The Bicyclist

Holla,

Last Thursday, I spent my day as a free extra on a film that is being shot in San Diego. The movie is being directed by Werner Herzog, and is starring Michael Shannon, Willem Defoe, and Chloe Sevingy. It is about a guy in San Diego that is slowly going crazy, giving away all of his possessions, and eventually murdering his mother with a sword. It's going to be an amazing romantic comedy.

So this was my first experience as an extra in any capacity. I had no idea what to expect when I showed up at 8 am in the middle of Balboa Park, wearing jogging clothes, and wandering aimlessly through various parking lots.

I eventually found a large trailer and a group of people huddled around eating breakfast burritos and drinking coffee. I approached one guy, who was talking on a walkie talkie and said;

Me: "Hey, I'm an extra."
Guy: "Alright. Thanks for showing up."
Me: "Is there someplace that I need to be?"
Guy: "No. Not for a few hours."
Me: "Okay."
Guy: "We probably won't need you until at least 10, so if you want to just sit in your car for a while, that should be fine."

So I sat in my roommate's car for two hours, listening to morning talk radio shows, and wishing that I had brought along something to read. Our beautiful San Diego weather had gone crazy on us, and was raining, cold, and windy, so sitting in the car was better than shivering in the cold.

10 AM came and went, and they still didn't need me. 11 AM rolled around, and they were still setting up the shot. At 11:30, I finally got the call to come out to an open field in the park. The assistant director approached me.

AD: "Hey, can you ride a bicycle?"
Me: "Yes."
AD: "What's your name?"
Me: "Micah"
AD: "Ok, we are going to need you to start behind the camera, and start biking diagonally across the screen. Michael [Shannon] and Chloe [Sevingy] are going to walk toward the camera, and I need you to time it correctly so that you pass behind them."
Me: "Okay."

So I was sitting on a beaten up ten speed bicycle, trying to figure out how I was going to ride it along the bumpy grass of the field, when someone yelled "background, go!" and everything started in motion. I managed to avoid hitting the lead actors, and make my way across the screen.

After the shot had finished, the Assistant Director and Director approached me. They called me over by yelling, "Bicyclist" and waving me over to them. They changed up the timing a little bit, and sent me back out. After a couple of takes, they managed to get the shot that they were looking for and moved onto the next filming location.

After several more hours of sitting in my car, I was called back out to the field. They had me change into some other clothing, and I stood with the other extras as they placed us. The director, Werner, was telling us to go to various locations. He looked at me and said, "Bicyclist, I need you to walk across the park, from there to there" as he pointed out my marks. Naturally, I was confused. Was I going to be biking across the screen again, or was I now known as the "bicyclist"?

We did the shot a couple of times, with me walking in the background, and moved onto the next location. We finished the third shot of the day in a courtyard within Balboa Park. I wasn't in the last shot, and sat around for another couple of hours until we wrapped. In total they had shot maybe 5 to 10 minutes of film, within 10 hours of working. It was exhausting, and I was just an extra.

So I left the set, and headed home. I got a call on Friday, from one of the PA's, saying that they were looking for extras on other days. Here is the conversation.

PA: "Hey, is this the bicyclist from yesterday?"
Me: "Uhh, I guess so."
PA: "So you were the one riding the bike, right?"
Me: "Yes."
PA: "We would like to use you for some other extra work..."

They needed me to work for 7 days in a row, and needed me to be available for 10 to 12 hours on those days. I had some conflicts in my schedule on a couple of the days, and decided not to do it. It was cool to be on set, and see the entire movie making process, but it wasn't worth the $0 that I was getting paid to be there.

I'm hoping that eventually I will run into somebody from the film in the future, and I will be able to say, "Hey, I'm the bicyclist," and have them remember me. Young children will say, "I think that's the bicyclist," in hushed tones as I pass them by. Evil doers will quell in fear as the bicyclist hunts them down!

I'm getting ahead of myself.

-More to come.