Well. Things didn't go as planned. Allow me to try and explain the story as briefly... nah, frig it... as completely as I can.
First off, I had to sign an agreement about not telling or showing things, well... anything... so I'll just go with what I think I can freely/legally say.
In the end, after several changes / casting scenarios, seven of us got to go on the trip. We were to show up on location at 4:00am Friday morning in Nova Scotia, dressed "upscale casual". We met in Summerside, and left at around 11:30pm Thursday night. Well, we ate at Rotten Ronnie's first, then we left. So, I guess we probably shoved off at about 12:00. We arrived at our NS destination at about 3:30. We waited in the car for a bit, had a little walk around... the shitmobile was there, a cop car, and shoot gear / vehicles and whatnot. It was starting to feel a little more real. As it got closer to 4:00, and after 4:00, other extras started to arrive. Not too long after 4:00, we got the news. Jonathan Torrens, AKA J-Roc, who was needed for our shoot wasn't able to fly out of New York (bad storm). So, the whole shoot was cancelled. As Wendy, the organizer / brains of it all said, it was a "clusterfuck". We were like, "Well, crap. We thought this might happen. We thought we were going to be on the TPB, we're tired, we drove all this way, payed money for the trip already, and we get SFA."
But, then, a rainbow of hope came through the foggy and cold NS skies. Wendy told us that she may have nothing for us to be in, but at least she'd take us back to the park and we could see it along with whoever was there. I was still disappointed, but glad we could go to the park. I still held onto a bit of hope I'd get to be on camera, too, but I didn't want to hope too much. So, tow trucks came and took everything away, and cleared the scene. The other extras waited in line for their cheques to get their min. 4 hours pay, and went on their way (except for about 6 of them). We got in our cars and waited for the caravan to the park to get started. We stopped at Tim's first to pick up some snacks for the set. We made sure to take a box of boxes to ensure our indisposability. Then, it was like a high-speed chase of 4 or 5 cars in a row around the area, zigging and zagging, running ambers and maybe some reds, to stick together and make it to Sunnyvale.
Then, there it was. Sunnyvale Trailer Park. Well, one of the parks they've used over the years anyway. This is, obviously, the most recent one, and the one they used for the movie shoot (which comes out in October! woo!).We drove up through the gates, then, actually through the park to get to the other side of it to park our cars. Along the way, we could see all the trailers, different items, like Bubbles' go-kart, Ray's sleeper, etc. We were like freakin' kids in a freakin' DisneyWorld made of candy. We went around back, and parked our cars. Funny thing was, the back of the big old building (can't say what, as it may give away the location) that the park was built in front of actually served as the jail. We'd thought the jail was a different location, but it's right on the set. The rest of the building had camouflage paint on it, as, for the movie, they stuck trees and stuff to the side of it to make it disappear, make it look like a wood lot or something (Daryl, the DVD guy, told us this and some other cool stories). I'll be curious to see how well they made the big building disappear. So, back by the "jail" was their parking lot as well. Two shitmobiles, Julian's car, cop cars, other cars... all just sitting there. Some cars are in various states of condition, which may give away plot stuff, so I won't show those pics. I'll just show things that won't give anything away. So, if you're saying "where's that car/thing?" I probably can't show you that pic for some reason.
We walked around the back of the lot / set, seeing various things here and there... and that's when we hit the end of the street. Of course, all along the street are the trailers. It was cool, 'cause it's like seing the actual home of one of your TV characters... akin to landing on Sesame Street and seeing Oscar's can, perhaps. You see J-Roc's house, Ricky's, Julian's, Bubbles' shed and go-kart... they're all there, yard junk and all. Very cool. This was still really early in the morning, like, probably 6:00am. It was cool, foggy, and awesome. We took some pictures of the trailers and recognizable things, looked in Bubbles' shed and took a couple of pics in and out of it, talked to Daryl the DVD guy along the way, and made it back to the front of the park, where we were to wait for anything to happen.
It was about this time, when we made it back to "Go", that Wendy came and told us that if anyone was taking pics during the shooting, that those people would be asked to leave. "So we should put our cameras away in our cars, then? OK." So, we didn't get any celeb pics or anything, but that's OK. The "Extras Holding" trailer wasn't exactly swank. The professional extras were in there with us: one introverted musical kid, a dressy older guy that just had his head back and eyes closed the whole time, another regular dude, reading, and a couple of older ladies who didn't seem to fit in. They talked a lot about other shoots they'd been on, including previous TPB episodes, something with Tom Sellick, how this set-up was really nice compared to other ones, etc. They thought they knew it all, it seemed. They thought this set-up was nice, 'cause at least we weren't outside. I guess, sometimes, extras can wait in the rain/cold. We were in what was probably a pretty typical trailer on set (everything was in trailers... lunch, offices, etc.). It had sloppy pale green walls with holes in it, plywood floor, mismatched lamps, a fridge with junk in it, a table, grey lockers on both sides of the room, and other assorted trailer decor touches. Lemme tell ya, it wasn't glamourous. A lot of the time we sat outside, to avoid the scene in there (people, smell, airborne toxins, who knows). Pigeons also loved these places. They were always flying up into some nook or hole in any given trailer.
