National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets
So this past Saturday I did my first job as an extra in a major motion picture. Through Carlyn Davis Casting, here in D.C., I was signed on for background work for Disney's National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets. It's a sequel to the original and will star the same people: Nicholas Cage, Justin Bartha, John Voight, etc. So I thought I would use this post to tell of my adventure and my thoughts on what happened.
It started off at 3:30 a.m. when I woke up to get ready to head to the set, the UMD mall. I had a 5:30 a.m. call, and since no shuttle runs that early, I had to walk the 45 minute walk from my apartment to campus. So by 4:30 I was readied and out the door. It was snowing and I began to worry about the possibility of shooting this massive outdoor scene, but trekked on in my coat and scarf down the now abandoned road. When I arrived at the NT2 Basecamp, I was loaded onto a van which took me to holding. Basecamp was in lot AA and holding was in the Alumni Center. It made me laugh that they rented vans to take us the length of ten feet, but they did. Once at holding, I got my union vouched and proceeded to the tables and chairs to await my call. I had breakfast, which was unexpectedly catered to us. Nothing amazing, but free food at 6 a.m. is very nice. Hot coffee to rid the cold outside. I met with a couple of other friends that I knew who were doing the shoot too: Michelle Kaplan and Stacey Musselman. We ended up hanging out all day. The powers that be decided to postpone the outdoor shoot until later that day, allowing time for the accumulated snow to melt. Meanwhile, they filmed another scene in McKeldin Library, an interior White House scene where they have to frantically reschedule a presidential party. My friend Stacey was pulled in to be a standby since the standby's weren't there so early. Team 2, they're called. They fill in for the stars first for camera placement and cinemaphotography stuff. So Stacey got a nice pay raise and some schmoozing time by doing this. Such a sweet girl. I'm glad it happened to her.
While this was happening, we were still hanging out in holding, waiting for the snow to melt. By 11 a.m. they broke for lunch, so we all got to eat nice, free food again! Getting paid for eating two meals, pretty amazing. But by 1 p.m. we were ready to go and were loaded onto large charter buses to be taken to the shoot location, which was only a 5 minute walk. Once there we were escorted onto set where the crew had already set up all the cameras and everything. They had caution taped-off the area in front of Holzapfel Hall where the four main characters were to exit. I got placed on a bench right in the camera's path with Stacey, so if the scene doesn't get cut, I should be on screen. We spent the first few minutes with Team 2 (the stand-ins) marking Team 1's movements. Then the main actors began to emerge and assumed their respective stand-in's places. Wardrobe was called in for final adjustments, where I was told to sit on my jacket since it's a spring scene and I'm predominately seen. It was freezing! And the cold weather made the work difficult. Acting is hard work! Stressful and cold, haha. As soon as cut was called I was immediately back in my jacket, then as soon as rolling was called I was sitting on it again. We filmed until 6:00 pm, which meant we went into overtime and got a nice pay increase! Six hours of filming. In freezing cold weather. Being very quiet and mouthing words without sound. Background! It's not glamorous, but I met some really cool people and got a very interesting view of the industry. Nicholas Cage started out the shoot by calling the director an "arrogant a-hole." John Voight was a very sweet old man who tended to wander a lot, but I think that was mainly character preparation. It was so interesting to see these people work and become part of their world. To be on the other side of the public. As the students gathered on the outside of the caution tape to get a glance at Nicholas Cage, I was on the inside working as he acted right in front of me.
So my overall experience was good. I enjoyed it at least. It's not for everyone. ACTING IS WORK, IT IS HARD WORK. We don't do this cause it's easy, we have a passion for it, and the money is relatively good. I got paid for relatively easy work (may even get paid for a meal penalty), got fed twice, and will be in a Nicholas Cage movie. My Hollywood moment wasn't glamorous, but I liked it and want to do it more. I've renewed my contract with Carlyn Davis Casting for another year and hope to do more extra work this summer, maybe even become union. We'll see!
It started off at 3:30 a.m. when I woke up to get ready to head to the set, the UMD mall. I had a 5:30 a.m. call, and since no shuttle runs that early, I had to walk the 45 minute walk from my apartment to campus. So by 4:30 I was readied and out the door. It was snowing and I began to worry about the possibility of shooting this massive outdoor scene, but trekked on in my coat and scarf down the now abandoned road. When I arrived at the NT2 Basecamp, I was loaded onto a van which took me to holding. Basecamp was in lot AA and holding was in the Alumni Center. It made me laugh that they rented vans to take us the length of ten feet, but they did. Once at holding, I got my union vouched and proceeded to the tables and chairs to await my call. I had breakfast, which was unexpectedly catered to us. Nothing amazing, but free food at 6 a.m. is very nice. Hot coffee to rid the cold outside. I met with a couple of other friends that I knew who were doing the shoot too: Michelle Kaplan and Stacey Musselman. We ended up hanging out all day. The powers that be decided to postpone the outdoor shoot until later that day, allowing time for the accumulated snow to melt. Meanwhile, they filmed another scene in McKeldin Library, an interior White House scene where they have to frantically reschedule a presidential party. My friend Stacey was pulled in to be a standby since the standby's weren't there so early. Team 2, they're called. They fill in for the stars first for camera placement and cinemaphotography stuff. So Stacey got a nice pay raise and some schmoozing time by doing this. Such a sweet girl. I'm glad it happened to her.
While this was happening, we were still hanging out in holding, waiting for the snow to melt. By 11 a.m. they broke for lunch, so we all got to eat nice, free food again! Getting paid for eating two meals, pretty amazing. But by 1 p.m. we were ready to go and were loaded onto large charter buses to be taken to the shoot location, which was only a 5 minute walk. Once there we were escorted onto set where the crew had already set up all the cameras and everything. They had caution taped-off the area in front of Holzapfel Hall where the four main characters were to exit. I got placed on a bench right in the camera's path with Stacey, so if the scene doesn't get cut, I should be on screen. We spent the first few minutes with Team 2 (the stand-ins) marking Team 1's movements. Then the main actors began to emerge and assumed their respective stand-in's places. Wardrobe was called in for final adjustments, where I was told to sit on my jacket since it's a spring scene and I'm predominately seen. It was freezing! And the cold weather made the work difficult. Acting is hard work! Stressful and cold, haha. As soon as cut was called I was immediately back in my jacket, then as soon as rolling was called I was sitting on it again. We filmed until 6:00 pm, which meant we went into overtime and got a nice pay increase! Six hours of filming. In freezing cold weather. Being very quiet and mouthing words without sound. Background! It's not glamorous, but I met some really cool people and got a very interesting view of the industry. Nicholas Cage started out the shoot by calling the director an "arrogant a-hole." John Voight was a very sweet old man who tended to wander a lot, but I think that was mainly character preparation. It was so interesting to see these people work and become part of their world. To be on the other side of the public. As the students gathered on the outside of the caution tape to get a glance at Nicholas Cage, I was on the inside working as he acted right in front of me.
So my overall experience was good. I enjoyed it at least. It's not for everyone. ACTING IS WORK, IT IS HARD WORK. We don't do this cause it's easy, we have a passion for it, and the money is relatively good. I got paid for relatively easy work (may even get paid for a meal penalty), got fed twice, and will be in a Nicholas Cage movie. My Hollywood moment wasn't glamorous, but I liked it and want to do it more. I've renewed my contract with Carlyn Davis Casting for another year and hope to do more extra work this summer, maybe even become union. We'll see!
posted by ~chase at 4:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home