Well, the day has finally come–The Hunger Games is now in theaters everywhere. To celebrate, I thought I’d share a funny photo I took when I was working on set as an extra. It just goes to show that even the Capitol appreciates bathroom humor.

We are now less than a week away from what is sure to be one of the major movie events of the year. Based on the bestselling books, Liongate’s dystopian monolith The Hunger Games comes out next Friday, March 23′rd. As a big fan of the books this is really exciting to me, and I’m not alone. It’s hard to go pretty much anywhere these days without seeing some sort of Hunger Games pandemonium. The flick is plastered all over store shelves, filling tables with merch and branding magazine racks with its fiery golden Mockingjay logo (which is a badass literary metaphor in addition to just looking freaking sweet). The film’s trailers run constantly on almost every TV station, and you can forget trying to be online and not see a link to a teaser or cast interview.

With all of this buzz, hubbub, and hoopla, it’s easy to believe the film’s tagline: “The World Will be Watching.” I know I will, along with my friends and family. But we’re going to the theater to see more than just Jennifer Lawrence on fire (insert a “hot” joke here). We’re going to try and spot yours truly hiding somewhere in the background.

If you either haven’t heard or aren’t a nerd like me who reads every bit of information on an IMDB page, The Hunger Games was shot entirely right here in my home state of North Carolina. I am no actor (I belong behind the camera–like way, waaay behind), but when I got word of this early last year, I had to try to get involved. I responded to an open online casting call for extras, and a few months later I got a call asking me to come down to Charlotte to work on a few scenes. I happily agreed, and a few weeks later I was on set for one of the biggest movies of the year. It was like stepping into the book. Totally surreal.

I could write a whole post on what went on that day. It was a some of the most fun I’ve ever had, with a little bit of the crushing monotony and agonizing hurry-up-and-wait of a film set thrown in for good measure. But regardless, it was still a day I’ll never forget. Especially after I later found out that our director that day was Steven Soderbergh. Yeah, THAT Steven Soderbergh. Once the film comes out I might do another post going into more detail about what we did that day, but I think the filmmakers are trying to keep that scene somewhat under wraps as I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere (there is one split second shot from it at the 38 second mark in this trailer, however), so for now I’ll just say that I played a District 11 slave–Rue’s district, for any fans of the books. In fact I got to see the actors who played Rue and Thresh. They were picking at each other and playing like brother and sister. It was adorable. Oh, right. This is a movie about death. Let’s grim up.

It is hard to overstate just how incredibly small of a part of this film I was. I was like a grain of sand on the beach that is this movie. But even so, being on set and hearing the directors and producers talk about the film with a true passion (at one point a director actually stopped to explain a motivation to an extra, which I thought was really classy) left me with a big feeling about the flick: it was either going to suck, or be phenomenal. I am not alone in this feeling. I have heard the same opinion from several other people who worked on it, and recently even Liam Hemsworth (who plays District 12 stud muffin Gale Hawthorn, and also, his brother is Thor) echoed this thought in an interview at the premiere. He said that before he saw the completed film he was nervous about how it’d turn out, but now that it’s finished he thinks it’s a really great movie. I think that’s a pretty honest thing to say, and has made me even more excited about the flick. And I mean, if you can’t trust Thor’s little bro, who can you trust?

Overall I have been very impressed by the film’s marketing. Every ad I’ve seen has been powerful and has pulled no punches. And, praise be to everything holy, they have stayed away from the “We’re the next Twilight!” approach, though the comparisons are unavoidable. But what excites me most is an ad I saw on Facebook a few nights ago. It read: “Made for fans, by fans.” Yes. Thank you. That is how this film should be handled. It’s hard to describe the connection fans of a book series like this feel with the story. It’s a personal thing, almost a private one, and all too often movie companies come in to adapt the story and smack it with the Hollywood sledgehammer, blowing it to pieces so it can be put back together for a “moviegoing audience,” (see: Lemony Snicket). But that really doesn’t seem to be what Gary Ross and crew have done here, and if not, we could be looking at one hell of a good movie.

I realize that all speculation is pretty much worthless until the flick is out. Movie’s are strange, fickle things, and the crap that Hollywood will make and put out never ceases to amaze (see: Twilight). But based on what I’ve seen so far and my tiny sliver of a glimpse behind the scenes, I have a lot of hope for this movie. I’ve already bought my ticket and will be there on opening night sitting next to the fangirls getting all hot and bothered by Josh Hutcherson (to be clear, I will be neither hot nor bothered–I meant the girls). If nothing else it’ll be fun to see how the scene I was in came out, and remember a really great day I spent living in the Hunger Games world.

Oh and by the way, don’t break your neck trying to spot me in the flick. Even if I wind up center screen, I doubt you’ll recognize me. I was given a crazy bad depression-era haircut that I later had to spend 15 bucks to have fixed. Oh the glamour of the movie business.

Thanks for reading.

Cliff

Hey, everyone.

Occasionally I hear from folks who ask to read an article I wrote for The Linking Ring. Unfortunately this is not very easy to do as The Linking Ring isn’t a magazine you can just go pickup at Barnes and Noble. But your wish is my command, so below there are a few links where you can download some of my articles and read them until your eyes fall out. Well, don’t do that. They aren’t good enough to justify losing your eyes. Plus I’d like for you to have eyes so you can read one of my books someday.

Okay, I’m going to shut up now. Click the links below to download the articles.

Thanks for reading,

Cliff

Hello all,

So I finally had time to (translated: I finally remembered to) write up a little info on myself for the Bio page. I find writing about myself to be really hard, as well as a wonderful exercise in narcissism. But the page is up, so the website is finally up and running the way I want it to be.

Talk to you guys soon.

-Cliff

I have had so much trouble over the past few months trying to get a website running that is simple and easy to use, but still has a stylish look. But apparently the venn diagram of simple, stylish, easy to use websites and things that don’t exist is a perfect circle.

So this is my latest attempt. I am still getting info put up, as you can no doubt tell. No guarantees it will all be up and running very soon as I am moving this weekend. Yeah, perfect time for everything to go to hell with the last site I had up.

Sorry if I sound grumpy. It’s one in the morning and I’m listening to Marilyn Manson. It’s a miracle I’m still sane. Of course my sanity is a matter of constant debate among my family and friends, so that may be a moot point.

I hope you like the site. I’m going to go sleep.

Hi. So yeah, my website is under construction. Again. I really suck at website stuff.