THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 21, 1994 TAG: 9407200172
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
I WAS A MOVIE extra, sitting and sweating from noon to 6 for a blink-of-the-eye moment on screen.
Billy Graham would've been proud of me - six hours on a church pew listening to the same sermon over and over again.
Yes, Lord, I got the message.
Andy Warhol's message was that each of us, sometime, somewhere gets 15 minutes of fame.
Since movie math goes like this - one minute equals six hours - I figure I have about 14 minutes left - the entire 15 if I wind up on the cutting room floor.
The movie, a Regent University production, is ``Prison to Praise,'' based on the autobiography of Merlin Carothers, who footed the bill for the bulk of the production.
He is one of those sinner-to-saint characters - a messed-up young man who became a Mr. Nice Religious Guy.
Carothers' story was filmed in different areas of Hampton Roads, including three Suffolk locales - Epps Feed and Seed, the old city jail and Beech Grove United Methodist Church in Driver.
The church also appeared in the 1989 Family Channel film, ``For Jenny With Love.''
The ``Prison to Praise'' people saw that movie and decided to film there, since the scene takes place in a country church in the 1940s. The local church had the right look.
The scene filmed at the church a few weeks ago involves Carothers' conversion. He attended services with his grandparents.
The actress playing his grandmother spent a good part of her time asleep in the pew - an event often paralleled in real life.
About 25 extras, young and old, got in on the act. Camaraderie was rampant.
The costumes were authentic, as were the look and feel. The only things missing were those funeral home fans with an ad on one side and pictures of Jesus and lambs on the other.
Anyway, we found a pew place, or got moved to one, then sat and waited and waited and waited. You could stare at the cables, lights, clapboards.
You did not, however, cool your heels. Our heels and the rest of us sweated it out.
The air-conditioner was working, but could not compete with the lights.
I decided that being an extra is an ego trip. The movie will play the Naro in the spring, then become a part of Carothers' ministry.
See it, as they say in coming attractions, in a church near you.
What you don't see are the behind-the-scenes folk who kneel and squat in the most uncomfortable positions as they guide and direct.
The camera moves about on rails. The church theme seemed to have been ``Hello, dolly.''
The center of attention was the actor portraying the low-key preacher who influences Carothers.
We watched him rehearse half-a-dozen times, then sat quietly and watched the take.
The preacher spoke softly, reverently about faith. Then he spoke softly, reverently about his next audition.
It was my turn for a take, and my heart was beating a bit faster as finally, after all those hours, the camera moved around in front of me.
Wouldn't you know it? The only time my nose itched was when the camera was taking a shot of me.
It's a new me. I had to shave my ugly sideburns and switch from my light jacket to a darker one from wardrobe.
I had to remove my watch, even if it is 35 years old. Women had to remove jewelry - sacrifice, sacrifice.
Anyway, they picked me out for a close-up. Most of the folks involved did not know I was a writer - a secret I have kept from readers and editors for many years.
My close-up had me, ostensibly, listening intently to the preacher. That's what you see on-screen. In the church, though, I was staring intently at the camera sandwiched between me and the pulpit.
When the camera aimed in my direction, I did some shtick - fooled with my necktie. It is that kind of cleverness that will find me on the cutting room floor.
``CLOSE-UP,'' somebody yelled. ``Guy with the gray mustache.''
The guy with the gray mustache wound up as the guy with an aching back, upper and lower, after six hours of sitting - a sacrifice for the arts.
Some folks brought something to keep them busy.
Jane Ann Daughtry of Virginia Beach finished six pieces of her quilt. Her son, David, finished his ``Indiana Jones'' book and began reading it a second time.
Rachel Short, a 9-year-old who lives a few houses down from the church, sat still.
``I wanted to be sure I was in the frame,'' the showbiz-wise youngster explained, adding ``I'm ready for a speaking part.''
There is little that is glamorous about being an extra.
If you work for a major studio, you get paid - not handsomely, but well.
Regent pays in appreciation.
``I love this,'' said Denise Miller of Eure. ``I'd like to do this all the time.''
You can have my pew - er - seat. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Some of the extras in ``Prison to Praise'' gather in the sanctuary
of a Suffolk church for the filming. The ``congregation'' includes
reporter Frank Roberts, at right in the front row.
by CNB