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Lights, Camera, Action....... 

Film Clips on the web

 Extras on the film "Reign of Fire" tell about life on the set.
Glendalough is a small village 20 miles from Bray. It is in Co. Wicklow. Last year between April and June there was a film being made which involved Glendalough. It was called Reign of Fire. One Wednesday evening the teacher said that they were looking for  people to go on the film as extras.  All the children from 4th, 5th and 6th Classes wrote their names and put them into a hat and the first ten people  pulled out went the first day and that shows how we got ten people each day. Nearly everyone in these classes got to be an extra on two days. Ardmore studios are in Bray. Part of the film was made there. In Ardmore studios there is a bar for when work is finished. We never got to Ardmore Studios but Keith has.

Picture of  the set by Keith and photograph of the set with Nicky, Kevin and Matthew.
This is a drawing of the 'set'  at the Wicklow Gap near our school drawn by Keith. Last December(2000) people started to build the set between the Wicklow Gap Road and Camaderry Mountain beside the ruins of old houses where mining was once done. Five months later the set was ready and filming started. After filming the complete set was demolished and everything on the site returned to normal. 

Dictionary of words used on the set
Word Meaning Word Meaning
Actor A person who acts in a play or a film. Extra  Person in film as part of a crowd scene.
Background  Back part of a scene. Lighting  A means of providing light.
Base  Headquarters of a film. Security  Person in charge for safety reasons.
Camera  An instrument for taking shots in a film. Set A place where filming takes place.
Canteen  A place where food is bought. Studio A building or place in which cinema films are made.
Cast  Select actors for a film or play. Stunt-man Person who takes over for dangerous parts. 
Clapper- board  Black and white board that a person uses in a film. Take 1 The first shot of a scene in a film.
Crew  Group of people in charge of a film. Wages  Payment for work.
Designer  A person who designs clothes in a film etc. Wardrobe  Large room where our costumes were kept.
Director  Person in charge of film. Wrap When we finished filming.

By Niamh, Niamh and Jessica.

Location Base
The film makers used Brockagh Resource Centre as the location base. It is just down the road from our school. In the Location Base were the following: wardrobe, hair and make-up, holding area, canteen, actors caravans  ( we couldn't have access here). Security people checked everyone out before they got into the location base.
By Lorcan, Keith, David and Andrew.

Hanging out in the Holding Area. 
On the Set
Life on the set was sometimes breezy because we were on the top of the mountain. But it was fairly warm in the middle of June. Charcoal was on the ground to give the impression that there had been a fire in the film. Everything was dusty and black. After a day on the film we felt very dirty and when our parents saw us they sent us straight to the shower.  Hanging around on the set was boring and tiring ... bit like school really. We enjoyed it when we were on the set and  we tried not to laugh when we were being filmed which was quite hard for our class.
By Jessica, Niamh and Brónagh.

Food

All the extras ate in the same room called the Holding Area. There was a much fancier place for the Director and the stars. You got breakfast between 8.00 - 12.00 and dinner at 5.00pm. There was a tea and coffee machine in the Holding Area so you could help yourself. At 5.00pm we would get dinner at a chipper van. The menu varied from day to day but chips were always available. After dinner there was desert. It was apple pie and ice-cream.          

Chef
By Ben, Matthew, & David. Picture is by Martina.
Wardrobe
When we heard that we were going to be in the film we had to go up for costume fittings. When we got  our clothes we were told what time to come at. We had to go up to the Community Centre at 8.00 in the morning. Once we got there we went into wardrobe. The wardrobe was a big room full of clothes on hangers. Some of the clothes had numbers and pictures of people who used them. There were girls and boys changing rooms. Once we had our costumes on we went out to a woman that put black powder over our clothes and hair. This was in make-up.

Costume Designer

Hairdresser
By:Aoife, Samantha  and Stephanie. Pictures by .........

