Just Wright & The Bounty Hunter

Being an extra on the major motion picture set "Just Wright" was an experience that turned out to be useless in its original intended purpose, but surprisingly effective in aspects I did not expect. It was, simply, fun. I can sum it up by saying that being an extra is a networking strategy. It is a deep well of like-minded people. You will not meet a casting director or George Clooney, but you will meet other people who have similar goals to your own. This is where you're going to meet and befriend your roommate when you decided to make that move out west... this is where you are going to find out where to find out about auditions for free. Not to mention, you will make some money.

The IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ. It was a 3-day shoot in the middle of August. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We were given a phone number (or alternative website) to call and get our sign-in numbers and find out our call-time. Because there were a thousand of us needed to fill in the spaces for a stadium scene, we were given different call times. So the message read something like this, "Numbers 1 through 540, your call time is 7:30 a.m.".. and so fourth. My call-time was 8:30 a.m. We were told to bring the necessary ID to fill out your working papers (Driver's License and S.S. Card OR Passport.) We were told to bring 3 wardrobe changes. Upon arrival in the parking lot, we got brightly colored signs to display in our car windows for parking. I grabbed my 3 full costume changes and circuled the massive stadium several times before encountering two men with camera equipment exiting from Entrance # 2 (my guess is they were instructed to go outside and shoot exterior footage) who pointed me in the right direction... Extrance #4. I scurried around the side and was tipped off by the twisting line of about 350 humans. What an eclectic assortment of charactes this crew turned out to be! There were the Jersey Girls who thought for certain the director will take one glance at them and recast the leading lady (these types can be scene from a mile away because they have taken painstaking efforts to ensure it,) the downtrodden, dejected group who have been reaching for years and are slowly winding down in their once blazingly ambitous quest for stardom(they can be spotted by the air of boredom in their stance and disillusionment in their eyes,) and those who are just plain odd and spaced out. These are my people!!!

After signign in with 3 interns who checked off our names and numbers, we followed pieces of paper that read, "Background Holding" and arrows pointing downstairs. At the very bottom of the concrete staircase was an open door that lead us to a massive open room of basement-dwellers who had been there for a couple of hours from the first few call-times. There were several rows of dozens of oblong lunchroom tables and folding chairs intersecting with one long table with picked-over danishes, dry cereal and empty cartons of water bottles. The early birds had alraedy set up came..in some cases, literally. One particularly curious individual had decorated his corner of the room with three candles surrounding picture frames of his wife (?? I guess, idk it could have been his sister, who knows this guy was fukkin WEIRD) and dog. At first I got sad because I thought maybe she had recently passed....but, no. After talking with him I realized he just erects picture frames wherever he goes to keep her close to his heart...and he loves the dog too. ohhhk. He also had a lovely fruitbowl and a jar of candy, along with what HAD TO HAVE BEEN his entire closet in garmet bags draped over the folding chairs. That's class. Speaking of class acts... There was also a girl wearing booty shorts, wedge heels, and she kept changing her top in the holding room--in the MIDDLE of the holding room. I mean, she kept her bra on but... once we got on set, she kept pressing up against the PA's (Productions Assistants...they're like college kids or recent grads making 7 bucks an hour who do various fairly brainless jobs around set and usually work on the movie consistently, though not exclusively, throughout production. It's an entry level position,) However not one responded to her advances and one even rolled his eyes and walked away without saying a word. And she wasn't bad looking...but way over-board, WAY over-board. Not the route to take....

Eventually we were taken to set, which was the stadium (where the Nets play.) There weren't near enough of us to fill the entire arena, but we filled in beginning from the floor seats and up. The PA's directed us where to go and handed us fan signs to proudly display while cheering uproariously. I instantly clicked with Dave, who sat next to me. A "teddy bear type" 30 something year old who has just recently begun to persue acting. (NOTE: EVERYONE WHO DOES EXTRA WORK IS EITHER AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THEIR ENDEAVORS, OR THE VERY END. For instance, this took place mid-August, as I sit here on January 31, I no longer do background work.)

