Extra Extra!!

Remember the couple times I have done filming at work? I mean... I'm just an extra in the background, but it is still fun. Way more fun than work. :)

I thought that was so fun, I wondered what it would be like to be an extra in a movie. I thought I should try it out someday. Well... someday was last Thursday.

My friend Kayleigh tagged me on facebook under an event page set up to find extra's for a movie called "In Searching" which they are filming in Utah. This particular scene they needed extra's for was being filmed in a barn in Heber. I thought.... hey! Why not? So I joined the facebook group. I also convinced my friend Daniel to come with me. Thankfully it didn't take much convincing. Daniel is a pro at being an extra though. He had done it a few times before. So off we went to Heber. It's a beautiful drive and the first thing we do when we get there, is watch the beautiful sunset. I LOVE sunsets.

I had no idea what this movie was about or what our scene would be like... just that we were supposed to dress up Western. So we showed up at the barn. While we were waiting for an hour for them to finish staging, these two guys sat next to me, that flew in from Alaska to help with the movie. They told me that it was supposed to be an Indie type film that is going to be shown at Sundance. It was a drama about some guy coming back home searching for some locket? Also trying to work things out with an old girlfriend but she cheated on him with his friend? Something like that.... just from the scene we were in... seems like a classy film (sarcasm) I didn't go all out with my Western attire. It was supposed to be a Sheriff themed party, so to add to my "costume" they had me wear a Sheriff badge and a Western hat. Probably the tallest hat EVER. It was so huge. Pretty sure you will be able to pick me out of the crowd of extra's with that thing on!

I knew that filming would take a long time and that I would most likely just be sitting around... but I wanted to do it to say I have done it. To see what it was like. PLUS I love people watching. I wanted to see what type of people go to these things. I wanted to put myself out there and try something new... maybe meet new people. Another cool experience to add to my life list of things I have done. I think me going... I accomplished most of that. There were some interesting people there... there were also some cool people there that I enjoyed talking to a bit. They also served us dinner.... at midnight. I wasn't going to eat anything, but the production guys convinced me to eat some corn, cause it was fresh and local and delicious.

We probably went over the scene a dozen or so times. A few times each at each angle. I had their lines memorized by the end for sure. It was so funny to see how cool the actors thought they were.... when they are no names that nobody really knows. What was even more funny was to see the extra's be groupies to these actors. Laughing and smiling at everything they said. Video taping them. I just loved watching it all. We filmed from probably 9:30pm - 2:30am with a break at midnight for dinner. I was lucky enough to be the only extra that they had sitting in a chair next to the stage. I was not going to complain about that... not even a little bit. It will be interesting to see if I am even in the shots... if they show one of the angles they did a few takes from, Daniel and I will be in there for sure. This "Party" we are at in the movie is an alcoholic party. Like... big time. There were cups and bottles everywhere to set the scene. We also were given jars with apple juice in it (to look like beer) and we were supposed to be toasting and drinking. I got to act out the party life I never lived. ;) Daniel and I thought it was funny and we took a picture.... we are making our party faces.

After many hours of filming... we went back home and were home around 3am. Needless to say I was pretty tired the next day at work. Am I glad I did it. Yes, I am. Even though it is not a big film, it was an interesting experience. They told us when the movie is done that our names will be in the credits and that we will get a digital copy of the movie. Daniel and I decided that we would watch it together... and if we were not totally embarrassed by the movie, that we would have all of our friends over to watch it and play the "look for Tracy and Daniel in that one scene" game. We shall see. Would I be an extra again? Totally! However I would probably find out more about the movie first and would I would be doing as the extra...