StandingWater Creations

So, a couple of nights ago Erin and went up Provo Canyon to South Fork Canyon for a movie shoot. It was an interesting experience. The shoot started at midnight-thirty, or their advertised time was then; but around 11:15 they called and asked if we could/would come up right then. I said, “Yes,” and we drove up to the location for the movie. Our roles, featured extras for a direct-to-DVD release movie. Erin played the protagonists mother, I played the protagonists father. We were featured… or so I thought.

Anyway, I, on occasion, get e-mails about extra requests and various movie shoots and acting opportunities around the state and region. I mostly ignore these because, truth told, I think the agency I am using is a waste of space, human flesh, and a lot of other things. However, on occasion, they do send me something I can use and, as a result, I will send off a headshot or a resume or whatever they want and see what happens.

Almost nine-hundred percent of the time I get bupkiss. So, it was a bit surprising (to me) that this movie kept coming up and I kept thinking, “I need to do something with that.” As a result, they sent a call for volunteers for featured extras and I sent off one of my headshots and my age. Nothing more. And then figured that, as usual, nothing would happen.

A few hours later something happened.

The production called me. They said, “We want you to come,” they said, “How tall are you?” They said other things. After all of the over the phones particulars were done away with, I asked, “My fiancé wants to watch the shooting, would it be okay if she came along just to watch?” They said, “Yes,” and that was that.

Two minutes later they called back.

They said, “Would your fiancé be interested in being the other featured extra?”

I said, “I would need to ask her, would you like me to send you her picture?”

They said, “Yes,” and I promised to call them back within a couple of minutes.

I called Erin. She said, “Sure, I guess,” (more or less, not directly quoting here) and then I waited to hear from the production AFTER they got her picture. They called thirty, forty minutes later and said they wanted to use both of us. So, Erin and I, with no information, were suddenly becoming featured extras in a movie.

So, cut to a wedding reception for one of my cousins, and cut to talking to the parents afterward, and then cut to Wendy’s where Erin, mom, Jared’s oldest daughter, and Kimberly were all sitting and eating and not buying me Frosties and then cut to Erin and I at her house counting down the minutes until we can get in the car and head up the canyon and you might have a pretty good idea that a night where I was supposed to go and listen to one of my roommates and his band play some funk music (they are, actually, really very good – at least on CD) at a house party in Provo, and the lack of a nap I was hoping to have BEFORE driving up the canyon so I could (sort of) offset the lack of sleep I would be having as a result of being an extra on a movie shoot where my call time was midnight-thirty, we get a call before midnight asking us to come up right then.

We drive up.

We park the car.

As we get out of the car the phone rings, again, asking what our ETA is. I say, “How about our walking across the street? Is that fast enough?” The girl, very nice one at that, very helpful – really, walks out of the farmyard they are in and greets us as we enter and shuffles us in to the make-up trailer only to find out that the orcs in the movie are still in make-up and are still waiting to get done.

In a while, we were sitting in chairs in the cold outside, at our insistence, they were ready for us, moved us up in to the makeup trailer, told us to put on different clothes – handed Erin a vest that was a few sizes too small and then had to find something else for her – and then had me in makeup (she had rosy cheeks and looked MAH-velous) before quickly shuffling us to the actual shooting location only to be told they were not ready for us, sending us back to the makeup trailer to sit in a holding pattern for, like, three hours.

We got to hang out with the orcs, which were, amazingly, rather cool to look at. With that said, though, IF orcs were real, and IF I ran in to one of these dudes in the woods, they would absolutely scare the snot out of me.

Anyway, fast-forward in time, the crew has lunch, and we are then sent back to the shooting location and Erin is told she needs to look like she is screaming as these orcs attack us (we get to die – woo hoo) and… they are really only interested in seeing Erin scream. I am window dressing, the husband that is there and is unable to protect his wife. Erin screams (except she doesn’t ACTUALLY scream) and dies. Screams. Dies.

Her one comment was that we’d just spent hours sitting with the orcs; and, yes, they are cool; but all you see, after hours, is not a group of scary guys, but guys that acted like they were from BYU and were, really, just dorks. To wit, there was a protracted conversation on whether or not they needed to open their eyes wider when attacking or whether or not they should show their bottom teeth to be scarier.

The outcome of the shooting was, really, Erin lying on the ground (think an animal shed with years of poo piled up) and then sort of sitting up only to plop back down again – dead. The cameraman, a kid that really is walking in to a reality check and who graduated from BYU all of two months ago apparently couldn’t stop himself from swearing as he attempted to use the 35 mm camera they were filming with.

On the flipside, the director was nice… I apparently ended up knowing quite a few of the people there as I seem to “get around” a bit. The protagonist was someone I cast as a voice in the ESL project I was working on with a professor at the end of last semester. As I’ve not heard more about the ESL project I am assuming it is either dead or he’s found someone else to do the work.

(NOTE: Just checked the website for the project and am thinking it is in a dead state.)

Anyway, they pretty much did all sorts of up-close shots of Erin. If the movie gets released you will see the side of my face and back AND then Erin hitting the ground.

So, we have this adventure and at 3:30 in the morning we are done shooing, quickly change back in to our street clothes, grab our purses (mine is a lumbar pack), jump in to my car, and head back down the canyon to Erin’s house.

Because I know in advance that I have to function the next day, all day, I took some stuff to a) stay awake, and b) bought some stuff to keep me awake after only a few hours of sleep. But, it was worth it (in my estimation) to get that experience. It was fun. We got to hang out on a movie set. And, possibly, will be in a movie sometime in the next year.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Bond. James Bond