I'm Ready for My Close-up

A Day in the Life on a Movie Set

I have a number of goals in life. For example, I'd like to start a successful business someday, or write a self-help book ala Tony Robbins. I'd also like to be on IMDB.com someday, in some form or fashion. And well, this past Monday (April 25, 2011), I finally got that chance.

Since this was a pretty unique experience, I decided to capture the events of the day in this post (for posterity). Camera weren't allowed and I wouldn't want to get in trouble. Or would I... Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the read! Hopefully it won't take you 13 hours, as it was in real life.

The Movie

During the month of March and April, there is a big Hollywood movie being filmed in SF, starring pretty big A-lister stars, such as Clive Owen, Nicole Kidman, and Robert Duvall, called Hemingway and Gellhorn. It's a docu-drama about the romance between Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn during the 30's and 40's, as they were war time journalists that covered all the major conflicts in that era. (I would also learn that Hemingway's first job was a journalist, and writing books was his hobby.) The movie is currently being filmed in several locations around the bay area, but mostly out of an old warehouse at Pier 80 off Cesar Chavez.

The Call

A few years ago, I did some extra work for a chinese tv drama called Human Cargo (Tou Du) that aired in China. Back then, I was on sabbatical from Accenture, so I had some time to kill. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I auditioned for a print ad (which I didn't get), where the producers saw my mugshot and called me up. They were looking for a few extras to play chinese soldiers in the film. A free haircut and a chance to see the stars? Sure, sign me up. It was a win-win situation.

To be honest, the whole night before the shoot was pretty exciting and anxious...kind of like your first day on the job or school. I couldn't stop imagining what my life would be like in Entourage...picturing myself in the movie with the stars, walking the red carpet on premiere night, and eventually getting my own Hollywood Star.

Little did I know, reality would be a bit different...

Day of the Shoot

5:30am. Alarm goes off. I've gotten about 3 hours of "waking up every hour" sleep, so my eyes are fire red and I can barely walk straight. I have to be on set at 6:30am, all the way in SF...from Dublin...about 40 miles and 45 min away without traffic. I slap on some warm-ups and sweatshirt, wolf down some cereal, and mad dash it to my car. Surprisingly, Monday morning traffic is pretty thick already even at this hour. Getting a little worried, I calculate that with traffic and bridge conditions, I will arrive at my destination about 6:38am (not too bad, and I think most people operate on chinese-time anyways). Who knows, though...maybe these movie-type people are sticklers for promptness. We are dealing with millions of dollars here, right?

6:35am. Arrive on set. Not bad, pretty close to my estimate, which I'm proud of. The warehouse area is surrounded by big trailer trucks, dazed crew members are getting coffee from the food truck, and film equipment is being unloaded. Oooo...my first real glimpse of Hollywood at its finest. My collective excitement and gittiness are about to burst, but I decide to keep it cool to not look like a noob. Oddly enough, the rest of the crew have a very "a matter of fact" look about them; like they're playing with their old toy after all the initial excitement of opening the box.

Wardrobe

I check-in to our casting lady, and head to wardrobe, located in the building across the street. Not sure what it's usually used for, but production has basically taken over. There are clothes on racks all over the place, and pictures and photos cram the hallway walls of different period clothing for Spain, USA, and China. I finally meet the other 9 extras, and they are actually pretty cool guys. Some young, some older, but all chinese...so we all get along pretty well. Some of them have done extra work before, but most are here for the first time. Like myself, they are here for fun and to do something completely different than their school or regular day jobs. They have that bit of gittiness to them as well.

I get fitted with some very rudimentary soldier clothes...or should I just say cloth pieces, a headband, and a nice pair of kung fu shoes. I take off my white socks to make sure I preserve that continuity of the film. I doubt that the 1930 chinese soldier wore Hanes socks. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure chinese soldiers during that time were less than 5'1" and weighed about 80 lbs...but who's counting?

