6 to 6 the hard way
It's 5:30 A.M. on Sunday morning, and I'm sitting in costume with a bunch of teenagers in prom dresses and tuxes. My costume is a pair of brown courderoy pants, a yellow-brown plaid shirt, and a gray, ratty, patched-elbows, sweater vest.

At 6:00 P.M. the previous day, I showed up to play as an extra in "Gretchen: The movie" a great film that you should see as soon as. . . well, as soon as it becomes available anywhere. When I showed up, they put me in a cafeteria with all the other extras, and told me that they'd call for us when our scene came up.

They had also told us that it would be a full night, meaning that they intended to shoot footage from 6:00PM to 6:00AM the next day. I was to play a disapproving parent in one scene.

The first few hours, we got to know each other, and played cards. After that, we listened to somebody's ITunes and read from a book called "If..." which was a series of questions like "If you could put any one person into prison, who would it be?" So that was pretty fun.

At 2:00 AM, they broke for lunch, and we got to share in some of their food. Have you ever noticed that catered food, no matter where it comes from, always turns into the same kind of industrial fare that you can get at any junior high school or in prison?

So then, it was more of the same. Lots of sitting and waiting, running through different card games, chatting with others. Some people had brought sleeping bags, and others were sleeping on the floor. Somebody had a WebCam for their laptop, so we shot some footage of our own. Mostly people acting stupid. Okay, mostly me acting stupid. Still, I think my version of Christopher Walken's "Weapon of Choice" video was inspired.

Then, at 5:30 AM, we got the call that our big scene was coming up. They bustled us outside to stand in the cold, in a staggered row, and told us to wait again. They would let us keep our coats on, but just before they would start shooting, we would be told to turn the coats in (because the scene was supposed to be in June, not April).

Three or four times they shot footage of us looking angrily at the rebel leading man, then they called it a wrap. I changed clothes, and left there at about 6:00 AM.

Know how much I was paid for it? $1. And I'd do it again. It may not sound like fun, but I got to watch the process, see real professional filmmakers at work, and be a (small) part of the whole thing.

It was awesome.


In other news, I've made some subtle but important gameplay changes to FlipBall, which makes it both easier to play, and much more strategic. Give it a shot, and see what you think. I would really like help determining if this version is better or worse than the previous.
- posted by BrandG @ 12:14 AM