Alamo History, Visitor Info, Pictures, & Much More
The Diary of an Alamo (2004) Movie Extra
The Call for Extras, November 2002
So I got a call back in December; seems they liked my "look" (me and a couple of hundred others I was betting). I went back to the hotel for an interview during which they asked me if I could be available for up to 10 weeks (yes, by blowing all my vacation time).
I found out later that they had over 5000 applications total for the extra jobs. Even if they only had 1000 resumes for the “defender” positions, then narrowing it down to 200 for “tryouts” and another 80 released at tryouts…. I was pretty lucky to be picked.
Try-Outs, December 2002
We had to show up for 3 days of "safety training" to show us how to use the firearms of the time period and some horsemanship. We did not get paid for this stint, nor were we ever actually told that we were essentially auditioning.
Day 1: ONLY two hundred people showed up at this Ranch in Wimberley, as had the three hundred man "Mexican Army" 3 days before. So two hundred vehicles all tried to find a place to park along a dirt road. A mile walk later and we were ushered from the muddy field through a tent to get our name tags then back into the mud, and then rain. We were given several lengthy speeches about safety with firearms and about looking forward to 14-hour days if we were "chosen", and we were divided into groups of 33 each. My group first went to the armory and picked up replica muskets. We were shown how they work and then starting drilling/marching. It was awful...the mud was very deep in places and we even marched through deep water. We learned all the military drills, calls, presenting arms, and right, left, right, left. All the while the rain fell and mud got worse.
FINALLY we went over to the horse corral to prove we could ride a horse. They only wanted the MOST EXPERIENCED riders to even try. To show your stuff, you followed another rider at walking speed in a figure 8 then got off. I think my mediocrity was at an all time high. The other guys said they were rodeo riders, professional horse trainers, etc. I am pretty sure I was lousy in all categories, and certainly didn't have the credentials (I guess one day on a horse in “American Outlaw” doesn't qualify).
Then we went to the "stunt man" area. They tried to teach us how to "take a shot" and fall down dead. They called it "selling the shot" which can best be described as over acting....flopping backward...then falling down. We ALL looked like idiots but some guys were better at "selling" than others.
Finally, it was the end of the day and the sun came out. We marched over to stand in the mud at the armory to do a live firing of the guns. We swapped fake guns for real guns. A short guy who has been screaming (sergeant style) at us all day went through the same safety scream we had been hearing all day. They gave us the packets of powder..... We tore the tip off with our teeth...poured some into the pan....locked it down...pulled the trigger back.....fired. All movements must be on command. My gun discharged as it should, but the fact that I felt my front hair blow a bit meant I was probably too snug on the gun. I was on the back row during this so I had two opportunities to hurt someone, the flash from the front and side flash from the pan. No one was injured but at least 10 guys (out of my group of 33) didn't get it right or did but were not sure the gun had fired..... So another round of screaming while he made us all hold the muskets in firing position. My arms and wrists ached, as those things are pretty heavy to be held out away from the body like that. At least I got lucky on the tearing of the powder with my teeth and did not eat any (beginners luck) as most of the others did. He hollered something like "bite ‘em deep boys"..... sure...
Day 2: At least it didn't rain, but there was plenty of left-over mud to march in. I think four guys from our 33 dropped out. I decided to try to focus on the positive. I did much better riding the horse but am sure I am still out-classed by the other riders and their experience. I only got to fire the musket ONE time again but mine worked correctly, and again, I did not taste powder. We still all looked stupid at the stunt stuff, but at least I had an improved stupid, so the stunt men were happy with me. They showed us some cannon fire and explosions on the field. THAT was cool. You could even feel the concussion of the air when the cannon fires...imagine charging through that. Guys just like that stuff. The drill master started calling me Mr. Quaid. I guess the other 30 guys got what he was implying (that I look like Dennis Quaid, who is starring in this movie). At the very end of the day they lined up all 200 of us in companies and had us "charge" the director as was done in the Battle of San Jacinto. We "attacked" in company strengths - VERY organized playing war like kids.
Last day of Boot Camp: About 2 hours into the morning the first director’s assistant announced that "some" riders were needed for the movie. Apparently out of all the guys who rode (40 or 50 men) only some got a "perfect" score. Since they needed 20 or so, they were offering the opportunity to train more to a select group of non-perfect riders. I qualified (as non-perfect) so about 3 of us knew we were "in" as they approached us then about more riding. The down side is that the guys not picked knew they were out.
