First arrival to Ratliff Stadium, I find myself in awe.  The west side parking lot has been transformed into resemblances of a local circus in town.  There are three large white tents, surrounded by three mobile home trailers parked in a parallel line, numerous types of equipment trucks, and several 18-wheelers.  One tent is to used for the voucher line, another is used for the eating area, and the third houses the background artist wardrobe department.  Each one maintains a line with several anxious, yet skeptical local extras.  You start in the check-in line to get your voucher.  Then you are directed to the wardrobe line, where you patiently wait to be assigned clothing.  You finally receive the attire chosen for the first day's shoot, and exit as you make your way to the next line - the dressing trailer.  It's morning, it's cold, and there's no electricity running inside.  Your stay at the trailer is very brief, as you get permission to journey to your vehicle to store your personal clothing.  While some use the remaining time to grab a doughnut and coffee, others are led to the make-up trailer for approval.  Hair is trimmed or curled.  Beards, goatees, and piercing are removed.  Remember, it's 1988.

As it nears daylight, production assistants and casting personnel group the mass of people into Boosters, Vultures, Trainers, Cheerleaders, Players, and Coaches.  Thinking you are almost ready to be in a Universal Studios movie, each broken down group is escorted to the props department trailer, and yes another line.  Group by group is led to the stands of the stadium.  Two massive light cranes stationed outside the home side welcome the 'background artists' to Hollywood in Odessa.  The fans are assembled in the lower areas of the stands, dressed in their black-n-white and stonewash jeans.  Each one is carrying their foam fingers, pom-poms, and tote bags.  It is now the players, trainers, and coaches that are allowed to enter the stadium.  Not allowed to enter as you would during a normal Friday Permian game, allowed to enter as in this is a motion picture film set.

The sun rises, the filming begins.  Around midday, everyone exits the stadium in groups and returns to the tent area, where two huge lines form.  The meal is being served on long buffet-style tables.  Everyone is introduced to the ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ meaning and phrase this very first day.  It would continue for the next seven weeks.  After the meal, everyone returns to another six hours of filming, moving of personal, cameras, equipment, and such.  As the sun falls below the top border of the stadium west side, a voice announces over the speakers “That’s a Wrap!”.  Being new to the Hollywood jargon, most of the extras look at each other bewildered.  “Does that mean we’re through and can go home?” can be heard aloud.  It did mean the filming for the day was over, but it wasn’t near time to go home, not yet.  ‘The Process’ we all adopted as gospel reared itself to all that participated.  It was only a few days into filming in Odessa, and it became very evident who had been there and who the “newbies” were real quick.  You see, “That’s a Wrap” was just the precursor between filming and driving away from the stadium, I mean set.  The Process was simply a reversal of how the day began.  Line, lines, everywhere lines, do this don’t do that, can’t you see the lines.  Sounds almost like a song.  The first line in the departure process was the Props trailer.  It was then time to change clothes in the dressing trailer, after most had to go back to their cars to get their clothes.  Next line to join was the wardrobe tent.  Make sure your clothes are on their hangers, too!  This was an important line to wait in, as your voucher (it’s how you get paid) is returned to you.  Now, you are ready to stand in the check-out line.  This is the last step in calling this an actual day.  At the end of the line, you come to a table.  Behind the table resides two production assistants and representatives from the casting group.  These are the important folks that work closely with the extras throughout the filming.  They are also the ones that initial and approve your voucher for the day’s work.  It is at this point you can go home.  The remaining three weeks in Odessa would follow the same procedure at the stadium.

During the West Texas filming, there were excursions to other locations - way, way west of town and a couple of trips to Midland’s Grande Communications Stadium.  There was also a trip to the Shrine Club, where we braved heavy rains for an afternoon.  The first week of the Odessa shoot was held from morning to evening.  The last two weeks were spent from afternoon until early morning.  The first unit wrapped on a Wednesday, and second unit (Allan Graf’s baby) finished on the following night.  We have finished here, and are now headed for Houston Sunday.

