On The Set

I am just back from the work I did today as an extra on the film 'Pride'. It was a long day, from 5 am to 7:45 pm, so this E mail will be shorter today. Much of the day involved sitting and waiting, as all extra work does. But it was interesting most of the time. The company seems very efficient and experienced.
For example, all extras were required to park their autos in several lots near the work site, but not close enough to reach by foot. A series of vans picked up extras as they parked and took them to the work site. It is clever because the movie company then has the extra "trapped" at the work site, unable to reach his or her car until work release (when the company again uses the vans to shuttle the extras back to their cars in these parking lots). This prevent anyone from signing n for work, leaving and returning later to receive pay.
The scenes shot today involved swimming competitions, all filmed at a local country club swimming pool. Races were filmed and about 125 extras and 30 swimmers were used in addition to the cast. When we were used for the filming we were called from a holding area (gymnasium) where we waited until needed. I was in several crowd scenes some in which I was around the pool cheering competitors. Whether any of my scenes will be in the film is unknown, but it was just crowd background work, no speaking lines.
The director and crew in this film are organized and efficient, much more so than in the other two films I worked before. They also wasted no ones time on the set, by always using the people there rather than having them loiter about waiting.. When not needed we were told to report back to the holding area. There was plenty of food and drink for the extras and most people read or socialized while in the holding areas.
The "stars" of the film, Bernie Mack, Terrence Hoard and Tom Arnold were cooperative with the director and the others on the set, including the extras. They do not posses the diva tendencies of some I have seen before (Julia Roberts, for one). Anyway, my role is just a blip, if anything. But it was a good experience to see this crew work and to compare them to the previous less organized ones I experienced before.