LOCALS GIVE HANKS FILM EXTRA EFFORT PLAIN FOLKS GET TIME AS BACKGROUND COLOR.Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer PALMDALE - Robert Herrera's big scene in ``The Terminal'' occurs when he asks Tom Hanks Noun 1. Tom Hanks - United States film actor (born in 1956) Hanks, Thomas J. Hanks ``Are you OK?'' Later, he sings in Yugoslavian with Hanks and a crowd of extras in an airport terminal bar. ``If you have a love for it, it's like being in heaven,'' declared Herrera, who, on one day, spent two hours walking up the same flight of stairs Noun 1. flight of stairs - a stairway (set of steps) between one floor or landing and the next flight of steps, flight staircase, stairway - a way of access (upward and downward) consisting of a set of steps (22 times to be exact) so it could be filmed from a variety of angles. ``It's always been a dream of mine to work on a Steven Spielberg Noun 1. Steven Spielberg - United States filmmaker (born in 1947) Spielberg film.'' One of thousands of film hopefuls who lined up in September at Lancaster City Park to apply for work as extras, Herrera, 48, of Lancaster is no stranger to the film industry. He studied filmmaking at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. ; has spent 25 years writing, producing and directing his own short films; appeared as an extra in Clint Eastwood's ``Every Which Way But Loose''; and was Matt Dillon's stand-in in his first movie. Last year, he was production assistant on ``Bikini Planet'' and ``Evil on the Bayou'' and co-produced a trilogy called ``Tales From the Grave,'' which was released to video. Herrera is waiting to hear whether an episode script he co-wrote will be used next season for the NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. drama series ``American Dreams.'' His opinion of Spielberg as a director? ``Steven Spielberg is extra-terrestrial,'' said Herrera, who portrayed a United Airlines ramp service operator and was also a passenger on a plane. ``He's not of this planet. He's magical.'' Shooting began Oct. 21 in Palmdale in a re-creation of a full-size airport terminal, constructed inside an Air Force Plant 42 hangar once used to assemble B-1B bombers. The Palmdale filming ended last week. A DreamWorks Picture starring Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci, the film follows the story of Hanks' character, a visitor to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of from Eastern Europe Eastern Europe The countries of eastern Europe, especially those that were allied with the USSR in the Warsaw Pact, which was established in 1955 and dissolved in 1991. whose homeland erupts in a coup while he is in the air en route to America. For Herrera, a typical day began at 5 a.m. with breakfast and frequently didn't end until 7 p.m. As many as 600 extras were working at any given time. ``It's supposed to be an airport terminal, so there's always constant movement, constant movement with people who have to go up a stairway, go here, stand over here, go this way, go that way, cut, that kind of stuff,'' said Herrera, who also has been a drug and alcohol counselor and right now works at the Palmdale Playhouse. ``It's a very unique experience. Some days there's a lot of standing around; other days you're in the same spot for a period of four hours.'' Palmdale resident Tara McVeigh - whose mother, Frances Rini, and 8- year-old daughter Carina Carina (kərē`nə) [Lat.,=the keel], southern constellation, representing the keel of the ancient constellation Argo Navis, or Ship of the Argonauts. Carina contains Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky. were also extras - was filmed eating fajitas fajitas Noun, pl a Mexican dish of soft tortillas wrapped around fried strips of meat or vegetables [Mexican Spanish] at the terminal food court, sitting at a table next to Hanks. In another scene, she's inside a Borders bookstore when Hanks' character sees Cher - in a cameo role - and runs out to talk to her. On two other days, she was among extras watching Hanks play an indoor soccer
``I've done extra work before but not in this situation where there's so many people,'' said McVeigh, who has appeared in ``Starship Troopers'' and ``Crash Course.'' Extras were not allowed to talk to the stars or the director, unless they were spoken to first, McVeigh said. Other people were thrown off the set for trying to show the director scripts and speaking to the actors. On her two days, she got there at 5:30 a.m. and waited in a long line outside the hangar as the extras were checked with a metal detector to make sure they weren't smuggling smuggling, illegal transport across state or national boundaries of goods or persons liable to customs or to prohibition. Smuggling has been carried on in nearly all nations and has occasionally been adopted as an instrument of national policy, as by Great Britain in cell phones or cameras. The extras got an allowance if the wardrobe department didn't have to outfit them with clothes and luggage. Then they ate and waited in a large room to be called for scenes. The extras had to change clothes to reflect the seasons changing during Hanks' character's stay in the terminal. ``Whoever changes the fastest gets to go up there first and they work with what they have,'' she said. Spielberg was always present at the set, but he never spoke to her, McVeigh said. ``There's like a whole bunch of assistants, telling you what to do. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. actually how the word comes out from Spielberg,'' she said. ``I really liked the fact that Tom Hanks was nice and was always cracking jokes and upbeat ... friendly with everyone. He was talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to everybody just because he's a really nice guy. And I like that because I hate to find out that someone that I admire is so full of themselves that they end up being a jerk. So I was happy to find out that he wasn't.'' Her daughter enjoyed being an extra as well, McVeigh said. ``One time, the scene was of them playing on the jungle gym, so how fun is that?'' she said. ``Carina had a blast. She was asking, 'Can I please come back? I want to come back every day.''' Peggy Hager, (661) 267-5741 peggy.grimm-hager(at)dailynews.com |
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