Haircut, Props, and Make-up

Now that I'm draped only in a thin veil of cloth, we make our way to get a period-style haircut with the on-set hairdresser. I would guess that there are 2 ways to cut chinese hair back in those days: buzzcut or bowl-cut. I can do neither for my day job, so I'm hoping that we can do some sort of compromise. Looking around, I see that everyone else is either bald or very short already, so I may be in trouble. Fortunately, the haircutter is a nice lady who gives me a high fade and leaves the top long enough to slick back. I haven't gotten this hair short in a long while, but I figure it'll grow out anyways. My highlights don't seem to be a problem, which is good. I guess they had colored hair back then too.

Ah, the fun part...getting our guns! Although the bad idea is to give a bunch of young asian kids guns...cuz you know they will play-pretend war all the live long day. Each of us get a M1 Garand bolt-action rifle (for those of you who play BF2), which completely is a fake gun but works the same way a real one does. It's only a matter of time before all 10 of us are pretending we're in Saving Private Ryan and shooting the bejesus out of imagined Nazis.

At this point, Spike (the asst director), comes up to us, looks at us down the line, and picks out me and another guy since we are the tallest of the group. We're chosen to be the cave guards, so with this battlefield promotion, we're given the even cooler guns...the M4A1 Thompson Submachine gun (known as the Tommy gun...for you Dick Tracy fans). Now we're cooking.

Next, make-up time. We need to look disheveled, dirty, and just like we're still living in college. The make-up ladies come by and pad each of us down in tiny bags filled with sage powder (grayish/brown) to look like dirt. We then take turns going to the trailer to get the facial treatment. At this point, I feel like I'm in America's Next Top Model: sitting in a dresser chair, facing a mirror with lights, and a "fabulous" artist working on my make-up. A few glamorous minutes later, and voila! Transformation complete. I looked so good I could have built railroads.

The Microcosm of Movie-Making

Before I get into the shoot itself, I'll talk a little bit about the movie-making aspect itself. Since I haven't really been behind the scenes of a major production, I didn't really know what it is like. After having observed the environment for a full 12-hours, though, it is actually pretty amazing and impressive. It's truly unique, and something that you have to be dedicated to, and completely in-tune with the atmosphere...otherwise, you will find yourself out of a job in no time. Movie making is a serious business; which means every minute is worth thousands of dollars; which means when the bell rings, you better get into action. That is why if you make it and develop a good rapport with the crew, you will most likely end up working with the same people over and over again. There is no time to learn new personalities and habits in this business. Maybe that's what I saw this morning...maybe it wasn't indifference of lack of energy I noticed, but the look of familiarity. It's like family after a while, I suppose.

That’s all and good for the cast and crew, but what about the extras? Extras are very important in movies to help establish certain scenes and settings. Wouldn’t it be weird to have a Lord of the Rings movie without the hordes of orcs and knights, and we just looked at Frodo and his lover Samwise for 4 hours straight? Pretty boring, I would bet. Of course, you can probably CGI the whole thing, but sometimes you need real life people to bring a level of authenticity to the frame.

Fortunately, today’s scene only has 10 extras, including myself. Small groups makes it very manageable for the directors to get the exact shot they want without trying to herd cats. I heard stories from the other guys that last week they filmed in Chinatown for a marketplace scene that had over 80 extras. It was a nightmare of gigantic proportions as they had to close down major streets and shops for the shot, and trying to get Chinese folk of both old and young ages (some who didn’t even speak English) to follow directions proved impossible. It apparently took over 13 hours(!) to film the scene, with each take needing to re-do because of extras trying hard to get extra “facetime” on camera, not listening to instructions, or simply walking right into the frame of the actors. Add in the cold, windy weather, disgruntled neighborhood and shopkeepers, and you can imagine the stress level of the cast and crew. The day ended well past 7pm and the director was pretty much at his wit’s end, but who can blame him? And at the end of the day, after all the retakes and reshoots, yelling and crying, the actual scene was for only 30 seconds of film time. Yikes.

