Adventures in Self-Publishing: Part One -- The Law Office Journals

About Being an Extra on 'Homicide'

Here I am in my law office, back in the day ...

Saturday, 9/23/95 (11:12 p.m.)

After four hours sleep this morning, I rushed off to the Maryland Writers Association's annual conference. All things considered, I managed to maintain a reasonable facsimile of alertness throughout.

Yesterday's stint on "Homicide" was very interesting. On arriving at 3:15 p.m. at the site – the intersection of Route 40 and Pulaski in downtown Baltimore – I was directed to the holding area for extras, a gymnasium at a nearby school. I entered the gym to find three rows of chairs, with bored-looking people sitting in some of them, as if waiting for a doctor's appointment.

Fortunately, I'd brought a book. We waited. At 4:00, I thought I heard someone say that "the company" would be arriving in 1/2 an hour. Later, I heard someone else say it was 6:30. At around 6:45, the company arrived and snacks were provided. Mostly junk food – chips, pretzels, candy, cheese puffs. Also apples. I ignored the apples (all red, no Golden delicious!), chose from several varieties of junk food and washed it all down with a cup of lukewarm coffee. Show biz truly is a glamorous occupation.

While the crew filmed a stunt involving a tractor-trailer wreck, we waited some more. The group, silent at first, began to talk among themselves. In the middle of the gym floor, several mats had been laid next to each other, forming one large mat. One guy went, laid down on the mat, and put his jacket over his face, as if to shut out the bright gym lights and catch a nap.

At about 7:45, we were led to a truck outside the school cafeteria – one of those chuck wagon trucks – where we were served "lunch," as they called it. There were several foods to choose from, plus a salad bar inside the cafeteria. While we ate, I spotted Andre Braugher (Detective Pembleton), Kyle Secor (Det. Bayliss), and Melissa Leo (Det. Howard) milling about. Isabella Hoffman (Capt. Megan Russert) was also there, walking about with her hair up in huge, orange-juice-can-sized rollers. An interesting sight.

Just as I was finishing "lunch," I heard someone say, "Be in your cars by 8:30." It was 8:15. I finished quickly and was at my car by 8:25. I got in and – of course – waited. And waited.

At 9:15 or so, they moved us forward to the point where the scene was to be set up. Scenes, really. They filmed several.

Sometimes they filmed us moving and sometimes standing still. They filmed us merging into one lane and driving past a jack-knifed tractor-trailer. They filmed us standing still with cops running past, shining flashlights in our cars. Before each shot, they'd arrange the cars so the effect was just right, so the appearance of a traffic jam was convincing.

After we cleared the road obstruction, we were instructed to do a loop back and reenter Rte. 40 from where we first came in. The first few times, I followed the car in front of me to the right and got back okay, but through a neighborhood I'd just as soon have never visited – particularly at night. Going left and doubling back on Route 40 West turned out to be a much better way to go.

After doing this about 10 times or so, and after possibly being in several scenes, they let us go at 2:50 in the morning. All in all, quite an experience.

Sun. 9/24/95

You really hit me at the right time. Normally, I don't have all that much in the way of noteworthy activities. This past week and this weekend, I had that screwy document production, my participation in filming "Homicide", a writer's conference, and today, a "Stitch and Bitch" with some friends from my old job at EPA.

Someone at EPA invented the "stitch and bitch". Basically, a group of female attorneys who either liked to knit or wanted to learn got together now and then to talk and knit. In other words, to stitch and bitch.

Today's session was held at the house of a friend living in Marbury, MD in Charles County. It takes about an hour or so to get there from my house. I brought chocolate chip cookies – we each bring something to eat generally. I like to make chocolate chip cookies, but today I had to settle for Entenmann's. Not a bad substitute, really.

Julie made saffron rolls. Andrea made some kind of nut and fruit salad. Yuppie food. I stayed several hours to knit and talk about old times and the latest events in our lives.

I got home aroundquarter after seven. Rick and I had a simple dinner of soup, rice and salad. Wesettled in for the evening and watched the season premiere of "X-Files", whichwe'd taped on Friday while I was driving around Baltimore.    

PS: So, really, I wasn't the extra on Homicide so much as my car was!

And here's the car I owned at the time.