Extra, Extra, So Read All About It

Almost A Wrap RWB by Jenn Brown.

Last week, director Simon Rumley's latest feature finished filming here in Austin. Red, White and Blue, touted as a "slacker revenge thriller," filmed in various locations around town, including one afternoon at local honky-tonk landmark The Broken Spoke.

A few weeks ago, Tim League, executive producer of the film and co-founder of the Alamo Drafthouse theaters, posted a call for extras to the Alamo blog and Twitter, with the promise of fun and standing around and drinking beer.

I've got friends in Vancouver who've been extras on a few films, and they were telling me to bring a book or two, it'll be boring. It'll take hours to shoot a single scene. Well, okay -- it took 3.5 hours from the time we were asked to be there, to "That's a wrap. Thanks, folks." Even if I had brought a book, I wouldn't have had a chance to look at it. We were too busy having fun. And it helped a local film, so even better.

Shooting a single scene at the Spoke, with star Noah Taylor (Shine, Flirting), took only a few hours. Many of us extras had the chance to sit and drink during filming. Several couples -- some who met for the first time on Tuesday -- were two-stepping on cue for roughly a dozen takes. The dancers were real troupers, and they did the most work and had the least time for beer.

Jenny and the Corn Ponies, the Texas swing band featured in the scene, was really tight, which is good, because they played the first minute of one of their songs at least a dozen times. Finally, at the end of the shoot, we got to hear the whole song, along with one take just to capture the sound of dancers (with the help of one enthusiastic crew member).

Time went by quickly, I'm sure with the help of the beer. It was quite warm, and I felt bad for the crew who had to run around, sometimes backwards, and it wasn't a well-chilled room. Still, it was a quick shoot, and everyone had a good time, and some of us even made new friends.

Red, White and Blue filmed around Austin for three weeks, including multiple nights at Slackerwood contributor Debbie Cerda's home. Look for Debbie's own account of the shoot soon.

Rumley's last feature was the twisty psychological thriller, The Living and the Dead, which won multiple awards at Fantastic Fest 2006. Another Rumley film, the short thriller The Handyman, was just as twisty, so it will be interesting to see how Red, White and Blue plays out. Rumley hopes to premiere the film at Fantastic Fest 2010.