A Dolphin's Tale

I apologize for not posting yesterday, I guess I am letting down the good people at NaBloPoMo (if there are any people at NaBloPoMo). We didn't get home last night until 10 and after a rough night's sleep, an early morning, a long day, and a long drive I was too tired to string together intelligible sentences. We had a great day yesterday as extras for the movie, "A Dolphin's Tale." Our call time was 6:30 am and with 7 people needing to get ready in a small hotel room we got up at about 5:15. Once we got to the place we were supposed to check in, we waited in line to check in and then went to wardrobe where thankfully our clothes were approved. There were guidelines to follow for choosing what to wear and then you were supposed to bring alternate outfits. Well, we really didn't have much in the way of alternate outfits so I was glad we were approved. Then we went on to hair and makeup. With 400 extras on the set they were not doing everyone's hair and makeup but instead had groups of about 50 stand in a line and then the hair and makeup people walked down the line and pulled people out as needed. Hannah's dream was to have her hair done by one of these ladies so she quickly yanked out the two braids that I had done earlier and made her hair look as bad as possible and so she was picked! She was thrilled, I got pictures of them doing her hair and the final product but I am too lazy to get them on the computer right now. They also did Emily's hair. I had done Grace's hair and the hairdresser loved it--called it a unique style (who knew that the two little half pigtails that I do all the time in Grace's hair were unique?). So, once we passed through these two areas we were then taken by shuttle to the filming location at the aquarium. We never did go into the aquarium, this week's filming is at a carnival outside the aquarium. They had breakfast for us when we got there and we ate while sitting in our holding room. We were probably in there about an hour or so before they took us out. First we were in a bleacher/crowd scene and were placed very carefully. My girls, Emily, and I ended up on the front row of the third set of bleachers--who knows if we will be able to find ourselves in the movie...Anyway, they gave us props--I got a burger, the girls got popcorn and they gave Grace a big cup of RED koolaid. I spent the next two to three hours reminding her not to spill her drink. In fact, as soon as they called "background" each time we were all supposed to be settling ourselves into the bleachers and just chatting amongst ourselves so each time I took a moment to remind her of her drink and not to spill it. It will be funny if that is the part that ends up in the movie. We listened to speeches, cheered when appropriate, and watched and cheered for a fake swim race and pretended to get really excited about a dolphin that we couldn't see doing jumps and flips. This went on for about two hours I think. Mostly waiting while they set up shots. We did get to see Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, and Harry Connick, Jr. Also, the boy that was in Marley and Me was there, he is the main character. They were all in the scenes we were shooting yesterday. After about two hours or so of this, we got a break and could wonder the "carnival", potty, and have snacks. The snack tent was pretty exciting--they had different snacks there all day--fruit, burgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, candy, and it kept changing. Always new stuff being put out. A movie set is not the place to diet. After a long break we were finally called in for lunch--back at the restaurant/holding area where we had breakfast. Lunch turned into a long break as well but in the holding area we at least had lots of things to do. I had brought lots of activities in our backpacks. They took some people out and then later came back for just about 50 more people, thanks to Amy asking we got to get into that group and do more filming. More cheering and clapping mostly. We were scheduled for a ten hour day but the filming ran long because I guess Morgan Freeman had to leave that day so they had to get in all of his shots. We didn't mind, we were having fun and being paid by the hour. By the time we finished filming and rode the trolley back, and waited for a long time to be checked out, we had worked a 12 hour day. Then, we got to hop in the car and drive 2 and a half hours home. It was a great day and such an awesome experience! We go back tonight and spend the night and then do the filming again tomorrow and then we are done. I probably should have just had us do all three days but to be honest, I am glad for a day at home in between to just chillax.