Sioux City native appears in recently released movie
By Joanne Fox Journal staff writer | Posted: Friday, December 29, 2006
Sioux City native Ben Baron got a new best friend last year, Bob.
Most of us know him as Robert De Niro.
Baron also exchanged plaudits for the Boston Red Sox last year with another new best friend, Matt.
Most of us know him as Matt Damon.
Through a couple of connections, the 1996 North High graduate hooked up with Bob and Matt for the recently released movie "The Good Shepherd."
"My teacher, Mark Nuccio with the New York Philharmonic was contacted by Sandy Park, one of the Philharmonic violinists who does contracting for movies, finding instrumentalists for bit parts," Baron explained during his holiday visit to Sioux City. "She had been working directly with Bob -- or Robert De Niro. He needed a few instrumentalists for his movie and Mark gave her my name."
Baron wasn't just chosen among the field of candidates. He had to "audition" via a produced 30-second clip of him pretending to play the clarinet.
"It was awkward actually," Baron confessed. "Since the film's music would be prerecorded, we would only be acting like we were playing."
The scene he was chosen for appears in the movie as a flashback of Matt Damon recalling his performance as "Buttercup" in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore while he was a student at Yale University. Baron was told De Niro was looking for people who look like they might have attended Yale in the 1940s.
"I like to think that because I went to Yale, that's why I got the part," bragged Baron, who was awarded a master's degree in music performance from the Ivy League school in 2002.
Baron, the other members of the eight-piece orchestra and a host of extras, met at a theater on Broadway last year on the day of the shoot. He was outfitted in a vintage 1940s tuxedo, "very specific for a period piece," right down to the cufflinks.
Even though Baron has a lot of stage time as a professional musician in the Big Apple, this was his first dose of reality with the movie industry.
"I was told to show up for a couple of little shots that I would be in," he recalled of his "shoot" in October of 2005. "We ended up going from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., shooting a take, waiting, shooting a take, waiting -- all for a two-minute scene," again pretending to play the clarinet "while Bob was running back and forth providing direction."
Baron admitted he and the other musicians received no instruction on what to do while they were supposedly playing for Damon's presentation of "Buttercup."
"After a couple of rehearsals, they did tell us we needed to be more animated," he acknowledged.
Because Baron was sitting for long periods of time while the movie business was carried on around him, he had brought a copy of the New York Times along. While the scene was being filmed, he would be sitting on it. Once the scene was completed, he would pull the newspaper out and read it. That caught the attention of Damon, who was positioned in that scene almost over Baron's shoulder,
"We came back for the evening set of the shoot and basically Matt called me out," Baron said. "He said, 'Hey man! You've got to put that paper away!' I did and he said, 'Nah, I'm just kidding. You can read your paper.'"
To justify what he was doing and coincidentally, Baron told Damon that he was reading an article about him that concerned a recent movie that was being filmed on the stage of the Metropolitan opera.
"He took a look at the article and said, 'Oh yeah. I'm in that. It's just that I'm in so many projects, I forgot that one!'," Baron said.
To keep the conversation afloat Baron bantered on with comments about Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez beating out Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz for the American League MVP award.
"I thought Matt figured I was a Yankee fan since I'm living in New York," Baron explained. "I wanted him to know otherwise since he's a huge Red Sox fan."
For his efforts, Baron was paid as a one-day member of Screen Actors Guild, considered as an extra with a special skill. Because the shoot went into overtime and had been scheduled for two days, the compensation was almost $500.
"It sounds like a lot, but when you're free-lancing, every little bit helps," said Baron, who performs with his own klezmer musical group, Balagon (they recently performed at ArtSplash) and is a doctoral candidate at the Manhattan School of Music.
Once the shoot was completed, Baron heard "absolutely nothing" from that day forward about "The Good Shepherd." He was concerned that the scene may have ended up on the cutting room floor. Baron even had his own "silly" theory as to what might have happened.
"One of the extras who was sitting in the audience pointed out to me that the ligature, the piece that holds the clarinet to the mouthpiece, was not authentic to 1940," Baron said. "I had decided that because of that, there would be no full frontal shot of my ligature."
When the movie was released in New York, other commitments prohibited Baron from attending. Then the holidays came and he was traveling. He hopes to catch the three-hour flick while in Sioux City.