We did more of that cursed marching on the third day, and we did MORE stunts and more firing of the real guns. They gave us TWO powder charges to load our weapons with, one to load now, the other while on the run to the Alamo wall as if taken by surprise. I ran forward, shot my first round, took a knee to load the second round (who would be dumb enough to stand out in the open or try to run while putting powder in a pan and down the barrel?), got up, ran forward and shot my second round. Both rounds fired without a hitch. I was pretty proud of myself, as some of the guys didn't even get one shot off. ‘TIL THE GUY (who was it?) said to everyone.... "It took you too long to get across the field! You should load on the run." I noticed he didn't demonstrate the art of loading a flintlock on the run. The highlight of the training came at the end of the day. We got to charge at company strength again and again. We were the first to run so we all lined up and dry fired our weapons as the other companies came charging at us. All day a group of about 20 Mexicans had been drilling in the area. They got to charge at us. So 200 Alamo "defenders" without a lot of direction formed up three deep in a firing line. As they charged, they called "First rank fire... Second rank fire.... Third rank fire!" So there are hundreds of "clicks" as these 20 guys charge our lines. At the first volley, they all did their best impressions of being shot and fell dead on the field. Great bunch of guys to be such good sports.
We retired to the tent after that where he read off the 120 or so names of people who had been picked. I think about 20 of our now 30 guys made it. I felt bad for the guys who didn't get picked. It seemed like the older guys were not picked with a few exceptions. At one point they had said they wanted 18yr olds that were not taller than 5"8" so the stars of the film would not look scrawny. Well, there were damn few 18yr olds out there. Next week I am supposed to find out what part I have.
Making the Movie
We all finally got to see the Alamo mock up. It is pretty much full scale with some space cheated for camera angles. The set was built just west of Austin and north of Dripping Springs on ranch land owned by the Reimers family. It took months of work to build the set, much of which was done by local carpenters and other crews. The Chapel is stunning as well as authentic in every detail. All of the other buildings exist as well as the ramps to the many batteries. Of course, some of the interiors to the buildings are false and actually house electrical and lighting and sound equipment. But for the most part, when you stand in the center of the complex, you feel as the heroes must have felt when they made the decision to make the last stand in the fortress called the Alamo.
Costuming
December 17, 2002. Today I went to costumes and found out I am one of "Travis's guys” (that is what it says on my name tag...."Travis Guy"); guess that will be my stage name from now on. Apparently his men were dressed better than some of the others. There was all manner of dress handed out - buckskins to shirts and vests. I was fitted in a shirt and vest style with a long wool overcoat. I wondered how dressed up a man had to be before going into battle. "What do you think about this tie? Too busy? Oh, that makes me look fat!"
Bad News: I originally had visions of being dressed in buckskins. But I am one of a few that ended up wearing a sort of top hat as opposed to cowboy kind. From behind with my riding jacket on, I look like I should be in a Charles Dickens movie. Good news: I should be easy to pick out from a group with that hat on. I did get to pick a cool looking stag handle knife to strap to my side.
On the first day on the set, we had to be at costume at 5:30 AM, ugh. I got my Charles Dickens Ripper outfit on and got on the bus to go from costuming to the set. They kept hollering "hurry", "hurry" for us to get dressed which was just annoying as we are wearing suspenders and clothes that were not easy to put on with ALL buttons and such.
At the end of that day, we all marched back to the Plaza and formed up in ranks, Mexican Army included. We were facing them, so I could see that about one third of the Mexican army had taken T-shirts and tied them around their heads to protect from the cold. (They had taken away all head gear so our faces would “get some sun”). I said, “Don’t fire till you see the whites of their underwear boys”.
Hair and Makeup
The second assistant came around to Make-Up and gave us the latest on hair and beards. Seems NOW they want us mostly clean-shaven. My only fear when they asked a month ago about shaving and hair cutting was that I would end up with mutton chop sideburns like Sam Houston wore. SO naturally, I now have mutton chop sideburns. In fairness.... more like Elvis’ sideburns than Sam Houston. I am looking forward to working at my usual ER job where the patients will see that their nurse looks like a cross between Elvis and Dennis Quaid, and NOT a good cross between the two. Then to the hair cut station. He pretty much left the length but cut it unevenly so it would look like "it was done with a knife”. I pointed out that since I was a "townie" I would have sprung for a 5-cent haircut. The guys with hair that was short got stuck with wigs or a weave. I heard one guy comment "I came all the way here to get a 1836 mullet.”
While I was waiting to "get dirty" (they literally beat you with a sock full of dirt so it will look like you have been on the trail), a woman dragged me into the haircutter’s section so she could show off what she wanted in a haircut. She said, “I want this ‘Charles Dickens’ look in the back”. So I have the hair of Charles Dickens, Elvis sideburns and trail riding dirt on my costume. I am ready to act!
