CRANBERRY TWP — That’s definitely Christian Bale there, the English actor and Oscar winner, but that guy next to him in the shot a second before, wasn’t that a guy in a Butler County Community College in Cranberry Township financial accounting class? Research writing? Spanish I? Calculus and analytical geometry?

Hair’s a bit longer. Has those bushy sideburns.

But isn’t that Tyler Beegle?

“That’s me,” said Beegle, a BC3 student who may have a close-up shot as a paid extra in “The Pale Blue Eye” following editing of the Netflix movie expected to be broadcast later this year.

Filming in Western Pennsylvania ended in February, said Beegle, an Allegheny County resident, BC3 accounting major and 2010 graduate of Seneca Valley High School who grew longer hair and 3-inch sideburns to authenticate his part in a movie whose time period is 1830.

The movie, as described by IMDb.com, follows a veteran detective who investigates murders, helped by a detail-oriented cadet who would later become a famed author.

The setting for the movie is the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, said Beegle, who portrays a cadet. Crews were shooting on location at Moraine State Park and McConnells Mill State Park during January and February.

“Cadets are starting to be murdered,” Beegle said. “And then you have a detective who is coming in, played by Christian Bale. And he gets the assistance of one of the cadets, who is Edgar Allen Poe, to help solve the mystery of the murders.”

The 29-year-old is scheduled to take only online or remote classes at BC3’s location in Cranberry Township this spring and expects to graduate in BC3’s Class of 2022.

He returned to Ross Township in 2020 and enrolled at BC3 after living six years in the West, portraying Japanese anime characters during cosplay conventions in cities from San Francisco to Phoenix.

Beegle said he learned about “The Pale Blue Eye” being filmed in the region while watching an interview with Bale. Beegle researched the production online and learned how to apply to become a paid extra. He applied Oct. 14.

“They got back to me really quickly,” Beegle said.

“The Pale Blue Eye” was the first paid-extra part for which he has applied, Beegle said.

The paid-extra part, he said, required those within a specific range of age, height and build, and within a range of specific hat and shoe sizes.

“They had more than 100 applicants,” Beegle said. “They narrowed it down to about 40 or 50.”

Paid extras attended two 12-hour mandatory “boot camp” days in the region, Beegle said, where they were taught by West Point instructors how to march — “maintaining the correct distance in front of you and to the left of you” — and how to salute.

“Saluting back then was different than it is today,” Beegle said. “Back then, when someone saluted, the palm of the hand is facing forward and the back of your hand is near the forehead.”

Such attention to detail was impressive to Beegle, who has been on location a dozen times since his first appearance in December.

“If there’s too much snow on a rock, they brush it off,” Beegle said. “If they need a little bit more snow, they grab a handful and place it meticulously on the rock. They are constantly measuring the height of the candles when we are filming. If the candles get too low, they grab out the right size.”

And a machine, he said, “just fills up the woods with fog. You’re outside. It’s clear. They turn it on. And you can’t see more than 20 feet in any direction.”

His former classmates at BC3 may see him through the fog and next to Bale, a four-time Academy Award nominee and 2011 winner of best supporting actor for “The Fighter.”

The scene in which Beegle appeared with Bale initially had 30 paid extras portraying cadets.

“Too many,” according to the director at the location, said Beegle.

Beegle was one of 15 who remained in the scene, he said.

“ .. and the camera focuses on me”

The paid extras rehearsed for 20 minutes for the scene, Beegle said. It was recorded four times, with a single camera staged at different locations “to get different angles,” Beegle said.

Beegle is within a column of cadets walking through a field looking for a missing cadet when a shout of “Captain!” is heard from the rear.

“We all stop,” Beegle said, “and are directed to look at an X on a tree.”

The X is a prop placed on the trunk of an oak and represents the origin of the sound of the voice.

“We stop walking, and the camera focuses on me,” Beegle said, “then on Christian Bale, for a few seconds.”

That long hair? Recently trimmed. Those bushy sideburns? Shaved after his final day on location last month.

Upon graduating from BC3, Beegle plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Niagara University in New York.

Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.