This past weekend, I was booked to work as a dancer in a "flashmob" scene for the new Justin Timberlake & Mila Kunis film, "Friends With Benefits," which was filmed in Grand Central Station.
So, what exactly is a "flashmob," you might be wondering? Well, here's Wikipedia's definition:
"A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse."
I had attended an open call at Central Casting about a month ago, and the casting notice had stated that they were looking for people "who have a sense of rhythm and physicality" for an upcoming Major Motion Picture. Being the go-getter that I am, I went to the audition.
I've attended a lot of auditions, and since I'm not necessarily a "dancer," I went into this actually feeling kinda --- nervous. I had no clue what to expect, but I figured the worst thing that could happen is that they won't cast me for this. But I went, and they took our picture, and then had us go up in groups, they put on music, and we had to show what we had. So basically, this was a dance call, without actual choreography, just show 'em what 'cha got! Of course, I went all out and shook my groove thang like my life depended on it, and didn't care how ridiculous I looked in front of the casting director. Audition complete.
A couple of weeks later, I get a call from Central, and I was booked! YAY ME!!! :-D
The shoot was on Saturday, July 31st, going into the early morning hours of Sunday, August 1st. They had us come in at 1230pm to do all of the paperwork, and then go into rehearsals with the choreographers over at Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central. We learned the moves, and did them over and over and over again, basically NON-STOP for 2 hrs. We only had this little time to rehearse, and we had to film the scene at night, so we really had to get the dance moves down pat (since this was for a Major Motion Picture, after all, so we had to look like pros!).
We later went into another space, and rehearsed again, with the entire group of about 400 or so other dancers, this time with the actual music, instead of just counts. Hearing the music really made it feel easier to have the moves "make sense," but since we weren't going to have the actual music playing during the filming, we had to make sure we had the music in our heads and just be able to rely on the beat.
After 10pm, one group of flashmobbers were brought in to film. Later on, they widened the camera angle, and they brought the second group, which included me. We started filming after midnight (so there were less Grand Central patrons, and we could take up more of the space), and were placed in our spots, and paired up with our "official" dance partners.
I was very lucky in that I had a prime spot where Justin walks past during the scene to Mila. My dance partner and I saw that the director and choreographers were moving people in between the takes, just to get the best shots, and we were both scared that we would mess up and get moved, so we made sure that we gave it our all and really looked great for the camera, including making sure that our moves were crisp and clean. We got to keep on spots, and hopefully, our footage will be seen when the film is released sometime in 2011!
Most of the flashmobbers were wrapped at 4am, but I stayed until 5am to film an additional scene, which was very reminiscent of the little extras they add during the ending credits of films, so there's a possibility you might see me in that!
On that day, I officially worked 16 hrs, which was the longest shoot that I've done so far. It was very tiring, and my body still hurts from all that choreographed dancing, but needless to say, it was A LOT of fun! It was such a thrilling experience to be a part of that shoot, and definitely very rewarding!
The next day, I was able to find some pictures on the internet from the shoot from an online celeb news site called Just Jared, and I found myself in one of the pictures (the one above! Can you find me? Hmmm....? Hint: It's all about the glasses)! Now THAT was cool! Check 'em out here!
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