Below is an account of my experience after returning home from my two day shoot of She's Out of My League. I put it on my personal website under the "News" section back in 2008. Re-reading it now, I put WAY too much detail, but I'm kind of glad I did and I'm glad I wrote it while it was still fresh in my mind.
At the time of the writing of this recap of events, I wasn't even sure I would survive the cutting room floor. I joked with my friends that maybe they would cut me and re-shoot with Chuck Norris. It wasn't until early 2010 when trailers started appearing and I saw myself in them that I had a pretty good feeling that I made the cut. I saw the entire scene for the first time in the theater, on March 12, 2010, with the rest of the world and a large group of my friends. It was so surreal.
05/08/2008 She's Out of My League
This is the story of my two day shoot in Pittsburgh for the Dreamworks picture, "She's Out of My League", directed by Jim Field Smith, and starring actors (to name a few) Krysten Ritter, Jay Baruchel, T.J. Miller, and Alice Eve.
On Tuesday, May 06, 2008, I woke up at 5:15 AM. After the morning routine and last minute packing, I left the house a little before 6:00 AM.
After two quick stops at two different Sheetz', one for gas, and one for a water and a honey bun, I arrived at the shoot in Pittsburgh, specifically in Braddock, PA around 10:15 AM. I parked near the white tent as I was instructed.
By 10:30 AM, I filled out the necessary paper work to make sure I get paid. I was told to bring three outfits. I wore my suit and brought two other casual outfits that some lady looked at. She chose my second outfit, but ultimately, I didn't need it. Once that was taken care of, I was told to have a seat. While seated I took a rough count and there were definitely more than 50 extras there, so I estimated around 75 – 100 of us total. There might have been more since some were filming at the time.
My call time of 11:00 AM came and went and lunch was served at 12:00 PM. I grabbed some lunch and chatted with some of the other extras. A lot of them had call times of 5 AM and hadn't been in a single scene yet. At this point, I figured that I'd be getting paid to do nothing all day. Thankfully, I was wrong.
Very shortly after lunch, around 1:00 PM, a gentleman with a radio came into the tent and grabbed me and two other extras in suits. He walked the three of us to the set. We stood and waited outside the airplane mockup.
Within moments, the director, Jim Field Smith, walked out of the plane and looked at the three of us. He whispered to the gentleman with the radio and walked away. The gentleman walked towards the three of us and asked the two extras standing next to me to hang back. The gentleman asked me my name and took me onto the plane. There I met the assistant director named Richard. We shook hands and he told me that I'd be playing the part of "business man". I said ok and sat in the seat where the business man would be sitting – seat 10A.
I noticed that in rows in front of me, diagonally to me, and to the side of me were filled with people with matching sweatshirts. I didn't recognize any of them as the actors. I saw that they had two names written on a piece of tape on their sweatshirts. After they were dismissed and the actors came in, I realized that they were the stand-ins.
So the actors came in; the director spoke to them, and then the assistant director Richard spoke to the extras. That's the way it was. The director doesn't direct the extras; that's the assistant's job.
So we filmed a scene with the camera to our fronts, and then to our backs, while the actors did their thing. The scene was T.J. trying to get Jay off the plane because he's not with the girl he's supposed to be with. Jay says that's he's with Lindsay and her family now and that's that. T.J. gets taken off the plane by the pilot and the scene ends. So there's a good chance you'll see me in some of those scenes in the background. They gave me an organizer so it will appear that I'm taking notes if I'm seen.
After a couple of takes the unneeded extras are sent back to their base camp - the white tent. We waited there until we are needed. A few of us were called to set around 5:00 PM, but when we got there, it was decided that we weren't needed for the shot, so I waited off to the side, just in case. I wasn't used for the rest of that day.
Dinner was supplied at 5:30 PM. First class passengers were on the plane, and they got dinner (pizza) when they were done filming the last scene of the day which was done at 7:00 PM.
The casting agency had us line up so they could sign our paper work from the beginning of the day. We were told to show up at 6:30 AM tomorrow.
After getting our sheet signed, I left the shoot and arrived to the Days Inn in Monroeville around 7:30 PM. I checked in, got my room, relaxed and hit the hay at 10 PM after watching some free HBO and checking my e-mail on the free wireless internet.
On Wednesday, May 07, 2008, I woke up at 5:00 AM. I got showered, dressed, and then packed up all my belongings. I checked out of the hotel around 5:45 AM.
I got to the shoot at 6:10 AM, and got the necessary paperwork once again so I would get paid for the day. I was happy to see that breakfast was provided.
Around 7:00 AM, they called for the first class passenger extras, and shortly after they called for the extras in rows 11 and lower. Since I was in seat 10A, I made my way to the set.
We were filming the scene after the blow up between T.J., Jay, and the pilot from yesterday. Jay sits back down after the blowup and Lindsay starts talking. He decides that T.J. was right and he needs to get off the plane.
Jay stands up and gives a little speech. The camera is behind us facing him. He tells all the actors in sweatshirts "Fuck you" individually, except for the mom character. While flipping them off, he says, "Fuck you, random business guy" and proceeds to flip me off. Then apologizes quickly and proceeds to tell Lindsay "Fuck you" and then tries to get off the plane. They won't let him off because they already closed the doors. So Jay has to come back and sit down with all the people he just told off. Then the scene ended.
Needless to say, I thought that it was pretty awesome that my character of businessman gets caught in the line of fire. The back of my head will probably be seen with all the actors looking at me at some point in the scene. I wondered if they'd do some shots from the front, but they didn't at the time.
We finished shooting that scene a little after 9:15 AM. All the extras headed back to base camp. We waited to be called again.
At 11:00 AM they called for ALL EXTRAS to fill the plane. Everyone came to the set, and they filmed a quick scene where everyone had to deplane because of a problem with baggage. Jay rushes out and Lindsay follows behind him while we all shuffle about and react. We did that a couple of times over and over again. Finally, at 1:00 PM, we broke for lunch.
Shortly after lunch, around 2:00 PM, we all got called back to the set. We all got on the plane, and the extras that weren't needed were asked to step off. I spent the rest of the day on the plane.
They took reaction shots of the parent actors and the other actors from the scene where Jay tells everyone off. Then, to my surprise, they took reaction shots of me. The makeup people came on the plane and put makeup on me. Then Jim Field Smith, the director, provided me with direction, while Jay said his line off screen. I heard Jim laughing at the monitor on the camera when I did my reactions. I did a confused look, like what did I do type of thing. We did that about 5 or 6 times. Jim told me to do a couple looking mad and I did. It was freakin' awesome.
After doing a few more reaction shots of Lindsay and Jay, we had finished all the scenes for the plane at 4:30 PM. Shooting had rapped for the day and we were dismissed.
When I got outside, extras were waiting in a line to get their paperwork signed. They had Arby's for us to eat for dinner. I got changed, gave my prop back to Jesse, the prop guy, got my paperwork signed and grab some roast beef sandwiches for the road.
I stopped at Sheetz for gas ($3.65/gal) and proceeded back to Bloomsburg. I got home around 8:30 PM and thus my trip ended. It was a really cool experience, and if the scene doesn't get cut or edited, there's a really good chance that you'll see my mug on the big screen in 2009.
