I look over to Tay and she is so excited. All of the cast was there now and I finally see Vanessa sitting in the bleachers with some of the cast, crew, and cast friends. My eyes are now trained on the two of them. Constantly looking back and forth checking everything between the two. For about another 30 minutes or so there is just a lot of commotion going on with crew people fixing lights and moving cameras make up people fixing faces prop people fixing some banners on the walls and such. Then one of the producers grabs a microphone and introduces himself and then introduces Kenny Ortega. Everyone is screaming, he has Manly his dog with him dressed in a little black sweater that has a red star on it, so cute. Kenny explains the HSM phenomenon to us all (which he really didn’t need to do) and then went on to explain that major motion picture HSM 3 would be bigger and better with bigger dance routines, even better music and we were going to be part of that. I have to tell you, the man knows how to schmooze. He thanked us all for wanting to a part of it and putting up with the rigorous filming schedule we would have all weekend. Everyone clapped and then he proceeded in introducing producers and such, finally getting to the cast. He introduced every one except for Zac and Vanessa and explained Sharpay would stop by to see everyone but she wasn’t in this scene of the movie. And she did come to the set later that day. They were each taking turns doing interviews throughout the day with Tanika from Extra. That blond boy from Disney Channel show “Movie Surfers” was there on Sunday interviewing as well.

Okay so Kenny finally introduces Zac and Vanessa together as “our Troy and Gabriella.” The roars were thunderous we about blew the top off the gymnasium. Zac was on Kenny’s right and Vanessa to the left. They each took a turn with microphone and thanked us for coming and being a part of their movie. Again we gave them more applause and they give us their bashful smiles and then to each other (awwwwww another moment) Up until this point the two of them were keeping their distance. A few times I noticed Zac trying to locate her in the gym but not being obvious about it. And she would do the same. Both of them never really making eye contact with each other. He was practicing his b-ball moves which is really choreographed dance moves with the other guys and she milling about the cast bleachers talking to friends. Kenny takes the microphone and starts to explain the filming for the weekend. And like the production assistant explains that we are doing the opening scene of the movie. When the scene starts everyone is there to see the EH vs. WH for the state championship game so the EH cheerleaders are doing a dance/cheer routine to get ready for the entrance of the EH players when they come running from the doors. So they are set up in two diagonal lines with space in between so the EH players can run through them. And we the fans have to act all crazy as they come out. They play cool music and the cheerleaders do a dance routine. You know the drill if you’ve seen a game. So we got that part of filming under our belt.

Next part Kenny explained would be a very important scene in the whole movie and the game. It was a scene between Troy and Gabriella. This scene pretty much took up the rest of the weekend. Kenny wanted it right. To set up the scene, it’s late in the game, EH is losing. WH is playing dirty basketball, fouling a lot. The guys are whipped. Troy is banged up. His fingers are jammed on his shooting hand, his leg has a supportive brace on and he’s tired and frustrated His dad is frustrated and he feels like he is letting everyone down. He’s about to give up hope on winning this game. He is also upset because he thinks Vanessa isn’t there.

Okay that being said. I find out that Monique, Olesya, and Vanessa are located in the bleachers behind me. They are sitting together up near the top of the bleachers with Vanessa directly behind me and the other two girls on each side of her. How they slipped by me I do not know. Probably during one of my many trips to the bathroom. Anyhoo, they were back there and the only way I found this out was when Kenny yelled up to them and asked if they were ready. I about died.

Then Kenny explained to us that, in this scene Troy would be passed the ball, remember they are fighting to come back and win. We all had to be up on our feet chanting and yelling like crazy to boost our team to get them going, so we were all yelling and the sound track is blasting on speakers all over the gym and the players are moving the ball around the court choreographed to the beat of the music and Troy gets passed the ball, I think by Corbin.

But he is aggressively fouled out of bounds and knocked on his butt but by a WH player. This play takes place at the other end of the gym near his own teams chairs so still on my side of the gym. So he is at opposite ends of the bleacher section from where Vanessa is sitting. Kenny states that when the music instantly stops we will then only hear the sound of a heart beating over the speakers, it’s Zac’s heart beat. He then wants us all to be quiet and he wants us to s-l-o-w-l-e-y sit back down in our seats. Corbin runs over to help Troy up and ask if he was ok, you don’t hear anyone’s voice at this point just the exchange between them all you can hear is Troy’s heart beat. he is slow getting up, but nods his head to Corbin that he is ok. He then slowly turns to look at his Dad who is also asking the same question. Same voiceless exchange. He puts his thumb up and nods yes to Dad. He is disillusioned because he thinks Vanessa is not at the game, he’s sweaty and tired and slowly lifts his head to look up in the stands. At that point the sound track starts to play music its got a pretty fast beat and we are told by Kenny at the start of the music the fans starting at the end of the bleacher nearest to Zac, we will start flipping our cards in a “wave” motion in time with the music. (it’s fast flipping let me tell ya) When we do our wave of the cards the bleachers reveal a full red back ground with white paw prints that look like the paw prints are walking across the bleachers with the red background that’s why extras including Tay were sitting in the aisle steps, they didn’t want aisle steps to break up the red background. And as we are flipping the cards and the white paw prints are walking across the bleachers they lead up to where Vanessa is sitting. I know, try to imagine it, but when you see,  it’s really cool. So Zac’s line of vision is following the cards and the paw prints across the bleachers and when the last paw print is turned up, which is right by Vanessa she stands up and she is revealed so that he can see her. At this point the fast music stops and the lights go way down, almost dark and a spot light is shined on Vanessa and Zac its like they are the only two in the whole world at that point and they can only see and hear each other. The camera is on her and she yells “Troy” but it’s long and drawn out like Trooooy and it is more like she is singing his name. I wish I could give you the tune but I know nothing about music. And then the camera goes back to him and he answers her as he places his arm across his chest and his hand is in a fist over his heart. There is pain in his face as he sings these words back to her, it‘s a slow beat:

‘I can hardly breathe’ (there is emphasis on “hardly” being a two syllable word like har-dly. the words ”I” and “breathe” are drawn out)

And she responds:

‘Just know that I believe’ ( with emphasis on the first syllable “be” and the second syllable “lieve” drawn out and its sung softly)

He sings:

‘You give me the strength I need.’ (emphasis on the words “give me” and again the word “need” is sung long)

And then she sings:

‘Then come on!’ (that’s sung quickly and louder than her last verse)

And then he gets a big smile on his face and sings:

‘Yah, come on, get up, let’s get going’ ( I’m not too sure about this last verse but “get up” is sung louder than the rest)

And he does this little jump up thing and turns his body to jump back into the game. The gym lights blast on and the fast music starts playing again and we the crowd do our flip of the cards to reveal the other side of the card so now the bleachers are all white with the saying “Go Wildcats” in red and then all of us jump up and start screaming as he runs back into the game with renewed strength.