THE MATRIX PROFILES: NATHAN COLLINSON

Freelance production assistant, Nathan Collinson, spoke with DirectedBy about his time on crowd control as The Matrix special effects team took photos around Sydney and as an extra on the third film. He reveals the chaos that the crew usually works under as well as some run-ins with the actors and the Wachowskis.

Name: Nathan Collinson

Department: Crowd Control, Extras

Films: The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions

Other Credits: Fat Pizza, Nufe (DJ)

Could you explain exactly what kind of work you did on the Matrix films?

I had a couple of jobs on the sequels. The first was crowd control. The special FX team were taking photos and scanning parts of Sydney's CBD for backgrounds. It was our job to stand at various intersections and stop people from walking onto the streets while they were taking the photos.

On one occasion, they were taking photos of a section of streets just close to Martin Place. They had multiple cameras in a line and were moving them a few metres at a time. It was late at night when there weren't many people around.

On another occasion they had a camera attached to a helicopter and they were shooting between the buildings. This time we were stopping people just in case there was an accident. I was posted near Circular Quay and The Rocks. Here's some footage from the day on YouTube.

The second job I had was an extra in the third film. Specifically "The Merovingian's" nightclub "Club Hel". It was shot over five days at Fox Studios in Sydney with a couple of hundred extras like myself. They were long days, but most of the time we were waiting around outside the studios in marquees in our outfits just hanging out.

I’d also love to know how you got this job?

Well the crowd control job I got through a friend who worked as a security guard. He was doing work for a company that did crowd control and security work for film and TV. They had been contracted by the production company that was making The Matrix sequels and needed a heap of people who were available to work and I was at the time.

With getting the work as an extra, it was a similar story. Some friends of mine were asked to make some fetish costumes for the nightclub scene. The production company was happy with the samples they provided and asked them if they could make a heap for the production. They were like “Sure, if you can wait six months or so as we're only a small business, we're happy to work with your costume department and show them our production methods.” Apparently the production team were freaking out because they were shooting the scene in a few weeks and needed a few hundred costumes ready.

My friends made the suggestion that they knew a heap of people in the Sydney fetish/BDSM community who would have their own outfits, so maybe get the real deal? My girlfriend at the time was working with them and told me they were looking for people. I've been into latex for a long time and have latex catsuits, so I went for what I thought was an audition with my outfits and the people there took some photos and were essentially like: "Great, are you available on these dates?"

Were you a huge matrix fan at the time you were working on the film?

Not a huge fan no. I enjoyed the first film, but I thought the ending was pretty weak. I was a fan of Japanese anime. When I first heard about the first Matrix film, I heard they were basically making a live action Ghost in the Shell film.

What was your opinion on the work you did? Did you enjoy it?

On the whole, yes. There was a lot of standing around being bored. Showbiz isn't always exciting as people think. It was also pretty sweaty. Wearing skin tight latex under studio lights was a bit of an ordeal and you would go from freezing your tits off to standing in a puddle of your own sweat within a few minutes. The good thing was I knew quite a few of the other extras. So I was with friends, some of whom became flatmates. It really was a good bonding exercise. Everyone was all hyped up on the first day but by the second or third day, the dynamics of the crew was pretty grounded.

Did you have any personal contact with the Wachowskis? If so, what were they like?

Yes I did. On the last day of the shoot they put on some drinks for us and as we were leaving I had a quick chat with them. They were just a couple of dudes - though now they both have had gender reassignment surgery - a couple of dudettes. Larry (or Lana) and I talked about shooting in digital vs film. We had a bit of a pros and cons dialog. I would have liked to talk to them more.

I understand that after the first film’s success, there was a lot of pressure for the sequels to reach that same level. Did you feel any of this pressure when working on them?

Not from the Wachowskis. They seemed pretty mellow. It was mostly the crew that were running around like headless chickens. I've worked on other film and TV productions and it struck me how it doesn't matter how big the production is, there seems to be a similar theme of the producers working under one level of pressure and the crew working under another. It's almost like they inhabit two different worlds.

Like I said before, the producers wanted a couple of hundred latex and PVC clad extras for a scene. They have little to no idea how to make that happen. Most likely they don't care either, they have the whole film to think about. It's someone else's job to make that happen. It's the crew that's getting the pressure.

The sequels were not as well received as the first one, did this surprise you? Or do you believe the quality of the films dipped after the first one?

No, I wasn't actually surprised. I don't think the production values dipped at all. I think the problem was the story. It felt like the story became secondary to getting from one action sequence to another. That's fine if it's a comic book or a superhero movie. But The Matrix set itself up with hard sci-fi and philosophical concepts. They painted themselves into a corner. Yeah you can pepper it with a bit of martial arts and bullet ballet, but you're going to walk a fine tight-rope to keep everyone in your audience happy. Maybe don't set your bar so high?

Would you be able to tell us any fond stories or memories that you have from working on the films?

Oh heaps. The best one was on one day, a couple of extras who were professional mistresses had one of the makeup crew tied to a tree and were gently spanking him. All the crew were gathered around giggling, whereas most of the extras were fairly nonchalant. It was pretty funny.

When Carrie-Anne Moss walked onto the set I thought "Wow! She looks just like she does in the movie." Then I thought "Of course she does, she's just spent an hour or so in makeup you idiot!"

The other thing I can think of is a couple of times I saw the actor who played "The Architect", Helmut Bakaitis, on the street in Sydney. It freaked me out both times. He does have a certain presence.

Read the review of The Matrix: Revolutions here.