Train Music Video 7/14/2010

Had a VERY exciting day this week on Wednesday July 14th...And no I did not get married... lol

I am a fan of Train, the band, on Facebook and received a post that they were looking for 50 extras to be in a Train music video, shooting in San Francisco on a Wednesday. I had 5 days of vacation so I though, what the heck! What an experience this could be. I requested the time off and invited my friend Mick, from the meetup group, to go with me.

We're looking for some awesome people to be a part of our newest video that shoots Wednesday. We'll be filming it in (yup, you guessed it) San Francisco!Here are the deets: Shoot Date/Location – Wednesday July 14th in San FranciscoNeeded – 50 Fans in full wedding attireWe look forward to hanging out with all of you on Wednesday!- Pat, Jimmy and Scott

So we drive to Treasure Island, and go to the Chapel as instructed. We check in and sign our wavers and write our name with a big sharpie on a piece of paper. They take a picture of us jail style with the paper in front of our faces. Interesting up to this point. We take a seat and wait for about an hour. There is little activity except for people showing up. There must have been about 50 women, and 4 men. Mick and I just people watch and sit around waiting for something to happen.

Jimmy and Scott come out and mingle with the crowd and take some pictures and sign some autographs. I just sit around at this point because I am pretty bored just waiting. So about 1pm the directors come in and out about a dozen times. Not sure what is going on at this point. Finally all of the directors and back stage people come out and start lighting the scene, but they don’t tell us much of what is going on. We sit and wait.

Now they finally seem ready. They thank us for coming and tell us about the day. We are at a wedding and we are in the audience. They rearrange us and put Mick and I in the front row. Now Nicole is freaking out because I don’t want to be in the front row! Yes I came to a music video, but I thought they were going to have us hang out and be in the crowd in the background. Nope…Crap. So they move me to the side of Mick cause I don’t think I am old enough to look like a mother. So now I become the daughter and they put some stranger next to Mick to play the mom. It works out well because I don’t want to be in that role, and Mick seems to get along with her really well.

They start filing the left side and they are actually, like directing!! One of the directors was standing at the front of the stage while the photography director was shooting their close ups. First he tells them to pretend like they are watching a wedding and are happy to be here and are enjoying the scene. Then all of a sudden we have to whip our heads around and pretend that someone was breaking into the church to interrupt the wedding. That took quite a few takes and maybe about 45 minutes of shooting. I don’t think I made it the film, but that is actually ok with me. I was only thinking that the back of my head would be filmed.

During this time they bring in the one paid actress they have hired. She is this like this 5’11” girl who has this pretty little face. You can tell she is a model or actress and she is sitting right behind us. She starts talking and tells our group the story of the music video because we are a little curious. So this is a wedding where Pat (lead singer) busts into the wedding because his ex-girlfriend is getting married. What we don’t know, is that his ex is getting married to a woman, so it’s a full on lesbian wedding. Haha- fun times.

After that they bring Pat Monahan and the room goes a little quiet because we are all looking in his direction. He goes up to the balcony upstairs and they start filming his role. He is running in and screaming “Elaine” at the entire church. (See this is when we would be turning around wondering who this crazy guy is interrupting this wedding.) The best part is when he is filming they make him do it in slow motion. So he runs up and you can see his arms rise up slowing and he screams in slow motion “E-L-A-I-N-E.” The entire crowd laughs because it’s a funny moment.

After this they start filming the wedding part. They bring in both the bride and the groom. Both woman. They are about to film the part where they kiss and the wedding is over. They are having Pat run into the wedding at the same moment they kiss and we all have to jump up and follow the bride and groom out of the church. So now that we are in the front row, you may see my ass in the video. Not exactly what I was thinking I was there for.

Then Pat says he is about to leave so we all get in line to chat with him, take pictures and get an autograph. We are pretty close to the front, so we get a picture right away. First I take a picture with him, then Mick jumps in and we get a group picture. Fun times. He seems pretty nice and starts to make small talk about the beautiful weather that day. And he was sure right! The view from Treasure Island of the City is just amazing. It’s a clear day and it’s a bit windy.

We sit around for a few more hours and towards the end of the day they ask us all to go outside like we are just arriving at the wedding, but first we walk out of the church pretending that the wedding just ended. We throw up white rose petals and walk off screen. Then we go out on the grass and mingle with people we don’t really know and we are asked to slowly file into the chapel like we are showing up to the wedding. Maybe I’ll be in that part, but again, it’s my butt. What the hell is this! =)

At this point it’s about the end of the day so we say goodbye and leave the chapel to go to the local bar and grill to miss the traffic going home. Decent food from a hole in a wall.

So I get a autograph from Pat, get to act in a music video, dress up on a day off of work, and watch some filming of a music video. What a day! Awesome experience. After our day is over I look it over a bit and discover that they charge about $175 for a meet and greet of the band, so we basically got that for free!