MileyIsAnAngel
09-25-2008, 07:22 PM
I may have forgotten some of the things that happened those days in the beginning of June. I typed up ALL that I can remember. Please feel free to ask any questions you have! It may trigger my memory on some things I forgot to add! ENJOY!
WEDNESDAY:
So now I started my early wake up call. I had to be at the parking lot of the shuttles at 6am. It's about a 45 minute drive from my house..which meant I got up at 4:15am to leave at 5. Anyways they wanted us (the first time paid extras) to bring 3 outfits for them to choose from. We go into the high school, fill out our payment information, get our armbands (to seperate us from the unpaid extras..and to mark the minors too), and gave us 4 tickets to use on set (hot dog, snack, ice cream, carnival prize). We loaded up into the school bus and was driving about 15 down the street, through woods, and past a very guarded gate (which paparazzi were at, btw). The older ones were shuttled there first. The minors were to get there at 8, 9, or 10 according to the group they were in. So the 16+ (all the way up to age 70..thats the oldest i've met so far) are at the set. The set, I believe, is really a day camp. They brought in the carnival rides and games to be in the field. So we're all in a "mess hall" eating breakfast, drinking coffee, ect, waiting to go to set. The wait was about 1.5 hours.
There were about 200 people there at the time (including minors parents) and we're set up at the stage. I'm literally in the 1st/2nd row (people move lol) and just feet away from Miley. She comes out of her bus, The Hannah Montana bus is there, and onto the stage and she tells everyone hello..and specifically talks to some people (those who have been on set a long time). Miley and her backup dancers are wearing suits and skirts..like a business theme (i'm not going to explain why because i know the plot of the movie). We're told that this in the final scene after the climax (its a GOOD one). Okay, let me set the stage for you. It's summer time in Tennessee. In an open field ontop of that. By this time, it's around 10am and it's already flipping HOT. No wind. Cicadas are flying around. Horrible conditions for a movie to be filmed. I'm gonna start off with the male dancers. They are in suits. Full blown suits. Purple button up shirt, thick black jacket and pants, and tie. After the second take, they are DRENCHED in sweat. Now the female backup dancers are wearing grey skirts, green sleeveless tops, and a grey coat. They are sweating a lot too. And Miley was wearing grey pants, green shirt, and a tiny tiny vest.
They're dancing to a new song called "Find Your Way Back Home" (GREAT song..btw. insanely catchy). This scene was the first part of three parts of the finale. Now they are not the only ones suffering. There's about 50-75 people huddled around the stage. Shoulder to shoulder. And it's about 92 degrees, no clouds, and high humidity. They were giving us water every 20 minutes. And trust me, we finished our bottle every 20 minutes. I drank 7 bottles in the first 1.5 hours of filming.
Miley and her backup dancers and 2 choreographers are HILARIOUS and entertaing inbetween takes. They're just dancing in mini-battles and doing little goofy inside joke dances..teaching us soulja boy and other dances. They kept doing some random rap. We didn't understand a lot of those but they were hilarious to watch nonetheless.
So the first 1.5 hours, they keep doing takes of that one part over and over and over again. About 15 times. And it's only the first verse and chorus and i think the second verse too. So after getting that filmed, they call lunch. And it's around noon. So the extras are brought back to the messhall and we're fed the Loveless Cafe (very famous restaurant here in Nashville) and it was amazing. Roast beef, chicken, pasta, deserts. I wasn't expecting all of that. I thought we were just going to get a hotdog haha. Anyways lunch lasts 2 hours for us because Miley is filming right next to the messhall while we eat and then she had to eat lunch.
So lunch has ended and it's around 2. We're taking back to the set and brought back to the same places around the stage. This time, Miley and her dancers are wearing cowboy outfits. Miley's long sleeve shirt is green with a little bit of blue and pink. And her skirt has ruffles underneath so it poofs out..and the puffy stuff is purple and the layer of cloth ontop is pink and white plad. The other dancers are wearing either purple, brown, or blue shirts. The boys are wearing jeans and the girls are wearing skirts. Anyways it's now the second part of the three part finale song. At the end of the first part (in the business attire), they run through a door in the middle of the stage, and they come out on the left side door (magically changing clothes in the meantime! haha). Except for this part, they bring in 1500 UNPAID extras to fill in the back. So they start the song from the point they left off..everyone's cheering..they re-do it 204230 times. Takes about 2 hours. We're all sweating like crazy since it's in the 90s, high humidity, and we're all packed together. It gets almost too much and a few of the younger kids (who don't understand the importance of drinking a crapload of water) have to be pulled out. We have no shade whatsoever to give us just a minute of relief (unless we run under the trees off to the side and then quickly make our way back to our spots before they film again. The PAs are sending up water every 20 minutes still..even more up front since we're the closest together and the closest to the stage that is radiating heat.
Anyways inbetween breaks, Miley is sitting on a some straw cube thingys and is talking to the extras. A young boy says that he has a crush on her and she was like "how old are you?" and he replied "13." and she gave a funny look and laughed like 'yeah right too young'. It was funny. Then the guy behind me was like "I'm older!" and she looked over and asked how old he was and he said "23". She smiled and laughed and said "Gotta ask me dad about that later". Then they do a few more takes. Miley and her backup dancers are doing more dances inbetween takes and just joking around, having fun. Then it's the third part of the scene. They pick up from the part of the song they stopped at. Miley and the dancers load into the back of a pickup truck and they slowly drive through the crowd while dancing on the truck. And that truck was BOUNCING from all the movement. Miley and the dancers kept slipping and falling. They do that take a few times..and then they bring in the helicopter to do ariel shots. Finally at 5, the minors on the set must leave (can't work longer than 8 hours and the minors were there at 9) and go back to the shuttles. And Miley must leave too since she's over her limit (and the head Disney guy was pushing her to get off the stage). She says thank you for staying out in the heat..she knows its hot but appreciates our help.
