Extra, Extra!

Many local Hope residents know I enjoy acting.  I was recently lucky enough to be included as an extra in a movie after a friend alerted me to the opportunity.  Pigasus Pictures out of Bloomington Indiana issued the call via a social media video.  The first five hundred respondents in possession of a white formal gown or tuxedo were selected to participate. 

Having had many experiences with live theater, a movie was on my bucket list.  I was eager to see what it was all about.  I have been told making movies involves a lot of waiting, but I wanted to experience a movie set up close.  My love of costuming also makes me eager to don a fancy dress every chance I get. 

So I packed my bag and headed off to French Lick's West Baden Springs hotel knowing little more than I needed a white formal gown for a party scene with five hundred other extras.  I worried over my appearance.  The wardrobe mistress called for no stray hairs.  My naturally curly hair is nothing if not a riotous party of stray hairs. 

I knew I was in the right place after I arrived.  Other women of various ages with their black tie escorts were streaming into the French Lick Casio, white gowns trailing behind them.  We made our way up to the ballroom where we were checked in.  The waiting game began.  We were warned beforehand in a emailed filled with instructions it was would be a night filled with waiting.  As my fellow Hope thespian and frequent director Pete Law calls it, "hurry up and wait."  Life on the stage is filled with waiting indeed.  I am accustomed to it. 

I bought my current script with me so I could work on my lines until I was needed.  While we waited the wardrobe, hair and makeup people made their rounds around the ballroom fixing stray hairs, curling and hair styling, passing out bow-ties and applying makeup as needed.  Priding myself on arriving stage ready, I tried to show up as ready to go as I knew how to be.  The staff complimented my hair makeup, and jewelry.  They knew how to butter a girl up. 

I will probably never forget being told I have the features to carry off big dramatic earrings and will be adding them daily.  We arrived at 4:30 and at 7:30 we received word they were ready for us on set in the West Baden atrium.  All five hundred of us were loaded on buses, with a strict warning photography would not be tolerated from this point on and grounds for dismissal.  When we arrived on set I was so excited to see a real live grip truck.  I squealed to myself.  This was an actual movie set! 

Once inside, it was more waiting.  We were herded through a line like cattle to tables were we selected our props.  They were fake alcoholic drinks.  I selected a wine glass filled with white peach juice.  More final touches were made while we waited to enter the scene.  The hallway was filled with an eerie blue glow from giant lights while the wardrobe people passed out jewelry to under-dressed would be party goers. We waited a while before being seated at tables set up for a formal event. 

It was during this waiting I gleaned more information from my table mates.    The movie was based on a book titled "So Cold the River" by Michael Koryta, a supernatural thriller actually set at the West Baden Springs hotel.  As the director stated, the filming of the movie was the worst kept secret in French Lick at the moment. The rest of the night was nothing like live theater.  We performed the same scenes over and over, from different angles and even including a drone shoot from overhead.  I am used to having one chance to get a scene right.  The director had the ability to stop and start over when things did not go smoothly. 

I began to wish I had eaten something besides Cheetos for dinner while I waited earlier and that I could actually drink the juice in my glass.  Thankfully they passed out water later in the night.  I've been refilling my fancy plastic French Lick water branded water bottle since then.  We stopped and started until 1 am when we were finally released after a collective scream and a group photo. 

I can't wait to see the finished film, and I do wish this company who exclusively films in Indiana would bring a certain screenplay set right in Hope to the big screen.   Until then, I have my memories and I most certainly did not snitch rose petals for my scrapbook from the table decorations that had fallen to the floor because those are property of the art department and that would be wrong.