Christopher Nolan rocks Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Over the weekend Christopher Nolan “blew up” Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field for a scene in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, the conclusion of his Batman Trilogy.

Thanks to BeInAMovie.com, more than 10,000 fans got to fill the stands as extras for the shoot too!

The day started early for all of the extras, who were asked to wear gold and black (yes, the Gotham Rogues did have the same colors as the Pittsburgh Steelers, and no, it wasn’t a coincidence), some had to be at the designated downtown parking areas by 6:15 A.M.

The unpaid extras not only had to be ready for their call times at the crack of dawn, they also had to battle an early morning traffic jam, rain, and extreme heat, but most would agree it was worth it for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The scenes they were shooting Saturday focused on the unsuspecting Gotham Rogues fans who were shocked and horrified when the football field is blown up (killing all of the players), gunmen entered the stadium, and the movie’s villain, Bane, came out onto the field with his entourage to make a grand announcement (which he did in a strange “accent” that was difficult to understand, especially between his long pauses, like he was having difficulty breathing in the mask).

Here’s a breakdown/time line of the day’s shoot:

8 A.M.- 12:00 P.M.: The morning’s shoot focused on the “good times” before Bane and his men start wrecking havoc on the crowd. First, they shot the crowd singing along to the national anthem (which was briefly interrupted by a rain shower). After a few takes Nolan and company moved onto the game’s kick off scene and the Rogues’ first touchdown. Of course, the crowd went wild, waving homemade signs and yellow handkerchiefs they were given at the beginning of the day.

Steelers fans in the crowd were also excited to see some of their favorite players, including Ben Roethlisberger and Hines Ward, on the Gotham team. Bill Cowher was also there to “coach” the team, along with Kevin Colbert, the Steelers’ director of football operations, who played an assistant Gotham coach. Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl even played a kicker for the Monuments, the Rogues’ rival team.

After several takes from different angles, the crew set up one of the explosives that was going to be used later on to give the crowd a sense of what it was going to be like. Before they set it off though, they surprised the crowd by bringing out three Tumblers, and then BOOM, the explosive went off, the crowd went crazy, and the announcer said that was only the first of 6o explosions they would see that day.

12:00 P.M.- 6:00 P.M.: As any extra will tell you, a day on set is more about waiting than actually filming, and that was definitely the case in the afternoon. It took the special effects team nearly three hours to set up for the explosion scene, after the crew took an hour or so for their lunch break.

This is where BeInAMovie.com really came through. During slow points throughout the day, they gave away prizes, including Delta flights, iPads, iPods, Batman Memorbilia, and other cool stuff. They also had people throwing Gotham Rogues t-shirts into the crowd (which doubled as props for the movie) and provided meals, water, Popsicles, towels, cooling tents, and anything else the crowd might need to get through the day. They even held an American Idol-style singing contest to keep the crowd entertained.

The next scene they shot focused only on the crowd and their reaction to the the explosions. Extras were asked to act “horrified”, some made a run for it, others screamed, some cowered in their seats. Then, a militia (paid extras dressed as gunmen) came down from the stands and stopped the football fans in their tracks.

As they shot the scene, the crowd would start out clapping and cheering for their home team, then the Assistant Director would simulate the explosion saying, “boom, boom, boom”, at which point everyone in the stands went into “horrified” mode until he yelled cut. They shot the scene over and over, focusing on different sections of the stadium, as the AD reminded everyone that just one person smiling or laughing could ruin the shot.

In the end, they got what they needed and the AD told the crowd, “Forget Hollywood. You guys were great. I’ll come to Pittsburgh any time for extras.”

Between takes, they brought out the Tumblers again, this time Hines was riding on one of them, which definitely kept the crowd distracted from the brutal heat for a few minutes.

Finally, the crowd was asked to do the whole thing over again, as the special effects team let off dozens of explosions on the field, which left the field pretty roughed up and the crowd re-energized!

After some more downtime, the crowd finally got a chance to see one of the movie’s stars, Tom Hardy, who plays Bane. In the first post-explosion scene, Bane comes out onto what’s left of the field (the rest will be removed in post-production) and shows the crowd a large sphere, telling them that it is the “instrument of their liberation.”

This scene was shot 5 or 6 times as Hardy seemed to flub his lines, but he redeemed himself by giving away the day’s final prize, a new Chrysler!

According to WPXI, filming continued inside Heinz Field on Sunday, with only 700 extras (all of whom were paid), and we can only assume that Christian Bale’s Batman made an appearance.

Check out a few photos and videos from the shoot below (including a look at the first explosion and Tom Hardy giving away the car!)

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