A Passover Story and the Charlotte Observer

For the past few years I have been hanging out at my cousin's store and deli called Gleiberman's Kosher Mart. Turned out when I moved to Charlotte over a dozen years ago, I had some relatives I had never met. My grandfather came over from Poland (near Bialystock) in the early part of the 1900's as a teenager. He made the voyage on the Aquitania (the same ship, JFK took to England just prior to WWII to see his father who was ambassador the England). He had a sister...but somehow there was a rift and the family grew apart.

Well, I took an interest in Kosher Mart. It was a unique business, getting foods shipped on trucks from Brookly twice a week. He was the only Kosher Market between Atlanta and Richmond, VA. My cousin Jeffrey is like an old Jewish man even though he is about 40 years old. He is brilliant about kosher foods and distribution and lvoes to talk to the customers.

After my first few years of visiting his store, when the internet/ecommerce time came I wanted to study and find out how one day this might be turned into an online store. Well this year after about $1 million dollar renovation of a new store near Shalom Park they opened up a beautiful deli and market with a full service restaurant. Passover is their busiest time of year as the kosher customers need to clear their homes of food that is not kosher for Passover and purchase food for the family dinners called Sedars which typically take place on the first and second nights. It is the celebration of the Jewish People's Exodus from Egypt.

Well, somewhere back in February I had told Robert (who manages the business), that I could help out if they needed it. Due to my flexible schedule I decided I could help from 10 am to about 2 pm each day. I basically ran the cashier and was Maitre d' for the restaurant on the days leading up to Passover.

I learned so much. Each day the orthodox rabbis would appear from the local synagogue to make sure every thing there was Glatt Kosher, the strictest dietary rules followed.

I learned things I never knew before. For example, when bagging groceries, dairy had to go into separate grocery bags from meat items, even though they were in their packaging. For some strict followers, food that was kosher (but NOT kosher for Passover) could not touch areas where the Kosher for Passover food was. I learned this when one customer held the grocery items over the counter and would not put them down..and asked me to scan them and put them in a bag.

I also learned I needed to wash my hands if I was stocking shelves in the area of regular kosher foods that were not Kosher for Paasover so again I didn't taint the Passover foods.

A few days before Passover, a reporter and photographer from the Charlotte Observer Newspaper came in and was following one of kosher marts customers for nearly a week to see how she prepared for Passover and what recipes they used. The reporter happened to be the food editor (I found out later). They snapped a few pictures and then there was one of the grocery cart overflowing with items ready for checkout at my cashier. They told us that the article would be in the newspaper on April 4th. I figured it would be a n article inside the paper somewhere tucked inside a lifestyle section.

On the morning of April 4th, I went outside to retrieve my newspaper and brought it in and put it on the kitchen table. I usually skim the front page, read the sports section and then look at the editorial pages and letters to the editor. I never saw the article. I started my work day and made some calls and did some writing. At lunchtime, I made a sandwich and sat at the kitchen table. I flipped open th newspaper to see what sections I hadn't read. To my surprise, their was a complete section called "Food" and the picture of the customer with me at the register was taking up about one third of the front page. This was publicity I never sought and never thought about...most of Charlotte must have seen the picture because friends from all over town told me for weeks thay saw me.

As I tell my children and most people I meet, Take a road less travelled and enjoy the journey. (Notes of interest: By the way, what cashier has a high definition television 6 feet from where they work...and that was approximately $450.00 worth of groceries.)

Is there "Space Available"?

I have been pursuing the idea of helping some friends and associates with producing their books, screenplays, treatments and other concepts into film, radio, internet tv, and anything else appropriate.

One of my fellow Lake Norman Toastmasters has had an interesting journey of his own. Sid Davis showed up at one of our meetings at the old Holiday Inn in Cornelius, NC one Wednesday night a few years ago. He was a USAirways airline mechanic during the day and a writer and former radio disc jockey. He also is a low handicap golfer, something that helps in the land of golf courses of North Carolina.

In Toastmasters, it in so many ways becomes the catalyst or foundation for a new life's journey. In Sid's case, he started to take on the role of JokeMaster to warm up our club at the meetings and then ended up giving some very funny and well written speeches while moving through the basic manual speeches of the ice breaker, organize your speech, using your voice, show what you mean, etc. Sid also worked hard and stepped up to the plate to help the club.

Over time he began to give "humor workshops" to our fellow Toastmasters both in our club and at other clubs in the region. He then due to some unforeseen situation with health issues and career issues of our current leaders, became the President of our club (after only being a member for less than a year).
He came in just after me which at the time were tough shoes to fill as I had just been awarded the Helen Yandle award for being the Top Club President in the state.

Over the next year, Sid started to take comedy classes at the Comedy Zone downtown. The combination of his training in Toastmasters and now in comedy made him the perfect candidate to emcee the comedy zone shows. (He started the weekday shows).

