"MR. 3000" AND HANGING WITH BERNIE MAC
The release date for the Bernie Mac film "Mr. 3000" has been set for September 24, 2004. Click here to see the movie poster (thanks to Joe Duellman for scouring the internet for this).

As a brief synopsis, Bernie Mac plays a Milwaukee Brewer who comes out of retirement at the age of about 45 or something to get three more hits (that for some reason were taken away) for 3,000.

I actually had the privilege of working on the set of this movie when it was filmed last summer in Miller Park. I haven't seen the actual movie or anything, but from the scenes I saw that were filmed at the stadium it looks like it could be okay. It was originally supposed to be a drama, but in post-production there were new scenes added to steer it more towards a comedy.

It was fun watching the actors try to play baseball. I don't want to be rude because I know they're paid to act, not play ball. But BMac took some ugly hacks in the scenes that required him to actually hit. I think the most pathetic display was by Chris Noth (Law and Order, Sex and the City) who is the GM of the Brewers in the movie I believe. Anyway, while they were filming Stan Ross' (Bernie Mac's character) retirement ceremony on the field, between scenes Noth was playing catch (and you can guess what kind of arm strength he had). Think of your grandmother using her opposite arm. Why was he even playing catch? He's the GM.

The best part about working on the set was being able to attend the wrap-party when shooting closed. There I was, with my friend Joe (who had his hair cut into a mullet the night before, which is an entirely different story) and was sporting this like wanna-be movie star/David Bowie look...Red suit, sunglasses inside. "There are only two kinds of people who wear sunglasses inside: blind people and a**holes"-Larry David.

Anyway, so we got there at about 8:30pm and didn't really recognize anybody (meaning no celebs). Angela Bassett, who plays Stan Ross' love interest in the movie had all ready escaped Milwaukee. At about 9:30 BMac's posse rolls up which included his assistant and a few other people. Bernie Mac was wearing this North Carolina Blue sweatsuit and carrying around a bottle of water and two cigars. Bernie Mac's wardrobe was interesting. Every time I saw him around the set and at the wrap-party he was wearing something with his name on it. "Who you wit? Bernie Mac" was on the back of everything. I'd like to get to the status in life where I have my name on my clothes (and no, bowling shirts don't count).

The highlight of the night was definitely when BMac walked by me and Joe (we had staked out a spot by the door that connected the lobby of the venue to the main room. Anyway, Bernie Mac walked by me and I gave him one of those cool-guy head nods and said "what's up" and Bernie just kinda nodded. I'm not sure if he nodded at me or at the crowd in general but it was pretty cool.

One of the other "stars" in this movie, Dondre Whitfield (most of you probably remember him from The Cosby Show) sat down at a table where Joe and I were at and talked with me and the people I was with for a good five minutes. Two thoughts came to my mind:
1) Wow, this was nice of him
2) This guy really should have something better to do

My explanation for the second thought was that the wrap-party was in Milwaukee and that there really weren't any real celebrities there in the first place.

I'm sure you're all wondering what work I did on the movie. Other then bring my lap-top and play NBA Live 2003 while the movie was being shot, I did a lot of the work that is supposed to be on the scoreboard in the background. Stuff like balls and strikes, runs scoring and putting up the animations when Bernie Mac's character gets a hit. There were so many continuity errors in the film. For example: there is a shot of the scoreboard. The Brewers have 0 hits, 0 runs and the opponent has 0 errors, yet the #3 hitter is leading off the bottom of the second. I said something but nobody seemed to care. Another ridiculous mistake is when Pennybaker has something like 47 HR and 64 runs scored (while maintaining an AVG over .300). If you look closely at the scoreboard shots I think you'll be able to catch them if you have even a little baseball knowledge. The thing that amazes me is that the movie producers paid a "baseball guy" to create these stats.

Overall it was a really cool experience. To see the stagnant nature of movie production was something I'll never forget. Most importantly, I ate tons of free food and got to mingle with one celebrity and a bunch of B-list ones.