I was a patient at GOTHAM GENERAL HOSPITAL
Day 1 as an Extra on RFK/TDK
by Rory_Bat on SHH.com
Friday, 31 August 2007

Alright, here goes the first set report from my stint as a hospital patient extra. Wednesday morning (29 August 2007), I awoke bright and early (4:00am to be exact) and then proceeded to go to the set for my 5:30am call time . We parked in the extras lot and were shuttled to the set. It was pretty impressive to drive in through the gates and see the "hospital" buildings illuminated in the early morning light. The shuttle bus pulled up the to extras holding area (which was a large tent located next to the trailers, etc). We all filed out and then into the tent to receive our voucher and have our name checked off of a list.

After checking in, we moved to the wardrobe tent. We were told to bring pj's, slippers, robe, overnight bag and extra falling clothing. I changed into the robe and pjs and then moved onto the next phase of the tent. A few women from the wardrobe department decided if I looked alright and then gave me some sandals to wear as slippers (since I didn't bring any).

After the wardrobe tent, it was on to hair/make-up and props. Apparently my hair passed the test and I didn't need any makeup so I moved to the props line. There tons of bandages, oxygen masks and other medical apparatus on a few long tables. Everyone got a hospital wrist band.

I waited around to get an additional medical prop (they decided I didn't need one) and then moved back to the extras holding tent to await the trip the set! Eventually, we were told to line up outside (the patients, cops, national guard, etc. were broken up into separate lines) and then we were led to the set itself.

On set, we moved to the main Gotham General Hospital building. As I stood waiting in line for my placement, Chris Nolan, Wally Pfister and Heath Ledger (not yet dressed or in make-up) walked right by, discussing the day's shoot.

I was chosen with four other guys to be brought to the gray Gotham Correctional Bus. We were placed at the back of it and told to move around inside of it. A driver got in and moved the bus across the lot to the ambulance entrance. A few minutes passed, and the back of the bus was opened up, and Chris Nolan, Wally Pfister, the Asst Director, Anthony Michael Hall and another crew member stood there looking inside at us puzzled.

AMHall piped up with "What is this, the gay bus?" All of us laughed pretty hard (I suppose it was comical to see 5 guys dressed in PJs sitting alone at the back end of a bus).

"What are you guys doing in there?" Nolan asked us.

I responded, "Someone told us to get in here and sit down".

"Right, don't move then" he responded. And then they started to map out the shot. It was great because Nolan and Pfister stood right there at the back bus door, inches away from me, setting everything up. It was amazing to watch Nolan work up close (he is my favorite living director and one of my major influences...so I was blown away).

A train roared by and Nolan turned to look at it. "Great, now we have that f***ing train noise in the background" he said, a little annoyed.

They positioned a nurse and a police officer at the back end of the bus to pretend to check us in, etc. The shot involved the camera starting at the front of the bus and follows a police officer as he runs to the back end, stops and yells into his walkie-talkie "Davis?...Davis!!" and then runs off screen. The camera is trained directly into the back end of the bus so hopefully you'll get to see me in the background!

After doing a few takes of this they decided to alter the shot a bit. And then came a shock. Ledger was moving through the crowd of all the extras in full Joker make-up and a pink nurses uniform (complete with hairy legs, weird shoes and those crazy socks) while smoking a cigarette. Everyone was laughing, it was a incredibly hysterical and oddly disturbing sight. He moved right over to Nolan and stood there right in front of me. Nolan was grinning at the sight of Ledger. It was a priceless and ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT sight. I wanted to jump right off the back of the bus and shake Nolan's hand.

Nolan gave Ledger some direction and then Ledger moved off to the next bus where there were a line of nurses and hospital workers. He stood next to the nurses and then hunched down, making a REALLY creepy face as he puffed away on his cigarette.

They did the shot a few more times, this time with AMHall running over to the cop and asking him for info about what was happening (he was holding a GCN mic and a TV camera crew followed him).

Then they moved on to more shots of mass chaos and patients being evacuated from the hospital. They did tons of takes with various different camera set ups (hand held, steady cam and crane). There were also shots done with the camera copter (which was hovering REALLY low over the chaos). After finishing all of these shots (and there were a lot of takes) we were moved back to the extras holding area. We stayed there for several hours. They fed us lunch (pretty good too) and then shortly after that, the hospital building was blown to hell (which I am sure you have all seen by now). **HH Admin Note** See Story Here.


After a few more hours of sitting around we were called back to the set. The wreckage of the building was pretty impressive. There were crew still working to put a few of the fires out and what not. The buses were repositioned (with a CTA bus now changed to a GTA bus with a bit of blue tape...pretty funny). We were told that these were reaction shots to the building blowing up behind us. They wanted mass panic. Pfister got the camera on his shoulder and then they started the shoot. People were running all over the place, yelling and trying to get on buses. It was f***ing great to be running as Pfister and Nolan weaved through the crowd (Nolan with his portable monitor) right next to me. Nolan was shouting "come on, I need more panic . . . a f***ing bomb is about to go off!". As people began to crowd into the buses, the AD moved through everyone, crouched low with a gun. He began to fire off blanks which simulated the blasts from the building. Everyone had to duck down accordingly as they all went off. We did this scene for many takes and then at the last one Nolan yelled "Brilliant!" and we ended that portion.

After finishing, we all grouped together and the AD told us we did a great job. There was a round of applause from everyone and some thanks and then we were moved back to extras holding to begin the wrapping process.

We changed, filled out our pay vouchers and the moved outside. I picked up a few Joker crew t-shirts for myself, my little bro and a couple friends. The Joker crew t's are purple and there is a joker card on the front with green lettering that says "The KNIGHT will be DARK..." and on the back is the logo from the Joker's 18 wheeler complete with "Slaughter is the best medicine" and then underneath that is says "Chicago Summer 2007"). We didn't end up getting out of there until around 7:30pm, so it was a long day but it was AWESOME.

And, that was day one.

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(*edited for grammar, punctuation and clarity by HH Admin.*)