Once upon a time…. there was an extra. And this extra was in a film, in which he could not be clearly seen on first viewing. On second viewing, however, and with careful attention paid, he was seen, and those eight days of discomfort (albeit very well-paid and exciting discomfort) had all been worth it. For a two second shot of the back of his head as he watched a giant hand-shaped dragon trying in vain to make James Franco look good, while generically shaking on a not-very-well-made set built to resemble a coliseum and cheering like the savage he had pain-stakingly spent three hours that morning to become (both in looks and mood), yep, it was worth it all right.

 I am of course refering to recent Hollywood spoof, ‘Your Highness‘, which you can find a review of on the daddy site. I was an extra in this film, the first major Hollywood production to be filmed entirely in Northern Ireland. The Giant’s Causeway makes an appearance. The Northern Irish accent makes an appearance. Even someone you know may make an appearance if you’re willing to look hard enough (a lot of extras were needed for this movie). I got to see James Franco studying for an English exam on set, Natalie Portman looking pretty (and getting ever-so-slightly frustrated at taking twenty takes to put a large stick in the ground) and even enjoyed banter with Ben Wright as he spent upwards of two full days impaled on a spike for the sake of continuity.

All good fun, but also a year and a half ago. It’s easy to see where that extra time went. It’s called modern movie-making, where what you end up seeing on screen consists more of things applied in post-production than what they actually shot. Time it took to shoot all the scenes in this flick? Four months. Eighteen months after that’s finished, the film finally comes out. No doubt most of that time was taken up superficially polishing Franco’s face with a supercomputer.

Anyway….

Have you spotted the references in my two previous posts to that once hit American T.V. show Lost? That’s because I’ve been building up to the review of season 6 for a while, and it has finally touched down on planet oneofthem1s! A tough review for what was a tough end to a tough show. I will give you a *SPOILER WARNING* now because…well, you’ll see why. Enjoy the outflowing of negativity that I pour out all over its dead carcass.

I suppose this is the point where I should update you about my life or something. But the truth is, there’s just not that much happening in Belfast right now, apart from the fact that it’s Easter and all, and that fact alone means one thing: bank holidays. Not helpful when you’re desperately trying to get a letter from the Student Loans Company to prove to those unbelievers who refuse to take your word for the fact that you’re not officially recieving a student loan any more. You would think the fact that I don’t have any money due to not recieving it would be a little bit of a hint in that department, but hey, I understand. It’s perfectly feasible that I could be conning a loan out of the SLC, pretending to still be a student, all the while I’m sitting at home with my feet up in….WAIT A MINUTE, I’M IN BELFAST AND HAVEN’T ATTENDED A LECTURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH FOR OVER TWO MONTHS, OF COURSE IT’S NOT POSSIBLE.

FACTITY FACT FACT.

The end.

Published by oneofthem1s

Initials E.G., surname Stevenson. Freelance writing is my thing at the minute but am not opposed to getting my hands dirty in other ways. As well as film and games, I'll occasionally write about other topics I consider important or particularly interesting. Stick around if you like my thoughts and think I'm at least half-capable of expressing them.