I found out on the second day on the set what it is like to have 400 “Mexican extras” in uniform plus 150 Texians in costume occupying the same space at the same time. They had a large trailer for us to change in but we were all crammed in there at the same time. We got changed and to the set before dawn. We went through the routine to get our gear and gun then were told to stand in line for hair, makeup and dirt. We learned that sometimes while waiting for the next shot, a make up guy would come by and put dirt in our hair in the back. Great, makes my hair dirty and on some days, I ended up not even one of the “Dirty Dozen” selected for that shot. I decided to WATCH for that guy coming in the future.
I got the whole makeup treatment on some days. “Grease” in the back of my hair so it would look unclean. (It was also nearly impossible to wash it out of your hair when you get home). We decided they were using 90 weight bearing oil. To accent your facial lines, initially, they put on stripes of black makeup on your face, much like you would do if you wanted to look like an Indian on the warpath. Then you had to do your best Charles Bronson impression (squint your face) and they rubbed it in. The result is that you looked like a greasy haired, dirty-faced older guy ready to “Fight fer Texas Independence”.
Some days we would try to skip make-up mainly because of fear they would try to “fix our teeth” and make them look “period”. They fixed one guy’s teeth once by having him “eat a crap sandwich” to quote. When they are done, your teeth have brown spots on them with stain to make you look gap toothed.
Props
Once we finished costuming, then we would get on the bus where we got to wait for it to take us to the set. (Waiting turned out to a big part of being an extra). It was probably 50 degrees outside the bus, but 98 degrees inside and we were in totally wool outfits with wool overcoats. Twenty minutes and 10 miles later we disembarked at the Alamo set and were rushed through the Armory to get our accessories (knife, game bag, cartridge bag, etc.). At least it appeared that my musket was in good working order. I was anxious to find out if it works on Wednesday. I did note that while the musket is stamped something like “Dixie Gun Works City TN”, it is also stamped "made in Japan”.
One day when we were “fleeing from Bexar to the Alamo”, I did not have a prop to carry so I went by props and asked for a small whiskey jug that would be light, practical and easy to run with. He handed me a very nice LEATHER SUITCASE. More like a giant cosmetic case really. “Be careful with this as it is period leather,” Easy for him to say…. he is not the dandy who is expected to run with it. All morning I whined about how, as a Travis man, I had somehow had misplaced my horse (after the supposed ride in) and my VALET!
Another extra had his powder horn stolen from props one day, then the next day someone stole his knife. He walked up to our group and said “Hey look at my new knife!” He whips it out and plunges it into the gut of the closest guy standing there. The guy recoils to avoid being stabbed as all of the knives have real points though some are not very sharp. It turns out……they replaced his stolen knife with a paint stirring stick with leather wrapped around the handle. Totally lame but it passed as a knife as long as it was in the scabbard. “Stabbing” someone was good for a laugh but then we began to have to turn in our knives separately so no more would be stolen.
The Stars
I went to lunch one day and overheard a couple of guys in the Mexican army talking about how someone saw Dennis Quaid and he waved at one of them. I had just seen my THIRD Dennis Quaid look alike on this picture so I am pretty confident that the Mexicans mistook one of us for Dennis Quaid. Since Sam Houston was not at the Alamo, we were told that Quaid would not be in town for the first couple of months. Only after that when the Battle of San Jacinto is scheduled should he arrive.
I didn’t do anything on camera all night one night, until the one high point. I FINALLY GOT TO MEET DENNIS QUAID. Why he was on the set early, no one knew, but he was walking right by me so I said, “Excuse me Mr. Quaid, I have always wanted to meet you since people have been telling me for years that I look like you” while shaking his hand. Without missing a beat he replied, “ That’s funny, for years people have been telling me I look like you”. Big laugh from my buddies. I think he was being sarcastic but he said it with a smile. I also think what I said must be said to him ALL THE TIME hence, the clever response. It was a shame the other Dennis Quaid look alike was not working that night. We could have been doubly annoying.
Next there are the secondary actors. Most of those guys have done a few movies or perhaps a lot, but are pretty nice none-the-less. And then there are the re-enactors, who take everything very seriously.
The Crew
The wranglers and stunt men are numerous. The wranglers were nice but acted like stern cowboys, and the stunt guys were good natured but serious about their job. The hair cutters, make up artists and costumers were all really nice and tolerant of over a hundred sweaty ill kept guys.
I decided there is a job that stood out from all the others…. It was the “Smoke Monkey”. He was responsible for making sure the smoke pots are constantly burning all over the Alamo (like parts of the Alamo are smoldering all the time from the continuous cannon bombardment), and when a star was in a scene, to manually fan the smoke in that direction. He had a large hand “fan” to do that with. Prestigious. The smoke made you think that the Alamo defenders died from emphysema. It gave me a headache faster than casino smoke. We started to HATE the smoke monkeys.