At the same time, he began to write a book about his experiences based upon his behind-the-scenes experiences as an airline employee and the concept of identity theft. The book he wrote was called "Space Available"

Leatherheads - Day 8 - How Filming is done out of order

May 3, 2007 - We are now in the parking lot filled with old cars. The stadium is adorned with the red white and blue banners you see hanging in stadiums during the world series. In front is a banner that says the name of the teams playing in this game.

Even though this is 5 days later in Greensboro, the filming is actually the beginning of the game we filmed in Charlotte. The scene we will film shows the fans walking into the stadium. The stadium looks so realistic with the 1920's cars in the parking lot and all the extras in costume.

We do shots from a few different angles walking into the stadium. I am walking with my buddy Rick and we learned from Charlotte that walking slower gives you more camera time and more time to react and create different gestures for the scene.

George Clooney in in his white t-shirt and pants as director this morning. He is not in this scene. As the directors tell the production assistants, you hear the familiar loud refrain "Pictures up, Rolling, Action, Background Action". When they say background action, that is when the extras start their movement. We then move to the edge of the road to walk in from the street. I am about 20 feet from George Clooney as he peers into the camera to make sure he has the right shot.

After this we go to break and head back to the Extras Holding area in the white tent.
Before we get in, Michelle, one of the production assistants says "I need nine men, for the next scene". Again, this is sort of a being in the right place at the right time. Christian K. and I volunteer for this and we are led back to the stadium.
Now we see a contraption of pipes that makes rain and we are told we will get umbrellas and walk under the water. However at the last moment a decision is made to hold off on that scene and we are told to hangout in the stadium There are the 9 men, the "vendors", and a family.

Now we walk into the stadium and are told to take a seat anywhere. Surprise!....this is a baseball stadium with a beautiful green manicured infield. We realize no football plays will be filmed here.

We wait around for about an hour or so and nothing is happening. We realize they are filming scenes outside the stadium There is a giant construction crane. We understand now that it has a hose and somehow is dumping water on the top of the stadium to make it look like its raining outside. I wonder if computer graphics are going to put people in the scene.

We then wait around even longer and then we see activity inside the "tunnel" leading into our section of the stadium. Cameras are being set up on te concourse area and also looking down our gate area where you enter to get to your seats. We now see George Clooney in a tuxedo and John Krasinski also. They are filming their entrance into the big game. They both are again about 20 feet away. This is really the first time I saw John Krasinski close up. The basic scene are the two stars of the football game signing autographs.

We watch as the production crew raises a white background. It is a giant sail inside a rectangular metal structure about 20 feet by 20 feet. It is held down and tied down by four technical workers. I ask what it is used for. They tell me it helps to cut down the wind so the wind does not get into the microphone. I thought it was a background for filming so you wouldn't see the baseball field. I just learned another new detail of production

Now finally after waiting for about 2 hours, we are told to come back down toward the front of the stadium. However, when we reach the end of our area, we are told to hang out by the concession stand. They line us up to buy the old peanuts, souvenirs and other paraphanalia. they give some of us replica One dollar bills from that era.
They put us in three lines to make our way to buy our conccessions. However, when they set up the shot, the assistant director and George Clooney realize they can't get a clear shot of the souvenirs and food and other replica items.

They then tell my line to move out of the scene and down out of camera range. So we then think again, we missed the shot or scene after sitting around for 2 hours. After about 5 minutes of the director and cameraman setting up the shot. Ian Calip, the Asst Director, is at my shoulder and then George Clooney walks up to the other side of me and turns and tells our group he wants us to cut through the line to make our way to other sections of the stadium. Well, to me it seems like what happens as you push your way onto a New York City Subway car. They adjust the people in line to put a little space between them and at that point when action is said, we push our way through the line and make it past them. We are about 5 to 10 ft from the camera. We are talking and saying "excuse me", "coming through", "trying to get to my seats", etc. some are pushing back or blocking us to make it look realistic. When we finally make it through they are still rolling so some of us are sent back into the scene and told to get in line and try to buy some concessions. We do about 5 takes of this scene. On the last take, I get in line and still have the dollar bills in my coat pocket, so I then get back in line and wave my bill in the air as I try to get the vendor to sell me some peanuts. I grap my bag of peanuts. The conccession vendor takes my dollar an they yell "Cut". (By the way George Clooney was directing from behind us to the left of the concession stand. He was about an inch from me on about 5 different occasions)...He even jokingly said to Ian "Your fired" and was also joking with a young boy who is a main part of the scene.

As we walk out of the stadium to go back to Extras Holding George Clooney is walking past us. A women who has been shooting since Charlotte says to George "You are so much better looking in person", George turns and smiles, I then say to her within earshot of George "What about me?", he smiles again.

Time for the lunch tables. They are setup outside the tent...chicken, macaroni and cheese, lasagna and vegetables. We grab our stuff and walk into the tent to take our seats.

