The Lethbridge Herald

Sunday A, Sunday, June 6, 2004, p. a3

Lights, camera. . .wait

Boschman, Caroline

Herald reporter finds out what it’s like to be an extra in a big-budget film

FORT MACLEOD - The babies probably had the longest night of anyone. Snatched time and again from their slumber and thrust into the arms of a stranger, the curlyhaired cherubs immediately squalled amid bright lights and a fracas erupting around them.

But, really, they were just too young to appreciate the arms holding them belonged to Heath Ledger.

Not so for 13-year-old Amberly Plourde from Fort Macleod, who managed to snag a hug and a quick autograph from the star during a five-minute break from the evening’s shooting of Brokeback Mountain at West Winds baseball stadium.

When asked what she planned to do with the autograph she replied, “Laminate it.”

Shooting for the movie has been the talk of the town, transformed into Riverton, Wyoming, for the past week.

The modern-day Western stars Ledger (A Knight’s Tale), Michelle Williams (Dawson’s Creek), Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko) and Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries). Of the four, only Ledger and Williams were involved in Friday night’s filming set against the backdrop of a July Fourth celebration. Earlier media reports called Brokeback Mountain a gay-themed film with an old fashioned love story characterized by the internal struggles that come with great feeling and social prohibition.

Director Ang Lee (The Hulk and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) calmly oversaw the work that extended until daybreak.

Extras, about 200 of them, assembled at the curling rink at 5:30 p.m. Friday to go through the wardrobe department. Plenty of blue jeans, western shirts and cowboy hats and boots for the men. Some women had their tresses backcombed and beehived and donned dresses with kneelength gathered skirts and oversized collars and a matching sweater. Others wore cowgirl garb.

Herb McKelvey, from Magrath, patiently waited his turn, already an experienced extra by virtue of having appeared in a bar room scene shot Wednesday.

“Two other ladies and I were at one table. There was another fella from our group and I think he sat with a professional actor of some sort. A nice-looking young lady was a bar maid,” McKelvey said. “We had to mime - they made us move our lips without talking.”

One of the ladies at the table suggested they pretend they were reciting the alphabet, a trick that seemed to work for the group.

“They wanted us to just act naturally. It’s kind of like being a pressure-treated fence post in the background,” McKelvey said.

In the scene, as he described it, a good-looking lady stands at a jukebox while Ledger sits at a table drinking by himself. She encourages him to come on to the dance floor.

“Ang Lee was right there. He was really nice about it and (the actors) were having fun, too,” he said.

Michael Kochorek put in a day’s work at the small production company he works for in Calgary before heading to Fort Macleod to put in an “extra” shift. The company produces and finances documentaries with a budget under $3 million.

“I’m like anyone else. I’m fascinated with the production process,” Kochorek said. “I’m an Ang Lee fan. I’ve seen almost all of his films.”

He expects the film may turn the “uber masculine” cowboy image on its side and provide a tragic and compelling story from the screenplay by Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) and Diana Ossana.

“The themes are universal,” Kochorek said. “It’s much bigger than just being a cowboy genre and much bigger than being a gay love story. I think the film extends beyond that.”

After being transformed into what will look like the closeknit folks of Riverton, a process that took about two hours, the extras were bused to the stadium where drinks and watermelon awaited. Extras visited, read books or magazines, or took advantage of the warm, calm evening to wait for lunch. Lunch turned out to be a full-course meal with several entrees, vegetables, salads and dessert served cafeteria style.

Then it was time to get props and assemble on the set. Extras were placed in groups and scattered about the field while the brass band, consisting of Lloyd Pollock on drums, Casey Smith on trumpet, Peter Orr on trombone, Ken “Town Crier” Hart on saxophone and Darrell Croft on tuba, played the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Directors instructed extras to mill about, wave their flags and light sparklers. Then came the words that would prove to be a mantra for the night - standby, rolling, background action, cut and the ever-popular “we’re goin’ again.”

After about five takes the extras are regrouped, some going to the infield while others take to the bleachers behind home plate. Cue the crying babies. While Ledger and Williams, with two children, sit on a blanket enjoying the evening’s festivities, two loud, inebriated bikers walk onto the scene and sit behind the couple. As they carouse, Ledger’s character eventually has enough of their coarseness, stands up and confronts them. A fight ensues with the bikers keeling over from the well-placed heel of Ledger’s boot.

The scene was shot several times with various lighting effects and camera angles. Extras chatted in groups, youngsters ran through the crowd and smaller children conked out in their mother’s arms.

Worried about approach of daylight, a couple of five minute breaks are called in the middle of the night. Extras pile out to grab a cup of coffee and use the washroom. By then, it’s around 2:30 a.m. and there’s the fireworks scene still to come.

Extras are called back and re-arranged on the other side of the diamond. The fight scene occurs as the fireworks begin and extras, like this reporter, are instructed to watch the fireworks until the fight becomes loud enough to distract and then retreat as the confrontation escalates. And, for anyone who might wonder, yes, Ledger is just as goodlooking and Williams just as beautiful as they appear on screen.

Things wrap up by about 5 a.m. and the weary, bleary-eyed gaggle makes its way to the gate to wait for a bus ride back to the curling rink to return clothes to the wardrobe department.

Despite the long night, spirits are high and Ang Lee waves goodbye to all.

Category: News
Uniform subject(s): Cinema
Length: Long, 867 words

© 2004 The Lethbridge Herald. All rights reserved. [Reprinted with permission.]

Doc. : news 20040606 LH 005062004_1
_1Brokeback_1Moun

***

www.FindingBrokeback.com