12 hours for 30 seconds? I wouldn’t even want to think about how long those shoot days was for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was well over 10 hours collectively.

Life on a Movie Set

Anyways, onto some of the details. The entire warehouse is set up for this production, and divided into 4 main areas...from back to front: green screen set, staging/monitors/crew, cave set, and open area for more construction of sets. I notice new sets being constructed, such as hotel rooms and hallways. The green screen area is empty, for the day.

The staging is where the most of the 20-30 man crew spend their time. Everyone has headsets and mics on, and constantly talk to each other to address issues, lighting needs, shot feedback, etc. The stagehands are fixing lighting, stages, cameras, spraying water in the cave set, setting up fog, rocks/plants, props, etc. The make-up artists hastily run back and forth between takes, putting on powder and makeup, or curling Nicole's blond hair. Clive and Nicole's stand-ins come in between each camera setup to help position lights and angles. The assistants walk around with pieces of paper with the actors' lines to help cue certain actions for the extras. The asst. director discusses actions and motivation for the extras, while the actual director talks at length with the actors themselves on the scene and emotions. It's a very well coordinated environment, and it's easy to see that these folks have worked together for years in film, so they know exactly what to do when the director says cut. While the actors and director get the fame and acclaim, none of it would be possible without the help and support of the tireless crew behind the scenes. They are there before the actors get there, and stay later after the wrap. It’s a thankless job, but it’s sort of fulfilling to be making movie magic.

When the cameras and lighting are in place, and the director is ready for the shot, the crew clears the set and actors/extras are in place. The directors yells, "rolling!" which is repeated by the assts. A loud bell rings (like recess) to alert all crew to be silent. Directors calls for "sound" to make sure the mic is on, the slate is clamped ("Marker!"), and he yells, "Action!". The actors/extras do the scene while the live playback is shown on monitors all around the staging area. The director and asst director watch intently with headsets on and stare at the screens, looking for flow, delivery, and oddities. At the end of the scene, the directly yells "Cut!" and everyone rushes back into action.

Again, it's an impressive sight to behold, and really impressive to observe. And even more impressive was that the entire crew: assistants, stagehands, make-up artists, asst director, and even director, were super-friendly to us extras. I was sure that they would be indifferent or even annoyed at us "one-dayers", but they showed us the same courtesy and respect as everyone else. I would've guessed that constant days of laborious filming would take a toll on decency, but I was wrong.

The Scene

The scene was basically a 5-minute shot that takes place in a cave with a chinese general and our main characters, Hemingway and Gellhorn, having a discussion. The cave is in the mountains of China (obviously), and is a hiding place while the Japanese are invading the country. The general is Chou En-lai, who later becomes the first premier of China. He invites Hemingway and Gellhorn to a private meeting, where he has a nice civil conversation and discusses his books and her jewelry. Something happens, and he rushes off to deal with it; leaving Hemingway and Gellhorn behind to deal with their own little drama and argument.

My role is as one of the guards to the cave: armed with a machine gun and diligently monitor the land for make-believe intruders. I'm instructed to lean up against the rock, and slowly watch across the field, back and forth, making subtle motions to my comrade. 5 minutes of this and I start resembling an animatronic at Disneyland.

Fortunately, I luck out. Out of the 10 extras, 6 of us have something to do in this scene. 1 is a radio operator inside the cave (which is kinda cool since he gets to see Clive and Nicole upclose), 2 are running guards who get 3 seconds of screentime of the back of their head, 1 is a guard who sneaks up to us to talk to us for a few seconds, and the last 2 are us guards, who are in the entirety of the scene. And of us 2, I get the rock that's next to the cave opening, and right in the camera shot. I adjust my position on the rock to sit with my back on it, so I work more of my side profile into the shot itself=D It was more comfortable that way anyways, and if they said anything, I would turn away as asked. But I didn't volunteer it, necessarily.

