Picture Up

My second shot at movie extra-dom was much more fun than the first. Well, the first time was fun because it was the first time, and we actually made it on screen. But pretending to be in an airport security line and having to take off your shoes and put them in a bin on a fake conveyor belt o-ver and o-ver again gets old.

Last week, Abby and I were extras in a scene at a Norah Jones concert! That was way more fun. We had to cheer (surprise), but then we also had to do a fair share of booing. In the scene we filmed, in the middle of her concert, Norah invites the main character (Mark Wahlberg) on stage to sing a song to his woman. Unfortunately, he is a HORRIBLE SINGER. Well, the character. Not Mark Wahlberg, of course. So we had to boo him off the stage.

Norah and her band sounded great. She seemed sweet. And Mark Wahlberg was funny. After they stopped filming, he made comments like, “What’s your problem? I sound fine.” Etc. etc. Seth McFarlane (the writer and director) was also funny while directing us. He did some Family Guy voices and the extras ate that shit up.

The shoot started at 7:00 pm and went until 3:00 am. Abby and I ended up leaving a little after midnight, so we could catch the last subway home. No one seemed to care that other extras were leaving. There were literally thousands of us. So although you won’t be able to pick us out of the crowd, know that we were there! I can’t wait to see how many minutes that scene runs in the movie. My bet is around eight minutes. Eight hour-shoot for eight minutes…this is why some movie budgets are outrageous…