Filming begins in the Astrodome.  It is 6am Monday - first light.  But the lights that I see are far above me and flicker momentarily as darkness turns to light.  The light reveals tens of thousands of empty seats - red, orange, yellow, grey.  And beneath them all is 100 yards of faded green turf.  This is the Astrodome - circa 1988.  There is an eerie calm in the air as I take a look around.  The sidelines are wallpapered with banners reflecting an era now almost forgotten.   "Pan Am"  "Gulf Oil"  "Oilers - National League Champs 86".  The clock shows 30 seconds remaining in the game, the score is 34 to 28, Cowboys are winning.  But .... the field is empty, the fans are absent, and the clock has stopped - forever.    What a rush it was to hear the director call out - "ACTION!!!", the first day of shooting in H-Town.  What a ride it has been to see the football teams hammer out the plays for over nine weeks.  What a drag it will be to hear the director call out "CUT!" the final time.  Slowly, the football players begin emerging from the locker room tunnel, as carts full of film production gear begin rolling out from the opposite end of the field.  The quiet purr of golf carts break the silence, and suddenly, the roar of the eighty-foot 'condor' lighting crane reminds me that the set is now 'UP'.  Time to put on my "game face".

Being a part of the movie has put me within arm's reach of famous producers and has put my hand in the hand of the film's stars and the directors - Billy Bob Thornton, Peter Berg, John Cameron, Allan Graf, Tobias Schliessler, Eric Heffron.  It has been an amazing experience to watch them all work.   And, to watch them play.  Thornton actually kicked a 28-yard field goal in Ratliff Stadium.  From Best Boy to Ball Boy, everyone performed in this Hollywood Orchestra.  The production was a template for technical efficiency.  Three units, eight cameras, two video assistants, two audio consoles - but only one power cable going onto the field!  All wireless video and audio, plus DC power to all Panavision camera units.  The technical bullpen looked like a mobile weather station with all the antennae.  First unit is shooting Billy Bob Thornton and the coaches at the sideline on the field, while second unit is shooting tight on Tim McGraw and fans in the stands, while a splinter unit is setting up in the SkyBox for booster club shots.  On numerous occasions, there was even a "RafterCam" up in the nosebleed seats.  Between shots, there is barrage of radio noise as lighting, camera and technical position changes are made.  Meanwhile, football players are rehearsing 'half-speed' in the middle of the field as the stars sit off to the side to be groomed for the next shot.  In all the apparent chaos, there is a master plan.  In as little as ten minutes, the crew has restruck the lights, re-laid the camera tracks, and relocated the technical bullpen "Video Village".

The stadium chatter is regularly interrupted with the VOG (aka Voice of God) as the 1st A.D. barks commands that transform the set from one scene to the next.  I actually woke up from sleep hearing "Picture's Up!" in my head back in the hotel room.  I use the term 'sleep' loosely, as for close to three months of "FNL" sleep consisted of four to five hours of an extended nap.  The 1st unit A.D. etched his scripted lines in to all involved.  The Process went - Picture's Up... Roll Sound... Background... and Action!.  As I return from getting a water bottle, I hear desperation in the voice of a new extra as she hurries her friend, "...Picture is up!".  Her friend, obviously having been on set longer replies, "... Relax, they haven't called for 'background' yet...".

Well, today is the final day of shooting.  Only the second unit remains to capture the full-field hard-hitting football action.  As anxious as everyone was just yesterday to hear "That's a wrap" after a 15 hour day, there are sad 'goodbyes' as we all sense that it is near the final 'take'.  Hundreds of people from all over the country (and other countries),  all came to this set for as many different reasons.   I have had the good fortune to meet many of them during the nine weeks.  There were friendships formed which may last a lifetime, contacts made which can catapult a career, and even rumors of some 'fired' extras performing unscripted acts in the skyboxes.  The 1st A.D. (John Scotti) just made the call for Allan Graf (the Unit Director), "IT'S A WRAP!!  Thank you Houston!  Thank all of you for sticking it out."   But, after a short outburst of cheering, the cast and crew seem to leave the field in slow motion as they realize that it is no longer a magical time in their life.   It is no longer 1988.  We are no longer players & coaches, media & skybox reporters, cheerleaders & fans.  The Astrodome is no longer the set for a Hollywood feature film.

I sat a while to watch as everyone left - slower than they had entered.   Soon, it was all quiet again.   My gaze turned upward to the roof of the Astrodome where I stood a couple weeks ago looking out over Houston.  I wondered if anyone would ever read all the graffiti on the beams... or, would turning out the lights on "Friday Night Lights" be the end for this 'field of dreams' - the 8th wonder of the world.  As I walk up the East Ramp to leave, I turn to take one last look around at Permian in the Astrodome in 1988.  We never played there in the history of Permian High School.  But then, I guess that the closest anyone will come to that will be on October 15th, 2004 ...at a theatre near you.

I did get to catch the panoramic view of the West Texas sunset as I returned to Odessa, just outside the Ector County line.  It was like riding off into an old western sunset, but also a time to leave Hollywood behind and return to the real world.  But what a ride!