Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Fortune cookie

Completely random: got this at lunch today.

"It's not the will to win,
but the will to prepare to win
that makes a difference."


Love it!

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Saturday, February 9, 2008

Behind the scenes peek with Dani Garza in "Year One"

My hometown of Bossier/Shreveport has seen a big boom lately of major films being shot in and around the area. Yesterday I was invited to be an extra on the set of "The Year One", directed by Harold Ramis, and starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, and David Cross.

After filming a couple of big crowd shots in the morning, the production's 2nd AD picked me out of the masses to be featured as the wife of a dayplayer for the scene to be shot in the afternoon. (Just one of those right time, right place things!) I don't have any speaking lines, but I did spend about half the afternoon in close proximity to shots of the three main actors and the dayplayer, Matt Besser. So hopefully you'll at least to get see a profile of my face in the movie!

"The Year One" is set to premiere in 2009, but here's a few shots one of the other extras got of me on the set!
This big bull-head is a sacrificial altar in the main square of the city of Sodom. During the scene, there's a big ritual ceremony where the high priest (played by Oliver Platt) chooses a virgin to be sacrificed to the gods so that they'll bless us with rain. She gets thrown into the bull's mouth and a big blaze of fire comes roaring out of his mouth and eyes, and the crowd goes wild.



Originally slated to play a "merchant's wife" I arrived on set and started scoping the crowd. This lovely gentleman is Pete, who was standing nearby the camera's first position and offered to "marry me" for the first half of the day while shooting crowd scenes.




This ziggurat is about five stories high, and the poor guys who were chosen amongst the extras to play "slaves" were scantily clad in potato-sack looking costumes that barely covered their naked legs. The temperature here in Louisiana in February only got to about 60 at the highest, so they were granted black jackets to keep them warm between takes.





From the city's main square, this is a view of the Royal Pavillion. Later in the day, we shot a scene where the royal court appears, including the beautiful princess Inanna (played by Olivia Wilde) whom Zed (Jack Black) and his buddies have been seeking.

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