So now a lot of the people are gone (the 1500 unpaid and more than half of the paid left) and they bring out Billy Ray, Vanessa Williams, Jason Earles (Jackson), Emily Osment (Lilly), Margo (playing the grandmother) and some guy we have NO idea who he is, to film the reaction scenes. But I'm not going to tell what we're reacting to. So there's about 30 of us brought from under the shade tree to crowd around the actors. The front from left to right consists of Lilly, Margo, and Jackson. And the back consists of the unknown guy, Vanessa, and Billy Ray. I'm off to the side of Lilly. Billy Ray was INCREDIBLY sweet. He loved talking to us and even asking us questions. I told Vanessa that Wilhemena (her character on Ugly Betty) is the baddest b**** on tv and she was like "who said that?" and I said "me" and she gave me a high fist. A few people around me starting to talk to Lilly, but she wasn't as friendly as the others. And Jackson wasn't as talkative as Billy Ray, but more than Lilly. Jackson is SMALL. He's short, he has the baby teeth, and it looks like he's lost weight. His hair is shorter and a little darker (but still with blonde streaks). He actually looked cute. Except for the fact he's in his 30s lol. Anyways we shoot a few reaction shots and the actors leave. They switch up the positions of the extras and the cameras to film another shot of more reactions..this time it's of the girl from "The Office" (Jane? she plays steve's girlfriend in the office) and a black couple that I have no idea who they are supposed to be. I'm near the black couple. We shoot more scenes. It's getting late..coming up on 7:30. They call it a wrap since the light is fading behind the trees and the rest of us clock out and are shuttled back to our cars.
THURSDAY: (aka. talk to Miley Cyrus for 5 hours day lol)
Okay so Thursday was just like the other day..woke up at 4..left at 5..drove 45 minutes to get there at 6..shuttled to the site. This time, Eric (LOVED him..he was the main PA) told us that we were going to be the only ones on set today. No more unpaid extras. We were happy because we kept having to pick them out of the roped out area. They kept trying to get into the area we were filming in. So we eat breakfast, drink coffee, ect. They call us up to set fairely early. It's about 8:20. So they tell us to go back to the spots we were for all of the other concert shots. So I go back to being right up onstage. By this time, we're basically family there haha. We've been seeing each other for hours at a time. Sweating togehter. Sharing food together. Sharing sunscreen together. So Miley comes out and stands on the little part of the stage that goes out into the crowd (literally RIGHT infront of me. just 5 feet away from me). The director and choreographer come up and talk to her about the dancing and other stuff (not going to tell http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif) and then they start to film. So "Rockstar" begins (which is the very first song she performs at the concert) and we're supposed to go apesh*t lol. She dances with 2 guys at the beginning..then the 2 other guys a few times later..and the 4 girls right before the chorus. Then at the chorus, she does her own thing. Then the director cuts. Like always, we do this scecne OVER and OVER and OVER again.
And it's only around 9:30ish by now and we're DYING from the heat. The little boy infront of me passes out and we gotta move out to let the medics in. For some reason, even after someone passed out, the water people were slacking on their jobs. We were so thirsty up front. Only the back was getting water. So inbetween takes, we kept yelling "WATER!" and after a few times, Miley sees that they still aren't giving us any. So she says she won't start filming again until the people upfront gets water. She even gives this TINY girl (like 3 years old. i dont know why she was there) her own waterbottle since it may take a few moments for them to pass water up. FINALLY we get some relieft. And from that moment on, they were fairly quick to give us water. So they also take the time to go through the crowd to spray us down with water and give us sunscreen. Again, it's only 9:30ish at this time. It's still morning and we're dying.
***So inbetween takes, Miley was talking to us and answering questions. At first, only the little kids were asking questions. And she answered all of them. And she even asked some of them questions. But then the older ones started asking questions. So about 2 hours into shootings/breaks, I asked her about the M&M Cru vs ACDC dance battles. She was so excited about that. She said "Oh my gosh, isn't that so random? We watched their video calling us out and we knew we were going to respond. So I was able to bring in Channing Tatum and make our video. Then..I'll admit it..ACDC BLEW us out of water with their latest video *laughs*. Their video was tight." so then I asked "Are you going to respond?" and she said "We already filmed it. And it's coming out July-...wait, what is this month?" and I said "June" and she said "It's coming out June 12th..I think. Or maybe the 10th. But it's coming out next week". So then I asked her "Did you bring in more celebrities?". She just smiled and said "You'll have to wait and see. But we're going to step it up more than they did.". And then we just started to talk about dancing in general..she loves to dance for fun because she's horrible at it haha. She says she's clumsy. About that time, the director called 'rolling' and she had to get in place to sing again. So our conversation ended. But during all the other takes, Miley played games with us (there's only about 30 or 40 of us around the stage at this point). Miley started to play 'Opposites' with this 30ish year old black woman for like 10 minutes. They were both in the ZONE..spitting answers back and forth with each other haha. I can't play that game. It's when you come up with 2 things that you like and don't like, but you gotta have one to have the other. Does that make sense? An example would be "I like summer, but I hate the sun" or "I love authority, but I hate the police". And I mean, those 2 were getitng into some deep opposites haha. It was fun to listen to though. Then she started to play a game called 'Snaps". And I LOVE that game. She was playing with her drummer and Chase, her HOT backup dancer. Only 4 people in the crowd knew how to play, and I was one of them. So she told me to send the message of "Orlando Bloom" to the drummer. So I did:
"Snaps is the game of the game, and the name of the game is snaps."
SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP
"Ready?"
"Listen to me."
SNAP
"Never give up."
"Do you hear me?"
SNAP
"Be careful"
"Listen"
And by then, he cut me off and said "Orlando Bloom". People were amazed. I didn't know SO many people didn't know how to play Snaps!! It's such a fun game! So then the 3 other people did it for the drummer (after some more takes). They did, I believe, "Taylor Swift", "American Idol", and "Michael Jackson". Then Miley played with the drummer. She did "Goonies". And then I asked her to send one to me. So she did..
"Snaps is not the name of the game, and the name of the game is not snaps"
"Be careful."
SNAP
"Can you hear me?"
"Keep listening"
SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP
"Pretty hot, isn't it?"
"Don't miss it."
SNAP
"Now listen to me."
