Matt Damon at the end of a day's shooting.

My school’s been featured in quite a few movie filmings lately, the most recent two being Wall Street 2 (featuring Shia LaBeouf and Michael Douglas) last month and The Adjustment Bureau (Matt Damon) just today. For both, the production agencies offered the opportunity for students to apply as Extras, and mostly because I needed money, I tried my luck at the latter one. Amazingly, I got a reply 2 hours after I sent in my picture.

The extras gathered to cheer on the campaigning senator who Damon plays.

So this morning I haul my ass up after 4 hours of sleep at 5am to meet the call time of 5:45 dressed in more colorful winter finery than I would have chosen for myself naturally. 10 hours later after all parts of me have lost feeling and gone numb, we wrap.

Moral of the day? Dress warmly and understand that Extra-ing is the tedious task of standing around. There’s no glamor to it, even if you are essentially paid as human fodder.