Dave and I watched from the stands as a group of beautiful (although scantily clad) young ladies came in their own group lead by a PA and assigned to sit in a special box right by the court. I commented to Dave, "They always travel in packs, don't they." Sensing my jealousy, he leaned over and assured me, 'You're just as good-looking as them, you just remembered you finish getting drssed theis morning." ALthough it was a blatant attempt to bolster my confidence at the risk of abandoning all truth, I remarked, "Yeah...I couldn't dress that way, I have a daddy." Dave smiled and playfully proposed, haha... To me, it's not about how much skin you show--I've done shoots in a bikini, which is pretty much revealing the legal limit...it depends on the circumstances. If it has to do with the plot, or your own the beach, or it's about a weight-loss journey and what better way to show progress than to show before and after bikini pics, then ok...but to wear those plunging neckline tops that are quite literally cut to the bellybutton and look like the fabric is barely clinging to your bouncing boobs..to a basketball game...is a little much. Or, should I say, not enough. Turns out these girls were cast from modeling agencies to portray the players' girlfriends, fiances, and wives (some of them sported costume engagement rings that weighed more than they did.)

Another attention-seeker, who earned the nickname "Flex" throughtout the 3-day shoot, kept ensuring he was in everyone's field of view by walking up and down the statium steps in a black muscle shirt flexing. Yes, flexing. He would walk halfway up, stand still, and flex his muscles. Everyone pretty much ignored him as a mass of people, but within each row there were murmerings of confusion and mockery. In the holding room he walked around by himself with 5lb weights. Aside from the obvious ludicricy of feeling the need to bring weights to a day job, so as to ensure your muscles to not disintigrate from lack of use exceding 15 hours, but the fact that they were so light really made him vulnerable to sharp tongues. For instance remarks like these from guys, "...he was pumping 5 pounds of iron..you know those little dog-bone weights that pregnant ladies go jogging with..." were uttered throughout the day. Towards the end of Day 2, after we had sat dormant on set (in the stadium) for about 45 minutes with nothing to entertain us except Flex, our overwhelming boredom got the better of us. After a particularly rigorous felx session, as he stood in his own world facing the seated crowd, we erupted into a round of applause and hollers. Even the PA's, at first perplexed, couldn't help but crack a smile. The moment doesn't quite translate through written word, but it was fantastic energy...a moment in which a thousand strangers connected over soemthing that we had all experienced together, yet oddly separately, throughout the past 2 days and SEVERAL hours of being contained as one large mass.

Later that evening while sitting in the break room, I was sought out by one of the people I had befriended on set. He approached me and began, "I've been trying to find you for 10 minutes--I heard all of this commotion at the end of my table...I looked up and it was Flex! He was struggling and being restrained by two body guards...he got escorted out! He kept yelling something about calling his agent......" And we laughed.

So... John was an awesome middle-aged guy who made me laugh uncontainably. It's going to sound so stupid to retell the stories, because sometimes things are only funny by circumstance. The shoots were about 14 hours long...mainly boring....... so all of this stuff seemed funnier at the time. But when they shot the crowd shots, John would do some weird Irish dance. And then we devised a plan for me to jump on his back and go running up and down the aisles....and we just acted really over-zealous every time the team we were supposed to be rooting for scored...and even when they didn't...and it made no sense and was terribly random and endlessly amusing. Anyway. Had to be there...

At the end of each day the whole crowd had to get signed out. So we had what they call a voucher and we filled out the paper work and then the PAs had to sign us out and check our ID (this was so we could get paid.) They kept the white and yellow carbon copies, we kept the pink (yes I kept them, 2/3 parts for proof, 1/3 sourvenir.) The line was horrendous. Take 1000 tired, cranky New York/Jersey people, + half a dozen power-hungry PAs (who are just so elated that there are finally people on set more lowly than themselves: the extras) + 1 meek aspiring actress from Pittsburgh...and you've got a 1 hour and 45 minute wait. At the end of which I'd go home and call in for my call time for the next morning. There is legally supposed to be a 12 hour turnaround (which means, if they wrap at 10 p.m. there is no WAY you're supposed to be back before 10 a.m.) But that rule wasn't abided by. From the line, I watched as Dave and his two friends signed themselves out by copying a signature from someone who had been through the line, then walking casually around the tables and inconspicuously dropping his forms into the boxes behind the PA's chairs. They were focused on those in line and rapidly dropping the papers behind them. Dave offered to do it for me...wide-eyed, I declined without even considering it. As I write this 5 1/2 months later, what's the worst that could have happened? Hard time? Nahhh...Losing the gig for the next 2 days? Absolutely. Would this have been a tragedy? No. But then again, what harm did waiting for almost 2 hours that one night do me either, in the long run? None.