And then there was the “Grease Guy”. He snuck up behind you in a crowd and ran his hands through the back of your hair. At first I thought he was just being overly friendly. I then discovered he was putting grease in our hair to make it dirtier looking. If he caught you in makeup standing in line, then his sidekick, “Dirt Girl”, used a brush to apply dirt to the grease already in your hair. One of my buddies offered to “hold my hat” the first time I got trapped by this dynamic duo. Pretty funny worm on me and I could not do turn-about as he wore a wig for the movie.
One afternoon, my highlight of the day was that I found out that one of the historians on the set was Stephen Hardin, the author of “Texian Iliad”, one of the most accurate histories of the Alamo battle. I had a GREAT talk with him. He said he would autograph my book so I eventually got it to him on a later day. Funny guy, he said “ I told the directors not to hire re-enactors as they are all middle-aged fat men like me, but the armies at the time were young, lean mean, marching machines”.
The Extras
I heard the term “BK” early in the shoot. That would be us… as we were “background” (aka extra’s). I couldn’t decide which sounded more degrading. I think I wanted to be called “Cannon Fodder” which has more of a ring to it. We had all the status of other props on the set, be it cattle dung, rocks or a goat perhaps. One of the guys came up with another new name for us “props that eat”; we REALLY liked that one.
In mid-February, the first announcement of the day was “Some of you have been in the movie more than others. You FRONT ROW people need to back off and let some of your buddies get in the movie too”.
The Tambour guys did nothing all morning that day but we did watch a group of workers carefully burn wood to create the charred remains of the houses Crockett burned last week. Yes, the houses were already burned and there, but apparently there is a job to be had in making BETTER burned houses. What a job.
Many of us sat waiting times out in the long barracks (where the New Orleans Greys were going to die later) and stayed relatively warm and dry while waiting for them to need us. At one point, the guys in the next room started “foot pumping” their air mattress. It sounded EXACTLY like someone making love on a spring mattress. So those of us in our room hollered through the door for them to stop “doing it”. They responded by making the appropriate love making noises “Come on baby”, “Who’s your daddy” etc. AND accelerating their foot pumping action on the mattress. Very funny moment for 30 tired, bored guys. One of the electricians walked through while this was going on (all rooms are pretty much connected around the entire perimeter) and he really had a “What the hell is going on?” look on his face.
We did get to see 7 minutes of film footage in March when they brought in an outdoor theater and set it up, which was really cool. There were some GREAT scenes and some “funny” scenes (from our point of view). There was a great shot of Travis seeing the Alamo in the distance for the first time. There were some good battle scenes with Mexicans pouring over the walls and winning (that got cheers from the Mexican Army). THEN there was the funny stuff. A BEAUTIFUL sunset shot of a dozen or so men on the wall with the sun setting behind them. One silhouette is clearly CHEWING GUM with a mission. Another silhouette turns sideways and we THINK it was his excess belt that was sticking WAY out making a pretty impressive looking “happy to be here”.
The daily extra bus trip back from the set to the dressing rooms took about 20 minutes or so. I was in a bus with about 50 Mexicans and just a few defenders one evening. The Mexicans got really loud and funny. I suggested at one point that they sneak up to the walls for the final assault scene and yell “Whaaatzzzuppp” instead of “Viva Santa Anna” they liked this idea and started saying “whaaatzzuppp” about a thousand times for death scenes and anything else they could think of. It was a horrendous amount of noise. The bus driver just looked up at us in her rear view mirror and shook her head.
The Weather
The weather during this four month period was typical Texas extreme weather…..extreme cold, extreme heat, rain, ice and snow, glaring sun.
A lot of rainy days and nights happened during the filming. One day, we got to huddle in the extras’ “holding pen” with hot chocolate while it poured rain most of the morning. There was non-stop drizzle during all of one week so we slopped through the same mud everyday except inside the Alamo complex where they made a good effort to keep it dry. It was always liquid mud out there on those days. So there was this light tan coating on everything! When we did march through the mud to the Alamo at night they had set up the most impressive spotlight I have ever seen. It was so bright that even glancing in the general direction of it left a retinal burn on your eyes for 10 minutes or so. Talk about an artificial sun.
We spent one cold morning shooting Travis walking down the north ramp talking to people… over and over and over. During that shot they had five 8-foot tall propane heaters out there as we were not dressed for freezing. We all huddled around the ONE that they bothered to light so we looked like a huddled mass worshipping an idol for the God of Heat.
