Carnivale (5)

All rightie! This is gonna be a doosy, so ya’ll might wanna grab a cup of coffee and settle in. This Tale will cover the best shoot I’ve ever been on. Ever. Like ever in my whole little career of being an extra.

Admittedly, that isn’t very long (2 years at the end of this coming January) but during all that time, I’ve worked about a hundred days and while some shoots were great because I got out early or the work was fun or easy, this particular shoot was the best because the hours were both long and interesting at the same time. I really thrive on that. Full costume, good catering, stunts and great people. I couldn’t ask for more.

So, without further fanfare, Carnivale…

It was a two-day shoot in the carnival tent on the soundstage which happens to be less than ten minutes from where I live. Usually, I have to drive about an hour or more, so having such a short drive already put me in a great mood.

Once there, I did the usual rigamarole of getting my voucher, then going to wardrobe where the costumers were pretty grumpy due to the previous day having been rained out and half the costumes were still wet. I hadn’t worked the day before, so I got stuck in a different line with costumers who weren’t quite as grouchy. They still gave me a short-sleeve dress, but I’d come prepared with all sorts of stuff to wear underneath so I wouldn’t get cold.

Breakfast was good and there wasn’t a whole lot of down time before we were taken over to the stage and herded into the tent. The prop guys attacked me as usual. I ended up with a glass bottle of Coke and bag of peanuts. Now, keep in mind that I had to carry these two props all day, both days, just about wherever I went on the set. That should be worth a chuckle or two or three in some cases.

So, after collecting props, I was assigned a husband by the 2nd AD (assistant director). So far, John is the absolute best fake husband I have ever had. Wonderful, wonderful man. I hope I get to work with him again. He’s hilarious and when I got cold, he put his arm around me and warmed me right back up.

Okay, so we learn that the scene is one of those healing shows. 1930s carnivals had those kinds of shows where us townsfolk would go in hopes that we, too, could be cured of our illnesses. John and I walk into the tent and hit our mark a few million times before they move the camera and start getting into the real healing stuff.

And my oh my was that interesting. After doing dolly shots with the camera in motion, they got out the steadycam. The camera operator, who’s name is Henry and has long dark hair to go along with those bulging arms from carrying around the camera (yum!), his assistant, the sound man, and another camera guy all literally ran around the principal actors so they could do a nifty effect with each of the three healings.

It’s one thing to see the camera operator moving around with the camera, but to see him hustling plus three other guys all trying not to step on each other or anyone else and doing a damn great job with each take…I was so blown away. All of us extras were.

Oh! I almost forgot the funniest part of my fake marriage to John. Yeah, we were at a healing show, right? Well, we’d agreed that the reason we were there was because he…uh…couldn’t get it up anymore and I was about to leave him if he didn’t get healed. Okay, so we got a lot of chuckles out of that.

…Then, Paul (the 2nd AD) gave me two fake children! Ummm…yeah…we had fun trying to explain to the 12 and 10 year old exactly why Daddy needed healing without really explaining why Daddy needed healing!

For the rest of the first day, me and my fake family had an absolute blast. Toward the end of the night, we’d even added on a couple aunts to our little fake family.

See, on set, things can get boring. It’s the people you meet who keep it interesting. One of the aunts had been on the show a million times before and ended up striking up a conversation with one of the principal actors, too. That was pretty cool because usually principal actors won’t even stand near extras let alone talk to us. Waaaay cool end to that evening.

Once out of my costume, I headed home in torrential rain, once again thankful that I only live 10 minutes away. The rain was hell and puddled across the street in some places.

The next day was a little misty, but not too bad. I went through the whole rigamarole again, getting into costume, having the make-up people douse me with fake dirt, etc. I realized that the shoes I had on were the exact same ones that I’d worn the very first time I was on the show and this time, they were more comfortable, but still hurt my right foot. Oh well. This was still by far my best shoot ever and it was only getting better.

I picked up my props…again…I really hated them darn things by this point, but I’m a good extra…I play along…and went into the tent again. This time we were moving on to some stunts. Of course, when I learned there were going to be stunts, my ears perked up for anything Jen and I could use in Driven To Distraction. I reunited with my fake husband and Paul took a liking to us. We could follow instructions and actually looked like a couple because we got along so well. Anyhow, Paul always assigned us certain crosses right at the top of each set-up.

The first stunt was a guy getting his throat cut. I don’t want to ruin too much of the show if anyone watches it, but it’s kind of hard to describe stuff without a bit of a spoiler…Brother Justin is a very bad man. He goes into the tent and falls to his knees.

When a guy asks him if he’s okay, he pulls out a scythe and slits the guy’s throat. From there, chaos ensues. All of us extras are running around terrified, trying to get out of the tent, but can’t because the guy who got his throat cut fell by the entrance and a whole new pile of stunt people dog pile on him, too.

So, us extras are totally freaking out, running around. And yes, I’m still carrying that damn bag of peanuts and the glass Coke while I’m running seemingly for my life. My good-for-nothing fake husband and I split up, too! That was pretty fun. We claimed that we were looking for our kids who didn’t work during all the chaos.

So, Paul gives John and I special crosses for each camera angle on the throat slit stunt. I must say, that appliance with the fake blood was even icky close up and knowing that the guy wasn’t hurt. Gave me the willies!!!!

Next up was a girl getting the scythe in her back. There were three scythes. One was hard plastic, another was somewhat floppy plastic and another was retractable…for obvious reasons. The real trick with this stuff is the camera angles.

Paul gave John and I a million different crosses during the scythe-in-the-back sequence because it was intricate and the people running through frame had to be consistent and hit their marks every time.

