Leigh
Maxwell is currently a senior at Greensboro
Day School, but when she was a junior last year, little did she realise that something
exciting would happen to her and her quiet neighbourhood in Greensboro, North
Carolina . Not only did Director Rusty Gorman and his cast and crew descend on
Greensboro to film much of the gritty basketball drama Home of the Giants,
Leigh found the film crew spending a night at her house to film a segment of the
major motion picture there !
Many
members of the Greensboro Day School basketball team had been roped in as the
players in the game scenes of the film. Leigh's friend, Brittany Gardner , who
is a cheerleader in her school, invited Leigh to join her on the first day of
filming as an extra .
The
film's cheerleaders were however not played by the cheerleaders from the Greensboro
Day School , but were from the community's competitive cheerleading team, the
Greensboro All-Stars . The
cheerleaders from the Greensboro All-Stars
played cheerleaders not only for the Giants team, but also for the Devil and Eagles
teams . One of Leigh's friends, Emily Mohorn , who is a cheerleader from the Greensboro
All-Stars , appears in the film's trailer as the cheerleader who gets
thrown up and does a flip.
|
Emily
Mohorn,
Greensboro All Stars Cheerleader, doing a midair flip for the film . Picture is
taken off the unofficial trailer for Home of the Giants . |
On
Leigh's day of filming as an extra, Leigh's role was to stand in the crowd and
Ryan Merriman as basketball star Matt
Dunbar would wink at her. Leigh was to blush and and shyly smile back.
Leigh was thrilled that she was standing right in front of Brent Briscoe! Leigh
recollects that " this was filmed one weekend in early November 2005 , and
it was shot out in a warehouse. It was a green screen kind of thing where they
were going to insert us into the crowd at one of the games. "
Leigh
continues the story , " After a number of takes we were asked to go out into
the tents and wait to be paid. While waiting Jon Felson approached me and my friends.
He was looking for a big high school party where they might be able to take some
footage for a party scene. They were hoping to do it the following night but it
would be a Sunday night and we were almost certain that there were not going to
be any high school gatherings on a school night. "
"My
parents were out of town, but I called them and asked if I could let the crew
come over and film for a few hours and have a bunch of people from my school come
and help out. They said ok and I called up Mr. Felson and let him know that I
would be more than happy to host a party sunday night, I described the house and
gave him directions to it. I was thrilled that a segment of Home of the Giants
would actually be filmed at my house! "
 |
Leigh's
friend, Ramsay Horn, pointing at the massive truck of equipment that the crew
brought over. This was taken before the rest of the "extras" came over and the
crew was starting to set up. |
"The
next day I rallied about 50 of my friends and neighbors and had them come all
dressed in winter attire as was required by the film. It was late fall, but still
not very cold so you can imagine that it get pretty toasty, especially with all
the lights that they had set up inside the house ! "
 |
A
crew member setting up lights in the foyer of Leigh's house prior to filming |
"Once
the lights and cameras were all set up, Jon sent a guy up to the grocery store
to buy assorted beer and solo cups to be used as 'props'. " Leigh laughs
as she recollects, " They asked that we try to not drink the beer, however
they did offer it to us after we had finished the filming since they didnt reallly
need it for anything else. "
 |
About
45 of Leigh's friends turned up for the filming. Pictured here (from left to right
) are Dana Cook, Lauten Crow, Chris Kelly, Costen Warner, Luke Sanderford, Kailie
Torres, Ramsay Horn (Bottom) Bruce Young. |
"The
filming took about 3 hours starting between 7:30 - 8 pm and ending around 11 pm
. Everyone was very excited about the movie after we finished filming because
the producers showed us some of the footage they took of our scene on a tiny video
monitor It was all very fun and exciting and the footage looked great !"
 |
Pictured
here (from left to right) are Ramsay Horn, James King, Blake Jennings, Catherine
Covington, Shira Solomon, Megan Duda, Cary Duda, and Alan Fox (Alan was one of
the main basketball players in the movie) |
"We all started making plans to go and see the movie together when it eventually
comes out, and even a year later everyone involved continues to ask me about the
release date and when we might get to see it. I think we all would be very disappointed
to see the scene cut from the film . "
 |
(from
left to right) Ellison White, Leigh Maxwell (me), and Michael McAdams |
We
all look forward with you to seeing you and friends in Home of the Giants , Leigh
!
 |
| That's
Nolan Elingburg , one of Leigh's friends from school, on the bottom far left of
the picture , in a crowd scene from Home of the Giants with Ryan Merriman. |
