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for the largest pinata in the world. PR was all over the place for this sucker.
As a nice diversion for the kids their was a tiny carnival across the street, unfortunately people had to wait 2 hrs to get into the gate.
Others just stood across the street hoping to get in to see the Pinata release it's contents after the wrecking ball did it's job.
We had a lot of time on our hands, I made Mike and Bob do silly things for me,
none of which made a lot of sense, sorta like having 1,000 people fall in line behind cones and 2 people keeping us in line, displaying a much more orderly crowd control than the 500 riot cops the other night after the Phillies win, along Broad Street.
Congratulations to their Marketing Dept, I think just about everyone who reads the paper, listens to the news, Twitters, is on Facebook or has a neighbor knew about the event, and they showed up for their share of the 8000lbs of candy that was scheduled to fall out of the belly of the beast.
Except I don't think that was really the plan. After talking to a few of the "Guards", whose job it was to hold back the crowd of spectators, I found out the only people that were getting near the paper mache donkey were the "actors" hired to hang out by the Pinata.
And every so often this guy would stick a pole into the Pinata and release some of the candy, so the "actors" could scramble for the filming TV camera's. 
But for us spectators we were kept fairly far back, but at one point a few rouges ran forward when the pole pulled out some candy and maybe the "Free" Carnival Cruise line gift certificates, at which point someone over the PA system started screaming at the "spectators" we are in the middle of filming a TV Commercial Philadelphia, don't embarrass our City.
Seriously, the only embarrassment here was the false advertisement of the gigantic Pinata being split open by a wrecking ball. It didn't happen.
But they did roll out huge bins & boxes of candy, which sent this sugar starved mob into a frenzy, I mean really it had been two whole days since Halloween and their sugar high was just wearing off. My thought is this was their plan all along, except that wasn't something that was announced beforehand, had people only expected the bins of candy, they wouldn't have been so overly eager to risk the frenzy of scooping up candy spilled from the belly of the beast. 
So much looting of the bins of candy went on that one guy spread the wealth and just started throwing the candy into the air. Eventually he stopped after realizing more than a dozen kids were hit in the head and began crying...
Of course that didn't stop their parents from gathering bags and bags of the free stuff to carry home. It's ashame they didn't do this before 10/31/08 and many of them could have saved a few dollars on their treats
A few folks just took home the boxes the Carnival folks put out.
Which was fine as alot of the candy that was thrown was left as road kill and wasted.
After an 1.5hrs, when it was obvious that we had been had, we decided to leave with what dignity we had left after witnessing folks go plum crazy over a few Maryjanes and generic tootsie rolls.
In the end, another historic event happened in the City of Firsts: Carnival's pinata is the largest ever at about 61 feet tall, 60 feet long, and 23 feet wide. It broke the record previously held by a 48-foot-tall pinata Microsoft sponsored in Mexico City in 2006. I was there making history yet again, were you?
Update: According to officials, "Due to safety concerns, the pinata was not broken open." Of course it would have been nice if they had informed us they were filming a commercial and we were the extras that would be standing around for several hours as they shot the scene. Or perhaps even said, the first 500 are in, the rest have to stay behind the cones and we will ply you with candy too!!
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Not Exactly The Love Boat....
For those of you who missed day two of the Carnival Cruise commercial shoot - count your blessings.
DAY ONE: 5 AM call time to Front and Oregon (area) parking lot to be shuttled over to the shoot site at 12th & Washington. We boarded our bus and imediately after turning out of the parking lot, broke down. That should have been a harbinger of things to come.
We reloaded onto another bus and went to holding where we sat until about 9AM before actually doing anything meaningful. It was like a reunion seeing so many people that we've worked with before, so we chatted and swapped tales of what we've been doing lately.
Then we were taken to the worlds largest pinata (according to Guiness Book of World Records), which looked like Lucy the Margate elephant in drag, where we walked, jogged, trotted and ran towards and stood in AWE (that was our motivation) of this pagan idol filled with 3 year old candy that I've never heard of. Big Hunk, Abba Zabba and other brand names that sounded more like something from the prop dept. rather than real candy.
A big crane with a (lightweight) wrecking ball on the end moved towards the pinata surrounded by a couple of hundred extras with various weapons, bats, 2 X 4's, pool skimmers, mallets, etc. All we needed were torches and we could have done a remake of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein monster.
