So I spent part of my weekend as an extra at Heinz Field this past weekend for a small, independent film called The Dark Knight Rises. It was my first experience on a movie set and I thought it might be fun to share some observations.
Now, let me start by saying that I am not going to spoil any aspects of the film. There are plenty of sites that are already doing that. Which leads to point number two: I am amused by the authority with which some of those leaking info speak. There's some stuff we saw that I have confidence about, but there are a lot of people taking an assistant director at his word (because the production team clearly has no motivation to lie to 10,000 random spectators about a plot point or two).
The entire day was really well-organized by the production team and BeInAMovie.com. The shuttles to the stadium were a seamless operation and by the time I arrived on set the early morning rain had petered out.
The stadium seemed to be less than a quarter filled, but I am sure will appear sold out in the final film. Movie magic and all that.
The crowd itself was an interesting mix. There were Steelers fans, comic book geeks, film fans and a few curious locals. I myself am obviously a film fan, but I am also a comic nerd and a sports fan (though Philly teams are my drug of choice). I felt right at home.
After filming a quick early scene, several sections (mine included) were moved around the stadium. A nice spot about twelve rows behind the endzone would be my home for the rest of the day.
The stadium was cool from the rain for a bit, but when the sun emerged mid-morning, it got hot. Really hot. The production provided water bottles. We started out periodically grabbing a bottle for ourselves. Soon, people were doing water bottle runs for a few people around them. By the end of the day, if you got up for a bottle you came back with a box full, hawking them like a stadium vendor.
Between takes there was entertainment in the form of Dante, a comedian featured on Last Comic Standing. I didn't catch his on-field intro, but I was a big fan of the reality show so I eventually remembered who he was. My recollection was that he was arrogant and unfunny on the show. Sometimes people change. And sometimes, people are Dante.
There were raffles throughout the day. The average gift was an iPod Touch or Shuffle, or a collection of comics. There were some unique gifts: a Michael Keaton Batman standee (that sagged because it was left in the rain), an electronic Batmobile, a Batman poster signed by Gil Kane. The big prizes were free roundtrip plane tickets, a trip for 2 to the movie premiere and a new Chrysler. I won... the respect and admiration of those around me and sadly, nothing more.
There were a lot of small moments that were fun for me:
- People were encouraged to wear black and gold, the color of both the Gotham City Rogues and the Pittsburgh Steelers. But you could not have any logos on the shirt, including the Steelers logo. Several audience members had creative t-shirts and hats made up, but I would say the most popular fashion statement was the inside-out Steelers t-shirt.
- One of the production folks excitedly introduce Art Rooney, the owner of the Steelers to the crowd. Only problem was it was "Dan" Rooney.
- The placekicker for the Rapid City Monuments was the mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl. Take after take, he placed the ball in the exact same area of the field. On the seventh kickoff, he flubbed the kick wide left and the crowd started some good natured booing. I think if your mayor can placekick under pressure, he should be mayor for life.
- The coach of the Rogues was former Steelers coach Bill Cowher. Current Steeler Hines Ward got on the mic to welcome the coach back and announce that the coach would be covering the bill for beer and sandwiches.
- Cowher got on the mic and said he knew none of the crowd came for Batman, but to support the Steelers. That got a big cheer.
- Cowher also was deadpan in reading off numbers for the raffle. He was perplexed as to what some of the prizes were and would read the numbers quickly. Once he counted to three, he moved on to a new number with a short "sorry" or "too bad."
- Cowher had the most hilarious, but potentially harrowing moment of the day. After raffling off a number of prizes, he started walking back across the field... directly through the explosives that the crew had just set. A crew member quickly got on the mic yelling "Bill... Bill... You do NOT want to go that way."
- Ward did a lap around the stadium seated on the roof of a Tumbler. No one had as much fun as Hines Ward on Saturday.
- To kill time between takes, Dante held a singing contest. The good folks at American Idol have nothing to worry about. With the exception of the last singer, all the other talent plucked from the stands was not so good.
- The crowd jumped in as continuity editor late in the day. The crew was about to film us reacting to an earlier scene, but nobody reset the game or play clocks in the stadium. Our section started chanting "change the clocks." After a minute, a crew member got on the mic and said "I think we need to change the clocks."
- Late in the day, one of the IMAX cameras very loudly ate a roll of film. It turned into a teaching moment as a crew member told the crowd that a roll of film cost $750 and that there were only four of these cameras in the world. Now you know!
- I was just 100 feet away from Tom Hardy and Christopher Nolan. The star of Bronson and the director of The Prestige. I was a happy man.
- As the day wrapped up and the last prizes were being raffled, a few crew members started tossing around a football on the field. If your job is to create Gotham City for the day and then run a fade pattern into an NFL endzone for fun, you may just have: The. Best. Job. Ever.
0 comments:
Post a Comment