By 2AM one cold night, we were frozen as it felt like it was 10 below zero and you could not cover your hands with anything but “period gloves” (which only the re-enactors owned). We were cold and miserable.
On the day that we first had to all be ready before dawn for the big “Runaway from Bexar (San Antonio)” scene as Santa Anna’s army was approaching, they gave us luggage to carry. I got handed a very nice all wood giant binocular case (that is what it looked like). My buddy got a HUGE whiskey jug. It was very heavy and was subject to much jest. The sun never came up that day…it was very overcast, foggy, and cold, so the shot never happened. ALL THOSE horses, wagons, women and children had to come back the next day.
The Food
Around 10 o'clock on the first day of shooting, they brought around snacks for us. Water, bagels, cream cheese, and salmon! I couldn't believe they not only served Yankee food to this rough bunch of Texicans but FISH! Ewwwwwww. For the afternoon snack they brought more water and FRUIT CUPS. Gag me! My finicky palate rebelled initially. But as the filming progressed, I discovered that there was actually a pretty good menu of food, including full meals with a variety of choices available to us daily, although extras didn’t exactly get to eat inside at a dining table covered in white linen with fine china and silver. Kudos to the chefs who achieved this for hundreds daily.
Shooting the Flintlock
One day, the other groups there had powder so they were practicing trying to load their guns while lying down. It was hard to pour powder down a very long musket barrel while lying down. You could easily tell the difference in just a half charge going off versus the correct charge going off. (It was also obvious when someone was unaware that his first charge did not work and then a “double” charge resulted). We finally got some powder and loaded our weapons and prepared to charge a group of Mexican Lancers on horseback. The crew was doing little “mini” practice films of this. We all screamed and ran towards them and shot our muskets above their heads. It was great fun for all and my “made in Japan” musket worked every single time, unlike some of my brethren whose muskets were already busted by then.
One night in late March, we finally got to do something more real with our guns. The Army wheeled away from the palisade so we got to shoot our guns at them. Only allowed to load the pans though so no real noise. Also, when loading the pan in the dark, it is easy to put in too much. Flashed my own face a couple of times. Then, on the last shot, we weren’t allowed to use any powder at all so we were just play acting shooting our weapons. Looked pretty lame. I faked getting shot once. A lot of battle scenes completed. Apparently they will fix the rest with computer graphics.
During the actual filming, we did some shooting from the north wall at the advancing Mexican army and this time it was more fun. We got to shoot our own weapons; we loaded them then tapped down a cotton ball. This was to keep the powder from pouring out the barrel when we leaned over the walls and shot down in a 45 degree angle. The result was we shot flaming cotton balls about 10 feet. The one snafu was two of the first 5 shooters had weapons that did not discharge, and that always looks dumb…especially when the first shot is to signal the rest of us to shoot. It was also very apparent that many people on both sides of the battle are not proficient with their weapons. Thank God the most dangerous thing we had shot so far was a cotton ball. One night after dark, we got to shoot our muskets at the Mexican army attacking the wall. The Mexicans complained to us later at the fiery cotton balls raining on them. I witnessed one of the Mexican army blast the hat off another in the Mexican army who was in front of him. It would have been funny if it weren’t so dangerous.
Daytime Filming
On more than one day, I spent time being “deep background” (that is where you are at least 50 yards from the camera if not farther). Most of the guys are smart enough to avoid being picked for that duty and take a nap instead. I was not always smart. They set us up at the blacksmith area and put a smoke pan amongst us to give the appearance of a smoldering Alamo. That walnut dust they burn just gives you a headache…..period. So sometimes all you got for the day’s work was a headache and a costume that reeks of smoke.
While shooting an outdoor scene once, a helicopter came close enough that they had to “cut” and stop filming because of the sound the helicopter made. The director was not happy. We waited as the chopper flew a circle around our position but at some distance. One of the director’s assistants was on the phone with the FAA or someone trying to find out who was responsible for the aircraft ruining our shoot. I was thinking it would be really funny if he circled us twice AND HE DID, this time closing even closer to our position. The director was livid at this point. After two complete circles, the chopper suddenly veered off away back towards Austin. Guess we got through to whoever was responsible.
During the second try of a scene about fleeing the town of Bexar, at least two hundred women, children and men were spread out over about a 500 yard area to make a mad dash for the Alamo with four cameras in various places recording. They positioned men in key places to make sure the cattle or horses did not run over anybody. On the first take, we all arrived on cue albeit breathing hard. (I only ran about 50 yards and managed to beat all the wagons and a few horses across the bridge). We “reset”, and the assistant director came out and screamed at us about how some “dumb asses” were smiling and ruined the shot. I can’t imagine who could have been smiling…. grimacing maybe, because of the crap we had to carry and running at the same time while dodging cattle poop. If you see a guy in a full-length black wool coat, top hat, musket and designer baggage trying to run….that would be me. The last shot of the day was driving cattle and some of us into the Alamo gate. A few cattle went right instead of left and the Tambour was soon filled with 600-pound Longhorns who were not amused. Surprised they didn’t wreck the place.