"Can you still hear me?"
And that's when I cut her off and said "Chase". I love that game..so much fun. So now it's time for lunch. It's about 2pm now, and we've been there since 8:30am. The exact same spot. And Miley and her dancers stayed onstage the whole time too.
So lunch is meatloaf or chicken, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, steamed vegetables, and deserts. This time, lunch in only about 30-45 minutes long. They call us all back to set. And as we walk up the hill, we see that they pust those dang handing white screens above the stage. Yes, the same ones that broke Tuesday and crashed into the ferris wheel. But these do look more stable. But still. Anyways, the director explains to us that while they were filming early of us looking up at her while she's talking, we were squinting. We're looking right up into the sun, so that's why they put those screens up so we won't squint. So they do the exact same thing they did that morning basically. Now, there's one big New Jersey family there..15 cousins. And they're mostly boys and around the ages of 16-24. They were SO annoying on Wednesday, and apparently even more on Thursday. Inbetween takes, everyone is talking quietly to each other, but then we hear Miley say "alright, now I feel a little uncomfortable". I assume they're saying the exact same things they were saying on Wednesday. "Miley, you're smoking hot.", "Miley, can I take you out on a date?", "Are you wearing that green bra today?", "Show a little more leg, Miley. (when she adjusts her skirt)", ect. I mean..they were annoying me. A few more breaks later, secrurity comes onto the stage and says into their area "One more, and you're out of here.". Of course, they don't stop and they are thrown out. EVERYONE starts to clap. I was so glad not to be near them that day because they honestly were loud and obnoxious. So security escorts them offset and shooting continues. More singing and talking, more games, ect. She talked about her shoes (which were converse with colorful sparkles all over them) and the 23 year old guy behind me (same one from earlier) said "did you use a bedazzler?" and she laughed and asked "how do you even know that word?" and he jokingly said "because i own one". she also talked about Leslie in the See You Again song. A girl in the audience was pretty sure she knew Leslie. And Miley asked if the girl she thought was Leslie went to CPA and she said "yes" and Miley said that was her. She says she still sees Leslie every now and then, but not that often. Then even more people were asking her if they knew someone else and she was surprised at all the people they knew that knew her. It was interesting to hear.
So they start shooting another new song called "The Climb". It's a ballad. BEAUTIFUL ballad. And she sung it live every single take. Now, I never thought Miley had the greatest voice..still good though. But she BLEW me away during that ballad. So powerful. They brought in a high school band to play the violins and stuff..like an orchestra. Such a beautiful song. But I don't think I'm going to post the lyrics for this song. Just believe me that it's a great song.
So now it's 5pm and the minors and Miley have to leave. She tells us thank you again, she enjoyed talking to us, and she'll see everyone tomorrow morning. Again, half of the extras are gone and we begin shooting the scenes with her real god-cousin (SO CUTE!) and the actor paparazzi. I'm right in the middle of this scene and I was pumped. Apparently, Oswald (the pap), follows her throughout the movie and he's at the concert scene. Something happens (i'm not giving the details) RIGHT beside me. Literally..the pap was right beside me haha. And that scene ends. And before they wrap for the day, they bring in Miley's god-cousin. Miley's standin, Jessica, mimics Miley signing an autograph just to have more angles. Now Jessica looks EXACTLY like Miley/Hannah. No joke. We couldn't tell who was who until we got closer to them. Jessica is a few inches shorter than Miley and not as tiny, but still a very small girl. We talk to Jessica inbetween takes and we find out that she's 19 years old and goes to MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University). Jessica is so nice. Such a sweet girl. She's always smiling and hanging out with us when they weren't filming. And Jessica wears the same blonde wig like Miley, but her real hair color is the same as Miley's, brown with some light highlights. Again, looks just like Miley even with the wig off.
Anyways, they call wrap. It's around 7:30pm. They sign our pay stubs and shuttle us back to the high school.
FRIDAY:
We get to set and I see the dancers hanging out in the extras holding area (just arriving for makeup and hair) so I went up to talk to them. They were all really sweet and fun. I even got to dance with Chase, the hott one! I took pictures with each on my cellphone. Once most of the extras arrive, Eric, the main PA guy that EVERYONE knows, reminds everyone that this is most people's last day and that we're like a family now. Which we really were. I mean, we're on set 14 hours a day for 3 days straight (some up to 5 days) and naturally everyone is pretty close. So we walk up to the set and they tell us that Miley's not feeling too well (heat got to her..exhaustion) and that they were going to change up some things. So we started off filming even more scenes of the truck driving through the crowd (again, to make it look like a lot of people are there). This was the WORST part of the 3 days there. It was around 9:30am and it was the hottest and most humid day there. No wind. And we're all packed together, jumping up and down, screaming and waving as the truck drives through. The main characters (billy ray, vanessa, jason, emily, lucas, ect) are placed in the crowd and the camera will focus in on them as it flies by them with the truck in the foreground and the crowd in the background. Jason and the random guy we don't know are paired together. Billy Ray and The Office girl are together. I believe Vanessa Williams, Lilly, and Lucas Till are by themselves..but I'm not sure. I couldn't see. Anyways before the actors/actresses were placed in the crowd and they started filming, we were standing there for about 30-45 minutes..already baking. So they begin filming and good god they did it OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again. They only recorded for about 10 seconds everytime. And the dancers were falling out. There were 6 at the beginning, but 2 overheated and had to leave..so they had to re-do the choreography so that it won't look weird. So they do this scene for about 1.5-2 hours and we were dying. After 7 extras passed out (not counting those who voluntarly left to go under the tree), they called us to go to the shade under the trees.
So about that time, they take us to go get lunch. So we walk that long, hot walk to the holding area, stand in line about 10 minutes, and Eric tells us that they need us back on set now (aka. the food wasn't ready). So we walk back to set and they put us under the trees again. A little while later, they call us back to the same places to film the same truck scene again. After about 20 minutes of standing there without filming, they call lunch break again. So we all head to lunch..and it was horrible. They only had bugers and hotdogs. The burgers were either undercooked or burnt. The lunch lasts about 30 minutes and we're called back to set. It was around 1ish when they start to film again. This time, they put the 2 massive lighting shade about us (smart) so that it will provide us some relief from the blazing heat. Billy Ray and the Office girl are put into place and are told to walk through the crowd and to the stage while we cheer and clap along to the song. Billy Ray again was extremely social. He was very nice. So anyways I'm in the back on the edge and I see Eric carrying a little girl in his arms. She's passed out and he's running to the medical/cooling tent. Just the next take, the boy a few rows infront of me started to wobble. The adults around him ask him if he's okay. It took him everything he had to say "help" before he collapsed. When they get him out, Newman (another PA) orders a mass handout of water immediately to all of us. They were passing us water, but not enough. So about 5 takes later, 2 30ish year old women feel faint and are escorted to the medical tent. It was getting too dangerous and they send us to the trees again. Literally 5 minutes later, they then order us to walk all the way through the field to the holding area. I don't really understand why because we actaully had a good breeze (FINALLY!) under those massive trees. Anyways we're sitting at the tables playing cards, talking, ect while we wait about an hour.
Around 3:45, we're called back to set and those who felt okay were ordered to fill in the area on the FAR side of the stage..because they were filming a scene backstage and wanted some crowd in the background (but somehow, we don't see whats going on lol). So we're standing there about 20 minutes, no shots have been filmed yet, and they order us back under the tree. By then, we're pretty mad. We're hot. We're tired. And they're very disorganized. The minors are told to go home. So really only the 18+ people are left.
We sit under the tree and the black Escalade pulls up and Miley gets out. They tell us they're going to film without us in the background and that we need to just stay cool in the shade. Now, keep in mind that when they're filming, we all have to be DEAD silent. So we're just staring at each other while they film. After about 30 minutes, I get up and walk over to see what they're filming. And it was the kissing scene between Miley and Lucas. Then an hour goes by..and they're still doing the kissing scene. About that time, they call break so they can change the lighting and angle of the kiss. Miley is told to sit in the shade (since she's not feeling too well) and she sits near us. Security ropes off the small area of people around us so no one else will be around her. But since there weren't any little kids around, no one tried. So Miley is sitting around us and there were mostly 20-30 year old women, a few older men, and a few teenage boys. And we all start to talk to her and have more meaningful conversations with her (not "whats your favorite color" questions lol). So she talks about growing up. She talks about her school work..how she had exams soon and she needed to study for them. She talks about her faith..she goes to church every Sunday with her family. She's a very religious person. And she was asked about working at such a young age and she said she usually works over the maximum hours allowed. But she loves what she does. She was asked about the Vanity Fair thing and she said that despite what you heard, her parents weren't there for that picture. They took her little sister, Noah, home. She said that she was nieve and made a mistake. She never meant for the picture to cause such a scene that it did. She said that she apologized and can't really do anything else but keep going. Then someone asked her if it really bothered her. Miley said that it did bother us..and she usually has thick skin about that stuff. She said she was mostly bothered by the comments about the picture of her mom and dad. She admitted that she thought about taking a break because she was just so stressed out. But her friends, family, and faith helped her through all the controversy. She said that she forgot for a moment that she loves her job and loves to make people happy, and she could never let anything stop her from doing that. They talked about a few other things like driving, her 5 siblings, ect. It was extremely interesting. She's very intelligent for a 15 year old. She quoted Jimi Hendrix 'You have to get over the love of power and enjoy the power of love in order to know peace.' and said that she loves that quote.
So anyways, about that time, they call Miley back to set to finish the kissing scene. Security is TIGHT there. They want to make sure that no one takes pictures. All week, they don't allow it and people are kicked out for taking pictures. But they stepped up security this time. I guess the picture would be worth a lot. Anyways it's ANOTHER hour before they're done. That's two hours of kissing and two hours of silence from the extras haha. I was so bored. I try to go get food (since my burger was burnt), but the carnies were mean! I heard they were, but up until that day, I never tried to get food from them. Anyways I go up there to get food and they were like "we're all out". I look down and see the bags of unpopped popcorn on the ground. I was like "What about those? I'm hungry" and they said "No". Just "no". So I go back to my seat and the people around me offer me food..like I said, we were family there! haha. So Miley's done with her scene and leaves the set. There were about 35 people around the ropes near her car and she signs about 25 of them before she is dragged by security away and to her car. She apologized for not being able to finish sign everything. She says "God Bless guys and thank you so much for coming this week. I know it's been very hott. Travel safe". She gets into the car and leaves. I didn't get an autograph because I was toward the back. I didn't think she was going to sign because they said she wasn't supposed to..by the order of security. So there's only about 7 of us by the rope now. And Lucas walks by. I yell "LUCAS! I LOVE YOU!" and he smiles and walks over. He signs everyone's papers and I just went for it. I asked "can i get a picture?". He looks over at security and says "I would love to, but its up to him.". So I smile at the security guard and he calls someone on his walkie. Lucas and me are talking in the meantime..he's very sweet. I ask him how old he is and he says "I'm 17. And I'll turn 18 in 2 months". I tell him that he has gorgous eyes and he just laughs and says "thank you!". We talked about a few other things too. But anyways..so by that time, the security guard says they will allow pictures but only if the background is the trees and not the set. So Lucas takes a picture with me! He is so sweet and such a gentleman. He called older man and women "ma'am" and "sir". Very nice young man. And he's hot. Very hot lol. I looked for more pictures of him online and they do not give him justice. He's grown up a lot from the picture's I've seen. He said he played young Jack Cash (i think) in "Walk The Line".
Anyways, Vanessa Williams and Jessica (Miley's standin) film a scene while the rest of the extras are dismissed. We sign out, say goodbye to everyone. I get a picture and a hug with the awesome PA Eric. And we leave.
Even though I was sweating like crazy and fighting off dehydration, I REALLY enjoyed the past 3 days. Everyone was extremely nice and friends..the extras and celebrities. I made great friends and memories. Miley and Billy Ray are extremely nice and personable. I was a big fan before this week, and I'm even more now. She's fun and has a big personality that just makes people smile. But she can also be professional when needed. She was chill and very intelligent when she was talking to us on the last day..no one was nervous around her because she made it like you were talking to a best friend.
WEDNESDAY:
So now I started my early wake up call. I had to be at the parking lot of the shuttles at 6am. It's about a 45 minute drive from my house..which meant I got up at 4:15am to leave at 5. Anyways they wanted us (the first time paid extras) to bring 3 outfits for them to choose from. We go into the high school, fill out our payment information, get our armbands (to seperate us from the unpaid extras..and to mark the minors too), and gave us 4 tickets to use on set (hot dog, snack, ice cream, carnival prize). We loaded up into the school bus and was driving about 15 down the street, through woods, and past a very guarded gate (which paparazzi were at, btw). The older ones were shuttled there first. The minors were to get there at 8, 9, or 10 according to the group they were in. So the 16+ (all the way up to age 70..thats the oldest i've met so far) are at the set. The set, I believe, is really a day camp. They brought in the carnival rides and games to be in the field. So we're all in a "mess hall" eating breakfast, drinking coffee, ect, waiting to go to set. The wait was about 1.5 hours.
There were about 200 people there at the time (including minors parents) and we're set up at the stage. I'm literally in the 1st/2nd row (people move lol) and just feet away from Miley. She comes out of her bus, The Hannah Montana bus is there, and onto the stage and she tells everyone hello..and specifically talks to some people (those who have been on set a long time). Miley and her backup dancers are wearing suits and skirts..like a business theme (i'm not going to explain why because i know the plot of the movie). We're told that this in the final scene after the climax (its a GOOD one). Okay, let me set the stage for you. It's summer time in Tennessee. In an open field ontop of that. By this time, it's around 10am and it's already flipping HOT. No wind. Cicadas are flying around. Horrible conditions for a movie to be filmed. I'm gonna start off with the male dancers. They are in suits. Full blown suits. Purple button up shirt, thick black jacket and pants, and tie. After the second take, they are DRENCHED in sweat. Now the female backup dancers are wearing grey skirts, green sleeveless tops, and a grey coat. They are sweating a lot too. And Miley was wearing grey pants, green shirt, and a tiny tiny vest.
They're dancing to a new song called "Find Your Way Back Home" (GREAT song..btw. insanely catchy). This scene was the first part of three parts of the finale. Now they are not the only ones suffering. There's about 50-75 people huddled around the stage. Shoulder to shoulder. And it's about 92 degrees, no clouds, and high humidity. They were giving us water every 20 minutes. And trust me, we finished our bottle every 20 minutes. I drank 7 bottles in the first 1.5 hours of filming.
Miley and her backup dancers and 2 choreographers are HILARIOUS and entertaing inbetween takes. They're just dancing in mini-battles and doing little goofy inside joke dances..teaching us soulja boy and other dances. They kept doing some random rap. We didn't understand a lot of those but they were hilarious to watch nonetheless.
So the first 1.5 hours, they keep doing takes of that one part over and over and over again. About 15 times. And it's only the first verse and chorus and i think the second verse too. So after getting that filmed, they call lunch. And it's around noon. So the extras are brought back to the messhall and we're fed the Loveless Cafe (very famous restaurant here in Nashville) and it was amazing. Roast beef, chicken, pasta, deserts. I wasn't expecting all of that. I thought we were just going to get a hotdog haha. Anyways lunch lasts 2 hours for us because Miley is filming right next to the messhall while we eat and then she had to eat lunch.
So lunch has ended and it's around 2. We're taking back to the set and brought back to the same places around the stage. This time, Miley and her dancers are wearing cowboy outfits. Miley's long sleeve shirt is green with a little bit of blue and pink. And her skirt has ruffles underneath so it poofs out..and the puffy stuff is purple and the layer of cloth ontop is pink and white plad. The other dancers are wearing either purple, brown, or blue shirts. The boys are wearing jeans and the girls are wearing skirts. Anyways it's now the second part of the three part finale song. At the end of the first part (in the business attire), they run through a door in the middle of the stage, and they come out on the left side door (magically changing clothes in the meantime! haha). Except for this part, they bring in 1500 UNPAID extras to fill in the back. So they start the song from the point they left off..everyone's cheering..they re-do it 204230 times. Takes about 2 hours. We're all sweating like crazy since it's in the 90s, high humidity, and we're all packed together. It gets almost too much and a few of the younger kids (who don't understand the importance of drinking a crapload of water) have to be pulled out. We have no shade whatsoever to give us just a minute of relief (unless we run under the trees off to the side and then quickly make our way back to our spots before they film again. The PAs are sending up water every 20 minutes still..even more up front since we're the closest together and the closest to the stage that is radiating heat.
Anyways inbetween breaks, Miley is sitting on a some straw cube thingys and is talking to the extras. A young boy says that he has a crush on her and she was like "how old are you?" and he replied "13." and she gave a funny look and laughed like 'yeah right too young'. It was funny. Then the guy behind me was like "I'm older!" and she looked over and asked how old he was and he said "23". She smiled and laughed and said "Gotta ask me dad about that later". Then they do a few more takes. Miley and her backup dancers are doing more dances inbetween takes and just joking around, having fun. Then it's the third part of the scene. They pick up from the part of the song they stopped at. Miley and the dancers load into the back of a pickup truck and they slowly drive through the crowd while dancing on the truck. And that truck was BOUNCING from all the movement. Miley and the dancers kept slipping and falling. They do that take a few times..and then they bring in the helicopter to do ariel shots. Finally at 5, the minors on the set must leave (can't work longer than 8 hours and the minors were there at 9) and go back to the shuttles. And Miley must leave too since she's over her limit (and the head Disney guy was pushing her to get off the stage). She says thank you for staying out in the heat..she knows its hot but appreciates our help.
So now a lot of the people are gone (the 1500 unpaid and more than half of the paid left) and they bring out Billy Ray, Vanessa Williams, Jason Earles (Jackson), Emily Osment (Lilly), Margo (playing the grandmother) and some guy we have NO idea who he is, to film the reaction scenes. But I'm not going to tell what we're reacting to. So there's about 30 of us brought from under the shade tree to crowd around the actors. The front from left to right consists of Lilly, Margo, and Jackson. And the back consists of the unknown guy, Vanessa, and Billy Ray. I'm off to the side of Lilly. Billy Ray was INCREDIBLY sweet. He loved talking to us and even asking us questions. I told Vanessa that Wilhemena (her character on Ugly Betty) is the baddest b**** on tv and she was like "who said that?" and I said "me" and she gave me a high fist. A few people around me starting to talk to Lilly, but she wasn't as friendly as the others. And Jackson wasn't as talkative as Billy Ray, but more than Lilly. Jackson is SMALL. He's short, he has the baby teeth, and it looks like he's lost weight. His hair is shorter and a little darker (but still with blonde streaks). He actually looked cute. Except for the fact he's in his 30s lol. Anyways we shoot a few reaction shots and the actors leave. They switch up the positions of the extras and the cameras to film another shot of more reactions..this time it's of the girl from "The Office" (Jane? she plays steve's girlfriend in the office) and a black couple that I have no idea who they are supposed to be. I'm near the black couple. We shoot more scenes. It's getting late..coming up on 7:30. They call it a wrap since the light is fading behind the trees and the rest of us clock out and are shuttled back to our cars.
THURSDAY: (aka. talk to Miley Cyrus for 5 hours day lol)
Okay so Thursday was just like the other day..woke up at 4..left at 5..drove 45 minutes to get there at 6..shuttled to the site. This time, Eric (LOVED him..he was the main PA) told us that we were going to be the only ones on set today. No more unpaid extras. We were happy because we kept having to pick them out of the roped out area. They kept trying to get into the area we were filming in. So we eat breakfast, drink coffee, ect. They call us up to set fairely early. It's about 8:20. So they tell us to go back to the spots we were for all of the other concert shots. So I go back to being right up onstage. By this time, we're basically family there haha. We've been seeing each other for hours at a time. Sweating togehter. Sharing food together. Sharing sunscreen together. So Miley comes out and stands on the little part of the stage that goes out into the crowd (literally RIGHT infront of me. just 5 feet away from me). The director and choreographer come up and talk to her about the dancing and other stuff (not going to tell http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif) and then they start to film. So "Rockstar" begins (which is the very first song she performs at the concert) and we're supposed to go apesh*t lol. She dances with 2 guys at the beginning..then the 2 other guys a few times later..and the 4 girls right before the chorus. Then at the chorus, she does her own thing. Then the director cuts. Like always, we do this scecne OVER and OVER and OVER again.
And it's only around 9:30ish by now and we're DYING from the heat. The little boy infront of me passes out and we gotta move out to let the medics in. For some reason, even after someone passed out, the water people were slacking on their jobs. We were so thirsty up front. Only the back was getting water. So inbetween takes, we kept yelling "WATER!" and after a few times, Miley sees that they still aren't giving us any. So she says she won't start filming again until the people upfront gets water. She even gives this TINY girl (like 3 years old. i dont know why she was there) her own waterbottle since it may take a few moments for them to pass water up. FINALLY we get some relieft. And from that moment on, they were fairly quick to give us water. So they also take the time to go through the crowd to spray us down with water and give us sunscreen. Again, it's only 9:30ish at this time. It's still morning and we're dying.
***So inbetween takes, Miley was talking to us and answering questions. At first, only the little kids were asking questions. And she answered all of them. And she even asked some of them questions. But then the older ones started asking questions. So about 2 hours into shootings/breaks, I asked her about the M&M Cru vs ACDC dance battles. She was so excited about that. She said "Oh my gosh, isn't that so random? We watched their video calling us out and we knew we were going to respond. So I was able to bring in Channing Tatum and make our video. Then..I'll admit it..ACDC BLEW us out of water with their latest video *laughs*. Their video was tight." so then I asked "Are you going to respond?" and she said "We already filmed it. And it's coming out July-...wait, what is this month?" and I said "June" and she said "It's coming out June 12th..I think. Or maybe the 10th. But it's coming out next week". So then I asked her "Did you bring in more celebrities?". She just smiled and said "You'll have to wait and see. But we're going to step it up more than they did.". And then we just started to talk about dancing in general..she loves to dance for fun because she's horrible at it haha. She says she's clumsy. About that time, the director called 'rolling' and she had to get in place to sing again. So our conversation ended. But during all the other takes, Miley played games with us (there's only about 30 or 40 of us around the stage at this point). Miley started to play 'Opposites' with this 30ish year old black woman for like 10 minutes. They were both in the ZONE..spitting answers back and forth with each other haha. I can't play that game. It's when you come up with 2 things that you like and don't like, but you gotta have one to have the other. Does that make sense? An example would be "I like summer, but I hate the sun" or "I love authority, but I hate the police". And I mean, those 2 were getitng into some deep opposites haha. It was fun to listen to though. Then she started to play a game called 'Snaps". And I LOVE that game. She was playing with her drummer and Chase, her HOT backup dancer. Only 4 people in the crowd knew how to play, and I was one of them. So she told me to send the message of "Orlando Bloom" to the drummer. So I did:
"Snaps is the game of the game, and the name of the game is snaps."
SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP
"Ready?"
"Listen to me."
SNAP
"Never give up."
"Do you hear me?"
SNAP
"Be careful"
"Listen"
And by then, he cut me off and said "Orlando Bloom". People were amazed. I didn't know SO many people didn't know how to play Snaps!! It's such a fun game! So then the 3 other people did it for the drummer (after some more takes). They did, I believe, "Taylor Swift", "American Idol", and "Michael Jackson". Then Miley played with the drummer. She did "Goonies". And then I asked her to send one to me. So she did..
"Snaps is not the name of the game, and the name of the game is not snaps"
"Be careful."
SNAP
"Can you hear me?"
"Keep listening"
SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP SNAP
"Pretty hot, isn't it?"
"Don't miss it."
SNAP
"Now listen to me."
"Can you still hear me?"
And that's when I cut her off and said "Chase". I love that game..so much fun. So now it's time for lunch. It's about 2pm now, and we've been there since 8:30am. The exact same spot. And Miley and her dancers stayed onstage the whole time too.