We did this most of the day until out feet and legs were sore then got a 5:30 PM release. So far not too bad, except for an on site accident with one of the many workers on the set. Someone was ambuanced out late in the day. All we heard was the someone got pinned between or under something, but that they were gonna be OK. Another omen perhaps?
DAY TWO: Carnival commercial turns into an episode of survivor!!
6 AM call time and everything seems to be going as usual except we actually started doing some shots much earlier on. Myself and Frank joined the SAG members on the bus ride to 5th & Market (I believe) where we shot some scenes inside of one of the larger buildings. My scene was to run down 3 flights of stairs (without having a cardio infarction) and pretend to be chasing this giant, candy filled, pinata that I just saw pass by my office window.
I being, probably the eldest of the crowd got 3 flights of stairs and the younger ones only had one flight to run down. Go figure. Isn't that abuse of the elderly??
We went back to lot where the pinata was and did more scenes of running (in AWE) towards Lucy again. So far - so good, except the temp for the day was about 20 degrees cooler than the previous day with a good breeze. Also shot scenes with people beating on the pinata with baseball bats, pieces of lumber and other various weapons. Now it's starting to look more like an M.Night Shyamalan movie.
The producers advertised on the radio and on billboards for the general public to come attend the breaking open of the "world's largest pinata" from noon til 3PM. The people started showing up on time. Everything still seemed to be going along fine. We filmed more scenes around Lucy as they let a small number of the public inside with childern to join in the festivities..
They did an on camera interview with a rep from Carnival and Guiness Book of World Records to commemorate the event.
I believe the original plan was to break open the pinata with the wrecking ball but that plan was scrapped for safety reasons. To many kids around.
Now the crowd outside the fence started to grow and grow and grow and they were now clamoring to get in as the time to break open the pinata neared. Extra police were called in to help with crowd control. As we looked towards the gate, a stream of motorcycle police pulled inside of the "compound". It looked more like the annual police Thrill Show motorcycle drill team. We were very happy to see them at that time.
After a while the PA's and AD's came and told us to move back for our own safety. Then the word came to head back to holding to be even safer. This is where it got hairy. Trying to get out. We had to wait for police to arrive at the gate to part the crowd so we could leave. I hadn't seen anything like this since the fall of Saigon and evacuation of the embassy.
Because we were asked to wear business attire and had suits on, Lou and I became targets or their wrath. They assumed that because we wore suits that we had something to do with the organizing of this event turned riot and wanted to know why we weren't letting them in. Then we were called some names that I, even as an ex-Marine, hadn't heard before.
As we tried to get out they tried to squeeze in. There were only two cops on the gate and hundreds of candy starved people pushing and cursing to get in.
We almost went from being in a commercial to being on the 6 o'clock news.
Back to holding we went and sat while they announced to the crowd that there was a malfunction and that they couldn't break open the pinata. After dispersing what they said was about 80% of the crowd, their plan was to march all of us back into the lions den and shoot the scene where they break open the pinata, thus completing their filming.
My question to them was, are we going to have police protection when we go back in since the advent of the cell phone it wouldn't take long for word to get out and the angry mob to return.
We waited for word of their decision. We were then informed that we were wrapped and that they would break the pinata when no one was around and that they would CGI us into the shot.
Better words were never heard!!!
And kudos to the Philly police dept. because we heard that it was their decision to scrap the rest of the shoot in the sake of public safety. We were cut loose at 4 PM. I assume all of the PA's and AD's got out alive also. They don't get paid enough for what they do. Thanks to all of them - great job. Ask for combat pay.
Guinness almost got a two for one out if. The world's largest pinata and the world's largest candy riot. I wonder if Willy Wonka ever had these problems???
Ah the life of an extra. And all of my friends think this is such a glamorous job. To all of you who survived the Carnival shoot - great to see you again and to those who stayed home for day 2 - good move but you missed a great story to tell your grandchildren.
Hope to see you all again soon. double your insurance in the meantime.
Footnote: We heard that rumors were spreading that there was money inside of the pinata. Then we also heard that free cruise tickets were in there. If we waited any longer I'm sure we would have heard that they would find Jimmy Hoffa in there too.
I was told that they did this in Dallas also and couldn't get enough people to show up. Obviously this is the first timed they've ever filmed in Philly!!! And they say everything is bigger in Texas!! BS!!!!
Abba Zabba? Big Hunk? Man, no wonder that candy was free. Couldn't they even get starlight peppermints? Sheesh.
