Thanks to Smack for his set report:
I had a bit part in it.
My name is Smack.
I played the singer in the band during the Frat Party scene. We were
performing a parody of Hail to the Chief that Me and Damon Elliot wrote, and
after it was all done, I wrote a letter home to the family. It ain't really
a set report, but I thought you'd get a kick out of it anyway. There's a few
interesting details you might not get elsewhere... Enjoy.
I arrived at the parking lot at 6:15. They had catered in coffee, donuts,
cakes, and pastries for all us extras. Then, we all piled onto vans, and
were taken to the movie setıs "base camp."
This is where the extras were registered. Liza, the casting/music girl,
found me in line and pulled me out. "That was lucky," she said, "if you
would have signed here, youıd have gotten the daily union rate, and not the
SAG rate."
'Whatıs the daily union rate?'
"About a hundred bucks."
'And whatıs the SAG rate?'
"About seven hundred bucks."
'Thanks, Liza.'
She just smiled. I donıt think people thank her very much for what she
does.
Until then, I didnıt know that because I was lip-syncing to my own voice, I
got the same rate as a speaking actor. Fuckinı A.
We were then hustled around a series of trailers and semi tracks, until we
came to a wardrobe truck. I was looked over, poked and prodded, and deemed
OKAY TO BE FILMED. A lot of people just move into your space, tug here,
pull there, smooth there, or even roll a lint catcher over there and none of
them pay much attention to you. It was kind of like being a toy on an
assembly line. No, wait...it was like being a giant, black,
testosterone-driven supercharged truck on an assembly line. Yeah, I like
that better.
They took me to a van with Liza and the rest of the band members, and we
were driven to the set.
The set was a rented Mansion in Hollywood/Beverly Hills/Whatever, and had
been made to look like a frat house. The movie setıs equipment trucks
stretched on down both sides of the street for two city blocks. There were
light trailers, truss trailers, food trailers, makeup trailers, trailers
with fancy shitters and showers on them, and even trailers that carried
industrial trash bins, just to cart away garbage. We were brought to the
front of the house, to an area covered by a half tent, and Liza said "Hey,
the band is here, you want to approve their look?"
And Forest Whitaker turned around and smiled at us.
Oddly enough, I was so busy being pleased about the fact that in person,
Forest really is as sweet a guy as I had always hoped he would be that I was
too busy to be wowed by the fact that I was meeting FOREST WHITAKER THE
FAMOUS ACTOR.
Heıs really good, and he makes you feel like youıre the center of the
universe when he talks to you.
He liked our look and we went to the back yard to wait for rehearsals. I
planned to kick much ass today, oh yes, and I would take many names.
We set our gear up and waited. There were a couple coolers of bottled
water, coke, pepsi, mountain dew, etc., packed on ice, that were free to all
the extras, as much as you want, whenever you wanted it. It was always full.
There were several tables set on the front lawn across the street with
potato chips, finger sandwiches and other crap to snack on, whenever you
wanted it. All in all, if the record deal donıt come down, this extra thing
aint bad...the pay ainıt really shit, but they feed you like a king.
There was even free sunscreen.
We watched a few rehearsals, and Forest came over to direct the band. He
asked me and the guitar player to wait for a cue from the frat boy prank to
run like we were late to stage, and then quickly start playing the song.
Then the actors started packing themselves in around us. Me and Greco, the
guitarist, were by a ping pong table, and the cast entered from our side of
the yard. This meant that Katie and her little costar and their little
bikinis and their nearly naked little butts had to back into my right arm
and Grecoıs left one, so they could be off camera when Forrest called
"action." It ainıt easy keepinı a straight face sometimes. You try exercising a little
self-restraint when Katie Holmes' ass is bumping your hand as if to say "Here I am,
now grab me, spank me, and make me call you papi chulo!" ...or something like that.
Yeah, Iıll write a tune about Katieıs butt one day.
We did our thing, and they shot a few takes, after about 20 rehearsals.
