Now You See Me Movie

Thursday Night -- Day 1.

First I have to tell you, I could not have done this without the amazing help of my dear, supportive husband, W.  I love him more than air and am sooooooo glad I married him. :)

That said. . . I can tell you more of the story of the night--but not the story line--that is under wraps until the movie is out.  I've taken about 300 pictures, because every take required us to have our cameras out and flashing . . . not too much info right?

Day 1, Thursday:  The cattle call.  Correct me if I am wrong, fellow extras reading this blog, but I think this definitely fits the "cattle call" bill.

There we were moo-ving our way thr-ooo the doors of ho-o-olding and oover to 5 Poi-oi-oi ntz (okay, I think I think that's enough with the cattle-y thing--you get the idea) where we climbed the dimly lit stairwells to set holding and onto the set. It was dusk and the light was soon gone and most of the background artists were shuffled in for the first scene.  I was stuck by the door for it, so I walked ten feet backward nonchalantly to ask the sound people questions, careful to not to impede their focus on their work.

Me and my new friend, Megan.  She's hilarious.

Sound Crew: They were polite and happy to answer my questions (thank you!).  Their names are not posted, because I did not ask their permission, but I think you'll get to read them in the credits of the movie when it comes out or on maybe on IMDB. I even got to listen on an extra headset to the overwhelming cheer of the crowd and the one guy I think is a principal actor.  I saw the 8 track recording equipment.  I think they were using two tracks, one for the crowd and one for the actor with the lines.  They have a laptop hooked up to as a back-up recording/monitoring device.  He moves the knobs to amplify the sounds. . .

Something like this, from here.

The noise I heard in the earphones was synonymous with what I heard during filming, minus the speaking actor's part.

They are only involved in the production process.  They do not take part in the post-production/editing process, though the fellow I talked to used to help his grandfather do it in the old days (he's third generation film/TV/commercials sound guy). They write down the sound quality of each take meticulously in a folder they keep next to the sound station they set up. They have a device that syncs with the time on the cameras and the numbers on the clapper (the clapping sound is not essential but is nice in the post production area).

He asked why I was so interested and I told him that I really wanted to make a movie and he immediately said, "Make sure you get a good sound guy." Then continued with something like, movies that have errors or whatnot with the film can be considered artistic choices, but without good sound movies are considered low-quality or crummy.

New goal - - I would like to be on the swat team and maybe a detective. . . in a show.

I sat with the extras for a long time and got to know a few.  There are so many intelligent, talented people that extra.  They have so many skills and are determined to live their dream in whatever way the can.  Many of them are musicians.  One of the musicians that was singing was Sebastian Rivera.   A lot of us just sat in our chairs chatted with our new-found friends and listened to his singing with his guitar and supportive girlfriend.

One of my favorite things about hanging around actors is that we're all a bit on the wacky side and it is so fun to break out in accents (good or bad) and chat up a storm. And we laugh about ridiculous things that are only really funny in the middle of the night, otherwise they just seem lame.

Wardrobe Girl, Me, Megan, Detective Girl (names have not been added because I forgot to ask permission).

We were all up together until 5:30-6 a.m. when we were "wrapped." I got home around 7, just in time to get my kidlets ready for school.