At the end of lunch, the casting director's production assistant Michelle starts to yell that we are "wrapping" for the day for many of the extras. She calls out different groups, woman and children "Get dressed , time to go home, thank you for coming today", all self dressed actors "Get dressed, time to go". Press people "stay". Well, I consider myself "press" from the other scenes in Charlotte so I wait around. It is now about 3 pm. I am torn about leaving and staying...hundreds of extras make it through the lines outside back in their regular close...the transistion for the woman are the most drastic as they go from bobbed hair hat and elegant clothes to jeans and a t-shirt.

Well, we think we are going to get one last scene as press for the day. However they finaly say "Press, time to go home, thanks." Well, this means a lean payday today since every hour past 8 hours we get paid overtime (time and a half)...I figure with gas and my two hour drive time, I probably have made about twenty bucks net for 12 hours of work and drive time..."Great work if you can get it" (lol).

Well I guess this is the end of the road for my leatherheads career. I was not able to fit into the fireman's outfit they wanted for the night time filming in Statesville, NC. This day turned out to be fun and interesting. Almost like a reunion since I didn't think I was coming back after Charlotte. I was able to get some great pictures with the costumers, hair and makeup and the "concession vendors".

Well that's a wrap!! It was a great ride. I guess George Clooney is getting ready for the Cannes Film fesitval. He also just signed on to do a comedy with the Coen Brothers.

It is now about 2 pm and we head back to the extras tent to eat lunch

Leatherheads - Day 8 - New location Greensboro, NC (May 3, 2007)

Wow, this is early, especially for someone who is a nightowl....I wake up at 4 am and get on the road by 4:45. I drive 90 miles to Greensboro using mapquest directions to find the parking lot in front of a church. Ah, this is not such a nice part of town and the directions send me in the complete opposite direction. Luckily, one of my strong points is that I have an amazing sense of direction (and I never stop to ask directions either)....so after driving about 4 miles in the wrong direction I turned around and drove back about 6 miles.

Wow, the shuttle bus driver was the same guy who was in Charlotte blaring Jimi Hendrix on the radio..I think its just some sixties music now. He drives us to the War Memorial Stadium. This time there is no permanent building. Just a very large tent for extras holding and two tents for wardrobe and a makeup/haircut tent.

I grab some breakfast and they keep us in the tent for a long time. There are dozens of first timers here today getting fited. Finally, they allow our table to go and get dressed. I go to the table to check in and they had been flipping out a bit because there were no clothes under my 3532 number ((brown coat, flat hat that I wore in Charlotte)...I was now #5001 and had a completed different look including a fedora. The amazing thing was that within three weeks time the costumers had dressed almost 1500 additional people (5001 minus 3532).

I made sure I had my camera phone with me and took pictures along the way today in wardrobe, makeup and hairstyling. It is now about 8 am and time to start the day.

I have the same expectation as day 1 in Charlotte of just being a fan in the stands. I show up in front of the stadium and find over 20 vehicles cars, trucks and even and ice cream truck from that era.

Time to for shooting. I walk up to the set and find one of my "buddies" from Charlotte and stand next to him. I think we are just haning out waiting for the directors to give us instruction of where to stand. Ginger, the costumer, who I got to know well in Charlotte, smiles at me as she straightens my hat and scarf and says "You always find a way to get into the shot". I smiled as I realized at that point again, we would have some camera time.

Ian Calip - Assistant Director and Andrew Kaplan, Chicago Photographer

 

During lunch in Charlotte, Andy Kaplan and Ian Calip has a chance to discuss film making and directing.

Andy Kaplan with Leatherheads Concession Vendors in Greensboro War Memorial Stadium (5/4/07)

 

Leatherheads Costumers Julia Rusthoven (r) and Rachel Goodman (l) with Andy Kaplan

 

Andy Kaplan in Makeup Chair Outside War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro (5/4/07)

 

Leatherheads - The day before Day 8 - New Costume, New Haircut, New Location

The phone rang again. It was Wednesday,May 2nd. The casting director called to see if I could come up to their offices in Statesville, NC to be cast in a different scene in Greensboro, NC to be filmed the next day. They also called back to ask if I could play a fireman in a scene being filmed a week later.

I told them I could be up at their offices to meet them and get fitted for my new wardrobe. I was given an appointment time of 2:20. I drove up to their offices in an manufacturing complex. I followed the signs into a warehouse door and up the stairs to a casting office. There were 3 casting people working the phones. DJ who had called me earlier the day introduced herself. I had expected to go to wardrobe to get my clothes. To my surprise, at the end of the hall was an office with 5 chairs outside and 4 chairs for hair. Three hairstylists were inside. After waiting outside for about 5 minutes, I was signalled into the third chair. The woman who I believe was named Mary, looked at my hair. I thought I might get a small cleanup, however 15 minutes later she completed my styling...(a complete new haircut -short all around)...We talked about where she was from (Tennessee) and that the 3 of them travel all around doing movie productions..she called herself vagabonds.

