Extra, Extra!

After I posted my last blog post, I decided that I would "volunteer" to be an extra on Friday Night Lights because:
1) I didn't have anything else to do on that day.
2) I don't see myself ever going to UT Stadium for any other reason.
3) I'm one of those special features nerds that likes to find out how shows/movies are made and what better way then to go to a taping myself?
The people that chose to be paid extras had to get there at 9am, but I rolled in around 3pm. The extra's duty on this day's taping was to be a football fan in the stands of the Texas High School State Championship (the final episode of the third season of Friday Night Lights). When I showed up I was already wearing the right color to be a Dylan Panther fan, so they just gave me the black t-shirt (pictured above) in case they wanted us to switch sides and root for the other team and a raffle ticket for the prize drawings they did throughout the day. The wardrobe lady offered me a bright yellow trucker hat to complete the blue and yellow colors of Dylan team, but I declined. She suggested that the hat would make me "pop."
I made my way to the stands. It was freezing cold (for Texas) and many people had blankets. I assume these were the people that showed up early in the morning to earn their $56 for the day. I sat towards the front and, in the two hours I spent there, got to see one scene being filmed. I was lucky that it was a dramatic scene. **Spoiler Alert** It was the end of the first half of the game. The Dylan team is losing. One of the players gets hurt. Anyway, they filmed this about four times and the extras all had to clap, boo, and clap (in that order). Then, after the cast left the field to take a break, they packed all of us into one section of the stadium and had us do the same type clap-boo sequence so that they could copy and paste our section throughout the stadium in editing to make it look like the stands were full of people. During this time, to keep us happy, they raffled prizes and had some of the actors throw free t-shirts into the stands. The Friday Night Lights shirt you see above was thrown at me (quite literally--it hit me directly in the face).
After they dismissed everyone for break at a little after 5pm I took off. The nighttime promised to be even colder and I had enough swag to feel satisfied with my experience.
So...watch the season finale. I'll be sitting towards the front in a long sleeve blue shirt. I expect I'll also be attending the Emmy Awards this year for "Best Clap, Boo, Clap Acting."