<p><a href=”/images/in-posts/bltc/michelleandsam.jpg”><img alt=”” class=”floatLeft” height=”240″ src=”/images/in-posts/bltc/michelleandsam.jpg” width=”179″/></a></p>
<p>It all began last Friday. In the daily digest of a bike racing mailing list I subscribe to was a call for cycling extras. Intrigued, I read on. The movie, <a href=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1609479/”>Better Living Through Chemistry</a> was filming a race scene in a park in Baltimore on the following Tuesday. I’m absolutely swamped at work, but figure I’ll never get another opportunity to be this close to Kevin Bacon again (2nd degree; the main character in this film, <a href=”http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005377/”>Sam Rockwell</a> starred in Frost/Nixon with him) so I shoot my boss a plea (telling him I’d make up the hours… still negative six as I was dead tired upon returning home after a 3:30AM to 9PM day), and he tells me to go for it.</p>
<p>Day of, I wake at 3:30AM to rain. Joyous. Hop in the shower, pack up the bike and a handful of outfits (costumes asked us to bring options so we don’t stand out or match the actors), hit 7-11 for a Red Bull, a donut, and some coconut water. By 5AM, I’m in Maryland and the rain has stopped. Good stuff. I arrive at <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid_Hill_Park”>Druid Hill Park</a> about an hour after leaving home (that’s absurdly fast… and I was traveling at a reasonable speed), unpack, rest my bike on my bumper as I have a million times before, it falls, a bolt meets my taillight, punctures the lens, and before even starting, this day is a wash monetarily.<br/>
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I “register” (am given a piece of paper saying when I arrived and how much I’m to be paid), head over the the food tent, grab a quick bite (tasty bacon!), and meet with the costume lady. She asks me to change. I do. Upon arriving back in my 2nd outfit, she dislikes this even more, sends me back to my car and tells me to bring all my outfits. I’m on a bike; carrying four “kits” any distance (half a mile) is not fun. I do it anyway, and she ends up putting me back in my original outfit. One more trip back to the car to put the others away and I spend the next few hours shooting the shit with the other cycling extras. With the exception of one team, everyone is solo (strike #1 on movie bike racing being silly), and most are from Maryland; I know they can’t drive… can I trust them on a ride? Eventually, we’re all sent to a massive line for makeup. After 30 minutes in it, the first cyclist gets seen and she (the artist) proceeds to walk through our group to tell us we all look perfect. Couldn’t they have decided they weren’t going to work on cyclists the day before? I digress.<br/>
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Following breakfast, we begin shooting. I won’t go into the details of the shots we take as it might turn out to be a bit mind-numbing (like the movie), but we end up doing about a half dozen different shots throughout the park. Cyclists were split into two groups early on. Luckily, I found myself amongst the group they decided to call “the lead group;” the other group only gets in one or two shots, while our group is featured prominently and will likely make the credits (they took our names, but not theirs). I was involved in around 10 hours of filming with the other time spent standing/sitting around. My guess is this entire cycling scene will comprise just a few minutes of the movie, but I should be visible for at least a handful of seconds; I made sure to make myself pretty visible at all times. Unfortunately, I missed clipping into my pedals the first time we filmed the finish scene and due to continuity, was stuck repeating my performance (last place of the lead group) for each subsequent take.</p>
<p>Overall, it was a very cool experience and one that I’d repeat in a heartbeat. The actors were all really down to Earth and friendly, which was unexpected after all the things you read about their peers on the Internet. Sam was pretty damned funny; in shots where they’d [likely?] be doing audio in studio, he really enjoyed saying “Suck a dick.” (<a href=”/images/in-posts/bltc/sad1.MOV”>Video #1</a> | <a href=”/images/in-posts/bltc/sad2.MOV”>Video #2</a>). <a href=”http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1157358/”>Michelle</a> was incredibly friendly, and <a href=”http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1290135/”>Ken</a> (a more local actor / stunt man) was a seemingly regular guy. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to meet Ray Liotta, Olivia Wilde (<a href=”/images/in-posts/bltc/olivia.jpg”>all I saw of her was this</a>), or Jane Fonda as they played little or no part in this day of shooting. The staff on the shoot were mostly great (there were a few you knew to avoid as they had that “I’m a Hollywood snob” attitude that, funnily, the real stars didn’t share), and I even happened into a friend who is a freelance cinematographer for the film (<a href=”/images/in-posts/bltc/nick.jpg”>pic</a>). Made a handful of new riding friends, and left with soon-to-exist IMDB profile, $180 (minus cost of a taillight should I choose to replace it), 30 miles of riding under my belt (we ended up doing our own training riding in downtime), and a killer cycling tan.<br/>
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Oof! I forgot to continue listing the strikes against the race they put on so you’ll get them in list form:</p>
<ol>
<li>(already mentioned) With the exception of one team, every rider was wearing a different kit (synonymous with “team uniform”).</li>
<li>There were a handful of folks in the race who were serious <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_%28bicycling%29″>Freds</a>.</li>
<li>The race was coed.</li>
<li>There was midrace doping involved.</li>
<li>The race winner was on platform pedals.</li>
<li>A sleeveless jersey (for REALLY hot weather) and arm warmers (for kind of cool weather).</li>
<li>There was a water station. That’s dangerous and silly, but good for stunts (<a href=”/images/in-posts/bltc/broken.jpg”>pic of aftermath</a>).</li>
</ol>
<div style=”margin-left: 40px;”>Seven strikes? Yeah, ouch.</div>
<p>The movie is in the midst of filming (26 days of shooting), will then enter post-production for approximately a year, and be released as an independent in late 2013. Fear not, I’ll be sure to remind you to go see it. I’ll even setup a system where I’ll reimburse your ticket cost (if it makes theaters… it probably won’t) if it doesn’t meet a certain Rotten Tomato score. It pains me, as everyone involved in the movie rocked, but based on what I saw, this thing is going to be a huge flop. Surely, the folks who poured time and money into the making of it know better than me, though, and maybe there is hope.<br/>
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Random thoughts on the day:</p>
<ul style=”list-style-type: square;”>
<li>Everyone in Maryland drives like they’re from Maryland. Sucks.</li>
<li>Baltimore is an absolute dump. Like, scary dump. Apparently I’d never seen the <span style=”font-style: italic;”>really</span> bad parts before.</li>
<li>Filming movies is hard work. My hat is off to the folks who don’t get the millions.</li>
<li>Extras (the “regular” ones) are a very odd breed, but on the whole were surprisingly normal for folks who would take on such a job.</li>
<li>It’s amazing how the right equipment can make any old scene look amazing (steadicam + silly camera + lenses costing more than cars, specifically).</li>
</ul>