After my hair was cut I proceed down the stairs to the wardrobe area. I passed by the wardrobe including a box of muddy football cletes from the Charlotte filming. I walked up to the table and checked in. I was given a new number 5001. I asked if that meant you had 5,000 people in the film and she said they had 5,000 different outfits so far since they begain filming. I told her that I was here to be a fireman for next week. She looked at me and said, I am sorry I don't think you can be a fireman...(ah...my mind wandered back to Kindergarten when most boys wanted to be firemen or policemen)..I gave a fake cry. she smiled. I was too big for the firemen outfits they had. We did however get a new wardrobe for being a fan. It was a light brown twill coat and a tain Fedora and a mulitcolored brown, tan and maoon scarf. That was to be my outfit in Greensboro the next day.

After that I drove back home with my new haircut...ready to get ready to start my day at about 4:30 am.

Leilani Munter - From Nascar to Indy

Leilani Munter and I met up at the Corkscrew last summer after we connected on LinkedIn. (I had been searching on LinkedIn for NASCAR contacts in my geographic area). Leilani intrigued me after I read and saw her professional blog as she her background, interests, political leanings matched up with mine.

She was an up and coming driver in Nascar, but still under the radar screen compared to Danika Patrick. Leilani has a diverse background being a biology major in college, then she was a model and stunt double (she was the stunt double for Catherine Zeta-Jones) in the movie Traffic. In addition, she was starting to get noticed by fashion magazines and even secured her position with Hostess (the twinkie) company to be on a poster called the "Hostess Diva". I also found out when we met that her brother in law is Bob Weir from the Greatful Dead who now plays in a band called RatDog.

Over the next few months Leilani raced but was looking for a sponsor to help her race full time. There is a catch 22. In order to be on tv more, you need sponsor money to race more frequently and at higher levels.

We both decided that our paths and interests (NASCAR, blogging, media, internet tv,and branding) coincided and that we should keep in touch to see how we can help each other. I wanted to help find a sponsor or other media outlets for her with some of my old connections in cable tv.

Well, last week I called Leilani to see if she wanted to meet and she told me she now was an "Indy" driver and had just signed on with a major race team. I also found out she was in the April 15th edition of Sports Illustrated as one of the top 10 female drivers in the world.

Congratulations, Leilani!!! Your hard work and determination are paying off!!! I know how much you love to race!

Elvis and me - 1st time - NBC Radio Summer of 77

Elvis was is an iconic figure who seems to somehow enter each person's life throught the sheer magnitude of his impact on our culture. My brush with Elvis up until this point happened on two different days.

I was working at WYNY FM (NBC - 30 Rock) as a summer intern. It was August 16th, 1977. The summer was about to end for me and a new team of people let by a young 23 year old Bob Pittman from WMAQ (Chicago) which was transformed into a country music station were hired to run WNBC Am working to being a long term transformation of WNBC AM which had some of the top disc jockeys in the world such as Cousin Brucie (a legend in NY in the 1960's and 70's) and Imus. Down the hall I heard shreeks and screems from down the hall near the studio "Elvis Died, Elvis is Dead". I remember a young disc jockey named Ellie sobbing and crying.

I ran outside my office and toward the studio and people were embracing each other, consoling each other.

Leatherheads - A Dog's Life

On the set of Leatherheads, there was a team mascot. After filming one day, I had the opportunity for a picture as they were putting him into the van after a day's work. The people were the owners. I also met the person who's credit I always saw on movies with animals called an animal wrangler.

I just think of the old west movies with horses, cattle,etc. I think of a wrangler with a rope trying to lasso a steer.

Well, I went to High School in NJ with the mascot of a bulldog. I know Univerity of Georgia has a bulldog mascot named UGA....This bulldog was name Rocky.

Leatherheads - Day 7 - It's a Small World and the final shots of the Game

Today is the last day of shooting in Charlotte and I am again standing on the sidelines of the visiting team..(not sure if I can divulge the name). The Coach of the team is Wayne Duvall. a larger than life character. I had been near him all week but did not want to bother him as he was one of the "actors". I finally just reach out my hand to him and said "My name is Andy Kaplan" nice to meet you. We then got into a discussion which I guess happens often on film sets..."Where did you grow up", I asked. He replied "Silver Spring, MD". I told him my sister now lives near there and I asked where he went to High School (it was a leading question). When he told me he went to high school there as well. I asked him if he knew Dickinson College. He then smiled and said, "Yes". All my brothers children went there and I am going there for my nieces graduation in May". I told him I founded and was chair of the Dickinson Club of Charlotte and was the 2006 Dickinson Alumni Volunteer of the Year. Well, it is a small world.

