Columbia’s Cattle Call
Film students get a chance to be on the big screen

>By Kristen Menke
Managing Editor

Holy Hollywood movie, Batman!

The latest installment of the Batman series, tentatively titled Batman Begins, is coming to Chicago. And Columbia students got the first call, the first casting call, that is.

Joan Philo, an independent extras casting director, held a casting call for nonspeaking extras on June 24, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 502 in the 1104 Center, 1104 S. Wabash Ave.

“I love Columbia. I do a lot of films and I get my interns through here,” Philo said. “I find the best people at Columbia. … It’s a great source.”

“It’s a rare thing,” said Adam Berry, career adviser in the Film and Video Department who helps Philo get into Columbia for casting calls. “It gives students an opportunity to be [part of an] actual movie.”

Shooting for the extras’ scenes for Batman Begins, also titled Batman: Intimidation Game, starts July 30 and continues until the last week in August. All the scenes are night scenes and some roles may even be extended to stand-ins, where extras “stand in” for actors in order to get lighting for a scene set up.

Philo said she doesn’t plan to stop coming to Columbia to fill her scenes with extras anytime soon.

“I get people jobs and I love the people I meet here,” she said. “They’re great and cute and different looks. And sometimes I need very specific looks… and when I come here I definitely get a look, a student fun look. I like that.”

For Lorenzo Bonilla, a film and video graduate student and Christopher Bowen, a junior film and video major at Columbia this casting call was a first.

“It went pretty well,” Bowen said.

“It was pretty short,” Bonilla said. “She just told us that she’s going to look over some photos and have some one-on-one interviews with people. And she’ll let us know in a couple of days whether we’re in.”

“They just wanted the basics. If you’re available, what type you are. What size clothing you wear and a photo,” said Christopher Bowen a junior film and video major at Columbia.

DeShola Spencer, 29, an accounting major at Roosevelt University came to the casting call after getting an e-mail from a friend.

“I wanted to get into acting,” Spencer said. “And being an extra is really acting because you have to be serious.”

And while extras may not get the chance to meet Christian Bale, the newest caped crusader, they will take home a small paycheck. Extras earn $55 for an eight-hour day and time and a half for any overtime.

“I’m having this little open call even before I’m telling the world. ‘Cause I like to just get a little head start,” Philo said.

It’s just a matter of time before those Hollywood hopefuls get the call—from Philo at least—for their shot at the silver screen.

Slated for release in June 2005, Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan (of Memento fame) premieres 15 years after the first Batman starring Michael Keaton, and will bring the early life of Bruce Wayne and his beginnings as Batman to the screen. Bale, who starred in Velvet Goldmine and American Psycho, will have to overcome both Val Kilmer’s and George Clooney’s less than successful turns as Bruce Wayne in order to keep the franchise alive.