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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 30 (Day 57) The crucial and dramatic H.U.A.C. scenes... Frank trains his cameras in the direction of the extras until he has exhausted all coverage looking in Carrey’s direction as he stands before his inquisitors, hoping to clear his name before the insidious committee whose tenacious pursuit of suspected Communist activity in Hollywood violated our First Amendment. It is one of the themes explored in Sloane’s script, particularly in these scenes unfolding at the Park Plaza. Once Frank feels confident that he has filmed all possible angles looking toward this huge group, a.d. Colwell can dismiss many of the extras (probably several hundred) for scenes that cover the dialogue on the dais, where actors Balaban and Holbrook deliver their lines in the scenes. While Frank focuses his cameras on Carrey (and co-stars Garfield as agent Kubelsky and Rifkin as studio lawyer Bannerman), he will repeatedly shoot the ten-plus pages of dialogue covering the testimony and speech delivered by Appleton in his attempts to clear his suspected Communist background.  With the usual suspects sitting at the video village set-up (along with Frank, his assistant, Denise Huth, Anna Garduno of Darkwoods Productions, Carrey’s assistant, Linda Fields-Hill, script upervisor Susan Malerstein-Watkins and writer Sloane), Frank watches attentively as Carrey delivers a compelling speech (to give away more would ruin the surprise for you moviegoers). Suffice it to say, if you remember Jimmy Stewart’s filibuster in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” picture actor Carrey giving a similarly spirited performance here. When Appleton rises from his chair and walks out on the committee, the attendees applaud vigorously, and one wonders if the applause is for both the scene itself (as required by Darabont) and in appreciation of Carrey’s mesmerizing, gripping performance today. These are scenes the talented actor will play over and over again over the next several days, both in front of the cameras, and off-camera to elicit the necessary reactions from actors Balaban and Holbrook as they clearly express their disdain for screenwriter Appleton. Outside of the ballroom set, several extras wait patiently for the lengthy takes (each running approximately eight minutes, as timed by script supervisor Malerstein-Watkins) while attentively watching our new camera “loader,” Naomi Villanova, perform the delicate task of removing the exposed film from the camera magazine into a canister for shipment to the lab. After placing both the magazine and film can inside a mini tent, Villanova closes two zippers before inserting each hand inside this makeshift darkroom positioned atop a table in the hallway. This “tent” acts like a portable darkroom, allowing the camera loader to prepare the exposed film for shipment to the lab for processing that night. She also loads the camera magazines inside this unusual and unique tool. Villanova uses the tent on this location because the camera truck (which contains its own darkroom) is parked a long way from our second floor set. The tent device allows her the flexibility and convenience of doing her job as close to the set as possible. Each camera magazine contains a 1000 feet of film, and Villanova insures that the camera team on-set always has several magazines ready for filming. Actor David Ogden Stiers, who hasn’t been in front of our cameras now for almost three weeks, pays a visit to our location to get a haircut in preparation for his return to the production next week back on the sound stages. Of course, since he and I part our hair in a similar manner (translation: we’re bald), his appearance today elicits a few wisecracks from crew colleagues about his need for a haircut. Stiers explains to me that he is traveling to New York after completing his role on this project to promote his performance in the new Woody Allen comedy, “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” his fifth project with Allen. He wants to chat with me about how to position “The Majestic” in any press interviews he completes during his publicity swing through the Big Apple. It’s always helpful to have an actor interested in promoting their current project while on tour for a rival company (I believe DreamWorks will release the new Allen film). Stiers’ efforts will help plant early seeds for “The Majestic” with any press to whom he talks about his work and career. Later on, stills photog Nelson and I confer (as we do regularly every day) about pictures Castle Rock may need to illustrate these very words that form the basis of this journal. In asking him to make sure he gets shots of Carrey stand-in Hoyt, plus sundry other things in the ballroom set, Nelson begins an Abbott-and-Costello routine by asking me how many words I will ultimately write for this journal. I estimate that the journal, when complete after our 79-day shoot, will be comprised of somewhere between 100,000-200,000 words (yes, verbose, but hopefully enlightening). He refers to the old proverb, “a picture is worth a 1,000 words.” You calculate the math. And, Nelson’s point is well-taken. During the course of any film project, a stills photographer shoots upwards of 20,000 images or more, of which the studio may use 200! I consider Nelson one of the industry’s minimalists (also one of the best at his craft), in that he edits what he needs to shoot before actually pressing that button, thus saving money in processing and printing. Having done his job for three decades, his experience helps guide what the studio will and won’t use. At this juncture, Nelson has already shot almost 7,500 35mm slides, 3500 color negative images and 2300 b/w images, or almost 14,000 frames of film (for which I provide individual captions). With about twenty days left in our schedule, Nelson will finish somewhere between 17,500 and 20,000 frames. Based on my estimate, the studio will use just 1% of all that he shot during the schedule! Like the aforementioned camera loader, Naomi Villanova, Nelson also employs a unique device in his job called a “blimp.” It is a specially manufactured housing (an aluminum box lined with foam and padding) that muffles the motor drive on his 35mm Nikon and Canon cameras. This special box, made by just one company called Jacobson here in Southern California, is used by not only motion picture still photogs but also sports photographers and others in situations where noise would prove distracting to the event being staged. The blimp allows Nelson to shoot his mandatory stills in situations where dialogue is recorded without interfering with the soundtrack recorded by mixer Ulano (and boomman Hartig). Without the blimp (which many novices assume is an unusually formatted camera), Nelson would not be allowed on the set. His motor drive would be heard over the track, and its noise would prove distracting to the actors on set. |
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