In early February, we spent the WHOLE DAY on one scene. It was shot from five different angles with a minimum of two cameras. The scene concerned a cannon ball fired into the Alamo by the Mexican army. The fuse was still burning and Travis cuts the fuse off and fires it back. The scene had a lot of meaning in showing Travis was very brave.
On February 12 and 13 was one of the best battle scenes so far. The Mexicans did their initial assault on the south corner of the Alamo. You can see the Tambour from that angle, so we got to shoot at them and be on several views of the camera including a few feet behind my head. There were a few problems with the scene though. Crockett and his guys must have cranked off 50 rounds between them and we added another 40 from our positions. Two ranks of Mexicans lined up perfectly to rank fire back and only one of them fell dead. Crockett’s guys had Tennessee Long Rifles that could snuff a candle at 100 yards historically. That lone soldier did die great though. The last part of the day they put a camera right behind my head and a couple of other guys. We loaded and fired our weapons, then the 18 pound cannon on the wall shot and blew a nearby house to bits. I heard on the play back that we looked great EXCEPT for an idiot on the end who couldn’t get his musket to work. My musket worked perfectly, and hopefully his inability to work his weapon or “pretend fire” won’t get us cut. (They only blew that house up once). We ended that day waiting an hour in line to turn in our dirty weapons. (Clean weapons got out first; bummer.) The next day, there was more shooting of the scene where the Mexicans attack us for the first time. Crockett and his men ran out and set the remaining buildings on fire so the enemy cannot use them for cover. Crockett’s right hand man dropped his torch on the first take. Then, when they yelled “cut”, the fire hose did not work….so more house burned up than they wanted and they had to re-straw it. It was funny watching the guy run out with a limp fire hose that stayed limp.
An embarrassing moment occurred for me one morning. We were “running to our posts” in the background of Crockett running to his. I had perfected a swing-my-gun-off-my-shoulder from the carrying position to the firing position. Everyone thought it looked cool. So I decided to do this movement while on the run which will look even more cool. I did it while standing in front of the Chapel (which was my starting point for the scene), and for the first time, the ram rod came out during the spin and flew across the courtyard about 20 feet. It came close to hitting a worker. He didn’t seem to mind…but my friend was laughing his ass off. I retrieved my rod and replaced it, so hardly anyone noticed. I wedged the ramrod in so it wouldn’t happen again and did the stunt the half dozen times for a shot no one will probably ever see.
We did a close-up scene where Crockett and Travis and men are “fighting off” the Mexican advance. This had some good moments. The cameras were only a few feet in front of Crockett and his men when they are firing their weapons. To create the illusion of bullets impacting the wall in front of Crockett, the technicians fired “dust balls” from paint ball guns that are hard clear plastic round balls with different colored dust inside. It looks real. An extra got hit in the neck by a stray shot and it actually drew blood. We thought that was pretty funny as he was behind at least eight of the actors, and all he was doing was loading rifles and passing them forward. However, it was fortunate he didn’t get hit in the eye as that would have been genuinely bad…but in the neck was funny.
Another scene had the Tambour guys opening the gate for a defender horse rider while Crockett and his marksman shoot two pursuing Mexicans off their horses. The stunt men did a great job getting shot off the horses. The horses on the other hand were a tad unpredictable. It occurred to someone that the “rider-less” horses might try to follow the rider right into the Alamo. What to do about the gates? Since I was the closest to the gate, we worked it out that I would holler down to my buddies how many horses were coming so they would know when to close the gate. That worked out well; I ended up hollering for two horses and even three horses as sure enough, the horses tried to follow one another
Back at the Tambour during the first week of April when we finally resumed day filming after a grueling month of night shots, they decided to let me fire a cannon on film. I pretended to aim it, prime it and holler “ready” and “fire”. I was feeling pretty good about the whole event until I was reminded that the camera saw my rear end mostly and there were NO microphones around.
The entire Mexican army and all Defenders were needed the second week of April for the “dead” shot. It took forever to get all 400 of us through makeup. Lots of guys on both sides were made bloody but I was just made ashen colored. Then we were sent to the Alamo where the Victorious Mexican Army was shown picking up the dead to burn, tending to their wounded and looting the defenders. If it hadn’t been so blasted hot in our outfits it would have been fun. While I was trying to look dead I was rolled over and “looted”. I thought it would look great if a Mexican found a cell phone…. held it up and shouted “SCORE”. No one listened to my ideas.
