Extra, Extra, Read All About It

Yesterday, dear readers, was damned interesting. If for no other reason than the novelty of the entire experience: I was a movie extra.

I’ve belonged with Betsy Royal Casting for a little over a month, and I got my first call Tuesday afternoon. Would I like to be a movie extra? Sure!

The Disney movie, Music High, is being shot on a set in Baltimore. It stars Rachel Griffiths, who is every bit as lovely in person as she is on the screen. Yowza.

I got up at 5:15 yesterday, well before dawn, and set out to make it to Baltimore on time to be on set at 6:30 (including a stop for gas). I got there with no problem, driving home was another story altogether.

They had catering, a guy made me an omelet. I was asked to bring a few different costume choices, for various scenes. They loved the look of the fedora and trench coat, so if you happen to spot that guy in the background of the flick (for all of half a second), that’ll be me.

They’d broken us up into categories of students: Dancers, musicians, artists, etc. The dancers all wore leotards and various other dance paraphernalia, the artists uniformly wore paint-splattered clothes. I was originally supposed to be a costumer, but ended up carrying a violin case for the better part of the day. Rock on.

We walked down the same hallways dozens of times, and the work that went into making this building look like a school was just astounding. A trophy cabinet, art on the walls (it was an Arts school after all), they’d even put up little signs for evacuation in case of a fire. It went on like that; changing out of one costume and into another, making sure my hair was combed, reading a book in the off-times, that sort of thing. They stayed very consistent with the order of the extras, making sure it was the same every time.

One girl’s pants were noisier than corduroy when she walked, and her boots were clumping up a racket. They had her take off her boots, and she walked barefoot trying to make as little zwip-zwop noise with her pants. Naturally, she earned the nickname ‘NoisyPants’ until the first costume change.

It was a bit surreal, having never done it before, but I think the strangest part of the whole thing was the other extras I met. We had loads in common: Actors with day jobs, part-time or otherwise, taking the day to get some blinks of screentime. We had our share of sarcastic wits (got along like a house on fire); humor helped the time go by. A mother and her children showed up, a whole family of extras. She played a teacher, her kids played students. Jay was a cut-up, we had a great time walking down the hallway time and again.

When we weren't shooting, we spent our downtime on the roof of the adjoining building, in a tent with a space-heater. The tables were stocked with food, so nobody went hungry or lacked for coffee.

They kept us over 10 hours, and you know what that means? Overtime! Woot! I should be getting a check in about a month’s time.

The whole day was just a blast. I’d definitely do it again. Shazam.