All morning they were filming the final scene of the game and perfecting some of the shots so the editors will have more interesting shots to work with. Camera's are set up in the far stands to get a distant shot of one of the important plays of the game. This time I am running down the sideline (as directed by John, Assistant Director) and just by luck end up at the end of a crowd about a foot from George Clooney who is playing a football player. Knowing this may be my last minutes as an extra, I have now learned to find the camera and make sure I can be seen clearly. I am not sure if this will be a far shot or they zoom in.

One interesting shot of the day were 3 football players laying on the ground together and the cameramen were up on stepladders shooting down at the players as they rolled around. Another shot of interest was when a single camera was pointing up to the sky (it laying on the ground) and George Clooney and one of the crew were tossing the football like a "hot potato" over the camera dozens of times.

At the end of the day, we did a scene where the game is ended and we walk off the field. We did about 6 takes of this walking in all different directions and at different paces. In each take about 50 of us walked from different places and did about 3 different walks. I walked from the side of the stadium to the middle of the field to the director in what I call a "New York Walking pace" and then we turned around and walked reguarly back to another part of the sideline, then I decided that as a "sideline photographer" it would be authentic to be running so the two of us ran back into the field. At that point the director named John, directed us to walk very very slowly toward the corner of the endzone continuing until we hit the wall. This I guess will look like we are exiting the stadium Our educated non-professional guess is that this may be the last scene in the movie where the credits are rolling. Again, only the editors will know. Maybe it will be me and my buddy walking into the sunset instead of George Clooney.

There are still three more weeks of shooting in Winston Salem and Statesville, NC. I live about 40 minutes from Statesville and 90 minutes from Winston Salem. I am hoping for a part in Statesville, so I can restup...I had about 45 hours of sleep in the last 9 days.

Leatherheads Day 6 - The play of the game

Most of htis week is filming of a football game. As you can imagine like most sports films we have important plays in the game. Today, they worked on the final play of the game all day. I started in the end zone on the home team side next to some "band members". I reminded me of a smaller version of the Stanford Band. A friend playing a police officer was also nearby. I was basically just background at this point as the play was taking place way down the field.

I have learned from the assistant directors that movement is preferable in a scene so I walk up the sidelines once they yell action. You actually hear the words,
Pictures Up!, Rolling, and then "Background Action" to know when it is time to move about in the scene.

As the play moves up the field toward the endzone of I move with it and by the end of the morning end up next to the cheerleaders 3 men and 3 women and end up doing my pantomine talking and photography.

They continue to move fans in the stands around behind us as fillers. They fill in the first 5 rows of the stadium in about 6 sections. We have a long hot morning.
Ginger who is one of the wardrobe people, comes up throughout the morning to work on extras to make sure they are authentic and their scarves, hats and coats are on correctly. She has straightened my hat a few times. Our pants also need to be hiked up to show our socks...think of an old man pulling his pants over his belly and that is what a lot of us had to do during filming. Of course this was hidden by our overcoats.

Ginger, who has a resemblance to Carmen Diaz was really in her element as a wardrobe expert. She was really a stickler for detail and even noticed the little things such as whether we wore the same tie each day or how our winter scarves were tucked under our coat. As far as my brown jacket, I would have these wardrobe experts tie a square knot to make it look authentic.

Most of the day was fairly uneventful, except it occured to many of us it is taking 6 days (60+) hours) to film these scenes. George Clooney is all over the field that day. He is a player on one of the teams. Both teams are on the filed for most of the day. Some are professional actors such as Ed Miller (who is from Los Angeles), others are from local casting.

The players were having to do many of the scenes repetitively while camera's and audio folks captured a variety of shots from closeups and dialogue to shots from a distance...This is a romantic comedy, so there were a couple of scenes that had George Clooney laughing right after shooting.

The players on both teams were playing in the "elements" (which I can describe in detail, we'll have to wait for the film promotion to start) and they had "heaters" on the sidelines to warm them up when they were done shooting.

We are told they need an extra day to shoot so we will be back on Tuesday...

Leatherheads - Day 5 - George Clooney Directing

Friday morning, I woke up at 5 am and arrived at the set at 6:30 am. I figured at this point I had only about 20 or so hours of sleep this week, but was still excited with anticipation of the days activities.

We park our cars at the lot near Bobcat arena and take a shuttle bus over to Memorial Stadium. The bus driver has a large jar i the front of his bus for two police officers slain in the line of duty in Charlotte a few weeks ago. He asks for donations to the almost full jar.

When I arrrive, I go to a table where the casting director's staff has us fill out our daily forms or timesheets with name ss@ etc. At the top of the form it says we are working on Leatherheads from Speakeasy Productions.

By the time I am dressed, coiffed and put my sunscreen on, I arrive at extra's holding at about7 am. I have my food and then sit with others and talk about today's activities. We are told they are adding an extra day of shooting on Tuesday.