We were supposed to finish the dead shot on the following day, but it was too windy for the high cameras, so we sat in holding all day and didn’t do anything except go through makeup for Dead makeup and then to get Un-Dead. They wrapped us early, and I was heading out the door in my jeans when they stopped us for a “volunteer”. It seemed an extra who was in the Santa Anna wedding scene was not there and they wanted to shoot that scene now. They rounded up five other guys and me who looked something like the guy they had a Polaroid snapshot of. I was not their first choice, but the first choice was too short so I was picked. I was the right height and size for the outfit except the original guy had huge size 11 boots. So, off to makeup in the “star” sector where they made my fair hair darker, sideburns bigger and added a mustache. I think I looked hilarious but I was good enough to be the “Mexican dignitary” at the wedding. I also think it is amusing that an extra stands in for an extra. Kind of like double unimportant. I crossed myself in true Catholic fashion and repeated the appropriate words in Latin even though I didn’t have a clue what I was saying. At least I got to see Emilio Echevarria, the actor playing Santa Anna, up close.
Night Filming
On February 27 was the first night filming for me. It had been cold all week (one day of shooting had even been cancelled due to a sleet storm that paralyzed Central Texas), and that night was no exception. Everybody on the set the night before told us endless stories of being wet, sheltered in leaky buildings and having insufficient gear to stay warm. It became quickly apparent that there were no “homophobes” when you are facing hypothermia. We also quickly learned a funny thing about nights. We got there early enough for a “dusk” shot of something. Then stood around for the next shot which was not usually ready till 9PM or so. By 8PM however, you are SURE it is 2AM. Boredom at night was tougher to tolerate.
The extras that worked the most one night were the younger guys who got to sit around the campfire while Crockett told a story. By thirty takes and ten bowls of stew later, most of the extras in the circle were ready to puke. The “sun” trucks were strategically placed outside the Alamo pointed in. Easily, a couple of acres of lit countryside. With the drizzle, it looked like a full moon night at ground level. Cool.
March arrived and night shooting continued. A typical night shoot involved reporting at 4 PM and leaving at 6 AM. While we were waiting in line in costume, we started giving one of our buddies grief. He got his “money shot” (where the camera is clearly focused on you and no one else) in this scene; he was reading/writing a letter to home on the night before the final battle. Of course the cameras filmed all the big stars doing their letters, but our extra buddy was in the opening shot. He is a Tambour guy and we, of course, were all jealous but were ribbing him good-naturedly. “So, were you writing a doctor’s note excusing you from battle?”, “Your doctor said that the Alamo defense was bad for your health?”, that sort of thing. He took it all in good humor.
March 19 felt like the longest night yet. I did only one scene but it was my finest. Finest in the sense that I flee better than anybody. “When danger showed its ugly head, brave Sir Bill turned and fled”. They were shooting the scene where the Greys fall back to the long barracks. At this point in the shoot, the Mexicans have stormed over the whole North. It is pandemonium in a sense; my job was to flee parallel to the horizontal position long barracks. The problem is the bulk of Defenders were fleeing INTO the barracks with the Mexican army close on their heels. It is a running battle so there were “dead”, “shooters” and “shooties” plus some really wicked looking ax wielding “specialists”. These Mexican army guys were large men, full beards, had huge axe’s with big blades presumably to knock in wooded doors and wooden windows. They had leather aprons on and look like demented butchers. So, back to fleeing. We did a few rehearsals and I practiced my “looking over my shoulder scared look”. The tricky part was NOT stepping on “dead” guys (the ones that are not dummies or just hit the ground) while looking over my shoulder and not running into the camera at my end of the exit of scene. All in the dark and smoke. The rehearsals went fine (only one take could be done as a massive explosion ripped the wall off the barracks when the Army got to it.) So, I had brushed shoulders with someone but no big deal,…. that happens. On the REAL shot though, just as I was clearing the scene, a Texian must have been running full steam and hit me low and hard. I wasn’t knocked off my feet or anything but ended up tripping and stumbling while off camera with his hat between my legs. Graceful.
They wrapped 90% of the Mexican army one night, and kept only ten of us for the rest of the week. We played dead guys for the “dog shot” (Historically, a guy had his dog there and the dog survived the battle) so we got to lay around him as he cowered with his dog. That was hands down the worst job so far. The blood left your extremities, and cramps set in as the shot took about an hour and we had to be motionless without a change of position. One of my buddies was lying with his head lower than the rest of his body. They bloodied up his face too. So that may be his “money shot”. I don’t think I was close enough to the dog to be seen. It was VERY cold again, and the guys with the “blood” on their bodies got numb from that.