After what seemed like a pretty long while, all the other extras got sent home, but got paid for (I think) their 8 hour min. for setting foot on set. Then, we waited for a another while, thinking we could be there f o r e v e r because that's how slow time seemed to be going. Not fun. Around, oh, 8:30, I think, Wendy came in all jazzed and said she needed three people! Woo! Our doubts about our chances just got smaller. Smaller because there were seven of us. We let Tim (the organizer) and his son go, and Gordo just rammed his way on up, too. You see, this guy was apparently on the bottom of OUR list. Last one picked, shoulda been last one to get a chance. But, he just zoomed his way into action. So, the other four of us were left in the trailer for a looong time, moping about how this could be it and we may not get any chances. We were a bit hopeful, but things were feeling pretty tired and bleak.
Things weren't all so bad, though. By the end of the day, all of us got to do at least four to six shots, I bet. I can't remember for sure, but I think the next call was for everyone. There was a scene down the street, and everyone was given something to do along the sides of it, as background action. For this, Jeff and I were as far back as you can go, blocked by some trees. We were pretending to work on an old car. Not much of a chance we'll be seen in that... scene. My next scene was pretty awesome. Two of the main characters were having a confrontation of sorts. One was between two trailers, and one was driving up and stopping there to get them. Tim's son and I were walking at the front of the driveway, between the car and other person, so there should be a good chance we'll at least get my arm or something in that one, heh. Tom said he could see the camera, though, so maybe our faces will show up. I hope so, but I won't hold my breath. We also did two "establishing shots". Basically just the street with people doing regular things on it. They'd say "rolling" & maybe "action", then "background" for us to start moving. In the afternoon one, I'm walking across the street, right up front, near the camera (yes!). In the early evening one, I'm about halfway up the street, leaning on a TV with a buddy, drinking. We watch a car screech by. My other shot may be a good one, too. I was between two trailers (as were a few of us), as a car and someone running by it go by. As the car goes by, I'm walking down my step with a beer, to my BBQ. Hopefully it shows up! That shot was funny, 'cause on the other side of the trailer next to me, Neal was using a bong.
The lunch, also in a rented trailer, was awesome. There was chicken and fish, roasted and herbed up (how appropriate) wee potatoes, roasted carrots and beans, mixed greens salad with an awesome dressing, great strawberry cake, and there was always stuff to drink around... water, iced tea, pop. Through the run of the day, we also had grilled cheese, our morning snacks, and pizza. We also apparently missed the good morning food (nobody told us we could go into where it was).
For the most part, everyone was pretty friendly. Most of the crew was essentially go-go-go, tons of energy all day, trying to get stuff done. Not rude, just business. A couple of them were more friendly. A couple of the actors weren't too talkative, but then again, they were in character. I have to say I was surprised by Lucy. She would never register on a "fave character" list from the show before, but she was really nice. She would come up to us and talk our ears off non-stop, curse worse than a sailor, give people the finger, say she was going off to kill herself (in jest, of course), stuff like that. She was very easy-going and easy to talk to... and gave me the finger for shits and giggles during shots. In between shots, she'd sing and dance, too. Pretty funny. One thing I never saw coming? She snubbed Physics to do a degree in Sociology, has done grad work (or degree), and is going to do her (at least) Masters in Education in Australia next year. A nutty super intellectual... go figure. We didn't get to see a couple of the main characters we wanted to, but that's OK.
At the end of the loooooong (work) day, 4:00am - 6:45pm, we were pretty beat. Beat, but excited about what we'd just been able to do. We got our cheques, signed our "cone of silence" forms, and went on our way from Sunnyvale. The crew said we were pretty much the best extras they'd ever had (quick, on the ball, on the right spots, not goofing around), which was nice. They also thought it was very cool we came all the way from PEI just to do that. I think that may have been part of the reason we got to stick around and got such good treatment. Who knows.
So, off we were to try and find our way back home through all the twists and turns we took on the way there. We'd all been up for about 35 hours or so by this point, and were pretty zonked. We stopped for some DQ on the way home, at Mastadon Ridge, and drove on to Summerside, blackened by night, just like we'd left it. We came full circle, and luckily nobody crashed anything due to exhaustion. I would like to know why someone was driving a golf kart on a main street in Summerside that night, though. By the time my head hit the pillow at home, I'd been up for 41 hours. Forty-one monotonous, tiring, endless, repetitive, entertaining, exciting, once-in-a-lifetime awesome hours.
ABC has an interesting show on right now. Well, maybe it's just winding up. I don't know, 'cause it wasn't interesting enough to hold my interest. Apparently there isn't enough stuff going on right now to make people scared, so they came up with something to act as "fear filler". I can hear the network execs pitching it now... "There's no big storms right now - well, except for Mexico, but who cares about that - no new war, yadda yadda... I say we make a top ten of the worst possible scenarios for mankind." In the minutes that I watched, they covered:
