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Bay Area Extras Get 'Break'

Chris Echegaray / Tribune

Giovanni Gutierrez, marketing director for Centro Mi Diario, The Tampa Tribune's Spanish-language publication, waits for action on the set.

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By CHRIS ECHEGARAY

Published: November 15, 2007

TIERRA VERDE - We chased Michael Scofield, the protagonist from the popular show "Prison Break," through the jungles of Panama and scoured a beach to find him.

Well, it wasn't really Panama. It was Fort DeSoto Park and beach.

The cast and crew from the Fox television show started filming on Monday and wrapped it up on Wednesday. They put a call out for extras to shoot on Monday and Tuesday. With my curiosity piqued, I sent a photograph to the casting contact. I was in.

On Tuesday, 11 of us played the background role of Panamanian prison soldiers, armed with AR-15s, a side arm and gray uniforms – minions of a Panama general who will be introduced in the upcoming season.

It was lot more work than anticipated and it will be a lot more fun if any of us make the final edits. There will be no spoilers here. The season ended on Monday night and it wouldn't be right to give up any details.

Other than the "spritzer" ladies, crew members that went around spraying you with water and baby oil to give you the appearance that you were perspiring, it entailed a lot of repetition and waiting.

In our group of extras, there was a banker, a Polk County deputy, a USF student, a parks department employee, an aspiring R&B singer, a lawyer, a marketing director and a few others.

It was a long day.

We arrive at the park at 6 a.m. and there's at least 10 trucks and trailers in the parking lot. The sun has yet to rise and breakfast is ready.

We fill out a form that tells us we're non-union and we're going to get paid $75 for the day.

"That's what lawyers charge for 15 minutes," says Gil Sanchez, a Tampa lawyer who spent his time underneath the shade of a palm tree during the lulls between scenes.

We are told to chow down our breakfast – it was time to suit up and practice our scene.

A crew member walks us through, telling us how to run through a small patch that resembled a jungle. We had to familiarize ourselves with the path because we were going to run, making believe we were chasing after Scofield, actor Wentworth Miller, and other escapees.

We ran, and ran, and ran. We did about a dozen times until we got it right.

After each take we heard the yell, "spritz!" "spritz!" And the women came by to spray us.

From the start, we were told no taking pictures on the set, no autograph hounding or stalking of the stars. It didn't stop several of us from taking pictures with cell phones and Blackberries.

For the most part, the stars - Miller, Dominic Purcell, Chris Vance, Carlo Alban and William Fichtner – were not harassed, even by some spectators who camped around the site.

Once the main characters started filming, the lowly extras were told to wait. We did.

We ate every conceivable snack from craft services and lounged around until lunchtime. We were told union members got in line first and then we'd get behind them.

There was enough beef stroganoff and chicken marsala to feed an army.

At lunch, the director of photography was asked why film the jungle and beach scene in Tampa Bay?

"We don't have this in Texas," he says of the palm trees and the beach.

After lunch, the actors get back to work. Extras wait some more.

Sanchez, the Tampa lawyer, took off his vest and opened his shirt and assumed the position under the palm tree.

Shortly after 3 p.m., they round us up for scenes on the beach. The wardrobe ladies take a look at us and start spritzing. One of them takes a look at Sanchez and barks: "You're a discombobulated mess!"

Again, we are told to fan out as if conducting a search and run onto the beach. We run a full sprint through brush toward the beach. The aspiring singer falls face first in front of me. Laughter ensues.

There's one last scene on the beach involving extras before we call it a wrap.

Giovanni Gutierrez, marketing director for CENTRO Mi Diario, The Tampa Tribune's Spanish-language publication, is a soldier who makes a discovery. He is excited at the prospect of some face time on the camera because of the scene.

"I have a good chance," he says. "Anyway, my arm hurts from carrying the gun."

Reporter Chris Echegaray can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or cechegaray@tampatrib.com.

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