On the last day of March, we started the “Cantina” night scene. They brought in a bunch of new extras for this (with better clothes as it was explained to me). All the real stars were needed for this, but my acting ability or some other odd reason won me and my friends the much-coveted spot 50 yards down the street holding the wall up while the big party was INSIDE the cantina. One funny moment occurred, but I actually successfully KEPT MY MOUTH SHUT. They brought out some new extras for the scenes in Bexar. A Senora was talking to a couple of the Greys near me. She pointed to their grey uniforms and asked “What color are the other guys?” (as if she was referring to the Civil War). I REALLY wanted to say “Brown”!
As the “Cantina” scene continued on subsequent nights, I got to start one evening actually sitting at a cantina table. When the scene got going, two of my friends would walk behind me acting drunk…. and knock my hat off. It was funny ONCE to me, but to them it was worth repeating for all twenty takes.
In early April, I think I finally got my “money shot” (which is what we call it when the camera is on us alone). Travis and Bowie were going after it at the Cantina about who was supposed to be in charge. I was one of only three guys who voted for Travis (we WERE Travis men after all), so the camera was right on me. Now I will be praying until the movie comes out that it doesn’t land on the cutting room floor.
Working with the Stars
There was also the moment I recorded as my “one foot from greatness”. After they shifted everyone around to make a “perfect” crowd to hear a speech, I found myself very close to Crockett. I am sure when the camera focused on him it got the two people on both sides of him as well as the guys in front and directly behind. I believe there will be a GREAT SHOT of my neck as I was above the guy above Crockett. To reiterate my suspicions about whether I was in the camera shot, two makeup artists looked right at me and conferred, then one nodded “no”. During a reset I asked Crockett if it would be ok for me to make “rabbit ears” above his head for the next shot. Good naturedly he said “it won’t bother ME if you do that but……” Billy Bob Thornton really was a good guy. He thanked me for the local arrowheads collection I gave him for his kid. His personal assistant must have pointed me out, as there is no way he could have kept track of or remembered our brief conversations.
While waiting for the next scene, an Apache attack helicopter came close to the set, flying low level with an obvious cannon mounted under the front fuselage. I happened to see Travis standing around and walked up to him reporting “Col Travis, the Apache helicopter is here and waiting for instructions to attack”. Patrick Wilson was mildly amused and replied that he too saw the helicopter and wondered why it was in the area. The Texan defenders were quick to tell the Mexican army that the helicopter was on our side, and that we were going to win the battle this time.
In late March, it became unbelievably cold at night again, and there was a pretty good scene one night with Crockett. He had just come to town and was speaking to us in an open-air cantina. I was standing with my “wife” listening to him speak. It should be a great shot of the back of my head. They did the scene about 20 or 30 times from all angles so we had Crockett’s lines memorized halfway into the night. The scene starts off funny with Crockett telling his line about “You go to Hell, I am going to Texas!” and the crowd is excited that he is here and Jim Bowie is pointed out. At the end of the scene Crockett appeared to think that the fighting was over while everyone else thought he has come to fight, so a guy said to Crockett “With you here, Santa Anna (he pronounced it more like Santana) would not dare come to Bexar.” Crockett responded in a puzzled fashion “I thought the fighting was over…..Isn’t it?” After about 15 takes, “Crockett” started deliberately changing his lines. Really can’t repeat the dialog he created but he had us all laughing. Crockett also wore a coonskin hat for the first time in this scene and that brought on a bunch of jokes as the hat had a REALLY long tail on it. In between two takes, Billy Bob Thornton actually talked to me for a bit, which was really nice of the guy. I told him how much we enjoyed his dialog deviations. I can’t stop saying what a great guy he is…countless people approached him for autographs and he was so nice about it. All stars should be like that.
Wrapping It
The last weeks contained a huge scene with all the Mexican army needed as well as all defenders. The defenders ALL got to play dead for the long shots and it was rough because it was so hot to lay out there on the ground in the sun in a wool outfit. The Mexican officers and Lancers had very impressive uniforms. The make up jobs on the dead were very realistic. It all looked great. The horses filled the air (and ground) with their own sweet-smelling ambiance…. We also finished up the shots in Bexar with even more extras to be townspeople. At one time I know there were at least 500 people, carts and animals for the crew to deal with and it all went very well. I doubt I will be used at San Jacinto, as I am technically dead (four times over). I will miss it all of course, a very memorable 3 months of my life, my fellow extras and all the wonderful cast and crew who worked so hard to not only make a great movie, but to make it great for those of us privileged enough to be in this movie.
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