"My folks saw it the afternoon it came out and Mom claims I'm recognizable," Baron said.
Most of us know him as Robert De Niro.
Baron also exchanged plaudits for the Boston Red Sox last year with another new best friend, Matt.
Most of us know him as Matt Damon.
Through a couple of connections, the 1996 North High graduate hooked up with Bob and Matt for the recently released movie "The Good Shepherd."
"My teacher, Mark Nuccio with the New York Philharmonic was contacted by Sandy Park, one of the Philharmonic violinists who does contracting for movies, finding instrumentalists for bit parts," Baron explained during his holiday visit to Sioux City. "She had been working directly with Bob -- or Robert De Niro. He needed a few instrumentalists for his movie and Mark gave her my name."
Baron wasn't just chosen among the field of candidates. He had to "audition" via a produced 30-second clip of him pretending to play the clarinet.
"It was awkward actually," Baron confessed. "Since the film's music would be prerecorded, we would only be acting like we were playing."
The scene he was chosen for appears in the movie as a flashback of Matt Damon recalling his performance as "Buttercup" in Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore while he was a student at Yale University. Baron was told De Niro was looking for people who look like they might have attended Yale in the 1940s.
"I like to think that because I went to Yale, that's why I got the part," bragged Baron, who was awarded a master's degree in music performance from the Ivy League school in 2002.
Baron, the other members of the eight-piece orchestra and a host of extras, met at a theater on Broadway last year on the day of the shoot. He was outfitted in a vintage 1940s tuxedo, "very specific for a period piece," right down to the cufflinks.
Even though Baron has a lot of stage time as a professional musician in the Big Apple, this was his first dose of reality with the movie industry.
"I was told to show up for a couple of little shots that I would be in," he recalled of his "shoot" in October of 2005. "We ended up going from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., shooting a take, waiting, shooting a take, waiting -- all for a two-minute scene," again pretending to play the clarinet "while Bob was running back and forth providing direction."
Baron admitted he and the other musicians received no instruction on what to do while they were supposedly playing for Damon's presentation of "Buttercup."
"After a couple of rehearsals, they did tell us we needed to be more animated," he acknowledged.
Because Baron was sitting for long periods of time while the movie business was carried on around him, he had brought a copy of the New York Times along. While the scene was being filmed, he would be sitting on it. Once the scene was completed, he would pull the newspaper out and read it. That caught the attention of Damon, who was positioned in that scene almost over Baron's shoulder,
"We came back for the evening set of the shoot and basically Matt called me out," Baron said. "He said, 'Hey man! You've got to put that paper away!' I did and he said, 'Nah, I'm just kidding. You can read your paper.'"
To justify what he was doing and coincidentally, Baron told Damon that he was reading an article about him that concerned a recent movie that was being filmed on the stage of the Metropolitan opera.
"He took a look at the article and said, 'Oh yeah. I'm in that. It's just that I'm in so many projects, I forgot that one!'," Baron said.
To keep the conversation afloat Baron bantered on with comments about Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez beating out Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz for the American League MVP award.
"I thought Matt figured I was a Yankee fan since I'm living in New York," Baron explained. "I wanted him to know otherwise since he's a huge Red Sox fan."
For his efforts, Baron was paid as a one-day member of Screen Actors Guild, considered as an extra with a special skill. Because the shoot went into overtime and had been scheduled for two days, the compensation was almost $500.
"It sounds like a lot, but when you're free-lancing, every little bit helps," said Baron, who performs with his own klezmer musical group, Balagon (they recently performed at ArtSplash) and is a doctoral candidate at the Manhattan School of Music.
Once the shoot was completed, Baron heard "absolutely nothing" from that day forward about "The Good Shepherd." He was concerned that the scene may have ended up on the cutting room floor. Baron even had his own "silly" theory as to what might have happened.
"One of the extras who was sitting in the audience pointed out to me that the ligature, the piece that holds the clarinet to the mouthpiece, was not authentic to 1940," Baron said. "I had decided that because of that, there would be no full frontal shot of my ligature."
When the movie was released in New York, other commitments prohibited Baron from attending. Then the holidays came and he was traveling. He hopes to catch the three-hour flick while in Sioux City.
"My folks saw it the afternoon it came out and Mom claims I'm recognizable," Baron said.
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