Guess it's time I wrote what happened. Yep, I got to hang out with Ewan
McGregor and Tim Burton. They were quite impressed with me, I think. Often
I could see them looking at the crowd of people I was in and I could tell
they were just paying attention to me, and ignoring the rest. Yep.
I went to Alabama Wednesday night and went to see my friend
Jayne. She was working on clothes for the movie. So I hung out there for a while and met some of her
coworkers. It was a blast! Jayne keeps telling me it's boring, but she
evidently is totally jaded, so pay no attention to her. They were taking
these nice new clothes and putting paint and whatnot on them until they just
looked like totally worn out NASTY clothes. On the outside. Then you'd see
an inner seam as they examined it and it still looked clean and crisp on the
inside. Kinda neat. I ended up aging a pair of shoes - which basically
meant scuffing them up - so I'll have to look for those in the movie. :-)
("LOOK! Right there! Her shoes! They...no wait...dang. HEY! Look at HER
shoes! That's them! No, wait, I'm not sure...dang!")
Jayne also worked on a white sweater, which someone else came in and sewed a
school letter on. I got a kick out of that since the next day I saw a
probable bad guy wearing it. Kinda neat.
The next day I had a call time of 4:30. So I got up at three, left, got
lost, and got there around 4:20. I went into a tent, and they gave me my
clothes. (A few weeks earlier I went down for a fitting and got them.) It
was a fifties shirt, shoes, and jacket. They gave us breakfast, and we hung
around until everyone got there. They had waves coming in every half hour
for a few hours. We probably ended up with 75 people or so. I had my hair
done, too, it actually looked pretty decent. They lined us up and the head
costumer went down the line checking us out and making small changes. Then
they put us on vans and took us to the set. Where we ended up sitting in a
courtroom and waiting for a while.
They led us back downstairs and we went outside. There was this HUGE camera
set up, lots of folks...looking...looking...TIM BURTON! So I was happy.
They took us to our spot, and told us that a giant had been eating crops,
and we were going to act very angry about it. A mayor guy stood in front of
us. They gave shotguns, pitchforks, and baseball bats to several of us, but
I didn't get one. My acting is so natural it just wasn't needed, I guess.
;-)
I looked around. Everything in the camera's view was 1950's. Old cars
lined the streets. Everything modern was removed. There were cops to the
side who stopped traffic when the camera rolled. VERY cool.
Then someone came and got me, and took me and another guy out of the crowd
in front of the camera and moved us to a car. There were several folks
moved around like that so that the street was populated. I wasn't near the
camera! So me and the guy near me were now ready to act REALLY mad. It was
terrible! But then they moved us back and put someone else near the car.
So my blossoming friendship with this man was ruined. I was again ready to
act furious! But closer to the camera. SCORE!
So then the started filming. We all hopped around and yelled for someone to
do something. Kinda fun. After a few takes of that, they told us in all
future takes to just mime the same thing. That way lines could be heard.
Somewhere around this I noticed a strange feeling...something I hadn't felt
since...well, since Obi-Wan Kenobi entered the Death Star. Yep. Ewan was
up there. Looking at me. Trying not to look at me, but I could tell.
So they put Ewan in back of the crowd. We were to yell (in mime) and Tim
Burton would yell "NOW!" We'd all jump to the side, forming a
corridor...revealing Ewan McGregor. So we did this several times. Ewan
would walk up that corridor, get so his face was within a few feet of the
camera, and give some lines. We did this several times. Each time Ewan was
within a few feet of me. So was Tim Burton.
Now close proximity to Ewan gives off vibes. I've picked these up. Women
are now looking at me differently. They can't tell why, they just can't
help themselves. They look lustily at me. They start undressing me with
their eyes. You can tell when they've undressed me because when they see my
untoned, pale flesh they scream and start visually redressing me quickly.
So back to the set. After several takes of that, Ewan left. It was a lot
of fun to see him act, though, and I was having all SORTS of fun watching
Tim Burton and just looking at what was going on around me.
They did several more shots. They did some of the mayor trying to calm us
down, and there were several farmers wearing clothes Jayne had made look
VERY dirty and worn out, carrying shotguns and making threats. There was a
girl saying the giant ate her dog...later I noticed she was gone and one of
the farmer's lines had changed to "he ate my little girls dog!" Small
things, but neat.
They took lots of polaroid pictures. They wanted shots of us in costume to
make sure we stayed looking the same way. They took shots of the crowd to
make sure from take to take we were all in the same position. Lots of
little things I'd never thought about.
Around 1 we were done and went home. That shot was done, and they were
doing some 70's stuff.
The next day I came back, again at 4:30. It was terrible. Same routine, we
got dressed, and caravanned out to the site. This time we were all a little
worried about rain as it was forecasted for the day. So they were trying to
hurry a bit I think. Our scene for this day was celebration. The mayor,
Ewan, and the giant were in front of us. The giant was VERY cool. Neat-o
costume, valises for shoes, and the man was HUGE. His voice sounded like a
tape recording that had been slowed down - literally.
We were to celebrate and cheer. Ewan acted quite bashful. A band played.
Shriners in little cars drove around. It started to rain and we all stopped
and hid under plastic tarps.
Fortunately it stopped soon. We came back out and it started up again.
They had little boxes that Ewan and the mayor sat on next to the giant. It
lowered them by a foot or two, and if they were looked at from the waist up
it made the giant seem even taller than he was. The band started, we'd
cheer, Ewan acted bashful, and they filmed that several more times as the
mayor gave him the key to the city. It was fun. Ewan would clown around a
bit until the camera got near him, then he'd drop right into the bashful
bit. It was fun.
They moved us back inside and got ready to move the camera to film from a
different angle. When we came back out, however, it started to rain again
and this time it settled in. So much to my disappointment they sent us
home, and told us they'd be in touch for the reshoot. Which was
Tuesday...and I couldn't leave work with that little notice. So I missed
it. There are some pictures from Tuesday's reshoot here:
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/specialreports/BigFish/StoryLifestylebigfish26w.htm
I was supposed to be there...(miserable sigh.)
May 6, 2004
Well, Big Fish came out on DVD...screen caps of my MAGNIFICENCE are now possible!
First, us raging at the mayor to do something about the giant...I am the small set of pixels in the back of the crowd. :-) But look at that RAGE that I'm emoting! WOW!
Then Ewan McGregor steps forth to save the day. Man, check me out! Look at that slouch! That's pure ACTING that is making me slouch like that! This is where they cut it, right when Ewan walked up to me. Right after this is where he turned to me and we started hanging out. That's why they cut right there. Really.
Ah, all is resolved and the band is playing...and I'm happily be-bopping along in the crowd. Whoo!
