Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 10/99) - When the North of 60 cast and crew were in town last week, several Yellowknifers had the opportunity to participate in the shoot.

"I was cast as an MLA," says Vincent Gauthier, who you may all know from his more popular role as a member of the band Big Ethyl.

"I spent the whole day Thursday at the legislative assembly. It was lots of fun. It was quite an experience for me. I've been involved in drama productions in the past, pretty extensively through high school and somewhat after in my adult years. But never in front of the camera."

Gauthier learned a thing or two about movie-making.

"It was quite interesting. I was talking to Ben Nind and one of the technical people over there. And basically they were telling me -- and this is a rough approximation depending what they're doing -- but it's not unusual to spend two hours setting up, preparing, two hours worth of work to film one minute of actual film time."

Gauthier was at the legislative assembly from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to shoot just two scenes.

"You'd sit down and tape the same sequence over and over as they moved the camera from one location to another so they could get a different angle of the same event.

"And of course, the light is shining through and you have to get someone to block the light here and check the light there. Make sure you're turned the right way and all that kind of stuff."

Gauthier figures those who do this for a living must take up a hobby or two to wile away all that time waiting around.

The Yellowknife extra, one of approximately 45, was involved in two scenes.

"There was one where we had to acknowledge some young people in the crowd who were visiting, so we had to acknowledge them in the gallery," says Gauthier.

Those young people, it so happens, were also locals cast as extras in that scene.

"George Morin was asking the minister, I believe it was Tom (Jackson), we were sitting there and, of course, we had to bang the desk as they typically do in hear-hear fashion."

Gauthier also noted that everyone on set had a very precise role in the production.

"Every piece of equipment had somebody attached to it. Everybody has a job and nobody else touches their job. There was one guy who had this great big long boom mike and his job was simply to hold that thing up in the air every time there was going to be a voice over. That was his job."

Though looking forward to seeing himself on television, the one-time MLA notes that he may just as well end up on the cutting-room floor.