Thursday April 19, 2012
Booked; thrilled
A year and four days after seeing Atlas Shrugged: Part One when it was released, on its opening day, and predictably since acquiring its DVD when it became available, I was understandably thrilled to learned I'd been booked for the following day on the powerful feature's follow-up film [at the time titled], Atlas Shrugged: Part 2 - The Strike.
I was told by my calling service I'd be playing a homeless person (a night-shoot, considering a 7pm calltime); I was given the call-in number to retrieve the full information (location, et al), which would be ready after about 8pm.
I obtained the information and set up my bus routing...

Friday April 20, 2012
Easy-peasy shoot
In the morning I went up to my storage unit to retrieve some of my "homeless clothing." I ended up leaving a bit earlier, and arrived at the east L.A. location at just after 6pm. 2nd 2nd AD Bill noted my being early, and he suggested I grab some dinner (as dinner had been called, I presume, at 6pm).
I got my voucher and handled that, and at 7pm was approved by wardrobe; my brown flannel shirt under my regular beige vest. We were shuttled back to crew parking where they were setting up for the shot after it was dark enough.
I met and chatted with Barrett Perlman, a fellow fan of vampires and horror and such, as well as the paranormal in general.

(Remember that I do not believe in providing storyline spoilers myself [such generally currently and/or eventually being readily available Elsewhere notwithstanding], in my report/s I only convey indications of where I can be seen.)

For the shot, I was paired up with Tricia Nangkal; she and I were to walk down the wide alleyway, away from the camera, which was already way way back. While not entirely sure of the context of the night scene, the principal was Jason Beghe as Henry Taggart (behind us, as we were walking away from the action), and a black government car passes us. (As Henry Reardon, Jason replaces Grant Bowler who played the role in the first film.)
Tricia was also higher-end: a Floridian transplant, the well-spoken actress is a fellow Doctor Who fan, albeit from the Classic Era/s; she's not viewed the recent Current Era/s yet. To my envy, she's been to Comic-Con each year since moving out to California, though as each year has increased exponentially, she was understandably not thrilled with not able to acquire tickets for 2012. Also very much into pop culture, science fiction, as well as the paranormal and such, I was amazed I'd met two such awesome women on a single shoot.
While Tricia and I were off doing our walk down the back-alley like street (the left side of which we were told would be have a different location green-screened in), Barrett was stationed at a burning barrel, while of the other two backgrounders, one rode a bicycle towards and past Tricia and I, and the other was at the burning barrel with Barrett. Tricia and my suspicions were correct, that the burning barrel effect was done with gases, so easily able to be ignited and extinguished.
After several takes, a tighter shot of the same action for a few takes, we were wrapped at 10pm. Between set-ups between the wide shot and the tighter shot, four of us (Tricia, Barrett and I and the other guy at the barrel), were permitted to sit in the "government car," where we joked around, waiting to be called back to our marks.
Once wrapped, we exchanged contact information; while Tricia had a small sporty car, Barrett and I were still relying on public transit. As we lived not terribly far from each other, we took the same buses, not only keeping each other company but continuing our conversation, and found even more common ground here and there.
Amusingly enough, I thought we'd come to my stop and, on hopping off from the back door, found I'd actually gotten off one stop too early. However, it was still far less of a walk than had I taken the Red Line.

Tuesday July 03, 2012
Release date revealed
Announced from its Facebook page, the release date for the feature is October 12, 2012, also on its official website.

Friday September 07, 2012
Suspicious omissions
The recent edition of The Hollywood Reporter was in my rental box, with a somewhat detailed article on the feature Argo on which I'd worked.
I also realized with my Facebook group I could create Events; reminders of film release and TV episode air dates, so I added Atlas Shrugged II, and Argo both of which being scheduled for the same-day October 12 release (somewhat suspiciously, the Atlas Shrugged II release date was not listed on the October 12 IMDB page...).