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Date Posted: 03:16:28 04/08/00 Sat
Author: detoured
Subject: My experience working on The X-Files


OMG guys!!!!!!!!!!!

This is too much! I am flying so high right now! I just got back from working all day long on an X-Files shoot!

I'm gonna be in a freakin' X-Files episode!!!!!! Wooo Hooo! Woo Hooo!
Wooo Hooo!

At least I hope I am and there's a darn good chance! This experience was fantastic!

The call was put out for XF fans to appear as extras in the episode, Fight Club. It's partly about wrestling (I won't spoil the plot) which I am not a fan of but I never imagined how fun it would turn out to be, DD and GA were NOT there as was orignally reported. There was talk that GA might show up later but she didn't. But, you know, everyone had so much fun it didn't matter that much!
The X-Files crew was sooooo nice! We were all treated like royalty. The only glitch was a little confusion in the beginning. I met up with G-Woman Wannabee (G-WW) who many of you should know from the boards, and after we parked in the designated parking structure the next thing we knew we were getting into a strange van and being driven away! I told G-WW later it was kind of like an XF ep where Mulder gets carted away when he gets too close to the truth! When we arrived and went where we thought we were supposed to go we got kind of funny and rude looks from people when we found out we were at the place where the paid extras were supposed to check in. I think it was the casting company and not the XF people who were a little miffed! Anyway I don't think we were sipposed to get that free van ride!

We lined up in the right place and quickly met a couple other fans, Carol and Celeste, and wounded up hanging with them the rest of the day.

From the start, our royalty treatment was non stop! We were given free food constantly but it was free from the X-Files so we took advantage! Parking was free too. All day we were treated like very special guests. There was also a couple really nice production asistants who took care of us, a really nice woman and a funny guy who insisted his named was Elmer J. Fudd (it wasn't) so we called him Elmer all day. He was really cute and funny!
There was also a comedy MC who normally works with audiences for the show Fraiser and he was funny although he didn't know a whole lot about XF. They read XF trivia questions for prizes. Dumb me blanked and couldn't think of the name of the book Scully was reading in WOTC, Breakfast at Tiffany's, so I just stood there and finally l had to say "pass". I wonder if my being on less tha 4 hours sleep had anything to do with it. Btw, Breakfast at Tiffany's is the same question DD missed on Jeopardy!
Later I did correctly get the name Arcadia Falls so I got an XF tshirt. They were trying to make it so everyone got either a tshirt or a photo but they ran a little short. The also raffled off some big prizes like disc players, boom boxes, a palm pilot, a tv etc. I didn't win anything. All this was done inbetween the times were were needed for scenes.

The BEST part was being a part of the filming and we were a LOT more involved than I thought we'd be! We actually had to WORK all day on the episode! Now I have a bit of a taste of how DD and GA feel working all those long hours. The shoot started at 6am but we went in at 11am and were there until 11pm. So the XF crew's day was even longer. We'd waited outside a few more hours first so it was about equal time with an XF shooting day so we got a good sense of what they go throug all the time.

The shoot was being directed by Barry Gordon who is the First Assistant Director. We had to take most of our direction from him including following the intsructions we got when he said "Background Action!" and stopping of course when he yelled "Cut!" Ah! it was so fun! We also had to be really quiet at times and the director would go,"sssssss" when he wanted silence. He sounded like a tire with a leak! LOL But we really did work a lot all day so it was extremely satisfying just knowing we were helping to create an XF ep! Wow!

Mainly we had to do a lot of cheering and yelling and being very enthusiastic while watching a wrestling match. For some of it we were watching the two main guys in the ep played by Tex Cobb and Ron Van Dam (the Van Daminator). They are real wrestlers. Some of us also go to wave signs. I had one and my sign said "Death Angel is a Saint". So if you see that sign when you watch the ep, even if you can't see me, just know I'm the one holding it! But there is a pretty good chance the whole crowd will get on camera. We did quite a bit of filming. Onr part that took many takes was that we had to pantomime cheer. Cheering silently while the actors, who included Kathy Griffen, did a dialog scene. The director thought we were all doing a great job cheering. For one take though they said they were filming a tight closeup on the actors so Carol and I got a bit lazy in our cheering because it was tiring after all those takes. We figured we wouldn't be on camera for that, but right after that take the director said the bacground people weren't very good on that on and he said, "I won't name any namrs but you know who you are," ;-) So we both did better on the next take and the director was pleased. Sure, he was just talking to the whole crowd but Carol amd I are comvinced the director watched us on the playback monitor and he was referring directly to us in both instances! Right? Ha Ha!

It also it was kind of funny for those takes because we had to pretend to yell and sceam without making a sound! During that scene we are watching a pre wresting match between two women. All the wrestlers had to do a lot of takes for camera angles so they worked really hard.The two men wrestlers came up to visit us. Ron Van Dam signed autograpghs and posed for pics. As I said, I'm not a wrestling fan but they were really nice to the crowd. It was fun to root for them in our "acting roles" even though I'm not sure how wrestling fans are suposed to act! I rooted for Van Dam mostly in those scenes and booed the other guy because of the sign I got. Van Dam plays the Death Angel which was written on my sign.
Then there were some other scenes that we had to take some direction for and look in particular areas where we were told to look and react. One of the most fun things was that all of the crowd had to get in a simulated fight with each other! So we did several takes where we pretended to beat each other up! We got shuffled around to different parts of the auditorium so that different scenes could be covered with "background artists" (our official title!) and at one point I was next to this little boy who was about 10 years old. He was so cute! He and his older brother had come to see Van Dam and this liitle kid started chatting to me about wresling and being a Van Dam fan! He wasn't shy at all! He told me he really wanted Van Dam's autograph and didn't get it. If you watch the episode and they happen to include a shot with a mad woman beating up on a little boy that would be me and him! He had fun too.

Later when Van Dam came to visit again I saw the kid near him hanging back hoping to get to Van Dam. I told him to get over there before Van Dam left and finally hew and his brother got to meet their idol and take his picture so I was really happy for him. Another guy who was a Van Dam fan was practically in tears when he got to meet him!

The whole day was just a blast! We saw Brett Bell who is one of DD's stand ins and really good looking! And near the end of the night our director came up to visit with us. I shook his hand and said "nice to meet you" and told him what a great day it had been.

Now for more news! We shoot again on Monday and DD and GA WILL be there all day long! If any of you are even thinking about going, then go!!!! Let me know if you are. I wish you all could have been there too.
The last shot of the night is called The Martini shot. They needed more of us in a different area so we go to walk right on the main set where the wrestling ring is and cross back up to the other side of the stands. The floor seats were taken by the paid extras while we were higher up so it was fun to finally get onto the floor! The same place Mulder and Scully will be on Monday! :-)
What a great day and now I can say I was on The X-Files and worked on the show! I can't quite describe how wonderful that feels! Maybe my voice will just be part of the crowd noise or if I'm on camera at all, maybe it will be oh so brief. But I was there and am a part of The Files! Yay!

Detoured

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