So, as you can imagine, with a 5-minute scene, I'm getting some serious love in the shot. Now I'm sure editing and post-production will whittle that down to about 10 seconds of good footage, but it's all worth it to be immortalized in some fashion in the filming archives. I can't say the same for the other 4 extras, who don't get any action for 10 hours.

A Long Day

My first take is pretty exciting. I’m not sure quite what to do, as my instructions are pretty open: guard the door, look tense and stressed, and lean against the rock while relating to your buddy. Okay… So I take that as pretty much sit on the rock with my gun, and stare into open space that’s decorated with a giant blue screen. My comrade does the same, so we’re just a couple of statues in the background staring out into nothingness. I’m not even sure what the scene is about taking place behind me; are we in the middle of a war, or just protecting these guys, or what? I guess there’s no reason to explain what my motivation is, but at least I could mimic an emotion or something.

The first take is a little intimidating. I don’t want to screw up…I’m not quite sure how I’m doing, but I don’t want to do so badly that I get switched out with my buddy. I have the best shot where I am. I’m trying to stay focused in my ‘acting’, but I can’t help but listen to the scene being played out behind me. I can hear Nicole and Clive doing their lines, which is a little surreal. I’ve never heard them in real life, but it sounds just like the DVDs. At one point, they have to give a big hoo-ha laugh, which sounds a little fake and forced. Hell, I could do that. And then a little smoochie-smoochie kissing. Hearing actual acting seems to take away some of that movie magic cause it really just sounds like 2 people practicing badly in their living rooms. Anyways, my butt starts to hurt from sitting on the edge of the fake rock and my back is a little sore from hunching over to stay low. It’s not bad for a few seconds, but this 5-minute scene is getting a bit long.

The first take cuts and Spike comes up to us to give us some feedback. He gives us a little more instruction on scanning the frontier with our bodies to show a little less ‘casualness’…which was more constructive than what the other assistant said, “look more stern”. I even offer up the idea to hold up my gun as I scan across, which Spike really likes. My comrade and I work out some minor details on how we should interact, since we’re supposed to be brothers-in-arms and have supposedly worked together for a long time.

The crew are doing their thing and the director is giving feedback to the principals (actors). Ready for take 2. Again, back on the rock and now I’m menacingly strafing my vision across the hillside with gun in tow. A little more comfortable with my movements, my comrade and I start trying different interactions and headnods. It’s coming together slowly.

Take 2 done. Take 3 starts and ends. 5-minute shoots each. My back is really starting to get irritated, and stretching it between takes is not doing much. I heard the Chinatown shot took 30 takes to complete, which sorta scares me. No way I can last 30 takes of 5-minutes hunches. I’m not that young anymore.

Today’s cave scene, since it involves a very tense and dialogue-heavy shot with the main characters, requires several camera angles to get all the different perspectives: far/wide; close-up of Nicole; close-up of Clive; close-up of the general; close-up of Mr. Ma; side-shot of Nicole; long shot of the cave. Each shot requires about 3-4 takes each too, so after you add it all up, it’s about 21-25 5-minute takes altogether. Between takes are about 10-15 minutes of resetting, feedback, review, make-up. Hours of this reshoot, reset, reshoot, reset, reshoot, and so on. I think I counted about 16 takes that I was in (some of the takes didn’t require me). During our final takes, my comrade and I had a pretty worked out system and we started really improvising our acting skills. We incorporated subtle head movements, smooth articulated turns and gun positioning, well-orchestrated tag-team monitoring moves….all pretty in-synced by our 15^th take. That’s when it got fun since we started to push the envelope a little bit and really do some non-verbal acting. Honestly, I was really getting into my role. It’s my cave!

Wondering about the other 4 extras during this whole time? Yeah, me too. Well, while some of us had shots to do, the others stayed back in the holding area, waiting for their number to be called. After a few hours, they found ways to distract themselves… fiddling with their rifles until they became experts at loading, unloading, cocking, and firing it in less than 0.6 seconds, talking about school/work, girls, sports, cars, you name it. I thought it would be a matter of time before it de-evolved into a Lord of the Flies scene with facepaint and a bonfire in the middle of the room. I felt kinda bad that they had to sit around and wait all day, but at least they got paid for it.