In the morning, my first shots are fan in the stands. We end up cheering, booing etc.
The day is fairly uneventful until the end of the day. The last shot of the day I am a photographer again on the visiting team sidelines. I am at the 40 yard line standing near the sidelines. One of the assistant direcots comes up to me and tells me to move back behind the team bench about 10 feet off of the firld. He places other extras in specific places as well. I am thinking I will be more of a background player again.

Then all of a sudden, he places the Head Coach of the team to my right and the team mascot and trainer are nearby as well. The Head Coach, played by Wayne Duvall (Robert Dubal's cousin)is a fiarly large man which a deep luud voice you would expect from coaches.

The next thig I see are the two cameras in front of us with all the direcors sitting in back including George Clooney as he is not in this scene as an actor. Tape measures are run from the cameras to us to measure the focial point so we will be in focus. There is also a camera on a golf cart type vehicle that will be going down the sidelines. Now I realize why we were put back behind the benches. It needed the space to ride inside the sidelines.

We then do about 4 or 5 takes of this shot. In one of them the coach takes the old camera I use as a photographer and starts to look at it and pretend to talk to me.
I realize now that this is even a better chance for me to appear in the movie with a close up from 3 camera angles. I turn to the actors to my left and say..."it doesn't get any better than this".

Leatherheads Day 5 - End of the day surprise

Friday, April 20th (pm) Today went along rather uneventful. In the morning we were doing reaction shots as "fans" in the stands. The directors and production crew had to get us to realistically react to a football scene.

The walks hundreds of us out to the stadium and bring us down aisles. With only a few hundred extras (I think there may be around 500 now), they bring us down the aisles of Memorial stadium and start to get up to fill up the first 5 rows of the stadium in about the first 3 or 4 sections from the endzone.

Our job as fans is to react in a variety of ways to get very good action shots. There is no actual game going on. We are looking out on the field at camera's, production crew, microphones, carts, etc. I assume the guy in the movie credits called the Grip is somewhere out there as well, but still want to find that person as for years I wondered by a key grip is.

All the production crew are on radio freqnencies to each other (including different channels depending on what job you have). The directors and production assistants continually talk with each other throughout the day to coordinate everything from who should be taken from Extra's holding, to when they are ready to shoot the scene to where to place the actors in the scene.

I am sitting in the 2nd row next to two women, both dressed in those beautful 1920's hats and clothes. On my left,(in real life) is Jody, a real estate agent who lives just West of Charlotte. On my right is Sharon who calls herself a "Jill of all trades". She teaches Swing dancing, creates antique jewelry, does photography and interior design. While waiting around Jody takes a call on her mobile phone she pulls out of her 1920's purse. It is from her 9 year old son, who is also an extra in the movie sitting somewhere else in the stadium.

The directors now tell us to be ready and describe the scene we will be looking at and how we might want to react (cheering, booing, bored or like nothing special is going on).

The first scene is a play that is a big play for the other team. So our reaction is to be upset at the defense of our team for letting up a big play. In the stands also the prop people have handed out props from that time period such as buttons, game programs and cigarettes.

One of the things we also have to do is to have some fans start standing, but not all at the same time. The directors instruct all people with a birthday in April, Stand up. As the plays develop on the field the rest of us will stand to cheer or boo the play. Today we also do some acting like talking to the person next to us, pointing at the play, or congratulating each other after a big play.

After that, they moved us to the endzone for more shots. However, the asst director said anyone on the sideline needs to be out of the shot. I left to go to the sideline as a photographer again. As I moved from the stands to the field I stopped by to see the propmaster. He let's me pick my camera (a 1920's vintage camera) from the prop table. I enter the field and we are instructed to go to the place where we were standing previously. For me that was on the 45 yard line right next to the cheerleaders, coach and trainer in front of the team bench.

I am standing on the sideline and all of a sudden I am told to move back off near or behind the bench. There are now about 20 people behind the cameras with two cameras pointing at me. One is from the left at about 10 o'clock the other is straight ahead at noon..The third camera is down the sidelines to my left at about 2 pm.
The production assistants take a tape measure to measure the focal point.

The director places Wayne Duvall (Coach) to my right) there is also a trainer with the team mascot nearby as well as well. When they call for action, I realize at this point it doesn't get any better than that. This might be my moment as we are looking at a play on the field and reacting to it. Could this be my close up? Only the editors will know. It was a great way to end the day and start the weekend.

Leatherheads -Lunchtime - The "Cast(e)" System

Each day the extra's are provided breakfast, lunch, snacks and water and gatorade. Our food for lunch is what I would call "upscale cafeteria food". We have salads (regular or caesar), fish, pork, beef stew and chicken (fried, baked or bbq)..We also had fruit salad, mac and cheese, vegetable lasagna and regular lasagna.