It has been a whirlwind weekend here so the fun event was a great way to finish it. Though there was no dramatic ending to the event, we still got the pennant and the worlds biggest pinata, hows that for a weekend.
this is what people that didnt go missed:
http://www.dailymotion.com/thatsfunny/video/12228821
Hello. Found your blog when looking for info. on WTF happened. I was there with my kids all day. Form the moment I entered Funville (which was cool) I noted it was VERY disorganized. We were told to wait and we'd be taken over in groups although only a few would be allowed inside when pinata is smashed. Misleading but understood. But the entertainment telling my kids and others they'd get tons of candy over and over-not cool.
What was BAd was whne the ytold everyone to leave some of the ACTUAL Carnival employees began yelling at people who were politely asking questions. They refused renetry to funville while STILL allowing those in line in. I walked away but peopel were fuming.
Poor planning on Carnivals end. And I gave the ok to use our faces in their commercials-for free. Blech.
Ah, but in Texas they didn't have free candy. It was the World's Largest Beach Ball.
I was one of the unpaid extras on day 2. After seeing the crowd outside the gate, I was kind of happy to be inside the gate, until later.
Among the rumors I heard, the people back behind the cones did not have wrist bands (needed to get into the shoot), but so many people showed up that the police were worried about a riot so they told the production people to let some of them in. It was a bit... ummm... interesting when the people from back behind the cones came running forward. Suddenly we were surrounded and being pelted with generic tootsie rolls. When the police came in and started trying to clear people out, I grabbed my niece and headed over to the production tents to get out of the way. One of the PA's told us if we wanted to leave, they could "arrange to get us out" in a few minutes. We ended up hanging around for a while though, while it cleared and just stayed out of the way.
The poor PAs and ADs, the look on their faces when they started running. Oy! The previous poster is right, they deserve hazard pay.
Another rumor I heard was that local DJ announced on air that Carnival had filled the pinata with cash, car keys and cruise certificates. And that contributed to the crowds. I was wondering why people were showing up with big empty boxes just for some cheap candy!
wow, this one flew right by me -- do you know who the agency was behind the shoot?
Hey - I was one of the winners of a free cruise so I had a great time. Gotta say way more people showed up than expected but my family and I had fun.
Have no idea what the first poster is talking about. We got paid for two days to be in a commercial as actors, not to complain about every detail of the thing. Biscuit Films was first rate, their director Ari was great, and the production assistants were nice and treated us very well. Even the food was good. When they felt the situation dictated that we should clear out to the holding area the second day, they did so without delay.
The shoot was professionally managed, and attention was paid to safety with lectures & warnings for two days. Everything was just as good as a movie shoot, if not better. And I met great people, too! Tom D
Problem was that Carnival did not relaize that if you use the word Free in Philadelphia they will come out of the woodwork for it .. it does not matter what it is or if they want it .. just the fact that its free.
I am sure they had no idea that thousands would show up and that they would riot if you let them.
I was at the gate when they started to yell PUSH PUSH .. there was a 50 year old man telling the 20 year old guard to open the gate and let them in or "they would hurt him bad" Damn people it just candy.. I also noted that people filled bags with the no name candy... I started tossing it into the croud, sharing it with all .. and I had women cursing at me for wasting it and letting others get some // how dare I
I was at the counterpart to this Carnival commercial in Dallas with the worlds largest 3 story tall beach balls. It was a blast! Over 3,000 people came out and EVERYONE actually got to bounce the huge balls (lol) all over the place. No riots here! Gotta say Dallas may not have a world series baseball team but it's got the BIGGEST BALLS IN THE WORLD!
ExtraExtra Casting LA needs extras at Pinata Sunday 11/9. Call Cathy at 310-552-1888 for pay and food.
According to Michael Klein's column Today:
As the piñata turns
The giant piñata sitting in the lot at Broad Street and Washington Avenue may finally get cracked open today. Carnival Cruise Lines built the 61-foot-tall donkey to set a Guinness record. The plan was to open it last Sunday amid a party atmosphere (raffles for free cruises and the like) and to film the candy drop as a TV commercial. Problem was, too many people showed up and police shut the production. The crew plans to shoot the commercial with a controlled cast of paid extras. No raffle, either. By the way, the piñata is stuffed with generic candy, as Carnival does not want to tout name brands on camera.
I think the Pinata commercials turned out great. It's amazing how all the insanity occurred for the 30 second commercial. In the end the PR for Carnival did such a good job there was an amazing turnout for the stunt. And now I can see by the hits on my site that people are excited to read all about it.
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