Extra- Extra!
Oct. 3rd, 2005 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack_babalon10:30 on a Saturday night and i'm somewhere out in the ass crack of East Atlanta. Maybe. Truth be known I was lost by the second dead end we took getting here. 'Here' is an address I forgot five minutes after my arrival, but that's okay, i'm not at an address anymore really, i'm at a party. Well kinda. Anyway, a couple of us are standing around in some squat house, guns tucked in our drawers, swigging beers and listening to the Big Guy tell us about the time he and his boys robbed a convent. The Big Guy loves this story, he loves reveling in the details of it, the getaway car down the block, the bon motts & the stolen rosary he flashes off his buttoned down yellow shirt, the same shirt that with his black suit and nun beads give him the appearance of a Mardi Gras pimp or a Hollywood producer. I listen to this bubble out of him, it oozes off him like the sweat off his brow, like the gel in his spiked hair. It's a dirty little story that leaves scum on the tiles of memory and won't flush down no matter how many drinks you pour on it. The kind of story with nuns, nudity and firearms. Finally we get to the punchline. A surprise ending for the Sisters. A nine months in the oven surprise ending. At this point we lose it and start laughing ourselves stupid. I don't have to say a word here, all I know is i'm a piece of shit with a gun and if i'm told this storys funny, then I laugh.
"CUT" Yells the director. The spotlight framing us like a prison break dims down, the boom mike hovers overhead, the soundguy looks like he's hunting a dinosaur with a giant Q-tip instead of a spear. The PDA steps up with her clipboard and the directors confering with her.
"Alright, we need people walking by in 15 second intervals, you got that? 15 seconds".
I exchange shrugs with the other extras. I look over at the Big Guy and it occurs to me that he's always in 'Character', he just gives me a slight nod, one that says 'play it cool', if I keep my mouth shut and do as he says everything'll work out fine. The director retrains the spot light on us and tells us to take it from the top.
A few dozen of us have assembled out in the backyard. We're all drunk, pissed and packing an assortment of rifles,shotguns, pistols & knives. It's like a keg party in Bosnia. This is a mob shot and i'm up front next to a cowboy & a gangsta. I yell. I cheer. I cat call. I fire my piece in the air. I shrink in shame and swell with rage. I scream so more. I get good and shit faced in the process. It's two in the morning and the Magpie is screaming "Live hard- Fight Hard!". We scream it back at him. We do it again for the cameras. Now Steve has his line- "Live Hard-Die Hard" and we scream that as well. Now i'm picturing the cops showing up and already i've plotted my escape route in my head, and then remember that I have no idea where we are and decide that given this neighborhood, somebodys most likely screaming death threats at any given time, nothing for Atlanta's finest to concern themselves with. All I can think about is that scene in the beginning of The Warriors where all the gangs meet up in Central Park for the Big Speech, any moment now I expect Steve or the Magpie to yell: "Cannnnn Youuuuuu Dig IT!?!?" I'm standing there with The Princess, Oni & Courtney. They showed up as a favor to me and came looking all post apocalyptic sexy. We're giggling between shots and goofing around. Thankfully i've been given no lines and this is the last shot of the night. The Magpie and a priest are negiotiating with bullhorns now. Now all I can think of is Jimmy Cagney bellowing 'Top of the world ma'. That's me all over though, like livin' in the movies.
I really didn't want to do this at first. Be an extra in a small local film, well not a film really, a film that's going to be used in a play. A multimedia retelling of Schiller's "The Robbers". I'm pretty camera shy as it is and I prefer to be behind the scenes. I like writting. No actors just characters and a budget limited only to my imagination. But truth be known I was curious about the process. I wanted to see how the 'Magick' happened, I wanted to taste the experience first hand. That's the story of my life really, I never wanted to be a virgin to anything. So what the hell I figured. Just another story to tell.
"CUT" Yells the director. The spotlight framing us like a prison break dims down, the boom mike hovers overhead, the soundguy looks like he's hunting a dinosaur with a giant Q-tip instead of a spear. The PDA steps up with her clipboard and the directors confering with her.
"Alright, we need people walking by in 15 second intervals, you got that? 15 seconds".
I exchange shrugs with the other extras. I look over at the Big Guy and it occurs to me that he's always in 'Character', he just gives me a slight nod, one that says 'play it cool', if I keep my mouth shut and do as he says everything'll work out fine. The director retrains the spot light on us and tells us to take it from the top.
A few dozen of us have assembled out in the backyard. We're all drunk, pissed and packing an assortment of rifles,shotguns, pistols & knives. It's like a keg party in Bosnia. This is a mob shot and i'm up front next to a cowboy & a gangsta. I yell. I cheer. I cat call. I fire my piece in the air. I shrink in shame and swell with rage. I scream so more. I get good and shit faced in the process. It's two in the morning and the Magpie is screaming "Live hard- Fight Hard!". We scream it back at him. We do it again for the cameras. Now Steve has his line- "Live Hard-Die Hard" and we scream that as well. Now i'm picturing the cops showing up and already i've plotted my escape route in my head, and then remember that I have no idea where we are and decide that given this neighborhood, somebodys most likely screaming death threats at any given time, nothing for Atlanta's finest to concern themselves with. All I can think about is that scene in the beginning of The Warriors where all the gangs meet up in Central Park for the Big Speech, any moment now I expect Steve or the Magpie to yell: "Cannnnn Youuuuuu Dig IT!?!?" I'm standing there with The Princess, Oni & Courtney. They showed up as a favor to me and came looking all post apocalyptic sexy. We're giggling between shots and goofing around. Thankfully i've been given no lines and this is the last shot of the night. The Magpie and a priest are negiotiating with bullhorns now. Now all I can think of is Jimmy Cagney bellowing 'Top of the world ma'. That's me all over though, like livin' in the movies.
I really didn't want to do this at first. Be an extra in a small local film, well not a film really, a film that's going to be used in a play. A multimedia retelling of Schiller's "The Robbers". I'm pretty camera shy as it is and I prefer to be behind the scenes. I like writting. No actors just characters and a budget limited only to my imagination. But truth be known I was curious about the process. I wanted to see how the 'Magick' happened, I wanted to taste the experience first hand. That's the story of my life really, I never wanted to be a virgin to anything. So what the hell I figured. Just another story to tell.
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no subject
on 2005-10-04 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
on 2005-10-04 07:02 pm (UTC)