by Aja Hunter

Our very own Dr. Colombo was on the set of the movie Divergent. Here’s how it went. 

This is Julia Colombo. One of the art teachers here at Centennial and she has been teaching for 21 years. This is her 22nd year of teaching. This is her 1st year here at centennial. She is from Chicago. Dr. Colombo has been on the production of a set called Divergent that came out in 2014. Her friend actually discovered the casting call for this movie. One day, her friend was on Twitter and just saw an ad on twitter for a casting call for the movie divergent. She told Dr. Colombo about it and she was interested. So she signed up and sent her headshot in. They liked her and sent her a call back. Then soon after they found out, they had to go in for a fitting for costumes. The costumes were made in Europe out of thick wool material and they had to wear nylons, keep that in mind for later. 

This part of the movie was set to be filmed on the Fourth of July in the Seventeenth Church of Christ. Underneath the church, they got their makeup, hair and costumes done. When the extras were done, they put stickers on them to show they were ready because there were so many of them. 

Once they were ready, it was time to film. Since it was the Fourth of July in Chicago, it was very hot and they turned the air conditioning off because they didn’t want any sound. So Dr. Colombo and the other extras had to sit in a hot room without being able to talk, taking many takes. They were not allowed to be on their cellphones or they would be escorted out. One of the extras testeed that theory and he was escorted out. 

When filming they didn’t want the background speakers to actually speak but to mouth words and look like they were speaking, this is called pantomiming. The people told them to say things like peas and carrots. They not only shot inside but also did exterior shoots that may or may not have been included in the movie. When they went outside at the time, it was supposed to be a major secret. So, they had to wear lab coats over their costumes and they couldn’t say anything about the film until after the release. As they were going outside, they saw how the set builders transformed the street and made it into the dystopian setting. Colombo remembers seeing 3 layers of gravel down but by the time they made it back, there was nothing and it was back to normal. Colombo was fascinated at the fact that they could put all of this down and clean it up so quickly. She says that it was a very cool experience, and it was very welcoming. She really liked witnessing the lives of these people that do this as a career. She said it was so much fun and she would definitely do it again. 

Dr. Columbo’s favorite part about this whole experience was the conversations she had with all these people that do this for a living and don’t do this for a living. She liked talking to these people that do it regularly and seeing into their lives and witnessing something these people go through everyday. She loved having cool conversations with these people and getting to know them.

I bet you are wondering  if she saw any famous actors. And the answer to that is yes she did. Almost the whole main cast was there. Dr. Colombo saw Kate Winslet, Shailene Woodely (Beatrice or Tris), Theo James (Four), and Ansel Elgort (Caleb Prior). Dr. Colombo was in the presence of celebrity actors. After this experience, she learned that many people don’t pay much attention to how much extras add to movies and how much they contribute to movies. Dr. Colombo is actually shown in the trailer of this movie that you can find on youtube. She encourages anyone who is interested to do it; Even if you’re not interested in acting or being an extra, she thinks it would be a great experience for anyone and everyone.