Special Effects
In the film there were dragons so they needed fire! Team FX built a huge flamethrower for the film. They also needed dust, steam and smoke so Team FX were pretty busy. They also built some handheld flamethrowers. My father works for Team FX. He used a lot of his steam machines and smoke machines. The huge flamethrower stood on a huge stand. The steam machine has been used on many other films but the flamethrower was built especially for the film. My uncles and my father are in Team FX ! They did a lot of special effects on it. The fire, smoke and steam from the dragons and the dust from the fight scene. They worked really hard!
This is a photograph of Team FX including Keith's Dad Aidan. The fire is a stunt for a film.
By Keith

More People on the Film

Security Location Manager Producer

Director

Chaperone

Extra

Stuntman

Actor

Make-up Artist

By.....

Filming Schedule

A busy day on the set but it beats school any day ..... and we got paid too!
Time Action
8.00a.m.           Costumes on, then onto hair and make-up.

8.30a.m.           Into the Holding Area and breakfast of sausage, eggs,

                             and bacon. Yum Yum!!

9.00a.m.           Waiting, waiting, no film star has time for this!!!

12.00noon         Finally,  we get onto the bus.

12.10p.m.         We arrive at the set.

12.15p.m.         We get our instructions from the boss.

12.20p.m.         Now we get our positions.

12.25p.m.         We do a rehearsal.

1.00p.m.           Now the camera starts filming us, we are getting exited.

2.00p.m.           The director didn't like us so he makes us do it again.

2.30p.m.           In school they're going home, while we're getting money.  

2.40p.m.           We meet back at the holding area, we're starving, 

                             being a film star is hard work            

2.50p.m.             Now for a little snack, chips, chocolate and ice-cream.

3.50p.m.             Let's relax.

4.30p.m.             Back on the bus again!

4.40p.m              Into positions AGAIN!!

4.50p.m.             Action!

6.15p.m.             Back on the bus, end of a day's work.

6.25p.m.             Back to base.

6.35p.m.             We get changed into our normal clothes.

6.55p.m.              Gettin' bored, we have to wait for our parents.

7.00p.m.              Home, sweet, home!  
By Lorcan, Beau and Keith. 

Wardrobe  Matthew, Andrew and Nicky getting their clothes.

Film Extras reveal all.
 Nicky said that it was cool because there was no school and he got lots of money and had no homework. When it was raining we had to go into a big tent called the holding area.

Martina said that it was cool because her brothers were in the same film as her. Her brother Thomas had to check all cars, jeeps and vans. It was the time of the 'Foot and Mouth' so he had to spray all the wheels 

Lorcan said that he got rich  and he had a lot of time off school and he got paid for just standing around doing nothing.

Outline of the Story of the film.....we think!!
The story is set in the future in 2057. The dragon comes and attacks the castle and the village. Only some survivors were left. We were some of the survivors. When people hear that there are still survivors tanks come to rescue them. The survivors think that the tanks are trying to attack them but they are only wanting to help. Matthew McConaghy was the main film star in the film.  They are going to make a Reign Of Fire 2 but we don't know when.
By Darren and Beau.

Castle from set.
Filming of Reign of Fire finished in June 2001. It then went to be edited by the editors. Many hours of film were recorded in The Wicklow Gap, Dublin, Ringsend, Ardmore Studios and other places. The job of the editor is to cut the film down to size, to about 2 hours in length. When all this is done many copies are made to be sent to all the cinemas that want to show the film. The first time a film is shown it is called the 'Premier'. We think 'Reign of Fire' will have its premier next summer. After that you will be able to go see the best 'Extras' in the whole world in their first ever film. Autographs later!!!!

Can you see the train after the attack of the dragons?

This special effect was created by Team FX.
This page was compiled by 27 extras and 2 friends who  moved to this school since the film was recorded . All of whom are Fifth and Sixth Class Pupils in Scoil Chaoimhín Naofa, Glendalough, Co. Wicklow.

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