What A *Production*

I think now I know where the phrase, "What a production!" comes from.

An email went out to the local triathlon community that Hawaii Five-0 was looking for some "real" triathletes to be extras in an upcoming episode they were filming. Shhh. Don't tell anyone, but I have never seen Hawaii Five-0.

But whatever! A chance to maybe be on TV?!? Count me in! :) Lol. Actually, it was my boss (I have a super cool boss) who encouraged me to do it. He got the email too and told me to go and to wear my Coffees of Hawaii suit and give coffee to the production crew. Um, ok!


So a bunch of us showed up this morning at 6:00AM (yes, they start early) and seriously had no clue what the day was going to hold. It was still dark out but we met at the prescribed location and first thing were told to see 'Wardrobe'. Apparently they weren't going to allow anyone to wear any logos and give free advertising on national television. Bummer. BUT, that just means that they gave me a new tri top and shorts so that was cool.

All set up in our new non-logo'd outfits, they directed us into a big room to go fill out some paperwork. They had a bunch of good food and some bad coffee for us (I seriously need to find the person in charge of that and fix their coffee problem. People were talking. It was bad.)

Then we started to wait. And we waited some more. Nobody knew anything. So we waited. Eventually they sent us on our bikes to downtown Chinatown where they were going to film a triathlon scene. Hmmm. Downtown Chinatown. Really? At rush hour? It was about 8:00AM at this point but yes, we rode our bikes to Chinatown and blocked traffic for several hours while we rode circles around one city block. They filmed us riding by a short section of the block for about 20 seconds at a time. We waited. Then we did it some more. We had a little friendly bet going on about how many times we would do this? The guesses ranged from 7-70x. We all lost count at some point but in total I think it was on the lower range of that scale. It was pretty fun though! I was right up front and made it my mission to always be first to round the corner. Not because I was racing, but because being first around the corner is the safest place to be when you're riding with a huge group of triathletes who may or may not have good bike handling skills.

At some point they apparently got the footage they wanted and told us to ride our bikes back to the main building. It wasn't too far away. We all arrived there and then sat around and waited. For like an hour. This will come as no shock to anyone, but, um, triathletes are not good at just sitting around and doing nothing. We are planners by nature. Just tell us the plan, Danno. And don't waste time. Unfortunately, this is not how film production goes. Seriously. Somebody must know the plan. Somebody must see the big picture. But whoever that person was did not share much/any of that with us minions. And the rest of the people really did not know the plan so as much as we tried to press them for it, it was no use.

Looking around the scene we were all amazed at how much stuff has to be moved from place to place for all these different scenes. Truckloads of stuff. Hence, the hurry up and wait theme for the day. Every time there was a set change it was at least an hour of wait time for us while a whole bunch of crew members scurried around transporting their truckloads of stuff. Our only entertainment during this time was keeping our eyes peeled for the HOT guy. All the girls were talking about him. Seriously. Everyone was like he's perfect. He's so hot...

I guess the lead actor is supposed to be the specimen of specimen when it comes to men. I don't know. I don't watch the show. But I wasn't blown away. Sorry. But that was entertaining to say the least!

Anyway, it went on like that... ride bikes a bit, hurry up and wait for the truckloads of stuff to be moved... ask about what we were doing next... nobody knows... finally someone gives us instructions on where to go and we start the process all over again. Eventually later in the afternoon we got to hear (a rumor of) the plot of the episode. Spoiler Alert!! Apparently a couple of bad guys go steal some diamonds and then use the local triathlon as a cover up to hide. So they jump into the race on their nice brand new carbon Felt bikes and with their TT helmets, carrying the diamonds with them in their fanny packs. Then the good guys figure it out and start running through the triathlon trying to catch the bad guys. Eventually somebody rolls an ice chest from an aid station right out in front of one of the thieves while she is riding and she does an endo over her bike. Ouch. They handcuff her and take her away. (This endo scene was actually pretty cool!)

Realistic for a triathlon, no? ;)

Monday we go back for one more day of filming. Apparently we are going to be coming out of the water and in bike transition on Monday... What? You don't do the bike leg of the triathlon before the swim/bike transition? Well that's how we do it on Five-0.

Coming home tonight Nalani and I were discussing our thoughts on the day. Here's what I came up with:
~It was a super cool thing to be a part of.
~I'm glad I decided to go.
~If someone offered me a full time job doing this I would turn it down. The lifestyle is not for me.