Saturday, December 22, 2018

A Brief New Career in Movies

Marvel's The Avengers

I received a check in the mail on Thursday for $64 for work I had done a couple of weeks ago.  It was one of those opportunities that arose because I was retired. I was an extra in a movie being filmed in the area. 

It all came about several weeks earlier.  I was coming out of the gym, and a young woman asked me if I would be interested in being an extra in a film.  I said sure and she sent me upstairs to sign up with the casting agency.  They took photos, measurements, and signed me up. About two months passed by and I got a call.  Could I come to a shoot on Monday?  I couldn’t do that do, but I got another call about Wednesday and I said yes.

The filming was taking place outdoors on a former estate in the hills west of Pittsburgh.  It was still dark when I arrived, and I was bussed from the parking lot up to the production office where I filled out forms, and then bussed up to the basecamp with some of the other extras for the day who had the same start time.  At the basecamp we were directed to costume.  Costume liked the hat I brought, but had me swap out the clothes I wore for more weather-beaten pants, shirt and jacket.  A very thin jacket.  Next was a brief stop at makeup and then I went to the tent where the extras were gathering.

As I talked with the extras, it turned out I was one of the few people there who was doing this for the first time.  Many of them were regulars in the movies and TV shows that get filmed in the Pittsburgh area. Some of them had done this 100 times or more over the years.  They obviously enjoyed the work and talked about shows and movies they had done before. Several people had worked on Mindhunter, the Netflix show about the development of behavioral profiling to catch serial murderers.  I also learned that sometimes the extras get cut out of the final film.  One woman who did regular work as an extra had been in an episode of The Outsiders, which was about a family living in Appalachia.  Her role was as a nurse in a scene in a hospital, and she had to assist a patient with a wound.  All that showed up on screen was her shoulder and a little piece of the patient.  Yet like all the other people I met, she was proud of her role and looked back fondly on all the shows she had done.

Some of the people I met were retired and did it because it was interesting and provided a little extra money.  Some were unemployed or had part-time work.  One young woman had taken the day off from work.  The money was important (about $100 for a full day), but everyone came because of the excitement of being a part of a movie or TV show.  And they were proud of the work they had done. 

I was put into a group with about 15 other people, and we worked on one scene.  The scene was outdoors, the temperature was in the upper 20s and there were snow flurries.  I had the thin jacket provided by costume, but my winter coat was back at the basecamp.  The scene was set in an outdoor market somewhere in Eastern Europe about 80-90 years or so ago. We actually got very little information about the details and also signed a disclosure agreement not to reveal any details.  What I can say is that my task was to have a conversation with one merchant – no actual words, but acting like we were having a discussion – and then, after the star of the movie walked from one side of the market to the other, I was to also walk across the market following a path that crossed his.  Other people were doing similar things, talking at the stalls, walking and so on.  The shoot took about 3 hours.  There were walkthroughs, changes in the walkthroughs, minor changes in the set. There were multiple takes using about 3 different camera positions to film the scene. We were all pretty cold, but got a couple of breaks to go into a heated tent to warm up and some warm food and drinks showed up.

Finally, around 1, the scene was done.  The extras were packed up in a bus, taken to the tent that functioned as an office where we signed off on our hours, and then we were bussed to the basecamp, and finally to the parking lot.  

In the end, it was fun. The other extras were great to talk with, and I really enjoyed seeing the process of filming a movie, even if it was a single scene.  I probably would have done it for free.

The movie does not yet have a title, but when it comes out, I’ll let you all know, even if my walk across the market has been cut out.  Will I do it again?  I’m not sure. It’s tedious, but at the same time interesting.  If I get called for Mindhunter, I’ll think about it.  After all, I’m retired.  I can do what I want.

The photo is from Marvel’s The Avengers, one of the many movies filmed in Pittsburgh.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Searching for the Fountain of Youth



Photo:  A bakery in Paris.  
Eating the pastries there may not extend your life, but will make you smile.

On the day we submitted our last blog on Steps for Successful Aging, a new article appeared in the the New York Times.  It described a well-constructed study to look at the effects of running.  A sample of middle-aged men and women who did not exercise regularly were randomly assigned either to a control group or to one of three exercise conditions: endurance training, interval training or resistance training.  So unlike much of the literature, this study was a true experiment.  Findings would not likely be affected by prior differences in people who exercised and those who did not or any other artifacts.

