Transformers 2: The Experience

Hey all,

Here is the long awaited post of my Transformers 2 experience last summer. As everyone knows, I had the chance to be an extra in the film. It was shot at Princeton University in one of the lecture halls. I waited this long to post about it due to legal issues and such. So I showed up at the university and was issued paperwork and an ID badge for the day. After that we were moved to the usual make-up and costume area where we were prepped for the camera. We were then bussed to the main campus area where we moved into a holding room with all the other extras. Many of us spent a couple hours sitting around waiting to be called up to the set, it felt like some of us wouldn’t even have the opportunity to be in the scene. After a while, a production manager came into the room looking for a person who was 6′2 and had brown hair. Naturally I volunteered myself, and was taken into the classroom where i was asked to stand on the stage as I was blocking for the light setup for Rainn Wilson, the professor and mentor for Shia Laboeuf’s character. I was standing on the stage, looking sort of nervous because I was unsure of what they wanted me to do. Rainn Wilson hopped up onto the stage and patted me on the back saying, “don’t worry buddy, I got your back. I’m Rainn Wilson.” I naturally told him I was a fan, and it was a pleasure to meet him. After the short introduction, Shia hopped on stage next to me and proceeded to rehearse for his scene. He was twitching a lot, which seemed strange to me as I didn’t know what the scene entailed. I later found out that it was part of his act. After blocking for the light readings, I was told to sit down in a seat for the scene. The rest of the extras were brought into the room and prepped. We were told how to act, but obviously Michael Bay told us that he couldn’t tell us the plot or anything other than what was in our scene. Michael Bay introduced us to his college film professor, who played the role of the Dean of Princeton. Unfortunately the camera was placed directly behind me for the first scene, therefore I was not in the film for that part. For the second setup I was placed in the same row as Shia, three seats down from him as can be seen right before the credits at the end of the film. Michael Bay pointed at three of us in the row and told us to start laughing as Shia sat down in his seat. It was funny because I nodded to him, accepting what I had been told to do. He said, “oh aren’t we eager, he pointed at me!” The surrounding people laughed. We were supposed to be laughing at the fact that he had been all over the news as the teacher had poked fun at him once he returned to class. After we had spent eight hours filming the one scene, with a lunch break in between, we were let go in the hopes that we would appear in the scene in the final cut.

Overall it was a great experience, I met Michael Bay, Rainn Wilson, and Shia Labeouf. The opportunity alone was fantastic, even if I didn’t make it into the film. Luckily, as many of us saw, I did. I can’t wait until the DVD is released to see it again! I hope this has been an interesting insight into the scene of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen from my perspective. A picture has been posted below of the ID badge that they gave me on the set.

Hey,

Just got back from a weekend in Long Beach Island, New Jersey…specifically the Surf City borough. I went for a weekend of chilling in Perry’s beach house, and what a fun weekend it was. It was really nice to be able to get to the beach, I only went for a week last summer to Ocean City. I intend to be making many more trips in the upcoming months. Perry and I headed to LBI on Saturday afternoon and came back today. We went body boarding in the ocean in freezing waters; it actually wasn’t too bad once you jump in and get used to it. Perry took me to the local spots on the island such as The Chicken or the Egg, which was a great place for wings and chicken type foods. It reminded me of Buffalo Wild Wings with the many choices of sauces and whatnot. We also went mini golfing where I almost beat the champ, the final score was 41 to 38. I messed up on a few holes but overall played pretty well. The beach is just a great place to go and relax, couldn’t get much better than that. Some fun pictures may be going up in the gallery on the website, we’ll see. There was a massive storm, today as many of you probably noticed, but otherwise the weather was pretty good. Props goes out to Perry for inviting me out to LBI, a memorable weekend.

In other news…well, there isn’t any really. So I’ll be seeing y’all.

Hey all,

Quick music update…check out Digitalism if you are into techno. It’s a pretty good mix with heavy synths and stuff. I’m a big techno fan so I think it is pretty cool. I actually ended up finding them through a google search for club music, funny enough. I also have to mention that one of my favorite bands, Billy Talent, is coming out with a new cd this summer so they are definitely worth checking out as well. I’m keep you posted if anything else comes up.

Later.

Hey everyone,

Thought I might make a post because I am very bored. I started working again at Orpha’s Coffee Shop, or rather it is now known as Thomas Sweet Cafe because the management changed hands. Working a few days a week is keeping me slightly occupied, maybe I should ask for more hours. As far as summer goes, nothing great has happened so far…but there is still copious amounts of time left. I am heading to Six Flags tomorrow for the first time this summer, better be buying a season pass because I will be going there quite a bit. There is also the possibility of a trip to the Dominican Republic in August so I’m hoping that will happen. My parents seem to want to take a trip to North Carolina for a week and rent a house, that could be fun.

A quick music update for those who are interested: if you are into mash remixes of songs, check out Milkman and Super Mash Bros. They take the popular music out there and “mash” them together. Both DJs are much better than Girl Talk, so I recommend checking them out. I’ve also been listening to the new Eminem album, and I have to say that the guy has gotten his act together. Slim Shady is back.

Anyway, what else is there to say? Life is moving along. Before you know it fall will be here again. Hope everyone is doing well, and for those still reading…thanks for the support.

