To Live or Die an Extra

I had the opportunity and privilege to be a background actor for the Grand Valley State University film project, To Live or Die in Dixie. The film is based on true events surrounding a murder at Dixie State University and the woman who tried to bring the accused murderer to justice.

The film crew, being college students, had the good sensibility to put out a casting call for extras on craigslist. After responding to the ad, I was contacted by the crew and given a time to show up to be in the film. The day was long, at least six hours, most of it standing around. This is common for movies. Television also, but less so. Movies move at a legendary slow pace, with everybody having to be patient as the directors, cameramen, sound people, engineers, electricians, lighting department, casting, producers, and everybody else figures out the next shot. Then you have to do a few practice shots, to make sure everything looks and sounds right. Then you do a few takes for the scene. And the scenes have to be reviewed before the director decides to end filming. It looks terrific on camera, but making a movie is perhaps the least glamerous experience you could ever embark on.

The above picture is a still from the movie. Grand Valley student will recognize that as being part of the lobby inside the fieldhouse. If you don't know me, that's me in the red striped polo, shaking the hand of the man in the yellow shirt. (Man in the yellow shirt is the accused murderer in the movie.)

That's me in the movie, again. I'm in the background, in the same shirt. In this shot, I was barely visible for just a second. The person I'm talking to, in the blue shirt, worked on the film. We came up with an elaborate story to tell each other for each take, as we mouthed "watermelon, oranges." As the story went on, we would start laughing. And I think at this point in the movie, we are just about to start laughing. A pity that the scene was missed.

I had the fortune to be called back for another scene in the film. This time I was a dignitary at a ribbon cutting ceremony, filmed on the Gilette Bridge in downtown Grand Rapids, MI. This scene took a few hours to set up and film, and was only in the movie for thirty seconds. (Again, that's how the business works.) You can see me in the shot, between the characters hugging in the foreground and the American flag waving in the background. We were asked to be happy and jubilant, and I tried. I really, really did. But when it was over 90 degrees outside, and you are wearing long pants, long sleeves and have been sitting in a warm holding room for hours, being happy was far from anybody's mind. The crew handled it like pros, though, and they made sure that everybody (including extras) had plenty of water to drink. We joked that the muggy weather was actually good, as it would be more "Dixie-like."

Grace and I were called in for another scene, set in the film's whites-only church. However, the camera angles did not include us in the frame. Again, that is also like the business; you may spend multiple days on a few scenes, only to have the director and editors cut those scenes out entirely.

All in all, it was a great experience and I was very glad to have been a small part of it, and to see a little bit of how a movie is made. I'll have another oppertunity to be a background actor in the future, but, that will be another blog post for another time.