So lunch is meatloaf or chicken, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, steamed vegetables, and deserts. This time, lunch in only about 30-45 minutes long. They call us all back to set. And as we walk up the hill, we see that they pust those dang handing white screens above the stage. Yes, the same ones that broke Tuesday and crashed into the ferris wheel. But these do look more stable. But still. Anyways, the director explains to us that while they were filming early of us looking up at her while she's talking, we were squinting. We're looking right up into the sun, so that's why they put those screens up so we won't squint. So they do the exact same thing they did that morning basically. Now, there's one big New Jersey family there..15 cousins. And they're mostly boys and around the ages of 16-24. They were SO annoying on Wednesday, and apparently even more on Thursday. Inbetween takes, everyone is talking quietly to each other, but then we hear Miley say "alright, now I feel a little uncomfortable". I assume they're saying the exact same things they were saying on Wednesday. "Miley, you're smoking hot.", "Miley, can I take you out on a date?", "Are you wearing that green bra today?", "Show a little more leg, Miley. (when she adjusts her skirt)", ect. I mean..they were annoying me. A few more breaks later, secrurity comes onto the stage and says into their area "One more, and you're out of here.". Of course, they don't stop and they are thrown out. EVERYONE starts to clap. I was so glad not to be near them that day because they honestly were loud and obnoxious. So security escorts them offset and shooting continues. More singing and talking, more games, ect. She talked about her shoes (which were converse with colorful sparkles all over them) and the 23 year old guy behind me (same one from earlier) said "did you use a bedazzler?" and she laughed and asked "how do you even know that word?" and he jokingly said "because i own one". she also talked about Leslie in the See You Again song. A girl in the audience was pretty sure she knew Leslie. And Miley asked if the girl she thought was Leslie went to CPA and she said "yes" and Miley said that was her. She says she still sees Leslie every now and then, but not that often. Then even more people were asking her if they knew someone else and she was surprised at all the people they knew that knew her. It was interesting to hear.
So they start shooting another new song called "The Climb". It's a ballad. BEAUTIFUL ballad. And she sung it live every single take. Now, I never thought Miley had the greatest voice..still good though. But she BLEW me away during that ballad. So powerful. They brought in a high school band to play the violins and stuff..like an orchestra. Such a beautiful song. But I don't think I'm going to post the lyrics for this song. Just believe me that it's a great song.
So now it's 5pm and the minors and Miley have to leave. She tells us thank you again, she enjoyed talking to us, and she'll see everyone tomorrow morning. Again, half of the extras are gone and we begin shooting the scenes with her real god-cousin (SO CUTE!) and the actor paparazzi. I'm right in the middle of this scene and I was pumped. Apparently, Oswald (the pap), follows her throughout the movie and he's at the concert scene. Something happens (i'm not giving the details) RIGHT beside me. Literally..the pap was right beside me haha. And that scene ends. And before they wrap for the day, they bring in Miley's god-cousin. Miley's standin, Jessica, mimics Miley signing an autograph just to have more angles. Now Jessica looks EXACTLY like Miley/Hannah. No joke. We couldn't tell who was who until we got closer to them. Jessica is a few inches shorter than Miley and not as tiny, but still a very small girl. We talk to Jessica inbetween takes and we find out that she's 19 years old and goes to MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University). Jessica is so nice. Such a sweet girl. She's always smiling and hanging out with us when they weren't filming. And Jessica wears the same blonde wig like Miley, but her real hair color is the same as Miley's, brown with some light highlights. Again, looks just like Miley even with the wig off.
Anyways, they call wrap. It's around 7:30pm. They sign our pay stubs and shuttle us back to the high school.
FRIDAY:
We get to set and I see the dancers hanging out in the extras holding area (just arriving for makeup and hair) so I went up to talk to them. They were all really sweet and fun. I even got to dance with Chase, the hott one! I took pictures with each on my cellphone. Once most of the extras arrive, Eric, the main PA guy that EVERYONE knows, reminds everyone that this is most people's last day and that we're like a family now. Which we really were. I mean, we're on set 14 hours a day for 3 days straight (some up to 5 days) and naturally everyone is pretty close. So we walk up to the set and they tell us that Miley's not feeling too well (heat got to her..exhaustion) and that they were going to change up some things. So we started off filming even more scenes of the truck driving through the crowd (again, to make it look like a lot of people are there). This was the WORST part of the 3 days there. It was around 9:30am and it was the hottest and most humid day there. No wind. And we're all packed together, jumping up and down, screaming and waving as the truck drives through. The main characters (billy ray, vanessa, jason, emily, lucas, ect) are placed in the crowd and the camera will focus in on them as it flies by them with the truck in the foreground and the crowd in the background. Jason and the random guy we don't know are paired together. Billy Ray and The Office girl are together. I believe Vanessa Williams, Lilly, and Lucas Till are by themselves..but I'm not sure. I couldn't see. Anyways before the actors/actresses were placed in the crowd and they started filming, we were standing there for about 30-45 minutes..already baking. So they begin filming and good god they did it OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER again. They only recorded for about 10 seconds everytime. And the dancers were falling out. There were 6 at the beginning, but 2 overheated and had to leave..so they had to re-do the choreography so that it won't look weird. So they do this scene for about 1.5-2 hours and we were dying. After 7 extras passed out (not counting those who voluntarly left to go under the tree), they called us to go to the shade under the trees.
