Hollywood here I come!

I had the rather surreal experience over the last couple of days of being an extra in a movie. It's called Genova, and it's about a family whose mother dies and the events that follow - starring Colin Firth and a girl who was in the OC (Kaitlin, my sources tell me). They needed to film the funeral and wake scenes, which take place in Chicago, but why go to the real Chicago when you can dress Oxford up to look like Chicago, right? The film studio is an English company, so it actually does make sense I suppose. Anyway, in order to best simulate Chicago, they needed American extras, which is where I came in with my spot-on American accent.

Man were these people detail-oriented. I understand that films are an enormous industry, but it seemed like a bit much: Americans as extras when they have no speaking roles, 2 inches of fake snow completely surrounding the house in case the camera were to get a certain view, 20-25 takes from several different angles, a fake-vomit machine, etc. I guess we just take for granted the amount of work that goes into a high-quality production. And, according to the director, this was a "relatively low-budget" film!

The whole acting business is also pretty incredible. There were professional actors on the set who auditioned for non-speaking roles! There were also several one step up the ladder who had one or two lines...and were flown in from the US to do their parts. Is that really necessary? No wonder movies cost so much to make. I'm not entirely convinced we need professional actors flown halfway around the world to say one line that could very well be cut in post-production.

I also noticed a pretty stark discontinuity between the perceived glamor of being a movie star and the reality on set. The principle actors in a given scene would say a line dozens of times, on continuous repeat, then move on to the next 30 second segment and do it all again. It doesn't seem like a particularly fulfilling or meaningful job, and they are being glorified for their abilities to speak and walk and make facial expressions. It's weird when you think about it. I know this is somewhat unfair to acting as a whole, but I just think it's gone a bit too far.

But the entire experience was fascinating - the way the microphones were tucked into the knot of a tie, the way the lighting was shifted for every single shot, etc. Definitely looking forward to seeing my much-heralded film debut in a few months as I take up a few out-of-focus pixels in the background for less than a second. I'll just have to make sure I don't blink.