There was one angle where I had to dodge 1) the scythe 2) a camera moving toward me 3) a camera that wasn’t moving and 4) a whole bunch of camera dolly track laid all over the floor, not to mention 5) all the crew guys. Yeah, talk about intense… I really felt like I’d accomplished something when I navigated all that stuff without running into anything, including other extras who were also running for their lives!

After that, another stunt guy got his arm chopped off. Paul gave me a couple crosses, but then I wasn’t immediately needed so I hung out a little beyond the action and just watched.

I’d thought I was out of the way, but wow. Clancy Brown kicks serious ass. He chopped off the guy’s arm and continued past the camera, saying his lines and swinging the scythe…and heading straight for me. I didn’t know he was going to do all that. The first take, I just looked like a deer in headlights. After that, I cowered from him and I think he liked it, helped him stay in character, in the moment. That was pretty friggin’ cool, if I do say so myself.

They didn’t have the blood rigged for the first few takes, but when they started rehearsing with it…wow. I’d never seen it done before. The stuntman had his real arm sort of twisted in his shirt and the fake arm out through the sleeve. The small arm chunk that got chopped off was held on by magnets. When the arm chunk was removed, a pressure pot blew the fake blood (corn syrup stained red) through a plastic tube and it blasted out of holes in the fake arm. Pretty nifty, if I do say so myself.

I mean, the girl who got it in the back just had the blood line hooked up and when Clancy hit her back, they blasted the blood out. But the arm stunt seemed a little more involved. It was from this area that I heard my favorite lines from the set “Watch out for the blood line” and “Don’t step in all the blood.” It was pretty funny if you didn’t know what the gag was.

My favorite crew visual was when one of the camera operators turned around and his face was all covered in blood. It gave a certain air of danger to operating a camera. I liked that. It looked so hardcore.

After doing a bunch of close-ups, they decided to get some wide shots and I got filtered back in again. When the guy’s arm came off, three or four extras got sprayed so badly they screamed. I hope that take goes in the finished product because it was so real. I was nowhere near the action. I only heard it.

Still in wide shots, they decided to forgo the blood, but still do the stunts one after the other. Paul instructed John and I on yet another cross. It was around this point where I realized how stupid I was. I mean, here’s this big tall guy with blacked-out eyes, swinging a scythe, killing people while saying some horrific stuff and what do I do? I run STRAIGHT for him!!!! Yes, all the while still carrying a bag of peanuts and a glass bottle of Coke. Ain’t I a smartie?

Anyhow, it was during these crosses where I really felt in the moment. The girl gets it in the back, I run right in front of Clancy, he swings the scythe at me, I cringe and keep going. I actually felt the swish of the scythe a few times!

The first few takes, Clancy didn’t really go for me, but he noticed that I hit my mark every single time, consistently like clockwork…and he used that. I really got off on it, too. I mean, he kicks ass. He really does and whether or not he was conscious of swinging at me, he did and that made me really feel like I was doing something, really part of the scene instead of just another stupid extra in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There were three more stunts after that: another girl got it in the face, a guy got it in the shoulder and yet another guy got slammed, but I can’t say who because this was the season finale and I just can’t give that away.

Anyhow, throughout all of that, Paul continued to give John and I great stuff to do. I found myself coming up with really great motivations for why I ran toward the danger, then ran five other directions…I was looking for my fake kids. That’d make any sane person do pretty crazy stuff, right?

I told ya this was gonna be a long one. There’s still more!

Once most of the blood was spilled, the director (who was absolutely wonderful in every way a director could be (he loved us, he really did)) wanted to get some other inserts of the healing stuff from the day before, so we all got back into the spots we’d been in and went from take to take. It was nice to not have to run a whole lot for a little while.

Between various takes, I ended up talking with two of the principal actors: Toby Huss (he plays Stumpy) and Nick Stahl (he plays Ben). Definitely a highlight of my two days there. It’s just not normal for principal actors to talk to the extras.

There were a few set-ups that didn’t really include John and I, so we weren’t paying much attention. We’d join the action when it was necessary, though. That was cool. At one point, John, Toby, Nick and I were all joking about something when I looked toward the action and saw Paul crooking his finger beckoning me while saying, “You. Come here.”

I was terrified.

I thought I was going to be in trouble for talking to Nick and Toby and not paying attention. I dutifully went toward him and he put me DIRECTLY in front of the camera! Yeah… The director directed me where to stand, too. Henry also told me where to look.

Unfortunately, no one told me what to do and I hadn’t been paying attention to what all was going on in the set-up, so I just had to fake it. I glanced over at Toby who gave me a thumbs-up and John grinned at me. I was terrified. There I was in the MIDDLE of a crowd of people all by myself with the camera on me to start the shot. It eventually moved past me, but still, it was insane because I didn’t know what to do.

Shortly afterward, Henry told me there’s a real good chance that I’ll make it into the finished product because he was right on me and there was no one else around and he stayed on me for awhile. I’ll just die if I end up in the finished product. I really will. I mean, the shoot was already my best. I didn’t need anything more!!!!

Also, Toby gave me a Christmas CD that he’d put together. It’s a collection of lounge style comedy songs that he and a friend had written and he sang. I was absolutely blown away. I swear I’ll never ever forget him. I love listening to the CD, too. It’s hilarious!!!! I mean, my world has been rocked repeatedly by Carnivale and this time, it just couldn’t get any better. Toby’s the best guy I’ve ever met on a set, too. Between him and John, I was very well taken care of.

Yeah, best shoot ever…got better…got better…got better…got impossibly better. I mean, I can’t even think of anything that would have made an improvement on that shoot… like at all! I was completely blown away and still am! I wish they could all be as incredible as this one. But alas, that’s just not the way this business works. Oh well. At least I’ve got the memories and tons of stunt research for Hollywood Heat books. Zowie-wowie did I get a lot of ideas.

Comments are closed.