elijah_finds | Life as an extra : Day Two

earths-daughter.livejournal.com posting in

This is cross-posted with my LJ

Our call time (you can see I’m learning the terminology) was 8am. Arriving a little early, and having been shown where to park, pretty much the first person I saw was Elijah, wearing jeans and a denim jacket, going into the wardrobe trailer. I felt that was a good omen for the day.

To say that the grounds of Harrow School are extensive would be an understatement. The main base of the film unit was in the playing fields car park and all that could be seen into the middle distance were football pitch after football pitch, a top of the range running track and a golf course. Today the extras had their own base in the sports hall. Catering was a notch down from Thursday, but to produce 400 bacon sandwiches all at once from a small catering van is no mean feat.

I met

eandme, who had come on one of the chartered buses from the centre of London, registered and went up into the sports hall which had been set up with long trestle tables and chairs. After some time Chris, the AD in charge of us extras, came in and jumped onto one of the tables and called for quiet. Immediate silence. It appeared that numbers were down on the 400 they had expected, in fact only 280 had turned up. If we knew anybody living reasonably near, please to phone and ask them to come. He explained the ground rules; firstly, for continuity’s sake please ask before going to the loo, secondly, the actors are working, please leave them alone and thirdly, no photos on set.

Finally, the word came to go on set. A stiff climb up the hill to the Speech Room, where Chris first asked who could come the next day. Then Dani, Alex’s main assistant went through picking people out. I was starting to get a bit worried as the email saying I was definite for the Wednesday seemed to be worthless, but

lisabellex said I had been picked so that was good enough for me. The select 50, the hero extras, were sat in one block; the one Elijah would be in. I was put down at the front, next to

not_alone as it turned out. While this was going on, there was all sorts of activity down at the front with lighting and screens and diffusers, tape measures, marking tape, cameras and trolleys. The wardrobe girl walked around checking our clothes and providing woolly cardigans and jumpers to cover anything deemed unsuitable.

The director called for quiet and announced that John Hurt and Elijah were on their way and asked that we applaud when they entered. A few minutes later when they came in John Hurt was obviously pleased at the reception. They were both pleased, but I got the impression that Elijah felt that the applause was mainly for John (or maybe that it ought to be mainly for John, or possibly that John would be happier if he behaved as if it were for him) and remained in the background while John thanked us.

Elijah roamed around the stage, taking pictures of the crew, and us while preparations continued. His seat was pointed out and he bounded up the steps to take it. It was three rows back and directly behind me so impossible for me to look at, even when told to do so. (I made up for that the next day, though). Wardrobe and make-up made last checks on the actors and we were into the rehearsal of the scene as a whole. Alex was going to film our reactions first. It was not too hard as what was required was little more than our natural reactions to the acting, or so I thought. After a couple of rehearsals we were into “Quiet……rolling…….Scene 19, take 1…….Action”

Well, I suppose with 300 odd extras there will always be a few who forget what they are told, who can’t remove the flicker of a smile when they are supposed to be serious (puts up hand sheepishly) or who are tempted to look at the camera. Alex singled out one poor man for not looking at Elijah (though perhaps anybody foolish enough not to look at Elijah deserves a reprimand), but generally he was extremely patient. As were the actors, repeating takes with good humour. John Hurt was charming. Part of the time he was stood immediately in front of me and he was full of little asides for our amusement.

The scene was split up into sections, each of which was filmed from different angles, with extras being moved around so that in each shot most of the seats in the background were filled. Between shots Elijah would leave his place and go and sit at the side or chat to the wardrobe and make-up girls. Or disappear for a quick smoke outside.

We were given a break mid-morning with hot drinks and biscuits outside. The cast and crew had their (superior) refreshments nearer the entrance and as we filed back in some people started taking photographs of Elijah. It seemed to me that he was not entirely happy about it saying “ Is this a photo-op, guys?” Then “It’s OK, it’s OK”, but it was clear to me that he didn’t think this was the appropriate time or place. (It has been pointed out to me that in fact this was Wednesday)

The rest of the day was spent in much the same way. The cameras on the audience from different angles, the camera following behind John, the cameraman walking backwards on front of John. I found myself losing concentration towards the end of the day. By far the hardest thing was miming laughter or muttering with no sound, and in fact Alex abandoned that idea and had us laughing or muttering quietly instead. Some snippets or inserts were recorded of us laughing and muttering and lastly a sound recording was made of Elijah saying his first line in several different ways.

As we were dismissed John Hurt thanked us warmly for our contribution and even stayed behind to chat and sign autographs. Elijah, who had been approached for autographs at intervals all day, slipped away quietly, probably while everyone’s attention was taken with John’s speech.

All this and paid as well!

Highlights of the day
As they prepared to shoot, after everybody was quiet, somebody behind me was tunefully whistling and I don’t think it was one of the extras.

Alex blowing kisses to Elijah across the room.

Watching Elijah moving around on the stage. He looked gorgeous (but you knew that anyway), and has the neatest bum I have ever seen.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

ninaeatspie.livejournal.com

First of all, I thank you a million times for writing this down in such a detailed fashion. I really love movies and most of the things involved with movies, so this was incredibly great to read.

Second, I had the impression that Elijah was a little "annoyed" with the fans (please dont take this literally, I cant find another word), which is very understandable, but it also makes me sad to hear. It must be really hard for him sometimes.

Was he -in your eyes- as cheerful and bouncy as the others described him?

Also, I'd be interested to know what the actors had to drinks ;D

i apologize for writing this twice, i made a couple mistakes and wanted to fix them

From:

earths-daughter.livejournal.com

I'm glad you enjoyed all the detail. I did wonder whether other people would find it as interesting as I did.

Yes, "annoyed" is far too strong a word, but I felt that Elijah found it a bit of a strain, having to interact with the public at the same time as working. He was never overwhelmed with people and was left alone for much of the time but I think it meant that he could never entirely relax. As far as I could see, he was friendly and welcoming to everyone who approached him and willingly cooperated with requests for photographs. He even sang a falsetto "alleluia" when Alex desribed him as looking like God, silhouetted against the sunlight streaming in through the window behind him.

If the photographs outside the entrance had been taken unobtrusively he would probably not have minded, but having a flash go off when you are trying to carry on a conversation is intrusive.

Drinks? I think they had the same as us. Maybe real coffee instead of the Nescafe sachets, but nothing exotic.

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