Extra Extra

The best thing about working downtown is there is always something happening. This week when I came to work I notice a film production company had moved in to the parking lot just North of our building. The weather has been so unpleasant of late I have not been able to talk with anyone from the “production village” to find who, what , when where and why.

The obvious question I want to ask is: “Are they looking for extras”. In my life I have been an extra on one movie production site and that was a couple of years ago. Maldonado Miracle Plot Outline: In a small, dying town, the residents' faith is tested when a statue of Jesus seems to be shedding real tears of blood.. The production company needed a bunch of wheelchair people and other obvious disabilities to march pathetically in the hot noonday sun to the church in hope of accessing the “miracle” his was a less the stellar even in my life by time and distance from the event has made an interesting memory and a wonderful bit of personal trivia to drop almost anywhere. To get to the production site I had to literally drive 60-70 miles to deep rural Utah way early in the morning and return way late in the night. I almost killed a deer on the way home. But I have to admit the experience was interesting and I would be an extra again if the event were closer to home. It’s tough to find good “crip” roles though. I need to join the Screen Actors Guild in order to get on serious “roll-calls”. Utah sees a lot of production work because Utah is a Right to Work state—I guess it’s cheaper to film in Utah hen other states since the company does not have to pay Union Scale. I should feel more guilt but HEY, it’s the movies.

The work of an extra, most if the time, is waiting. I did a 12 hour day and I would bet actual shooting time was less then two hours. The rest of the day was spent waiting for scenes to be set up to shoot. We did shoot they shot hard. We must have re=shot scenes 20 times sometimes. This is nerve racking because everything is literally reversed. You have to retrace your steps until the looked exactly the same as when you first started the scene. Then you do the whole thing over again, and again and again. We did this till we lost daylight. Then we worked on a night scene till 11:00 when then stopped production for the day…the I still had to drive back home. The shooting area was an almost abandoned ghost town in Central Utah called “Eureka” I had to drive thirty miles just to access the Interstate North to get back to Utah County. This was when I was attacked by the stupid deep jumping into my headlights! This certainly woke me up. Luckily I missed dodge the young buck or he missed me. I was supposed to be back on set the following morning at 7:00 am but I did not make it. Selma Hayek would just have to finds another extra..

I promised myself I would never go through that kind of abuse to be an extra but I would think about crossing the parking lot.