Lights, Camera, Extras!

Today the stars were aligned (pun fully intended) for me. The morning was a slow one as call time was 05h45 again, which means maximum five hours' sleep in the last two nights. Five cups of coffee later, all of them before 9am, I was suddenly called in to be an extra. Who, me? I had to double check. What does that even mean? I mean I have been on television before, but not to act, to be interviewed for one thing or the other; so it was unnerving and exciting at the same time. Go to wardrobe and make-up, shouted my production coordinator. Okay, okay, chill, let me get into this at my own pace.

I finally got to be on a movie set for more than half a day to witness the ropes of the business. Hard and tough work. The technical crew is like a synergy of dominoes, only they are not falling but working towards standing orderly and effectively. The desired full product is like a 5000 piece puzzle of clear blue skies and not a single piece can be misplaced. We want perfection here; and of course perfection is subjective so we need to work with a common understanding. That's why the film industry is notorious for a general lack of etiquette and undesired behavioral patterns. You try building that puzzle in a few days and tell me how it works out.

So I had to be Ingrid's ouma's neighbour; just sort of blend in with the background, make the neighbourhood look real and not barren. The set was once again to-die-for. The 'poor' household was recreated in the forest, making it look really 40's, with woods, fire and other vintage props like enamel baths and old school pots and wares. I was really impressed. There were some animal handlers who brought chickens, goats, donkey carts and a very well trained dog. You never think of these things when you watch movies. I always laugh at people who think that the soapies are actually real life stuff that happens in the cosmopolitan city centres, but they will laugh last because I also never thought the dogs and other things like farm scenes are recreated. I thought a film set has such a big budget that when they need to shoot a farm scene they actually pay a farmer to use their farm (and actually take them somewhere for the day, like a spa :-)). So ja, who's fooling who (in the zoo/farm)?

My time to make my big mark came (hey, even Charlize started somewhere), and I was shaking like a weeping willow. I took a drag of something relaxing and I was into it. Tobacco. We had to just pretend to be busy in the background, which made it a bit difficult because I had to improvise - usually this would not be difficult but infront of the camera it becomes a mission, especially after nine to eleven takes. It was fun. I got to really appreciate this artform. It's no child's play. Enough respect.

Then after lunch I had to go back to my day job...