So about that time, they take us to go get lunch. So we walk that long, hot walk to the holding area, stand in line about 10 minutes, and Eric tells us that they need us back on set now (aka. the food wasn't ready). So we walk back to set and they put us under the trees again. A little while later, they call us back to the same places to film the same truck scene again. After about 20 minutes of standing there without filming, they call lunch break again. So we all head to lunch..and it was horrible. They only had bugers and hotdogs. The burgers were either undercooked or burnt. The lunch lasts about 30 minutes and we're called back to set. It was around 1ish when they start to film again. This time, they put the 2 massive lighting shade about us (smart) so that it will provide us some relief from the blazing heat. Billy Ray and the Office girl are put into place and are told to walk through the crowd and to the stage while we cheer and clap along to the song. Billy Ray again was extremely social. He was very nice. So anyways I'm in the back on the edge and I see Eric carrying a little girl in his arms. She's passed out and he's running to the medical/cooling tent. Just the next take, the boy a few rows infront of me started to wobble. The adults around him ask him if he's okay. It took him everything he had to say "help" before he collapsed. When they get him out, Newman (another PA) orders a mass handout of water immediately to all of us. They were passing us water, but not enough. So about 5 takes later, 2 30ish year old women feel faint and are escorted to the medical tent. It was getting too dangerous and they send us to the trees again. Literally 5 minutes later, they then order us to walk all the way through the field to the holding area. I don't really understand why because we actaully had a good breeze (FINALLY!) under those massive trees. Anyways we're sitting at the tables playing cards, talking, ect while we wait about an hour.
Around 3:45, we're called back to set and those who felt okay were ordered to fill in the area on the FAR side of the stage..because they were filming a scene backstage and wanted some crowd in the background (but somehow, we don't see whats going on lol). So we're standing there about 20 minutes, no shots have been filmed yet, and they order us back under the tree. By then, we're pretty mad. We're hot. We're tired. And they're very disorganized. The minors are told to go home. So really only the 18+ people are left.
We sit under the tree and the black Escalade pulls up and Miley gets out. They tell us they're going to film without us in the background and that we need to just stay cool in the shade. Now, keep in mind that when they're filming, we all have to be DEAD silent. So we're just staring at each other while they film. After about 30 minutes, I get up and walk over to see what they're filming. And it was the kissing scene between Miley and Lucas. Then an hour goes by..and they're still doing the kissing scene. About that time, they call break so they can change the lighting and angle of the kiss. Miley is told to sit in the shade (since she's not feeling too well) and she sits near us. Security ropes off the small area of people around us so no one else will be around her. But since there weren't any little kids around, no one tried. So Miley is sitting around us and there were mostly 20-30 year old women, a few older men, and a few teenage boys. And we all start to talk to her and have more meaningful conversations with her (not "whats your favorite color" questions lol). So she talks about growing up. She talks about her school work..how she had exams soon and she needed to study for them. She talks about her faith..she goes to church every Sunday with her family. She's a very religious person. And she was asked about working at such a young age and she said she usually works over the maximum hours allowed. But she loves what she does. She was asked about the Vanity Fair thing and she said that despite what you heard, her parents weren't there for that picture. They took her little sister, Noah, home. She said that she was nieve and made a mistake. She never meant for the picture to cause such a scene that it did. She said that she apologized and can't really do anything else but keep going. Then someone asked her if it really bothered her. Miley said that it did bother us..and she usually has thick skin about that stuff. She said she was mostly bothered by the comments about the picture of her mom and dad. She admitted that she thought about taking a break because she was just so stressed out. But her friends, family, and faith helped her through all the controversy. She said that she forgot for a moment that she loves her job and loves to make people happy, and she could never let anything stop her from doing that. They talked about a few other things like driving, her 5 siblings, ect. It was extremely interesting. She's very intelligent for a 15 year old. She quoted Jimi Hendrix 'You have to get over the love of power and enjoy the power of love in order to know peace.' and said that she loves that quote.
So anyways, about that time, they call Miley back to set to finish the kissing scene. Security is TIGHT there. They want to make sure that no one takes pictures. All week, they don't allow it and people are kicked out for taking pictures. But they stepped up security this time. I guess the picture would be worth a lot. Anyways it's ANOTHER hour before they're done. That's two hours of kissing and two hours of silence from the extras haha. I was so bored. I try to go get food (since my burger was burnt), but the carnies were mean! I heard they were, but up until that day, I never tried to get food from them. Anyways I go up there to get food and they were like "we're all out". I look down and see the bags of unpopped popcorn on the ground. I was like "What about those? I'm hungry" and they said "No". Just "no". So I go back to my seat and the people around me offer me food..like I said, we were family there! haha. So Miley's done with her scene and leaves the set. There were about 35 people around the ropes near her car and she signs about 25 of them before she is dragged by security away and to her car. She apologized for not being able to finish sign everything. She says "God Bless guys and thank you so much for coming this week. I know it's been very hott. Travel safe". She gets into the car and leaves. I didn't get an autograph because I was toward the back. I didn't think she was going to sign because they said she wasn't supposed to..by the order of security. So there's only about 7 of us by the rope now. And Lucas walks by. I yell "LUCAS! I LOVE YOU!" and he smiles and walks over. He signs everyone's papers and I just went for it. I asked "can i get a picture?". He looks over at security and says "I would love to, but its up to him.". So I smile at the security guard and he calls someone on his walkie. Lucas and me are talking in the meantime..he's very sweet. I ask him how old he is and he says "I'm 17. And I'll turn 18 in 2 months". I tell him that he has gorgous eyes and he just laughs and says "thank you!". We talked about a few other things too. But anyways..so by that time, the security guard says they will allow pictures but only if the background is the trees and not the set. So Lucas takes a picture with me! He is so sweet and such a gentleman. He called older man and women "ma'am" and "sir". Very nice young man. And he's hot. Very hot lol. I looked for more pictures of him online and they do not give him justice. He's grown up a lot from the picture's I've seen. He said he played young Jack Cash (i think) in "Walk The Line".
Anyways, Vanessa Williams and Jessica (Miley's standin) film a scene while the rest of the extras are dismissed. We sign out, say goodbye to everyone. I get a picture and a hug with the awesome PA Eric. And we leave.
Even though I was sweating like crazy and fighting off dehydration, I REALLY enjoyed the past 3 days. Everyone was extremely nice and friends..the extras and celebrities. I made great friends and memories. Miley and Billy Ray are extremely nice and personable. I was a big fan before this week, and I'm even more now. She's fun and has a big personality that just makes people smile. But she can also be professional when needed. She was chill and very intelligent when she was talking to us on the last day..no one was nervous around her because she made it like you were talking to a best friend.