"The Dark Knight Rises" at Heinz Field

Rumblings of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises", have been frequent around the Pittsburgh area in the last few months, though the anticipation has far outshone any actual information on filming, at least to me, before earlier today when I learned that the Warner Bros. tentpole will be filming on Saturday, August 6th at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  I found out about this from the website of the Pittsburgh Film Office, which posted this casting notice and a link to this website.

This is set up to be a scene with thousands of extras, which will be a pretty big undertaking on the part of the movie crew.  I'm a little surprised that this will be filming at Heinz field, which is a fairly recognizable stadium - when I first heard about this, I thought this scene might take place indoors at the nearby Consol Arena, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Arena Football League team, the Pittsburgh Power.  It seems that they're going big for this scene, though, and that's just fine with me.  We're told to expect special effects of the explosion variety, which will be a interesting to see.

While I am absolutely excited to sign up for this and get a chance to be in this scene, what stood out to me most was just how awful the "Be in a Movie" website really is.  The pictures I'm posting up here are all screenshots from the website.  If you take a few seconds to read some of the actual text that appears on this site, I think you'll see what I'm talking about.

Beyond looking like a high school PowerPoint presentation, a lot the information on this site is exactly what gives people the wrong impression about what being an extra is like.  That is to say, when people first show up to be an extra on a show or movie, it's not uncommon for that person to expect a party.  My best response to that mentality is this: even production scenes that are supposed to take place at a party are not like a party.  Or maybe they're like the worst party you've ever been to.  My point is, being an extra is tedious work over unreasonably long hours.  It can be fun, but it's not the type of fun that this website seems to be promising.

Just look at the abundance of exclamation points and unnecessary capitalization.  The picture at top starts simply with "YES!!!".  The next has one line that just says "WOW!", followed by the pseudo sentence "This will be an action packed unbelievable fun day of Movie Making Experiences You'll Never Forget".  In the photo directly above, you'll see that as part of appearing on set, everyone will receive a more than 30 page booklet on how to become a paid extra.  Thirty pages?!  Here, free of charge, I'll tell you how to become a paid extra in one sentence: SHOW UP AT THE DAMN SET WHEN A MOVIE NEEDS EXTRAS.  Oops, now I'm using too many caps.

This next screenshot might be my favorite, because beyond promising to send "drivnig" directions (and improperly using "you're"...my goodness, people), the site gives you a preview of how popular you will become by being an extra in this movie.  Under the heading "Here's Some Things People Will Say After We've Made This Movie With You!", the following conversation questions are posited: "You really got to hang out on the set with all those stars?"  The answer is supposedly "Yup!", even though I will guarantee absolutely zero extras will get to hang out with Batman or any other main actor.  The next question you're sure to hear is "Hey! I saw you in that film.  Way cool.  Was it fun?"  Again, the answer is sure to be a dopey "Yup!"  In reality, there is no chance that you'll be seen other than for a picosecond in a blurry pan across the field.

My goodness, I'm full of vitriol tonight.  I guess I'm a little miffed at the fact that this website is going to mislead thousands of people about this opportunity to be an extra in what is sure to be a cool scene and a great movie.  Though this scene may be the closest thing anyone will ever get to having a party during the filming of a movie, it will most certainly not be a party.  It will be lots of waiting around for setting up, shooting, re-shooting, re-shooting again, re-shooting a dozen more times, moving equipment, rehearsing, rehearsing with stand-ins, rehearsing with principle actors, rehearsing with sound, rehearsing without sound, shooting, re-shooting again...you get the point.  This is going to take all day and there will be a hours and hours of downtime.

In case anyone's wondering, HECK YES I will be doing this.  It's the Batman movie, and it's filming in Pittsburgh!  How could I stay away?  Man, I think I've been too hard on this whole process and this website.  Look at me, getting all worked up over nothing.  Oh, there's one more picture from the website, I wonder what it --

"Where did you here about this"?  Where did you HERE about this?!  HERE?!?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME>!?!1?!  Holy crap.

Dinner and a (Slide) Show

Monday's Free Comic Book Day-inspired comic book panel went off, if I do say, without a hitch.  There were comics, presentations, door prizes and - oh yeah! - free chicken nuggets.  I'm not sure what more you could have asked for.  I suppose that last statement was hyperbolic.