But, around 5:30pm, at long last, they called all of us together to do the final shot. This last shot had the camera facing into the cave, and the lot of us were soldiers walking across in the background in the cave tunnels. I’m in the 5^th group that walks across screen, and the first one to do hastily running (the invaders have breached and I’m the first to respond). Bang, bang, 5 quick takes and we are done. After the final take, the director takes off his headset and yells “Cut! That’s a wrap!” and the crew goes into a burst of clapping and hollering. They congratulate each other and even us, which is nice. I guess after long days like these, you need little victories and cheering to keep morale up.

Including the nice catered lunch, the day lasts over 13 hours total (starting at 6:30am and ending at 7:30pm). For a 5-minute scene. After a few days of this, I would think the cast and crew would be exhausted, because I know I was. And all I had to do was sit on a rock. A 2-month filming period would be unimaginable. I guess to be in the movie industry, you really have to have a passion for it…because unless you’re a main character or director, the pay and time is definitely not worth it. My respect and appreciation has definitely grown for these dedicated artists.

Hanging out with Storm Shadow

Now that I’ve detailed out the events of the actual film-making part of it, I wanted to spend a few minutes to recap some of the interesting interactions with some of the cast members on set. The first I’ll talk about it is Keone Young, who plays Mr. Ma (a character that’s a mix between General Mao Tse-tung and Kim Jong-Il).

If you don’t know who this guy is, you will probably know his voice. He’s done so much voiceover work over the past 35 years that it’s more than likely you’ve heard of him in some film or tv show. And usually, he always does the asian guy’s voice. But I’ll remember him as the voice of Storm Shadow from the 80’s GI Joe cartoon series. Awesome. He even did the voice for us.

Anyways, between takes he would hang out with a few of us near the cave and just crack jokes and be, generally, crass and offensive (in a funny way). He joked about being single and how he made it in the business. He gave some interesting advice to one of us on making it in the industry. Basically, it came down to a few points:

- Acting (even voice acting) is not for casual thinking. The industry will eat and spit you out alive. It’s like Rudy, you need to have the heart and soul to get into the business for people to even look your way, and if you ever get that shot, you better be well-prepared to wow them, or that is it.

- Study, study, study and perfect your craft. Always be prepared for when your shot arrives. He said he studied everyday to learn different languages, acting styles, history, etc. He can speak almost all of the asian languages perfectly, so when someone asks him to do some voiceover work, he asks for which language and dialect. He shows he knows his stuff.

- Voice actors get much more respect than actors or directors. Everyone thinks they can act or direct better than the next guy, but no one ever thinks they can do a better voice. It’s a small community of voice actors, and you have to fight your way to get in.

- Asians have had the hardest time to get into the business. Being a nice guy doesn’t help. He pissed a lot of people off and does still, but you need to have some sort of edge to make it. Nice guys get toasted in Hollywood. Especially in an industry dominated by caucasians.

Speaking with him really opened up my eyes. I don’t think I can get into the business, because it really will take a lot of sacrifice to make it. I, frankly, don’t have the passion that real actors do, which makes me understand and appreciate their kind of life. I think just being an extra to watch all of this peripherally is good enough for me. And really, all I wanted to do was meet Storm Shadow.

Clive and Nicole

Watching acting professionals do their job is absolutely amazing. Some people can do it, and most can’t. I don’t know what it is, but you can tell if someone was meant to do this kind of work. Charisma? Looks? I’m not sure what it is, but I guess that’s why they call it the “It” factor. When Clive and Nicole walk onto set, you just kinda know they are different somehow. Maybe it’s a bit of Star shock, maybe not.

