10 Brilliant Hidden Details In Oscar Winning Films

Trying to organise a scene with a ton of extras can be a right old pain in the ass.

As a director, you've got to keep the fleet of people energised, happy and focused on the task at hand, all while trying to juggle superstar actors, camera work and not go completely insane.

However, Birdman (2014) director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's life was made easier/harder due to the production not being able to afford paid extras. So, instead he just used the actual crowds taking up space in New York's Time Square for Riggan's (Michael Keaton) now famous underwear strut outdoors in the multi Academy Award winner.

Iñárritu did four takes of the long sequence, despite fearing that fans or unaware pedestrians may sabotage the shot by looking into the camera.

The director did have a genius way of trying to distract the herd of people, though. He hired a group of street drummers to play in the street, telling Variety, 'All the tourists wanted to look at these drummers. A half-naked man in Times Square? They’ve seen that before'.

Crew members were also thrown into the crowd to try and control things slightly, but once you realise the vast majority of people Keaton passes in the scene are average Joes wandering through New York it makes the whole experience that little bit more insane to behold.