12:00 am last night
I had already called the extras hotline to see when and where I had to show up today and it wasn't too bad. 7:15 am at Pentagon City Mall. We would be taken by bus to the hotel where our costumes were and then to the set. So I set my alarm clock for 5:30 am, an hour I have not seen since, well, I don't even remember. This was going to be a tough wake up because I had just gotten back from going to a wedding in Philly and staying at my girlfriend's parents' place. I am accustomed to sleeping in, especially after weddings and girlfriend and her family have what I refer to as an "I'm up, everybody's up" policy. That and her bedroom door desperately needing a hefty dose of WD40 ensured that I woke up way too early to have been properly rested to wake up early the next day. I was so tired that I even slept on the bus a little on the way home (and I can never sleep on busses or planes). Incidentally, there was some dude named Marquise (I think) on the bus who was a singer and he was calling everyone he knew saying that there was a bidding war for his contract between Roc-a-Fella, Universal, Sony, and Warner Brothers. So look out for Marquise.
Early: This morning.
So I woke up this morning at about 6:15, thinking I only had pressed snooze once. Guess it was more like five times. Dammit! I jumped in the shower, shaved, and did my hair 50's style even though it was going to be covered by a hat. I was out the door and to the Metro by 6:30. Since I absolutely am not a morning person, I have become adept at maximizing each second of time to allow me to wake up as late as I possibly can, while still being the first person at the office (or school). It paid off here, as I was able to not be late, even though I woke up about 45 minutes later than I wanted.
I got my free papers at the Metro stop and was greeted by some of the best news I've ever heard: some businessmen bought the Roy Rogers brand back from whoever had it and are going to bring back Roy's in this area! SWEET! Roy's is bar none the best fast food place ever. Their bacon cheeseburgers are probably what I'll be having for my last meal when I'm on death row. The only places they have Roy's these days are in Manhattan and on the New Jersey turnpike, which is why the value meals cost about $10, but if they are in normal areas, that should drastically cut the price and the amount of ugly and fat people who clog up the lines. But I digress.
7:00 am
I get to Pentagon City Mall and get on one of the busses to the hotel. Early as usual, even though I woke up really late. Thats just the kind of cat I am. That is just one of the workplace skills I bring which never gets noticed. Once the bus fills up, they take us to the hotel and its down to wardrobe. I get into my suit, hat, and overcoat and leave my jeans and backpack with my hangers so that I don't have to carry them around all day. Once someone checks me out and deems me ready for the big screen, I'm off to some ballroom for the highlight of the day: free breakfast. Unfortunately, as I suspected, they did not have Diet Coke (or any sodas for that matter) at the breakfast, so I had some water with my breakfast burrito and croissant. As soon as I put the last bite of breakfast into my mouth it was off to another bus to be driven to the set, the Iwo Jima Memorial.
8:00 am
We arrive at the memorial where some of the other extras already are. We were to be playing the crowd at the dedication of the memorial. The reason for the heavy clothes is that this was supposed to be taking place in November, not the best news for a hot, muggy day in August. Along with the other extras were "the inflatables." These were inflatable dummies that were just heads and torsos on the background chairs, dressed up in 50's attire as well. One of the other extras commented that we were a notch above them on the food chain. I replied with "Yeah, they get paid a little less than us." Not my best work, but give me a break, it was early.
So one of the crew people was placing the extras in certain areas of the crowd to fill it up and gets to my groups of people and says that we should go fill in the empty areas in the middle. I went right for the second row of the middle. I'd say I was about 10 people from the center aisle on the right side (facing the stage) in the second row. I have no idea if this is a good spot, but at least I'd get to see whatever was going on in front of me pretty well. Then, we played the waiting game. I know, I wanted to play Hungry Hungry Hippos also.
10:00 am
I think this was when everything was finally ready to shoot. I caught my first glimpse of Clint Eastwood. He was wearing a tee shirt, khaki pants, and one of those baseball caps that is probably from a ski resort out west where the brim way too big, is a different color than the rest of it, and not broken in properly.
They do some shots of the monument and Marines crossing in front of the crowd and its starting to get hot. Really hot. At some point the stars came out to take their places. They were on the other side of the center aisle in the front row, about 25 feet from me. Some people may have been excited about Ryan Phillipe, some may have been excited about Jesse Bradford, but not me. I was psyched to be in the same movie as Adam Beach. Yes, that Adam Beach! For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last 10 years, Adam Beach played Kicking Wing in Joe Dirt, probably the finest motion picture since The Godfather. We had a short break, which I wanted to take advantage of. I went to look at the vintage cars on the set and then to the craft services table. They had water, gatorade, iced coffee and all sorts of snacks there for the taking. They even had a sno cone maker. I opted for a strawberry Nutri Grain bar and a mini muffin and washed it down with some watery gatorade before I returned to the set. Little did I know that this would be our last break, as Clint Eastwood is known for not wasting any time as a director. Dammit, I should have gone for the sno cone.
Noon
The only way I know what the approximate times were for these things was the bell tower at Arlington National cemetery. Since my watch was not even close to being 50's style, I did not wear it. At noon, the bell tower did its normal thing followed by 12 dongs (ha!), signifying the time. After that, it played the theme song for each branch of the military. I think they might have even played the coast guard song because there were definitely more than 4. I thought that we might stop filming for a few minutes to keep their heads ringing, but I guess that won't be picked up by the mics.
At this point the lack of sleep and weather were really getting to me. Between takes, I basically closed my eyes and tried to rest. Not that easy when you are wearing 10 lbs of clothes in 90 degree weather. This was also about the point when We were visited by another "celebrity." Donald Rumsfeld and his military contingent came down to press the flesh and be seen. He even brought his own camera crew with him. This visit will be used for some sort of propaganda about Iraq, no doubt.
1:30
I was switched to a different area for a shot of the end of the ceremony. Everyone was supposed to get up and look like they were leaving the area once the Marines crossed in front of the crowd. We did about 4 takes of this before I was moved to the other side, where we did the same type of thing. I'm not sure if you will be able to see me in the movie, but look for a guy with a grey overcoat and black fedora on. I'll definitely have to get the DVD and comb through it to see if I can actually recognize myself, as I'll probably be out of focus, if I'm in it at all.
At about 2, it started raining, which was nice because the weather cooled off a little. It also meant that we would be finishing up. We did about 2 more takes and everyone went back to the busses. I got on one of the first ones and we went back to the hotel. Once there, I returned my costume and got my pay slip signed and was ready to go. Not a bad day, especially if you consider that this was my first paying job in about 3 years. If only I could do this every day, I wouldn't have to get a real job. Maybe I should move to LA.