First off, both of them are TALL. I mean TALL. Clive is 6’2” officially, but he looks at least 6’4”. I’m a big fan of Clive’s ever since I saw him on BMW Films as the Driver (look it up on youtube). He was also the sniper in Bourne Identity that gets killed by Matt Damon in the fields. Anyways, Clive is well-built and tall, and a bit intimidating. He doesn’t say much to the cast or crew, and is always seemingly focused on his work. He’ll pace around in the cave between takes, listening to his iPod Nano (which I think is playing his lines), or looking at his Blackberry. He seldom looks up at us and remains steadfast in his craft, never really breaking character unless he’s sharing a laugh with Nicole.

I’d like to get to say hi and tell him I’m a big fan, but best not to break his concentration and get hit with a Christian Bale rant. Not much more to say about Clive, but he’s one of the coolest Brits that I’ve seen. He would have made a pretty good James Bond I think.

Nicole, on the other hand, is just the exact opposite. She is super-friendly and kind, and gives off a nice-person vibe. When she passes by us, she’ll make eye contact and say “hi”. I ask her how she’s doing and she gives a smiling reply of “good, how about you?”. She’s a really nice person. I even take a second to tell her she looked good in one of her takes that I saw on the monitor, and she smiles with a “thanks! (in an Aussie accent).

Did I mention she is tall? She stood toe-to-toe with Clive in her Uggs, so she had to be at least 6’. She was taller than me, for sure (I’m 5’10”). I can’t imagine what her and Tom Cruise (5’5”) looked like when they were married, but it was probably pretty funny.

Band of Brothers

It’s funny how a few hours (or a day) with complete strangers can bring some unity, especially if you make-believe we’re in the same army. Those 9 other guys were actually really good guys and fun to hang out with. At one point, with all of us looking ragged and rather homely, sitting in the waiting room for some white guy to get us, I commented that we looked like we were waiting in the immigration office. That drew a pretty loud raucous laugh, and maybe brought us closer together.

After the day wrapped up, we gathered together once more in our little office, and took a nice group photo with Keone, as the Band of Brothers. We would meet again for a screening party when the movie releases, but since it won’t be out until 2012, we might have to get some beers in the meantime. We come from all walks of life, but at the end of the day, we’re just people having a good time and making new friends. Laughter and kindness are the keys to bringing random strangers together…and sometimes being in the same raggedy clothes with fake guns helps too.

My older brother once told me to take the opportunities presented before you, because you will never know what will come of it. I’m glad I did this, for not only did I get to catch a glimpse of movie making for a day, but I got to meet a bunch of cool, new people, who could potentially be future partners-in-crime!

Aftermath

I finally get home about 8:30pm, and I am beyond exhausted and tired. Fortunately, my involvement in the film has quietly come to an end. I can’t say the same for the rest of the cast and crew who have to be on set at 6:30am tomorrow morning and do it all over again, though. After showering the heavy sage powder off of my face, and finally laying in bed, I get to do a little bit of reflection on the day’s events before I crash out. I can summarize them in a few bullets:

- The art of movie-making is just that, an art. Supreme dedication, vision, organization, coordination is all needed to tell that story. To make art, you need a great supporting cast to help you.

- Being in the film industry takes an intense fire and passion to be successful or even enjoy. If you don’t have it, don’t even think about it.

- If you want to do something, you need to be totally committed to it…half-fast effort or passion won’t get you anywhere, and will most likely waste your time. You need heart to be successful.

- If an opportunity presents itself for you to do something different, challenge yourself to do it. The outcomes can be very great and unique. You just never know, but doing the same routine won’t get you there.

So, that’s pretty much a day in the life of an extra. I was fortunate to experience this moment, which I can proudly tell my kids one day that daddy was in a Hollywood movie, even for a few seconds, opposite Clive and Nicole. I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and I encourage everyone to stretch their wings as well and give it a shot. It’s well worth the time and effort. You never know what will happen.

One last thing, apparently being an extra on a film does NOT put you on the IMDB.com cast list for the movie. So I guess I’ll have to find another way to get on there.