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Indy 4 Casting Call Report Posted By Mike on July 5, 2007
Got an e-mail from a friend of TFN and your Weekly Force-Cast, Mitchell H., on his experience at the Indy 4 casting call in New Haven. See below:
"Well, the day I had been waiting for was finally here! Indiana Jones IV?s chase scene in my hometown of New Haven ? and the call for extras would begin at 1:00pm. But knowing the devotion that fans of Spielberg/Lucas/Ford films have shown in the past ? I headed out early and was ready to wait for hours.
Armed with my iPod, magazines (especially this week?s Entertainment Weekly, with my ?Obsessive Fan of the Week? article) I was ready for my chance to be part of the magic of the movies.
I arrived there at the casting call line ? it had a red carpet and was outside the hotel on Crown Street at 8:10 am, and found that I was number 7 in line. There were folks from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and some locals ? but for once I felt good about being 40 ? I was the oldest there. Before 5 minutes passed the door opened, and all of us were taking to a room and filled out our information on forms for something called ?GENURE productions? contact, measurements, and if we had a dog, could play football and would get 50?s style haircut ? I was ecstatic ? especially the fact that I did have a Golden Retriever - named Indiana, of course.
After that it was a quick photo, and a brief meeting with the casting people and that was it.
I was out by 8:40am!
Now, a friend of mine who went down at 1:00 ? the time it was listed at starting said the line was stretching around the block and down the street. There were local news cameras covering it all ? and reporters talking with fans looking to play a part as an extra. Though I had a short wait ? I wish that I did get a chance to speak with other fans ? and turn it into a small gathering of fans of everyone?s favorite archeologist ? but I can?t complain ? the folks there were courteous and totally professional ? and really accommodating so we didn?t have to wait outside for 5 hours until the door opened ? so a word of thanks to them!
Here?s hoping that I get a call saying I have found a way to be part of the background extra ? heck, I even told the folks that since I am currently looking for a new position as a marketing director ? I could be around to tell them where the great local restaurants are ? and where to get the best Pizza in the world ? heck I could even go and get coffee!
It was great because I had time for a toyrun and found those Star wars figs I was looking for - still no new Snowtrooper or McQuarrie Fett - can you help a brother out?!
Shout out to the local 501st they came to my son, Owen's 6th birthday last year and it was great!"
Thanks to Mitchell for the report and we wish him the best of luck.
UPDATE: Friend of TFN, KP, sent us a link to a review of his experience at the casting call on his site, www.thetwocents.com.
UPDATE #2: Friend of TFN John S. sent us in this report:
"I saw that TFN already had a write up on the New Haven casting call from someone who was there from the beginning. Now let me tell you as a person who was there till the end (almost the end).
I got there around 6 PM. The line went across the entire front of the hotel. Just think of it as about the distance from the South entrance at CIV to the West entrance (for those who went, you will appreciate the reference). After about 2-2.5 hours, I finally got to the "door". While on line, everyone was very calm and pleasant. The weather was hot, but it did cool down nicely as the evening progressed. It rained for a short while, but not too bad. Once inside, I went up a flight of stairs and then sat in a large banquet hall. The hall had rows of chairs and once seated, they would call 2 rows at a time. It took about 45 minutes to get called. They had us fill out some paperwork. AS AN ADDED BONUS, I've attached the actual form that they gave us to fill out. Please note the title "GENRE Project". Maybe its like "Blue Harvest". Just when I thought I was finally in, I realized that I had to wait on another line. Another 30 minutes. But I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, literally. It was the flash of digital cameras flashing. There were 2 guys set up with digital cameras. One I'll call "grumpy" and the other was a more friendly guy named Sean (sp?). Luckily I got him. He shook everyone's hands, made small talk and then made some marks on your application, had you hold it up and took your picture. He then said that we would get calls in the next 2 weeks. I asked him if we would all get calls and he said, no, just the ones who get picked. It was about 9:30 when I left. It had started to rain while I was inside. As I walked out, I saw that there were still over 100 people lined up outside. I know the notice said till 9 PM, but I was glad to see that they were still letting people in. By my guess, the last person probably wouldn't be finished until close to 11 PM. I then drove home to Long Island, a mere 2 hours drive. All in it was an 8 hour day. 4 hours of driving and 4.5 hours of waiting...oh yeah and 2 minutes of photographing. Wish me luck. If you see a handsome Asian guy in the scene, Its probably me. I'm not being cocky, I think that I was the only Asian guy there."
Thanks again to John and, as always, we wish him the best of luck. We hope to have the form to view on an update soon.
UPDATE #3: Click on the pic below to check out the Casting Call form filled out by all of the potential extras.
Thanks again to John S. for the effort.
UPDATE #4: Well, Mitchell H. from our first post above did not get to be an extra on Indy 4 after all. All things considered he seems to be taking it pretty well and keeping up his Indy 4 reports on his MySpace page here.
See below for one of his reports...
"Indy IV in New Haven Day 5 - All good things . . .
Like father, like sons.
Today, I asked the boys if they wanted to go to the movies to see "Transformers" or "Ratouille". To my surprise they asked why we weren't going to watch them make movies. I was shocked, as I thought they had written this off as boring but to my surprise today they had more fun than ever. The kids wanted to bring our dog, Indiana, to play downtown. But I figured if I took any pictures and posted them as photos of "Indiana on the New Haven sets", someone at Genre Productions might have a conniption.
