September/October 2011
Extras Assemble By Ron Sabol For those of you who have ever wondered what it would be like to participate in the filming of a Hollywood action movie, this is the story for you. I recently partook in the filming of a major motion picture up in Cleveland. The confidentiality agreement I signed forbids me from discussing anything that has to do with the movie itself, but not about the overall experience. It started with a casting call near Cleveland in which, over the course of 2 days, over 25,000 people auditioned at the Holiday Inn in Independence. This was in the middle of July, and I, along with thousands of others, was standing in line for several hours just to be considered for an extra part in the film. I waited nearly a month before finally getting the phone call that let me know that they wanted me in Cleveland at the end of August to start shooting a specific scene. I felt a sense of accomplishment that they chose me to be part of a group of 2,000 people that were hand-picked by casting directors out of a possible 25,000. It was pretty special. This was also a paying gig. The casting company paid all of the extras $80 for 8 hours of work, and anything over 8 hours a night was considered overtime. This was excellent that many extra roles are nonInconsidering This Issue paying these days. Meet the Staff 2 I worked for three days under the city lights and the SustainaWhat? 3 moonlight of Cleveland, OH. Each afternoon I would Tribute toatOur Heroes arrive atAwardrobe 4:00 p.m., be on-set by 8:30 4 and work throughout the evening into the early hours What’s New in The School 6 of the morning; ultimately I would be back in my car A Note from Your 6:00 Student 7 and driving home around a.m.Gov. Needless to say, they were some long nights. The thing that surprised True Essence 8 me the most though was the amount of down-time there was between shots that involved the extras. 1
I would literally sit for hours before hearing the call for me and dozens of others to go to set. To be honest, most of the time was spent sitting and waiting to go on-set. You never think about things like that when you watch movies. The time spent on-set, however, was quite memorable. It was amazing to see all of the crew that it takes to shoot, literally, what will be a scene that will take up no more than 5 or so minutes on the screen. The assistant director had to get every person in the right spot to start the shot, and when a take was over we all would return to our “first position.” The average number of takes we would do for certain shots couldn’t have been under 10. It seemed tedious at times, but the experience as a whole was incredible. Regardless of how much down-time there was, or how monotonous things appeared at times, I made some amazing new friends during my three days in Cleveland. I met people who shared my passion and overall love for movies and movie-making. The crew and the cast (those I were able to meet) were great to work with and treated all 2,000 extras very well. And by the way, the name of the movie being shot was “Group Hug.” This, of course, is the code name for the future 2012 summer blockbuster: “The Avengers!”
In This Issue Extras Assemble Meet the Staff The True Essence Walks around Campus Remembering 9/11 A Note from Student Gov’t To Serve as a Model
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