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Tales from the set of the 33rd Annual Cleveland International Film Festival Trailer from the extras who lived to tell about it

POSTED BY: genna petrolla

"We were a group of would-be actors, anxious in anticipation of what lay ahead as we queued up near the concession counter. In a relatively short time, we were led into the theater and placed one-by-one in our assigned seats. The notes on the seatbacks told us our direction for the shoot. Mine said "Stare at the screen", but my neighbors and I , who had similar direction, decided to add a few nuances to each take. We were certain that the director would appreciate the extra effort! By the time we had done several takes, the classy lady next to me had become a friend! Close to the end of the shoot, she was " upgraded" to a more prominent seat. I like to think that our unique performances helped get her that starring role. Soon after her move, it was over, and each of us went our separate ways. We all left the theater that day with a common bond, which will show as the trailer shows from March 19-29. Many thanks to the festival staff for allowing us our moment in the spotlight!"

-JD Frost

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"I heard about the trailer through Genna on facebook and thought I was going to miss it entirely when I couldn't drag my butt out of bed that morning. There was a long line of people and I started fidgeting. I got my knitting out to pass the time. Someone liked it, Matthew T, Ii think? He pulled me out of line and placed me in a seat in the thatre. So i sat there knitting for hours, occasionally following directions and making friends with the people sitting next to me. At a certain point, I thought I was going to run out of yarn entirely! And then they asked up to stay for a couple extra takes... It turned out that I ended up almost finishing the project sitting in that theater. I had a great time seeing my friends scattered throughout the audience and making a couple new ones along the way. I can’t wait to see the finished trailer. And I can’t wait to go to the Film Festival! This will be my first year going, mostly because I have some extra cash. Why not spend it on movies?!"

-Erin Peterson

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"Wow. It sure is hard work being an extra-slash movie star. I mean, I think we did something like 10 takes on this thing! All the time we followed our respective instructions and then… back to our ‘one’ to start again. (Your ‘one’ is your first position, for all of you amateurs out there. It was really cool sitting in the theatre and seeing so many familiar faces. Chloe Hopson from Passport Project, Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, Ward 6 Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell and a few band members from the Twilight were among some of the more famous faces in the crowd. The crew from Authentic Films was knowledgeable and professional, really fun to work with and really trusting of us to help create the vision they and Twist Creative had for the trailer. I had the opportunity to switch my seat and role about halfway through and I’m anxious to see what the final product looks like. It was such an awesome experience to be a part of something so huge. Speaking of huge, I really hope that ‘the camera adds 15 pounds thing’ isn’t true."

-Genna Petrolla

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