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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 11 May 29 (Day 56) We’ve checked into the Park Plaza Hotel just west of downtown L.A. for the next five days of shooting. The shuttered hotel, one of many white-washed art deco edifices from the 1920s that dot this heavily Hispanic barrio, plays itself, circa 1951, for several sequences that portray the H.U.A.C. testimony scenes in the story. Frank and company have taken over one of the hotel’s elegant (and restored) ballrooms for Sc. 139-153 -- Int. Park Plaza Ballroom, in which Peter Appleton returns to Hollywood to face his accusers and testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee.  Writer Sloane originally wanted to film these scenes at the old Biltmore Hotel which is located a stone’s throw away downtown, and location maven John Grant (you may remember him from our first day of filming almost three months ago) scoured the city to find an appropriate site for these crucial scenes in the story. Grant visited almost two dozen locales (including the Scottish Rite Temple in Pasadena and the Queen Mary oceanliner’s main dining room in Long Beach) almost a year ago when he first joined the production. After compiling picture files on each site, he approached high school buddy Darabont and did “my normal show-and-tell routine, allowing Frank to view pictures of each place I visited. He didn’t want to accompany me on scouts to all twenty places, so he selected five locations, and immediately chose the Park Plaza once he saw the ballroom, which we all felt had a governmental feel to it.” The Park Plaza dates back to 1926, and the $1.6 million project originally housed an Elks Club before becoming a hotel. Now shuttered since 1997, the current owners are conducting a complete renovation to restore it to its original glory before re-opening it as a European-style, 72-room hotel. The hotel is popular among Hollywood filmmakers, and the regal building has served as a location for dozens of movies, TV shows and music videos. It is also located across the street from MacArthur Park, made famous in Jimmy Webb’s song of the same name that topped the charts back in 1968. Sung by actor Richard Harris, you may recall some of the tune’s unusual lyrics -- “MacArthur Park is melting in the dark, All the sweet green icing flowing down, Someone left the cake out in the rain. I don’t think that I can take it, ‘cause it took so long to bake it, and I’ll never have that recipe again...” In the scenes scheduled over the next week, Carrey’s character is confronted by actor Bob Balaban, who returns after a lengthy absence as the H.U.A.C.’s head counsel, Elvin Clyde. Balaban’s tenacious inquisitor is reminiscent of another memorable film character he played twenty years ago, Elliot Rosen, the officious Justice Dept. prosecutor, in Sydney Pollack’s 1981 Oscar-nominated drama, “Absence of Malice.” Joining Balaban on the dais for the next week is five-time Emmy winner Hal Holbrook, who plays the H.U.A.C.’s chairman, T. Johnston Doyle. Holbrook is one of the country’s most distinguished actors, with a dozen Emmy nominations over the years and a Tony Award for his legendary Broadway portrait of Mark Train in “Mark Twain Tonight!,” a character he created while a college student in Ohio back in the 1940s and one he debuted professionally back in 1954. Holbrook resurrects Twain’s legacy every year, and has since that debut 47 years ago. Cameraman Emmerichs dons his trusty Steadicam rig once again for a sweeping shot (one of many crane and Steadicam moves Frank has planned for these scenes) that follows Appleton, besieged by dozens of reporters, into the testimony chambers. Emmerichs uses a 27mm lens this morning, which will give the moviegoer a wide overview of the crowd’s anticipation and anxiety as they await Appleton’s arrival. Emmerichs, with assistance from dolly grip Pearlberg (who guides the cameraman’s movement as Emmerichs walks backwards hauling the 70 lb. machine on his special harness), tracks through hordes of extras shouting questions and popping flashbulbs at Appleton. Emmerichs rehearses his moves several times with Carrey stand-in Kerry Hoyt before Frank is satisfied with the camera choreography and requests the star’s presence on the set this morning. Carrey, donning a gray pin-striped suit (hand-tailored from costumer Wagner’s design), gets some last-minute touch ups from his personal costumer, David Page, and his hair/makeup team of Ann Morgan and Bill Corso, with whom actor Carrey jokes briefly before his dramatic entrance into the H.U.A.C. proceedings. In between a few takes, gaffer Vuille adjusts one of many “firefly” lights (manufactured by a company called Lightning Strikes) arranged strategically around the cavernous ballroom. Several of Vuille’s electricians man the controls for these flashing lights, which create the effect of flashing camera bulbs going off from reporters surrounding Appleton. Vuille explains that “you need only touch the button every few seconds to effect a flashing bulb. If you hold the button too long, it looks like ightning striking. Hence, the name of the company.” (Vuille adds that similar lights, with much higher wattage, will be used when we film Appleton’s car crash in the coming weeks, simulating a lightning storm). Assistant director Colwell preps his huge horde of extras before actually rolling any film. Along with his key assistant, 2nd a.d. Paula Harris, both steer the background players in specific directions. Colwell provides pointed guidance to those extras playing reporters, telling them to pop their camera flashes after Emmerichs walks by with the Steadicam, re-load if there’s time, then flash again. Props assistant Valerie Van Norte (the very same short-order cook who scrambled Carrey’s eggs way back in Ferndale), walks around in between takes to replace all used bulbs for the cameras propmaster Farley has supplied. She tells me that she bought out all existing Sylvania and GE “blue dot” bulbs for the scenes, numbering somewhere in the tens-of-thousands! Farley, with set decorator Pope, was also responsible for obtaining the actual newsreel cameras on display this morning, along with two vintage KTLA-TV (L.A.’s local Channel 5 television station) news cameras for the scenes. Once again, the film craftspeople turned to the experts at History for Hire, the same folks who provided the “gold star” flags on display in Lawson’s (Ferndale’s) storefronts, and the aged movie projectors being used inside The Majestic. Farley herself cleared the use of the KTLA camera logo through the station here in Los Angeles. By day’s end, most of the participants are exhausted from the stifling heat (emanating from Vuille’s many lights) that sits like a blanket inside the huge ballroom. It doesn’t help that temperatures in L.A. this week may reach 90+ degrees, thus adding additional discomfort to the proceedings. The hotel’s staff has mandated that no food or drink can be brought into the ballroom, so the hordes head straight for the water when Colwell calls for breaks in the filming. In these trying and demanding conditions (and you thought moviemaking was glamorous), Frank at day’s end applauds the energy these 500 souls supplied our first of five days scheduled for the H.U.A.C. sequences. |
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