2nd Day of Filming

So on the first day the guy in charge of cars tells me that he wants me to come early on day 2. So I'm thinking that if I'm coming earlier then most people I've got a better chance of being used.

So I get down to the State Fair Grounds around 1:30, and get changed into my winter attire again. They were just setting up lunch and some of the crew was going through. So I got ready to read some more and wait around. But I wasn't going to be waiting around there. They got 50 or so of us out to our cars and lined them up. He then created two smaller groups of 10 to 15 cars and released the rest. I was in the first group. They had us pull around to where they were filming and they had me parked right up front. Great location to be in the scene. They then had the props department put fake licence plates on the cars. But they got all the extras and put them in an empty room away from the filming. They didn't need extras, just cars. They would then come back and forth asking for certain cars to move around. Unfortunately they asked that the three Corvettes all move out of the frame. Damn it.

So there we sat in this empty building for what felt like hours. Actually it had been, because my uncle was just getting down there (his call time was 4:30) This would have been boring, but there were a couple guys that were real comedians. Jared , this guy I met down there with a Riviera, and I just sat back and enjoyed the show.

Some how it was brought up that none of us had ate yet. So they radioed to the caterer to bring some snacks, since lunch had long been gone. He came over with one little bag of snacks, and like ravenous wolves it was gone in a couple minutes. So he called in for back up and brought us all the chips and crackers we could eat. It was no stuffed chicken like the night before I can tell you that.

So they filmed this scene with Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell) going to the American Basketball Association building for what ever reason. I snuck a few peeks and got to see him from a distance, but over all it was a bust again.

I think it was about 7 PM we drove back to the parking lot and then went and had a taco dinner. Again not quite like the food the day before, but at least wasn't chips and crackers.

They then had us change into spring attire and return to our cars. They were positioning us around the coliseum. The next scene was going to be a crowd exiting the game. They told me to drive down to the coliseum and a guy would tell me where to go. He parked me right in front of the camera. I was so excited. Jared was the last car and he was parked on the other side. The 2 best parking spots to get into the scene.

So then they round us all up and get us into the coliseum. Hand out props of pom poms and signs and stuff. We're waiting to film and they come in and ask for Jared to move his car. I'm like that sucks, but when he came back in he told me they had moved mine too. What a disappointment.

We film us exiting the coliseum a few times. A woman few down in a take and the director tells us how safety is important. Film a few more times. Another woman falls. They ask if she is alright. And she replies, "yea I'm fine, again." I thought that was funny. My uncle is one of the first people out the doors in this scene and I'm sure you'll be able to see him. I'm kinda at the end of people so I don't know if I'll get cut out.

This was a long day and still not over. I'll finish up day two in another post.

1st Day of Filming

So a couple people asked me for a little more detailed story about my experience, so here it goes.
The first day I had to be down there at 10:30, so I hopped into my dad's car and drove down to the State Fair Ground in Detroit. We were a little worried about driving down that far, but it didn't overheat and drove well.

So once I was down there I parked with the other 70 extras that had committed their cars for all 5 day of filming. They had me change into my clothes and went into the extras holding area. I started to read 'Bringing down the house' until they started lunch. I looked up from my book and there was no line and some of the people around me had some plates, so I went up to get my food. Well turns out not everyone on the crew had ate yet, so I got a gentle scolding from one of the extra's assistant directors. Oops. Cast and crew go first. But when I did get to eat it was amazing. Chicken stuffed with something is what I had. Ciao did a great job of catering. So at lunch I got to see a bunch of the basketball players, and Andre Benjamin (Andrea 3000 from Outkast).

So after lunch they used a few cars for some street scenes. They kept us away from seeing anything. So I went out to the parking lot and looked at the other old cars. And read some more. My uncle introduced me to Andre Benjamin's stand in. Just a normal guy, but I think he could go places. Very spiritual individual, very interesting. He came over from Africa, I think his wife made his pursue his dreams. If nothing else, it was a fun experience just for the people I met.

I think it was around 8pm when they finally rounded up the cars and had us park in a line up. They selected some sedans and I basically sat around and watched them film a few scenes of cars and pedestrians in front of the "Flint Coliseum".

It was a pretty boring first day, left at 10:30 pm, but basically got paid to read a book.


A few of the cars:

Flint Coliseum?

I didn't know there was a Flint Coliseum?

Anyways, didn't do anything exciting yesterday. Read 1/2 of 'Bringing down the house' and got paid $155 on top of my paid vacation from Numatics. They didn't use the car because they ran out of bicentennial licence plate props. And I was the 6th extra when they asked for 5. But today they are having me come down earlier then most people, so we'll see if I get to do anything fun.

Hollywood here I come

So tomorrow I head down to Detroit for the filming of 'Semi-Pro'. I shaved my beard and this is my 70's facial hair look that I'm going with.

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White Trash of Fenton

My family is white trash. It was okay when we just had a summer cottage. But now that we live on Lake Fenton permanently, we have to make some changes. My dad bought 2 seadoos this week (my consumerism has effected him, he's thinking about buying a pontoon too), so the number of trailers in our front yard has grown to 3. There wouldn't be room for a pontoon trailer.

And that stand up jet ski doesn't have an engine in it.

It's official

It's official. I am an extra in Will Ferrell's new movie "Semi-pro" that is being filmed in Flint and Detroit. I'm not sure if it was my dad's car that I will be standing next to....

or the suit Mike gave me back in college....

But they wanted me. I'm excited, maybe I'll meet Will Ferrell, or even get to be in the background of a scene.

Itch phase

I've entered into the itching phase of beard growing. It's rough, but I get the old Dale Wolfgram beard stroke going and I feel better.

It's coming in pretty good, but if I don't hear back from the casting director in the next week, it's coming off.

The Evolution

My car has come a long way since I bought it last year. Here is a picture of what it started like. I loved the lines on the RX-8, but I always knew that I want to put a body kit on it.

Unfortunately my car was in a bit of an accident. Although it gave me a reason to make the changes to the car that I wanted to.

Below you can see the new Mazdaspeed front end compared to the original. It sits a little lower to the ground and has larger openings giving it a little more aggressive look.

Although with the new front, the middle of the car looked a little off. So I decided I needed to put side skirts on to give a more uniform look. They basically make the car look a lot lower to the ground without having to change the suspension with different shocks and springs or coil overs.

Well I got the side skirts in on Friday. So Saturday I woke, a little hungover, but ready to install them. Online I was reading that they aren't very hard to put on, but to take your time and spend 2 hours per side. Well I had a hell of a time taking off the existing side aero flares that were part of the appearance package. Before I knew it I had been working on them for 6+ hours. And the clips weren't holding them on correctly. There was a gap. My dad went out this morning, bought some different clips and we tried again. I think we got it pretty good this time.

I think I'm satisfied now. Maybe some chrome wheels in the future, but for now I love how she turned out.