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| Introduction: Opening the Doors Cast and Crew Prelude Journal 2: ACT 1: Blacklisted! March 6 (Day 2) March 9 (Day 3) March 10-11 (Days 4-5) March 12-13 (Days 6-7) Journal 3: ACT 2: Welcome to Ferndale! March 20 (Day 9) March 21 (Day 10) March 22 (Day 11) March 23 (Day 12) Journal 4: March 26 (Day 13) March 27 (Day 14) March 28 (Day 15) March 29 (Day 16) March 30 (Day 17) Journal 5: April 2 (Day 18) April 3 (Day 19) April 4 (Day 20) April 5 (Day 21) April 6 (Day 22) Journal 6: April 8 (Day 23) April 9 (Day 24) April 10 (Day 25) April 11 (Day 26) April 12 (Day 27) Journal 7: April 16 (Day 28) April 17 (Day 29) April 18 (Day 30) April 19 (Day 31) April 20 (Day 32) April 23 (Day 33) April 24 (Day 34) April 25 (Day 35) April 26 (Day 36) Journal 8: April 30 (Day 37) May 1 (Day 38) May 2 (Day 39) May 3 (Day 40) May 4 (Day 41) May 7 (Day 42) May 8 (Day 43) Journal 9: May 10-11 (Days 44-45) May 14 (Day 46) May 15 (Day 47) May 16 (Day 48) May17 (Day 49) May 18 (Day 50) Journal 10: May 21 (Day 51) May 22 (Day 52) May 23 (Day 53) May 24 (Day 54) May 25 (Day 55) Journal 11: May 29 (Day 56) May 30 (Day 57) May 31 (Day 58) June 1 (Day 59) |
Journal 10 May 23 (Day 53) Notice how many conversations begin with talk about the weather. Notice I haven’t mentioned the weather since we’ve returned to L.A. That’s because it’s the same every day. A marine layer covers the Los Angeles basin in the mornings, with the sun finally peeking out around Noon. Local TV news (seven local English-language stations, plus at least two Hispanic outlets) does employ weather forecasters, who could probably tape Monday’s broadcast and run that same telecast throughout the week, as nothing ever seems to change with the weather in La-La Land. Much different than what I’m used to in Chicago, where, as locals say, if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes (that adage also applied to Ferndale). Today is a bit warmer than usual in West Hollywood, where The Lot is located. And, on the production today, things are heating up regarding the marketing campaign for the film once we complete the filming in June.  An assorted group of production and marketing executives are gathering at The Lot today to discuss the strategy for the film leading up to its December 21, 2001, release. There will be three factions involved -- a group from Warner Bros. (which owns Castle Rock Pictures) led by marketing chief Brad Ball. Castle Rock’s representatives include corporate partner Martin Shafer and production head Liz Glotzer plus my boss, Paulette Osorio and the editor of this web journal, Sam Fusco. Jim Carrey’s camp includes managers Jimmy Miller and Eric Gold and my colleague, Marleah Leslie. Producer Jim Behnke will also attend the session and hopefully report back to me any pertinent issues that impact my remaining time on the film. My absence is not necessarily conspicuous -- since the group will strategize about their long-term plans to ably market the film and Jim’s performance, I am not part of that future scenario, as my function on the project ends when filming is complete in late June. Ideally, I try to set the stage during production with assorted stories and items in the press, and maybe bank a few set visits by prominent journalists (here, the Los Angeles Times and New Yorker magazine) to break in conjunction with the film’s release. Not only have I been excluded from today’s marketing meeting, I’ve also been thrown off the set (as have many expendable bodies) because we are filming in tight quarters again, this time The Majestic’s projection booth. For those of you familiar with some of these older movie palaces, you will recall that their design differs drastically with today’s movie theaters (newer designs today have a stadium-style layout to the seating). Older playhouses traditionally contained an upstairs balcony (behind which the projection booth was built), and production designer Melton included both on a second story addition to his main auditorium set. As usual, Melton constructed his projection booth with some wild walls, allowing a variety of camera angles in such cramped quarters. Today’s first camera set-up is a dolly track move on Harry (Martin Landau) through the portals of the booth as we observe his reaction while he watches an old-time silent classic, King Vidor’s “The Big Parade.” Luke wanders into the booth and father and son chat about how Landau’s character bought a film print for his wife of “The Big Parade.” As this 1925 cinema classic unspools on the screen Lnadua’s character explains that this was the first film ever show in The Majestic theater. Set decorator Pope mentioned she found these old-style projectors through an organization called History for Hire. Pope tells me that while much of the decor in our auditorium set comes from a variety of sources and locations, they also resorted to this specialized Hollywood prop house that supplies all sorts of vintage items to filmmakers recreating yesteryear. Our contact at History for Hire, Pam Elyea, first used these two projectors (which burn the traditional carbon arcs that supply the light for the projector) on Richard Attenborough’s 1992 biopic, “Chaplin,” which indicates that these machines date back to the early 20th century. Pam’s company was also instrumental in helping propmaster Farley gather these special mini-flags signifying a soldier’s death in WWII. Tomorrow -- Laurie wants her cake! |
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