There ended up being around 75 people, not including comic store workers or comic creators, at the New Hanover County public library for the two-hour presentation.  A lot of that time was spent listening to illustrator Tom Fleming recount his career, which was really interesting.  Tom's really had a varied career, designing paint cans, costumes for World Wresting Federation characters, comic book playing cards and Cracked magazine covers, to name a few.  The stories he told went beyond just a list of what he's done - I think everyone there was interested in hearing more.

I gave a 15-minute presentation after Tom was finished, and I talked about writing for comics and questions I hear every so often - a lot of it was based on an article I recently wrote for the Brownsville Telegraph - and I think that it went over well.  A few of my jokes (okay, most of them) fell flat, which was actually pretty funny in itself, but I heard good things about it afterwards, so I imagine that at least a few people took something from it.

After the presentations, those there from Fanboy Comics - sponsor for the event - held a raffle to benefit the creation of a graphic novel section in the library, and then chicken...glorious, delicious chicken.  If you haven't been to a Chick-Fil-A yet, do yourself a favor and go (RIGHT NOW)!  They had chicken nuggets and chicken salad sandwiches, and I had...let's say more than my share.  Delicious.

The event ended with several local creators selling and signing books.  I sold a few issues of Teddy and the Yeti - someone even came by to buy a whole set - and talked with a number of people about T&Y and comics in general.  In the picture above, you can see me talking to a young comic fan and his mom.  She looked at the books and said "Wow!  [Young child], would you like me to buy you one of these books?" very enthusiastically.  The kid hung his head, frowned and said "NO!"  Oh well, maybe next time, fella.

In my opinion, the turnout was great, and I can't thank the folks at Fanboy Comics enough for sponsoring the event.  Certainly, it was nice to make people aware of Teddy and the Yeti (which I mentioned during my presentation more than a few times), but in general it was just nice to get to talk comics with a few dozen fans like myself.  I even had a couple friends show up unexpectedly to hear my talk, which I appreciate to no end.  There was talk of putting together a comic creating workshop for some of the area kids, which would be lots of fun.  I'm sure it'd go off without a hitch - "hey kids, who here likes Teddy and the Yeti?"  Kids: "BOOOO!"  Me: "What the hell is wrong with you?!?"  Good times, good times.

Come and see my magical comic book presentation.

No - the title isn't a sly euphemism.  I'm really going to be speaking as part of a presentation on comics TONIGHT! at the Northeast branch of the New Hanover County public library.  I wrote about this a few weeks ago and mentioned that this is being sponsored by Wilmington's Fanboy Comics as part of their extended Free Comic Book Day celebration.  It takes place from 6:00-8:00 pm, which means that I should still be able to catch most of the Penguins hockey game...because clearly, that is the most pressing thing going on for me this evening.

The program will highlight the comic book career of local artist Tom Fleming and will include a Q&A session with Tom and other local creators (I'll try to use as little sarcasm as possible when answering questions).  Chick-Fil-A will be providing sandwiches - like manna from Heaven - for all attendees free of charge, as well!  Did I ever mention that I met the Chick-Fil-A cow?  Well, I did, and it was very sweet.  Oh, and I guess I'll sign some comics or something if anyone is interested.

This is all a rather auspicious moment for me, and I'm looking forward to being a part of the program.  I spoke with Tom when we met at the Pittsburgh Comicon, and he suggested I put some information together on how writers approach the comic book creation process...so I did, and I'll be talking about that tonight for a few minutes.  I've even put together a PowerPoint and everything (and posted a damn picture of it, of all things)!  Here's hoping that I do a better job at presenting than my students do in the public speaking class I teach...because those are usually pretty terrible.  On the other hand, if watching people fail miserably brings joy to your life, show up and watch, because there's always the chance!

If you'd like to show up, here's the address:

1241 Military Cutoff Road
Wilmington, NC 28405

Remember, it's not the main branch - it's the Northeast branch.  If I hadn't just done a search for the address, I would have honestly gone to the main branch and thus missed the entire thing.  That would have been bad.  See you there!