Here is something quite different from my usual posts.

In early January 2017, I sent an email with a picture to a casting agency to appear as an extra in a movie tentatively called “Horse Soldiers.”

If you haven’t heard of the book (Horse Soldiers) or the movie, which is now called 12 Strong, here is a short description from their website:

“12 Strong” is set in the harrowing days following 9/11 when a U.S. Special Forces team, led by their new Captain, Mitch Nelson (Hemsworth), is chosen to be the first U.S. troops sent into Afghanistan for an extremely dangerous mission. There, in the rugged mountains, they must convince Northern Alliance General Dostum (Navid Negahban) to join forces with them to fight their common adversary: the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. In addition to overcoming mutual distrust and a vast cultural divide, the Americans—accustomed to state-of-the-art warfare—must adopt the rudimentary tactics of the Afghan horse soldiers. But despite their uneasy bond, the new allies face overwhelming odds: outnumbered and outgunned by a ruthless enemy that does not take prisoners.

The most epic battle scene for the movie was filmed at White Sands, NM. NM is sort of a film haven, and with its tax incentives, awesome desert backdrops, open space, and qualified people in the film industry, it’s no surprise.

Here is how it went:

After being accepted as an extra, I became a bad guy. The job itself (which was a paid gig) was not that difficult, but it did require up to 16 hours per day, and for me to drive one hour to Alamogordo just so we could get picked up at 5 or 6 am by a bus and take an additional one hour ride to the location. It was an incredibly fun experience, though, but perhaps it was because I did this for just two weeks and only every other day. I can see how this could get repetitive and exhausting.

After arriving every day, you had between 30 minutes and 1 hour to have breakfast in a very well-stocked kitchen tent. This was January and White Sands, so hot coffee was a must.

After breakfast, you would check-in. If it was the first day, you would get measured and receive a brand-new costume in the wardrobe tent. That meant boots, camo or wool loose pants (which we wore over our jeans; it was pretty darn cold), and a long wool coat.

 

Then you would go to makeup. Depending on the stage of the battle being filmed that day and how close you were positioned to the action, you would get dirt, bruises, and blood or potentially be completely “blown up” or “burned.” Makeup also consisted of getting fake dirt between your fingernails, which by mid-morning became real dirt.

Then, you had to go through “aging”. This meant getting your costume torn, burned, and dirtied. Most of the stuff they used for this was some sort of makeup as well. This also meant that after being “aged” you smelled like cherries and face wipes, which I found hilarious when surrounded by huge dudes with badly torn clothes and covered in “dirt” and “filth”. We were the nicest-smelling army there ever was, at least at the start of the day.

Then, you would have to pick up your weapon. If you were close to camera you would get replicas, if you were further away, running, or in between a lot of action you would get rubber weapons. You could also get a rocket launcher, but that meant standing very far up the mountains, which, after the first day, people didn’t really like. Also, people initially loved the replicas because that meant you would probably be featured in at least a backdrop, but carrying the heavy weapons for hours on end made them much less popular after the first day.

On my first day, they ran out of face wipes, so I couldn’t take the makeup off until I got home. We were also not allowed to shave, and if you are wondering about my clean forehead, we had to wear turbans, so we didn’t get any makeup there.

You could also get accessories like a belt with rubber ammo clips or grenades. In a scene where we are all captured and kneeling, we use the ammo clips as cushions for our knees.

Some days, we were meant to be dead, so we would just lie on the ground around the scene. It happened often when we would fall asleep, and someone would start snoring loudly.

On other days, additional gore was needed, which was provided in the form of strawberry syrup. If Nicolai (the director) needed more “brains,” a mushed banana was promptly placed right next to us. Bees loved this, even in January.

At one point, we had to walk up and down a hill all day. I had an exciting day when I had to be lying dead at the rim of a crater right next to Chris Hemsworth for hours, and hours, and hours. It was exciting the first few times, but after a while, I got sleepy, like everyone else. You could see, however, the challenge of putting up a great act between scenes while many people were watching you, with half a dozen cameras on your face. He said hi, we bumped fists, but other than that, to each his own, he was working and so were we, and people were more respectful than you would imagine (of course we were “strongly advised” to be distant and mindful of that too). I saw Michael Shannon while we were there, too.

The best days, though, were when the tanks were moving, all the extras were deployed, we had to run between real explosions, fires that the VFX crew set up across the field, with horses running towards us, and there was yelling, jumping, rolling, shooting, hiding, and fire all around you. It was like playing make-believe. I got personally shot by Chris a few times. Of course, I am not saying war or a real-life scene like this are enjoyable. Quite the opposite. Because this was not real, it was amazing to see and experience, like a theme park ride, where you see it from the safety of your position and role-play. I am sure the final cut will show something tragic and with some gore. This also puts things into perspective and makes it much more unimaginable that things like this happen in real life. It was like being between the front row and backstage at a very elaborate theater production.

I am somewhere in all these scenes from the trailer, not on a horse, and probably indistinguishable, but if someone finds me, let me know!

I realize that some of my friends work on VFX, SFX, audio, on set, or at various stages of production, but for most of us, these places are out of reach, and we find it fascinating. I have always been amazed at how the film industry has evolved and how technology has helped create outstanding productions. So, for those few of us who find this incredible and mostly out of reach, I hope you found my “behind the scenes” post at least a bit entertaining.