… for a split second. But it still counts! LOL!
I was a paid extra in the big new F1 film, Brad Pitt’s biggest film to date. I took time off my day job at NASA and I worked 3 full 12-hour-long days on the film. I took part in filming during the Rolex24 race at the Daytona Speedway on January 25th, 27th, and 28th of 2024. I played the part of a racetrack photographer or journalist and I was placed into several scenes. Only one shot of me made it into the film though. And I can only be seen for a split second in the final cut.
I show up in the first 3 minutes of the movie when Brad Pitt is awoken in his van and then he walks from his van to the racetrack. This walking scene is at 6 minutes 27 seconds in the following “Making of F1 The Movie” featurette:
Brad is walking away from the camera and I am passing by and walking towards the camera. You can see me at the beginning of the walking scene with me passing by on Brad Pitt’s left side and exiting out of frame-left. It’s only a split second and it’s a very dark scene, so it’s not very easy to tell that it’s even me. Oh well. I know it’s me and that’s what counts!
Here’s a screen grab from the featurette:
Here’s a photo from Day 1. They gave us all these cool looking “Film Crew” passes. Very nice.
The parking pass was also pretty cool. I left it on my car for more than a full year!
The background extras all checked in and hung out in a big tent that was set up in the infield of the Daytona Speedway. Remember that the Rolex24 event was taking place all around us and was being used as part of the backdrop of the film. It was a little crazy. About half of this tent was also used by the wardrobe department.
Once we were escorted to set, which was a bit of a walk from the extras/wardrobe tent, we hung out in a holding area till the set was ready for filming. The holding area was victory lane. There was no relief from the sun and it was quite hot in the holding area. Lucky for me, my racetrack photographer wardrobe included a floppy hat and sunglasses:
The only scene I was put into on my first day of work was the garage scene where Javier/Ruben comes into the garage with the winners trophy and talks to Brad/Sonny. I was in the crowd outside the garage and you cannot see me in the film because I ended up behind the wall separating two garages. Oh well.
Video Village was right there in the corner of our holding area, which was pretty cool to see. Video Village is the dedicated area with video monitors where the director and other crew members watch live camera feeds and make decisions about the shot. Actors sometimes come to Video Village after a scene is filmed to get a sneak peek at their performance.
The only scene I was put into on my second day of work was the Brad Pitt walking scene from his van to the race track. It was filmed at around 10pm at night and it involved a lot of extras crossing in different directions and at different distances in order to show the activity during an active Rolex24 race.
I was lucky enough to have been placed near the beginning of the scene and I was directed to pass right by Brad towards the camera that was following him in the scene. It was a fairly narrow walking path and I passed close enough to bump into him, although I was very careful to avoid that.
The scene started right here with Brad exiting his van:
I snuck a selfie with the van set at the end of the day as we were walking back to the extras tent. We weren’t supposed to take photos, but I’m pretty sure that was to avoid spoilers on social media. There’s nothing to spoil now that he movie is out, so I suspect these photos are okay to post now.
My third day of work was quite boring because I was not put into any scenes at all that day. I think many of the extras were in the same boat that day. I guess the film crew had us come in just in case but then ended up not needing many of us after all. Oh well.
The whole experience of being an extra in the film wasn’t easy. It was a lot of sitting around and waiting, but that’s pretty typical in the business. There was also a lot of time spent waiting in the sun with very little shade/water/snacks. That part wasn’t very fun. But we got through it.
As a highly technical person, I really enjoy watching the crew set up and work. I also made a great new friend, Jerry, during my time there. And I ended up making it into that walking scene at he beginning of the film. And in case you were wondering, this is not a volunteer thing … they paid us real money for the gig.
So overall it was a good experience for me I will keep my eyes out for another opportunity to take part in another cool TV or film project near me. It can be a fun diversion from the daily NASA Engineer grind. LOL
Kurt