Dave wasn't much for following the rules. Friday, mid-day, a group of us were waiting in the hallway to shoot a scene in a section at the top of the stadium. Dave and his two good friends (long-time friends, not just people he met during the process,) were pacing around, aggrevated at the way they were being treated (Oh, in case it's not clear--you don't get the highest level of respect as a Background Actor. In fact, you get the lowest), I joked that we should just go to lunch (it was 10 a.m.) Dave stopped, pivoted towards his buddy who was sitting on the floor with one leg stretched out, and said, "Hey, Emilio, wanna go to lunch?" Emilio looked around, shrugged, and jumped up. So off to Wendy's we went. Dave told Emilio the story of how Dave "fell in love" with me, hahaha, on that first scene, first day of the shoot when I made the comment, "I have a daddy." He was funny, he was like, "that touched my heart... you don't hear that anymore." bluh bluh.. While we were at Wendy's, Dave got a phone call from a staffer at Extra Mile-- the agency that sent him out on his job. He had told me about it before when we got to talking about forums for casting. I found out about this job on craigslist, I believe...or some free outlet where such opportunities are posted. A lot of people there were from Extra Mile--a NYC based EXTRAS ONLY placement agency. They pretty much take anyone and you do have to pay 40 dollars a month (80 to join,) which I typically would not recommend...however, because they are upfront with the fact that they ONLY place you in Background roles, and every job they retrieve for you is PAID, it's not a bad way to make some money. I actually just got my W-2 Wage and Tax Statement 2009 in the mail today from CAPS, Inc (the name of the company that every major motion picture set I've ever worked on has worked through.) I made $702.35 and I only did extra work for about 3 months. Anyhow...I made up that $80 bucks the first week I signed with the company during a brief 3hr video shoot. Extra Mile is on 28th St. (walking distance from Penn.)It gets old, but it's not a bad experience all in all. While, obviously, Extra Mile or ANY other agency isn't necessary to get such jobs (I didn't work through one at the time,) I did get stuff through Extra Mile that I could not have gotten otherwise. More on that in further posts. There were about 3 agencies that my fellow Extras reported being sent from. Anyhow, so we're at Wendy's and Dave gets a call from Susan from Extra Mile. It went much like this.

Dave:
"Hey Susan what's up. Yeah, I gotta tell you..I can't do any more of this stuff on the big sets...I mean, I understand that they needed you to send them a lot of people for this type of scene but I just can't do it....yeah? Oh really? Yeah...it's just terrible. Oh wow...........ok ..... thanks. ......Sunday? Yeah I'm free....what you got lined up for me? ......mmhmm..... Just from the back? ...Because ya know, I ain't hung like that I mean I'm alright but...... no balls? .........With like a sheet covering...... Yeah ok...... do they know what I look like? ......... Alright yea.....I'll do it."

Emilio and I couldn't wait for him to hang up. So apparently his type was requested for a comedic web video in which he'd be going bare-ass on screen. He nervously joked about being nervous about being naked on set and homosexuality, etc...the norm.

When we went back to set, Dave and Emilio insisted that we wouldn't get in trouble because we'd just pretend like we were coming back from a cig break... afterall, they can't keep track of 1000 people. Except for the fact that I came strolling in with a huge Wendy's cup... Dave sped ahead so as to not be associated with me. Emilio stayed closer, and when one of the PA's commented, "Wendy's?" and I just blew past like he was nothing.... neither one of them could contain their laughter. We snuck back on set through a side curtain leading out to the court and got floor seats.




The Bounty Hunter. I found out about this on Craigslist.