Hey all,

It’s been over a week now since I returned to the States, and let me say there is no better country in the world. It was a lot of fun touring around Europe for the second time, while also studying in London. I had a great time and made many new friends that I hope to stay in contact with. It has been a bit boring since I got back, but this is expected as there is absolutely NOTHING to do in my town. I’ve been keeping in touch with a few people, but hope to meet up with them some point over the summer. I went for a second interview with an internship company in Philadelphia on Wednesday, but unfortunately had to decline as the commute to Philly was too far to deal with each day. I’m still working on finding something else, but my options are few in number.

While I’m posting I should probably talk about my last trip to Prague towards the end of the semester. We went for four nights/five days, and it was quite a beautiful city. We toured around checking out the sites, and also went on a pub crawl to experience the nightlife. Apparently the movie Eurotrip was entirely filmed in Prague, so a lot of the bars and clubs that were featured in the movie were stops on the crawl. Once again, I will post pictures in the gallery for those of you who are interested. I went with a small group of people including Anthony, Matt, Jess, Sadie, Farah, and Pat. Anthony and I tried stopping by the U.S. Embassy as his dad was stationed there a while back, but unfortunately they wouldn’t have anything to do with us…that was disappointing. Matt and I enjoyed a few beers in Prague Square and had an interesting conversation with a few French ladies. It’s always good when I get a chance to use my language skills. A few of us also enjoyed paddle boats on the river and Anthony, Jess, and Pat got stuck on the bank because they rammed us and went off course. It was really funny. All in all it was a great time, a trip I will never forget.

Back to the States talk, this summer should be relaxing and at the same time stressful. We are winding down to our last year at college and I am dreading graduating. I hear a lot of people who have already graduated years ago are having a hard time finding jobs, what will be my fate? I’m hoping to work somewhere for a year then go to graduate school, but who knows, maybe I will end up going straight to grad school. London was a nice vacation but it’s getting near time to face reality. How I deal with it will be another matter. Well thats enough of the depressing talk, I hope all the friends I have made in London will stay in touch and that we will meet again sometime.

Peace out.

Hello everyone,

Just got back from a weekend in Ireland, and let me say that it was beautiful. Despite having rain on and off throughout the trip, I had a great time. We flew into Galway on the Thursday, and left for Dublin on the Saturday. Let me start by saying that I am glad I spent two days in Galway and one in Dublin. Both places have a very different feel to them, my favorite was definitely Galway. It had a very enclosed feeling, everything was right in the center of the town and was easily accessible. We took a full day bus tour of Galway and its surrounding areas which lasted from eleven in the morning to five in the afternoon. The five of us went up to the Cliffs of Moher, which were spectacular (I will upload pictures as soon as I’m done with this post). We also managed to take a bus from Galway to Dublin for only five euro, which is amazingly cheap for the amount of distance that we had to travel. Once we arrived in Dublin, we went to the Guinness Factory at St. James’s Gate, then walked around Dublin and enjoyed some good Irish food. All in all the trip was great as was the traditional Irish countryside. Words cannot really accurately describe my experience in Ireland, so I hope that the pictures in my gallery will help to show you.

More updates to come in the near future.

Hey all, quick update to let you know that I’ve added a video portion to the website. All of them are hosted by YouTube, but I decided to take the ones that I have made/shot and put them on the site. Hopefully this will allow for more views.

Enjoy.

Spring break has just ended and marks the passing of the midpoint of my study abroad semester in London. We had a great time in Berlin, the history is really amazing. I am usually not interested in history very much, but Berlin has had so much happen in the past twenty years. We took a three hour walking tour of the city, checking out sites such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the Berlin Wall. We also made a trip to the Olympic stadium that was used in the 1930s, however, it is still being used today for teams such as Hertha Berlin. Along more somber lines, we visited the Sachenhousen Concentration Camp for a tour. It was truly eerie just being there, but I felt that it was something that one should do to pay tribute to those lives lost. I have posted pictures of the three hour tour of Berlin in my gallery, so feel free to check those out. As far as night life goes, we went to a club called Q Dorf. It was pretty good, over twenty bars featuring club music. Other nights we went to a few pubs around the city, met people in our hotel, and had a great time. The hostel we stayed at was called JetPak City Hostel, the number one hostel in the world in 2006 I believe. It was great to get to play Xbox at the hostel for the first time in two months, even though I was never really attached to it at home. Overall, great spring break.

Time is winding down, less than two months to ago until return to the U.S. I am hoping to make three final trips; Liverpool and Manchester for easter break, and then Ireland and Prague at some point. I may be a bit ambitious but can’t blame me for trying right? I am also supposed to have a phone interview today for an internship over the summer at a production studio in Philadelphia. Wish me luck.

More to come later.

Adam

P.S. Multiple new albums have been put up in the gallery. Enjoy.

Hey all,

Been working on the picture gallery on the website, only a few albums up at the moment but I am putting up more. Cleaned them up a bit and finally posted Coldplay and The Killers pictures. Check em’ out!

Last night was the best concert I’ve ever been to. Coldplay and The Killers played at the 02 Arena in Shepherd’s Bush in London. It was amazing, both bands played great sets and we were even surprised by a special guest appearance by Bono from U2. Most people have some odd hatred for Bono, I don’t really understand why. Anyway, I posted a load of pictures up on Facebook from the concert and also at least ten videos on YouTube. The link is located on the left hand side of the site.

Enjoy.

The Killers picture below.