We enter the "Extra's holding" each day at appoximately 1 pm depending on how the shooting was that day. The women and children are given priority to enter the building. We wrap around the sidewalk as there are hundreds of us in our 1020's wardrobe. We walk up out of the stadium and find ourselves walking further up a hill and out the gate so we can enter in front.

As we enter the old building, we are in the main hall, the line snaking around. Finally we walk down the stairs and there is a very efficient operation. One of the Production assistants named Michelle is waiting at the bottom of the stairs and letting us move toward the buffet tables at about 10 people at a time. There are 6 tables with actors going down both sides.

We then proceed to the white table clothed tables.

The directors, actors and film crew however on Thursday had chinese food delivered on a cart to the field. Some were carrying out egg rolls. On Friday, Pizza was delivered from fuel pizza.

As far as snacks, we had a smorgasbord of things from one of the warehouse clubs, slim jims, twizzlers, granola bars, pretzels, etc.

The crew had snacks that were a little more upscale at times. There were coolers filled with drinks on the field. Two of them were filled with gatorade, water, coca cola, etc. This was marked in big magic marker "Not for Extras". The other had bottled water. it was marked "Extras".

Leatherheads - Day 5 - Getting ready for the day

I woke up at about 5:30 am with around 5 hours sleep and arrived on the set for my usual (oh it's routine now) visit to the Extra's table to fill out my paperwork and a visit to hand it off the Maryann who is always smiling (she said her father is a dentist) as she takes the paperwork to allow me to go into the wardrobe tent.

I walk into the Men's wardrobe tent. It is one of 3 tents that are setup in a parking lot outside the stadium (women's wardrobe, men's wardrobe and makeup/haircutting. In the Men's tent are about a 5 large rows or racks of clothes. Each of the actors/extras has their own # to identify where their clothes are. My place is at the end of the aisle on the right. There is a plastic divider with my name, cast ID#, and a list of wardrobe that has been provided to me by the wardrobe department, a brown coat, a cap, and a scarf.

I exit the Wardrobe tent and then stand in a line of about 20 Men waiting to enter the makeup/haircut tent. People in these departments are walking down the line to see if anyone needs a trim or haircut to keep us in the style of the 1920's. Short on the sides and back of the neck. They also check to see how clean shaven we are since in the 1920's it seems that men shaved very close, so the face is smooth.

A production assistant is playing traffic cop within the tent. On the far wall are about a dozen hairstylists. Some specialize in men, some with women and some with children. The women really have a lot of work done each day to give them the hairstyle of the 1920's. I am signalled to get my haircut. The women who does not cut my hair but styles, combs and puts mousse in it. She has a dollar bill pinned with a saftey pin to her lapel. I ask her what that is for and she tells me it is her birthday. We have a conversation about being on the road and working on a movie production.

I then leave the chair and have to be checked by makeup. They tell me that I need to shave this morning. I sit at a table near the entrance to the tent. It is a giant makeup mirror with 3 or 4 electric razors to choose from and some spray lubricant (that is essentially like shaving cream) so as to not cut up your face. As I sitting there shaving, the makeup artist next to me is applying "blood" to a soldier who is appearing in the movie.

The last step is to apply sunscreen. The sunscreen is a very important part of this process. On Monday, I thought it was just to protect us from the sun. Now I realize it is for a few reasons - to keep us from tanning and there for looking different in each shot (since all week we are shooting the same football game)..It would not be realistic to get a great tan from the 1st quarter to the 4th quarter, although many of us would love that.

i walk down a long road between the stadium and production trailers to the building (in real life called the Grady Cole Center), but for our purposes it is called "Extras Holding". Although it is only 7 am, hundreds of extras and actors have been madeup and fully wardrobed. We walk into the front door of the building and down the stairs to a large room which in real life is a 50 year old gymnasium with a converted basketball court. There are about 30 or 40 long tables with white or blue plastic tableclothes. The white tables are for the extras sit at for lunch and the blue tableclothes are for the crew.

Caterers who have been preparing the breakfast have a buffet set up each morning with Cereal (Raisin Bran, Special K, Cocoa Puffs), danish, and then grits, oatmeal, sausages, hash browns, and scrambled eggs. For drinks there is orange juice, coffee or water.

Looking out among the three hundred or so extras dressed in costumes from police officers, referees, league commisioners, soldiers,cheerleaders, football players, team trainers coaches fans ad press, someone commented that it looked like a soup kitchen from the great depressiion (although the clothes are much too nice).

This room reminded me of my train commutes from Stamford, CT to Grand Central at that time of day. Some people are talking, some are reading their newspaper and some are sleeping. I have a relatively late start time. Some extras have to be there at 4:30 or 5 am to get dressed.

At about 8 am, a production assistant makes an announcment and helps to wake us up a bit. From the large stage at the end of the room he begins to call for various grops of people to assemble by the door leading out of the "extras holding" to the football field. By now most of us have specific groups we are in, Sideline Press or people on the home team side, sideline press for the away team, Fans, trainers, football players, etc.