The main outcome measure was telomerase activity.  For those of you who do not know about telomeres, they are ends of chromosomes that make cell division possible.  Each time a cell divides, telomeres become shorter.  The shortening process can lead eventually to cell death and are risk factors for certain types of illness and death.  Over the past several years, research has looked at factors associated with shorter telomeres (e.g., smoking, obesity, stress, and lack of exercise) and with lengthening telomeres, like diets high in antioxidants (e.g., omega-3 fatty acids), drinking green tea or red wine and exercise.

Exercise and maybe a little red wine now and then are good for us, but will they alter the aging process?  Scientists have long searched for single mechanisms—a single gene, a single substance, and now telomeres—that would slow the negative effects of aging. That is, of course, a worthwhile goal, but what the history of Gerontology suggests is that aging represents changes in multiple systems in the body that are not likely to be affected to a substantial degree by a single magic bullet.  Increases in one factor (length of telomeres) may have some positive effect, but other processes may over time limit benefits due to telomeres alone. There may also be individual differences in how we each respond to substances or activities that might affect the aging process, as well.  Think of the differences in how people respond to medications.  

There may also be unintended consequences of interventions.  In the exercise study, the results showed that endurance training and interval training led to increases in length in telomeres.  But intensive training can also contribute over time to damage to joints and other injuries. We could be adding days at the end of life when we are ill and disabled, but not extending the time when we are healthy and active.

So what is the take-home message.  We think it is to do the practical things that are likely to have benefits for our everyday functioning: moderate exercise and a reasonable but not austere diet.  Those are things that will contribute to the quality of our life, and that is what matters.

Oh, by the way, dark chocolate also contributes to telomere length.

Here is the article on exercise and telomeres in the New York Times:

For a primer on telomeres, see:    https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/telomeres/

Here is an article that summarizes how lifestyle may affect telomeres: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3370421/

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Steps for Successful Aging


Penguins Playing Cards, from the holiday show at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh


Are you confused by the constant stream of articles about how you can stay healthy and prevent illness? It would take all the hours of a person’s life to follow the advice about diet, exercise, lifestyle and medications.  How do you make sense of it all and what is worth doing?  

The place to start is thinking about your goals.  A lot of the research focuses on what might lead to a longer life, but that’s the wrong focus.  What’s important is the quality of life.  Extra months of life may not be desirable, if it means spending more time bedridden and in a nursing home at the end of life.  The goal that most of us have is to be able to stay active and independent for as long as possible.  And we know how to do that.

It’s really quite simple: regular exercise and maintain a reasonable diet and weight—the usual suspects. The specifics are not important. What is important is sustaining your efforts, so select a program of exercise and a diet you can realistically maintain.

A couple of other steps come from our friend and former colleague, Margaret Gatz. First, be an “interested” person.  Not “interesting,” although that’s OK, but interested--staying engaged and curious. Try new things or push yourself to get better in the activities or pursuits you already have.  Doing crossword puzzles or cognitive exercises to stay cognitively active are fine if you enjoy them, but actively engaging in life will provide cognitive stimulation.  Despite all the hype, cognitive stimulation will not prevent dementia, but it will help you remain active and engaged for as long as possible. 

Dr. Gatz’s other suggestion is to build a social circle of choice.  This means to cultivate the relationships with family and friends who are supportive and you enjoy spending time with.  It’s good to have people we can turn to for the emotionally difficult times in our lives or when we need practical help.  And it’s good to put a little distance between yourself and the people in your life who are aggravating or emotionally draining.  

The specifics of your plan are not important.  Despite all the claims, the differences between various approaches to diet and exercise are small or non-existent.  Much of the so-called evidence is correlational.  Here is a recent example.  The New York Times ran a story that claimed that weight training reduced risk of heart attack and stroke.  But this was not an experiment and so cause and effect could not be determined.  The health outcomes could have been due to selection—people who used weights were in better health to start with.  Or the health benefits were due to other factors associated with doing weights.  Maybe persons doing weights are more likely to do other things that are more likely to reduce health risks.  Or it could just be artifact.  With 12,500 subjects in the study, almost anything could be statistically significant, but not very meaningful.

In the midst of all the nonsense that appears about health in the New York Times and other places, one reliable source is Aaron Carroll, who is a Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University and a specialist in health outcomes and health policy.  Dr. Carroll writes an occasional column in the New York Times and provides a thoughtful commentary on emerging trends in health care.

Reference:


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