It was interesting. They shoot party scenes with no sound at all, everyone
is silent. There is a machine that pumps sub-bass into the ground so that
we extras had a beat we could dance to. The actors do their lines at normal
speaking volume, and they overdub crowd noise later.
We broke for lunch, and I wandered around a bit, takinı it all in; the
cameras, the movie gear, the trusses, the lights, EVERYTHING. Then they
cleared the backyard.
"WE NEED ALL BACKGROUND ACTORS TO THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE,
PLEASE, EXCEPT THE BAND. BAND TO THE STAGE PLEASE."
So we went to the stage. A little Japanese guy asked me to stand where I
was going to stand. They put tape on the ground. I now had a mark to hit.
We waited, while some guys ran around looking busy. A Woman came up and
started putting makeup on my face. A guy came up with a light meter and
checked my light level, I guess. I think it was full.
Another guy pushed a camera up to the stage and measured the distance from
my face to the lens. I saw the tape. It was 5 feet. Then another guy
pushed another camera up, and then a stedicam guy came within two feet of
me.
Nobody had ever said anything about any close-ups.
So there I was, cameras poking my face, and the second unit director tells
me to look at the white diffusor screen, so Iıd have something to
concentrate on besides the fact that there were all these freaking cameras
in my face, zooming left and right and in and out.
I did it, and we rolled a few takes. We had them crank up the volume so we
could really jump around and feel like it was a party, and lip sync-ed our
asses off. It was weird at first, but we grooved with it quickly, and had a
lot of fun. The cameras were moving constantly, zooming in on me, the
drummer, and Greco at different times. Now I know what it must be like to
make a video. Itıs cool.
Someone shouted cut, and thatıs a take, next scene.
The band left the makeshift stage, which was really a back porch, and I
stayed back, putting cables in order, still enjoying the moment. Adrenaline
was still going.
I heard a whistle, and looked up.
Way across the yard, through the faces, I could see Forrest waving at me, to
get my attention. I pointed at myself to be sure, and he nodded. When he
knew he had me watching, he pointed at me, broke into a huge grin, started
nodding his head up and down, and then turned his thumb up. He was pleased.
I had just made him happy with some small bit of my performance.
Well, all fuckinı right.
Then he really did something to surprise me. He waved me back to the
production tent.
"Nice job, Smack, that was off the hook."
'Thanks, man, it was fun.'
"You wanna see the footage we just shot?"
'Huh? Sure...'
I have no idea why he did that. Canıt figure it out. But we watched the
footage, and then Katie came back from makeup, and I was in her chair....heh
heh.
I walked out to the water cooler for a bottle. I was tired.
Later, me and some of the other extras got together to pool our cigarettes
and bullshit about the other movies we were all working on. Since I never
did another movie before, I kept my yap shut and listened. A lot of Oem
really dug the work, and the particular cast they were working with that
day. A few were jaded, and had shitty attitudes. I suppose itıs like that
everywhere.
As I walked down the driveway, Katie was getting hairspray or something
sprayed on her ass by a makeup girl. She was in a bikini for most of the
scene. I winked at her as I walked by, and she smiled at me. As I passed,
I was thinkin' about how hard acting really was, and I said, 'girl, your job
ainıt easy.'
Unfortunately, Katie thought I was talking to the makeup girl trying to fix
whatever was wrong with her ass.
"WHAT?!" she screamed.
Katie went five shades of red and looked mortified. You know how women are
about their butts. The makeup girl looked up, surprised and afraid for her
job/life/career.
Then I realized what the misunderstanding was and muffled my laughter. I
pointed at her directly, 'I said YOUR job ainıt easy. Acting. It ainıt
easy.' And I smiled and left. I figured sheıd survive.
We did another couple of crowd takes, and everyone was on point.
I gathered my stuff up, and they called it a wrap for the band sequences,
which meant we were free to leave. I walked around a bit, and then grabbed
a ride back to the lot.
It was a good day