They call for sideline press and we exit the building and walk about 50 yards to the entrance of the stadium.

They are not just paperclips -

In 1998, a small town in the hills of Tennessee started on a journey to learn about the Holocaust. What they ended up with inspired the world.

On Sunday, April 8th, I was invited to hear a talk at my synagogue with David Smith, the Assistant Principal of the Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee. His talk was about the journey of collecting over 26 millon paperclips to remember the Holocaust. The story was made into an award winning documentary called Paper Clips.

This was an amazing story of a small rural town where a small school project grew into a worldwide campaign to create awareness remember the holocaust.

How did a town where there were no Jewish people, 100 miles from where the Ku Klux Klan was founded, no knowledge of the holocaust, become a worldwide inspiration and experts on the subject. David Smith told our group he attended an education conference in Colorado. One of the things he learned was how to bring a program to educate students on the holocaust back to his town. He understood that being in a poor rural town which is less than 100 miles from where the Ku Klux Clan was founded he would need to include the parents too.

An after school class was given on the holocaust and the parent's of the students needed to attend also. Over time they met and discussed the topic. At one point in the discussion, a student said he could not imagine what six million looked like.
They studied how Norwegian's would put a paperclip on their lapel during WWII to remember the Jewish people they knew who were taken away by the Nazis.

So, the students decided they would collect six million paperclips. Most people including teachers might have discouraged this as "chasing a dream". So they decided to start collecting..Initially they spent time collecting and received around 300,000 paperclips in the first year. They realized it might take them a lifetime to collect 6 million. All of a sudden, a reporter from a major newspaper came to do a story on the school and the story was picked up in Newspaper and press around the country. One day during spring break, the assistant principal, got a call from the post office and told him he better bring a truck to get the mail. There were over 16 cartons of mail from around the world. This continued every day for months. Eventually, the school collect over 26 millon paperclips.

They needed a place to show ro store the paperclips and they sought out an actual "rail car" from Germany. This again was an adventure to optain the rail car and it finally made its way to Whitwell, TN, where today it has become a holocaust museum.
It is now about eight years since the start of the project. The students, who never had a chance to travel or go to college are not asked to fly to various events around the world.

More projects were inspired around the US and around the world and a second documentary movie is in the works on these.

I have told David Smith, that I would help him with some of the technology I work with as part of my eWarrior and to help bring Toastmasters to his school and town.

Leatherheads - Day 4 Fan in the Stands

Arrived on the set at 6:30 for the wardrobe and makeup...yesterday a winter scarf was added to my wardrobe. Every day, I had my hair done and then before I can leave one of the makeup directors checks my face and tells me to "shave closer". There is a table with 3 electric razors. I was told in the 1920's era men shaved close.

Each day I am more impressed with the level of detail that goes into this film to keep it authentic to the 1920's. There is an incredible team of wardrobe people that are on the set each day making sure every single outfit on the extras is authentic an being worn correctly.

One of the things we have to do is "hike up our pants" as men back then had their socks showing and the pants had no breaks in it. The woman on set have the most gorgeous hats...A hat seems to be a very common item for adults and kids in that era.

In the morning we went out to the stadium and sat in the stands as the directors wanted to get audience reaction shots. As one of the production assistants ran up and down the field we practiced our cheers and boos. We also just sat there an looked bored and then restless. I could relate well to this scene as I envisioned being at a Carolina Panthers game (I am a rabid fan..part Panther fan, part NY giant fan)...so I know how o cheer and boo! and act bored.

Across the field another director and team was filming a scene with Renee Zellweger. All I can say is "She has a good set of lungs".

Later we completed that and I ended up in some shots as a sideline reporter again. We then broke for lunch late today.

In the afternoon, we basically stayed in the holding area. We spent time talking, reading playing cards and waiting to go back out. I signed up to continue as an extra for future shoots after Monday in some other cities such as Winston Salem and Statesville.

Also today a photographer came to "digitize" some of the extras. I lined up in front of a screen while having my arms outstreteched slightly. The photrograper too my picture facing directly at him. The turned us to each side adn took a picture. This digitized version of me may end up in the film (although I am cluesless to what level of detail.

I also want to note today that there are definitely interesting people as extras. I met a woman who runs a company related to Monarch Butterflies, a historian and antique collector, a sports anchorman who does voiceovers,. , and we also killed time with some amateur comedy and singing.

Some musicians came to try out for another scene in the movie and one of the extras did a great job singing some 1950's tune while they played.

We had a nice surprise of a relatively early release today as it started to rain late in the day. As we were waiting for our shuttle bus to take us to our cars, George Clooney walked past looking glad to be done with another day of filming. Some young kids from the movie tried to chase him down before he made it to his trailer.


Off to bed -- 11 pm here. ...have to be on set at 6:30 am again. This continues to be an amazing experience.