Hi everyone. How ya doin. Ya. I'm going to talk about:

Taking Lives - Ms C the Movie Extra

So I went to work on Friday from 2:30 pm to 5:00 a.m., and Sunday the same times. So my sleep cycle is totally thrown off and I'm not really tired right now. Which is why I'm going to blog this now before I forget everything.

Anyway, crazy Angelina Jolie fans among the internet crowd should know that she's in Montreal right now filming this thing. She gets to work with the director, gets nice little meals on the set when she wants, and doesn't get yelled at for having her coat on in between takes, while it's below 10 C outside at 3 a.m. in the Old Montreal region.

In the meantime, us 400+ silly extras on Friday and Sunday suffered through coatlessness and foodlessness (okay, we did get a bit of food, but it was all cold pizzas, cold cheese sticks, and lukewarm salt water soup) to bounce around like idiots and party like drunkards, while the assistant directors tried to scream directions at us over stupid actual drunk morons among the extras who wouldn't shut their traps the whole night.

Let me start at the beginning.

Friday
The place where we were to register and wait was down at the Alexandria Quay, in the Old Port. Having known that extra work would be mostly sitting on your ass and working, in a time ratio of 6:1, I was fully anticipating a mostly bored-eat-bored-sleep-bored-coffee-sleep-bored day. The 400+ extras who were experienced in this had anticipated this as well, and some brought cards, books, newspapers, or their cell phones with programmable games. Or they went about chatting with others and getting to make new connections in the industry.

Not me. I ended up sitting at a table for hours and nearly gnawing my arm off to keep myself occupied. Not to mention that some older guy came by and started talking about how he was a stand-in for Pierce Brosnan. Well, I didn't think he looked anything like the guy. I think he reminded me more of a mix between THIS guy (that Fark's crazy about) and THIS guy. Anyway, this guy freaked me out but I had no one else to talk to, so I sat with him for about 6 hours and during supper. He smoked like a chimney so I tried to avoid talking to him too much by making a dozen sketches for the comic. Supper was excessively heavy like usual, and I felt like exploding after dessert.

At about 11 pm, the crew informed us that they were not going to do the "big scene" with the partying and the Jazz Fest and the dude jumping out the window and the running bit that night, so they sent home half the extras (including the weird guy), and I was chosen to stay behind to go through even more hours of sitting. Yay! Nonetheless, it would mean that we were going to see the set that night anyway. My ex-roomie came by, with the agent Robert, and I was generally pleased to see both. I was then introduced to more of her recruits as extras for this film, including her cousin, who was extra sweet and quite affectionate. (In fact, while we were on the set outside, she would wrap her arms around me to keep warm because it was just too cold for someone from southern China to sustain a few hours at night without enough layers. Her words, not mine. Nice for someone I just met. ^_^)

From 12 am to the rest of the night, we were on the set in Old Montreal, outside a building I assumed was not used in general as an art gallery. It seemed too small the room space and too tucked away a place. The main filming that night was in the building, so we as extras were meant to roam outside as a bunch of people enjoying the (non-existant) Jazz Festival. By 5 a.m., we were all sleepy and cranky, and got back to the quay to sign out. By 6, I was a zombie and managed to find my way back home to bed and sleep for a few decades.

Sunday
Making a bad sleeping mistake (not getting enough, actually), I set out again for the quay and went through the same kind of day as Friday. This time, I stayed with the asian gang and we played a few round of cards. I made sketches for the comic for a few hours again. We ate too much again. I felt nauseous for a good while.

Since all the extras were back that day, we were already working earlier and getting in place on the set earlier. I don't really feel like talking about all the crap we went through since it's rather boring and repetitive anyway. But what I can say is that we spent many, many, many hours standing in a narrow street pretending to party and watching the camera and actors running down the street.

But in particular, we saw two actors who were of note - Kiefer Sutherland and Angelina (of course), along with their doubles. Kiefer seemed like a nice enough guy and I overheard one extra say that he was nicer to work with than his father, because Donald was allergic to cigarette smoke so no one was allowed to smoke at all on the set. Pah.

Angelina seemed much shorter in person than I thought she'd be. Well, it always seems that way in movies. Anyway, she seemed nice, enough to say "hi" to Jane, one of my ex-roomie's recruited friends. Jane then melted and swooned for the rest of the night.

What I found crappy about working that night was when Angelina was the actor running down the street with the camera following, contrasted to when the other actors were doing the same. The crowd was supposed to dance like nothing was happening at all, and not noticing the running cops and stuff. When she ran, everyone tried to run into her and get in the shot or something ridiculous like that. Everyone was swooning. And I was trying to be serious... ;_;

What I also found sad that night was when the other extras and caterers tried to jilt me of food again at 2 a.m., by not making enough soup and food again. I mean, I have the right to food on the job every 6(?) hours or so, and I was freezing my arms off from not wearing my jacket because they told me not to.

Wardrobe workers anecdote: There was this old guy who had his winter jacket, hat, and scarf on the set, and the wardrobe workers came by and asked that he open the jacket and take off the scarf. He angrily took off the scarf and gruffly complained that he was cold and he didn't care for the film worker's demands. She insisted that this was part of the contract he signed on becoming an extra. Then they got into an argument and she almost got security to kick him off until his partner calmly negociated that she would keep an eye on him. She was wearing a tank top.

Anyway, I was complaining loudly and getting crankier by the second. Then lukewarm water-soup came and I was feeling a bit better. But the pep had all but perished in me and I was just bopping along the music by the crack of dawn.

It's funny, but the freight train run in front of the Alexandria Quay right about the time when we're supposed to go back to the quay from the streets of the old city, to warm up inside and to keep our bladders from exploding. Anyway, I felt sorry for those who didn't get to use the facilities before we left.

And another zombie fell asleep Monday at 6 a.m. and didn't wake up for another decade.