Yesterday I was on a movie set for the first time! My acting teacher is involved with Using and asked a bunch of her students to participate. It was an interesting experience. There was a lot of waiting around. It felt like there was always something important happening, but it only ever involved a few people at a time.

I checked in at around 1:00, got some preliminary instruction from the extras coordinator, and then sat down until they needed me. At about 3:30, they got to the scene with extras and herded us over to the set. Once there, it was more waiting mixed with short bursts of intense focus. We got instructions from the director, did a couple of rehearsal runs, and then did (I think) 11 takes.

In between takes, the crew made tons of minor adjustments to the lights, camera positioning, actor direction, etc. All told, it took about an hour to get this one shot that I think will account for maybe 7 seconds of movie time. Even taking into account that this company (while still professional, don't get me wrong) isn't quite Hollywood-efficient, I can see why the shooting for a 2-hour movie takes so long.

What I learned yesterday is that I don't really have any desire to do any more extra-ing. Being on set was cool, but the long periods of waiting around with nothing to do reminded me too much of my old office job. Although...hm, now that I think about it, that feeling may have come from the fact that the shoot was in an office building and I was playing an office worker. So maybe I shouldn't rule it out.

I also got pretty interested in the other jobs on a movie set. The stuff everybody else was doing (especially the camera people) looked really cool, and I'd like to learn more about the tech side of movie-making.

I'm signed up for one more day of shooting today. This time I'm bringing my Kindle!