Most students got tickets to The Dark Knight Rises to see the conclusion of an epic trilogy. For one Pace student, the search was for something more personal: himself.

Last Sept., junior media and communications major Daniel Revkin applied to be an extra in the film The Dark Knight Rises. His application was one amongst thousands, a shot in the dark to say the least. His chances were unlikely but the opportunity would light the way back toward the career he had chosen to leave behind.

After several months of filling out paper work, costume fitting and waiting, Revkin was finally asked to appear on set. He was cast as one of Bane’s mercenaries, the antagonists of the film. The production needed an abundance of extras to shoot the climatic battles at the end of the film.

Extras were assigned to three different groups. Two of the groups were entrusted to look flashy, perform stunts and were positioned close to the camera. Revkin’s group were called “whales,” and were intended to take up a lot of space, but not actually do anything important (like a whale).

Disappointed at first, Revkin quickly befriended a cop extra named Paul who was assigned to one of the more important groups. Paul brought Revkin up to the frontlines where the camera crew and main actors were, including Christian Bale and Tom Hardy. He was a few paces away from being next to Hollywood actors, but stayed focused on the task given to him.

“We were given loose guidelines for what type of fake-fighting we should be doing but eventually we just made up our own moves for fun” said Revkin. Revkin decided to choreograph his own fight sequence with his partner Paul. Each scene was shot multiple times from different angles which allowed the two partners to be creative with different fight choreography ideas.

Their loose interpretation of the guidelines almost led to an embarrassing situation.

“At one point, Paul had fallen over and when he looked up Batman was walking right towards him. I had to shout to him ‘Paul, we’re not supposed to be here!’” said Revkin. They had gone too far from their initial positioning, but it was easy to get lost in the chaos of the set.

The casting call had very low-barrier requirements which led to what Revkin explained as “a wide assortment of humanity.” In addition to Batman fanatics and desperate actors looking for work there were homeless bums, random walk-ons and crazy people who ended up on set. “One guy was yelling that Zionists control everything,” said Revkin. “It was complete chaos.”

The crazy man’s ramblings reminded Revkin of the life he could’ve been living had fate gone a different way.

Long before Batman began, Revkin saw the movie Jurassic Park at age six and immediately became enamored with film-making. He grew up watching movies and was encouraged by his theater teacher Mr. Whitehurst to act in school plays. His schooling at The Harvey School in Katonah encouraged him to pursue his passion for filmmaking. In his youth, he was dead set on becoming a director and creating the same type of movies he loved watching.

As he grew up, Revkin became more realistic about the possibility of being a director. “There are a lot of people who want to make movies and not many of them get the chance to,” said Revkin. “Even the ones who do, less than five percent of those people make it to A-list status.” The field was highly competitive and the dream seemed unlikely, so instead of making action movies he decided to make his life into one. “Since sixth grade the two things I wanted to do were become a director or join the CIA,” said Revkin. Movies were out, being a spy was in.

In tenth grade Revkin transferred from The Harvey School to Westchester Hebrew High School. Revkin’s Jewish mother was deeply invested in the religion and encouraged him to become more religious as well. Revkin saw this as an outlet for his new goal and applied for a program called Garin Tzabar, which is for young adults who want to join the Israeli army.

After a lengthy application process that occurred during and after his senior year of high school, Revkin arrived in Israel in Aug. 2009. At the time, he already considered himself very religious but the program encouraged members to become more invested in the faith’s ideals.

“They talk about everything in the world being connected. There is no coincidence,” said Revkin. He adopted these ideals as his own and looked forward to what would happen next.

His new life was a world away. His time in Israel was a dead zone for his previous passion. Films were released and celebrities had died without Revkin noticing.

“I didn’t know until months after I had gotten back that Brittany Murphy had died,” said Revkin. He was so far off the grid that the hype and release of Avatar completely evaded his life. It didn’t matter. At this point he was ready to put his love for movies behind him.

He excelled in his training and was spotted as one of the promising potentials in his group, but his success was short-lived. During a training exercise, he suffered a medical injury that stunted his military potential. Revkin became very sick and was eventually medically dismissed in April 2010. He was sent back to the United States at a weight of 120 pounds, he had lost 40 pounds because of his sickness.

Without a goal to look forward to, Revkin wasn’t sure what to do with his life. His injury kept him from being in the CIA and movies seemed unlikely. He decided to attend Pace University due to his father, Andrew Revkin, being employed by the school. He chose to become a media and communications major to see if a life in film-making was still possible, but matters were grim.

Revkin had lost the optimism he had before. The assurance that everything was connected had faded away. He didn’t believe in fate anymore. It wouldn’t be until a year later that he would spot a casting call for The Dark Knight Rises that asked for the one requirement he had spent months gaining: military experience.

It was fortuitous that choosing a military career path away from film-making had swing-shot him back towards it. His experience in the military taught him how to fight and his experience in school taught him how to act, a perfect match for the role. These skills assisted Revkin for the first two days of shooting for The Dark Knight Rises, but the third and fourth days were less climatic.

“The third day I waited in holding for seven hours, then on a bus for two more hours,” said Revkin. “At the end of the day I stood on a bridge and looked menacing for an hour and then they told us to go home.” On his last day of shooting he waited off-set for nine hours until a member of the crew told everyone they were done shooting.

Batman was over, but the journey was not. Out of the Batman opportunity, more avenues opened for Revkin. A friend he invited to The Dark Knight Rises landed a position on an independent film project called Unfit Mother. His friend paid the favor back and got Revkin a production assistant job for the shooting of Unfit Mother. He spent a week working on the opposite side of the camera, learning more about the production of a film.

This past summer, Revkin was contacted by the casting agency that hired him for The Dark Knight Rises and offered him another extra role for the film Noah, a film based on the Old Testament story, Noah’s Ark. Revkin showed up to the same warehouse where he was fitted for costumes for The Dark Knight Rises and was approved to work on Noah, which is being directed by Darren Aronofosky, best known for his previous film Black Swan.

In the coming weeks, Revkin will be missing days of classes to shoot scenes for Noah. This time he’s been given more responsibility and is tasked with following the actual stunt crew and making sure other extras don’t interfere with the choreography that’s been planned.

Revkin also hopes to get an internship for a visual effects house in California. He’s already been approved for the position but the project won’t start until Feb. 2013 and likely won’t be updated on its status until Nov. later this year.

Revkin declined to give details on the project because he’s unsure what he can and can’t say. It’s worth noting that the names attached to the potential project are within the realm of his previous experiences with The Dark Knight Rises and Noah (or Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky, respectively).

Revkin is thankful for the rollercoaster of events that brought him to today, but remains realistic about his perception of fate.

“I don’t consider myself religious anymore,” said Revkin “Despite my injury, my experience in Israel was very positive. It teaches you a lot of discipline and patience.”

Patience seems to be Revkin’s current plan. “For now, I’ll just go wherever the wind will take me,” said Revkin.

His story reminds all students that life has a way of figuring itself out. These years during college are more hectic than any weekend party or late-night crunch. Each success opens new opportunities and each failure breeds new possibilities. You may be dead set on a career you’ve decided, but no one can predict where the wind might take you.