NISSIN noodle commercial at Yale

Just gimme some noodles and no one gets slammed!

My wife on the left side and me on the right in circles.

The casting agency reached me in a frantic request to bring people along to New Haven, CT... they were short on warm bodies for a noodle commercial.  And that inspired me to volunteer my wife, who was sitting at the dinette table with an incredulous look (i.e. What's this about???).  The caller asked if she was under 50 -so I lied and said she was 47 and some three months old!

"O.K....bring her!  Bye."

...and suddenly my wife erupted -flagrantly upset at me.

"They're going to ask us for our id's... drivers license -and then they'll know...and then they'll send us home after a two hour trip!" ...and blah, blah, blah.

I reassured her that I "knew the business" and that when casting is short of people, they will take anybody.  Of course  I WAS RIGHT! (this time).  We got up early to make the 6:30 AM call and arrived at a tennis stadium near Yale.  At first things were sparse but then people started to condense at the not-so-well marked parking space and we found the air-conditioned holding area under the stadium.  We were here to be tennis audience extras -used for "layering" so that 100 people can be made to look like thousands during a tennis game (thanks to subsequent CG treatments).

Kei Nishikori

The crew was Japanese and I immediately thought that this gig would be similar to my previous "Lost In Translation" encounter with TV-ASAHI back in March 2006. And although there were similarities, this crew was much more professional.  After all, they were shooting this noodle commercial for one of the biggest Japanese noodle-making giants (you know the one: Ramen noodles... just add hot water and the mystery packet ingredients).

Stadium at Yale

On center court (there was only one court), played the #1 ranked Japanese tennis player (ranked #18 in the world), I believe his name was Kei Nishikori.  A very athletic performer with high jumping return serves -he certainly impressed all of us.  But the gist of his appearance here was to endorse the noodles.  His direction was to play hard and then sit down to refresh by eating multiple offerings of noodles on tennis racket-like strainers from 5 different cooks.  One of the cooks actually dropped the entire serving on the tennis court and quickly picked it up with his hands, putting it back on the strainer. YUM!

Throughout the day, we were all mixed up around the stadium's seating arena, and the day got hotter and hotter.  Some of us were putting towels on our heads or holding up whatever opaque object we had at hand to block out the sun.  The PA's were busy distributing water and sun-screen spray cans.  Bio-breaks were provided at reasonable intervals -however, the bathrooms were at the top of the long stadium steps.  But it was worth the many hikes for a few minutes relief from the sun. 

After our bagged-lunch break (you would think that at least they would offer us some noodle soup), my wife and I encountered a person who said he was responsible for the stadium's maintenance and he began to tell us the strange situation surrounding it's politics.  Apparently, for the past 25 years, the stadium was put into use just once a year -for one tennis tournament (named after the Bank-du-jour that sponsored the event).  It seem that the inhabitants of this area (professors et al) had control of the stadium's activity and they did not want any additional noise or traffic (e.g. from rock concerts) in their neighborhood.  Ah... but this control-by-contract was expiring this year and new plans would be forthcoming once this freedom from academic control was to be transferred   After all, the economy wasn't so good now and the town needed to make money.  What better way than to provide a venue for rock concerts, exhibits, crafts fairs or whatever else a stadium could be utilized for. Other interesting stories from the stadium's custodian dealt with how the entire stadium shook and swayed during last year's east-coast earthquake.  Exciting!

One of the PA's told us that this commercial will be released around the time when the U.S. OPEN takes place in September, however it will not be seen in the U.S.!? (But I'm sure it will wind up on YouTube at some point.)  And then it was time to "layer the stadium" again... so back into the hot bowl of noodle-tennis mania we went for the rest of the day.  My wife was having a sweaty good time -even with me laying into her about how she worried we'd be "deported for not being under 50"!  The "martini shot" of the day came when we had to do some fake clapping and cheering -all of which became very real when they paid us in cash.  My wife was smiling all the way home... welcome to the world of PAID extras honey!