All the streets were open, a sign that things were ending. Infact, I had heard the crew was had finished up yesterday and moved to another part of the state. Sadly, the majority of the facades and store fronts on Chapel Street were reverting back from 1957 to 2007, Gone already was the news stand, Bedford Grill, pawn shop and Marshall College pamphlets. The kids climbed into an old phonebooth and were amazed to use a rotary phone (talk about feeling ancient).
Now that I have become, "New Haven Mitch", in the past few weeks, I also have received a great amount of emails and calls from folks telling me about great meetings and autographs with Shia LeBeouf, Steven Spielberg and some other "big" names. I heard yesterday a bearded, gentleman was walking onto College Street and was told that they were filming. The gentleman replied, "That's O.K., I know my way around a movie set." Yes, I am told it was none other than George Lucas, one of Indiana's co-creators, and the director of a few movies himself you may have heard of. To validate this, a few other fans were lucky enough to get a few photos with Mr. "Star Wars" near the catering tent on the Green. Another story that made the papers was Eoldie from Switzerland, who made a quest of meeting Steven Spielberg ? one that she achieved yesterday. It made The New Haven Register, along with a mention of mio fratello, Antoni, from Bologna, Italy who came in to New Haven. He missed Indiana Jones in Venice as a boy back in 1988, but made up for that by watching the filming of Indy IV. Even tonight on the way home, NPR had a piece on Indiana Jones fans coming to New Haven.
The boys had fun playing archeologist as they found tons of tags that said thrift store, with $1.99 and $7.99. We figured the tags might be scraps from extras authentic 1950s clothing. The best was walking across the Old Yale campus, the scene of a lot excitement on Saturday and Monday was back to normal life. Groups of modern day Yale students were enjoying the summer day, totally oblivious of the scraps of the filming that were scattered all around. The kids were playing with "anti-communist" propaganda leftover from the filming. A man walked up to me and said if I knew what that was, I said props leftover from shooting. He replied, they were an "ebay goldmine", to which my youngest looked up and corrected him that it was just trash. We walked over to the statue and the kids soon found scraps of it lying around and used it write some sidewalk graffiti. Ironic isn't it, one day a pricey movie prop the next day sidewalk chalk ? that's Hollywood. The boys started playing a quick game of baseball with students and stumbled across a set that was somewhat of a spoiler. But as this blog is about movie making coming to our neighborhood, we'll just keep it to ourselves and you'll have to see it next May.
Outside Phelps Gate, the vintage cars and buses were still parked. The highlight was the New Britain Bus from the 1950s was open for the curious. The boys and I sat inside the same bus we had jus seen barreling down the street last Friday. And to the delight of the boys, and irritation of the adults, discovered everything worked ? especially the horn! Owen had a blast pretending to drive the bus and now wants to be a stunt driver. We found out the buses were from a museum and the Genre rep there said depending on where I had taken as a kid, I might have ridden on that bus as kid. Gee, did I feel old!
Our friend who was an extra on Saturday came by o his lunch break and was playing with the kids. They asked him about all he had seen during filming but as he didn't want to spoil anything all he said was the film was in color, and quite possibly a "talkie". Again, you'll have to wait until next year. I did point to a car we saw on Saturday and said that must have been the bad guy's car. To which Owen said it couldn't have been because it wasn't painted black!
We walked pass those beautiful wooden doors, now exquisitely painted to look as if they had been there for 100 years rather than just a week ago. The boys posed for a picture at the Marshall College sign nearby. Bravo ? set designers!
We went to grab some pizza at Naples on Wall Street, and got caught in a sea of extras headed down the College Street. It is very surreal to see modern day cars driving by dozens of college students that look like they are going to a pep rally in 1957. We watched them go by, only to see Steven Spielberg climb out a car, wave and blow a kiss to the dozens of fans calling his name and taking his picture. Owen asked who he was and Spencer said he was the man who made "Jurassic Park" and "Goonies" and had billions of dollars. Owen was amazed by that, and said, "Wow, I bet that Spielberg guy can buy a lot of ice cream and video games if he wanted to." We waited with the crowd as the rumor was that Harrison Ford was next to show up, another car but it was crew and make-up people. Who were greeted with instant excitement followed by instant disappointment ? you could hear the groans. We waited a while, but heard that Mr. Ford was already inside filming ? so much for the rumor that they had moved to another part of the state. It was getting late and we changed our mind to grab a quick apizza to go from New Haven's famous Wooster Street Pizza Parlors. You can keep your New Yoork, Chicago and California pizzas ? New Haven is where real pizza is made! Besides it was getting late and we wanted to go home and hit some golf balls and light some fireworks.
That is all for now ? thanks for letters saying, "thanks ? for making me feel like I am there" or "these have been great, and thanks for keeping the secrets under wraps". I had the time off so I figured this a once in a lifetime opportunity, so why not. In return, I thank you for all the emails and reports with so much of them I can stay home this week! I'll put some non-spolier pics up later on."
Thanks to Mitchell and we wish him the best of luck with his coverage.
Rebelscum Breast Cancer Awareness Charity Patch Posted By Philip on November 25, 2014: Thanks to everybody that ordered patches. I sent a check for $1,600.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation on Monday. While it's not as much as I hoped for, it's still very much appreciated. They will remain for sale in the store for anybody that still wishes to purchase them. Details after the jump.
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