses. Um. Yeah.

Fame-O-Vision!

[jeremyrichards.livejournal.com]

When you put the glasses back on, did the world change?

Re: Fame-O-Vision!

[toosuto.livejournal.com]

It's true once I got them back I could see these formless grey blobs (people I assumed, some of them would bring me things or talk in a way I found particularly diificult to pay attention to too) all around me, Benito and later Peter and Angie. Then I got home and t he Wife™ beat some humilty back into. I kept trying to tell her that talented movie folk like me didn't change diapers but it just didn't fly with her.

BTW: Cole (last name missing, formerly from Blue Door) as was there as a PA and Gretchen Oyster was the Extra Wrangler. It was fun little jaunt down "Hey, I used to know you lane" except when I met the Costum Desginer who used to know my completely evil ex-girlfriend. That brief interlude was merely tolerable, luckily we changed the topic rather quickly.

Re: Fame-O-Vision!

[jeremyrichards.livejournal.com]

Yep, Spokane's a small town, the inudstry even moreso.