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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 8 May 1 (Day 38) Another “what if” (translation -- weather dependent) call-sheet awaits our arrival on-set this morning. Will it be sun, or clouds, or rain? There is no indication of today's forecast on the call-sheet, and a brisk wind (clocked at between 30-50 m.p.h.) accompanies the bright sun, making it feel a lot colder (by some 20 degrees) than it actually is. Today’s bright and pleasing sunshine brings us back to the train depot in downtown Ft. Bragg for Sc. 159 -- Ext. Lawson Depot: The entire town turns out. The sequence features virtually every main cast member minus Martin Landau, who visits the set briefly in the afternoon to watch the proceedings.  The sequence also marks another huge day involving our extras, with the call-sheet listing a total of 355 background players representing the town’s citizens. Of that number, 30% are here from Humboldt County, including the welcome and familiar faces of Maudie Purcell, Denise Ryles, “The Cookie Lady,” Ellie Green, John McKeown and Ferndale First Lady, JoAnne Farley (who, coincidentally, plays Mayor Cole’s wife in the story). Bill Corso, who supervises the makeup department, and Nina Paskowitz, serving in a similar capacity for the hair gang, have each commissioned another two dozen or so stylists to supplement the large crew they already have working full-time on the production (all of whom arrived yesterday from Hollywood). A bank of thirty makeup tables (each containing mirrors illuminated by a group of lights running vertically on each side) has been set up inside an empty building (soon to be a Longs Drug Store) some eight blocks from the set. While extras coordinator Sargon Bacchus and his team register the background folks (in groups of fifty, each arriving at half-hour intervals), the players report to wardrobe first to retrieve their costumes, exit to dressing tents outside the building before returning to go through the hair-makeup applications (many of the ladies must don period wigs for their roles in the film). The proceedings resemble an assembly line, a factory of faces undergoing their transformation back some fifty years.  Before 2nd 2nd a.d. Robert “Skid” Skidmore ships them off on buses and vans to the set, he once again briefs the crowds (especially those local Mendocino folks who have never worked as movie extras) about set protocol -- a litany of commands that includes no cameras or any recording devices permitted, no smalltalk with the cast, what scenes are being filmed today, and, most importantly, where the restrooms are located. Skid tells me that he has so many instructions in his standard speech, he sometimes refers to a crib sheet to insure he covers everything extras need to know about the day’s work. Once on the set, he works closely with colleagues Colwell, Harris and Comstock to wrangle this large crowd and insure that they perform as instructed by Frank. Also joining us on location here are the Marching Lumberjacks, the college band from Humboldt State University (again led by conductor Gordon Johnson). This time out, instead of the two American anthems they repeatedly played last week in Ferndale, Frank has chosen a bouncy classic from the 1930s -- Louis Prima’s “Sing, Sing, Sing,” a huge hit recording for the Benny Goodman Orchestra back in 1937. Jim Carrey is on hand today for the scenes, and this guy loves to play to the crowd. The natural born entertainer entertains this adoring group with his antics between takes, with many of these extras having already experienced his pranks back in Ferndale. For those novices here today, what a welcome relief from the testy weather conditions plaguing the set today. A bank of pine and fir trees (in addition to several varieties of plants) was brought into the site two weeks ago to dress the set. The greens department (Jeff Brown and Tom Acosta) arranged these ferns and greens to block the buildings across the street from the train depot. The trees are cut down, then placed on make-shift wooden stands and positioned with sandbags to hold them in place. The company loses two trees to the wind in the morning, with a third, standing maybe 35 feet, precariously swaying when the wind kicks up to gale force. To avoid any injuries, the transportation department drives a crane in and positions it against the tree so it cannot fall during filming. When we return from our lunch break, the greensmen have sawed off about twelve feet from the tree top, thus minimizing the danger and eliminating the need for the crane. Down the street, some local kids have to crane their necks to catch a glimpse of star Carrey. Had they been part of the crowd, they would have enjoyed the comic’s impromptu performances between takes. While he also chatted with co-stars DeMunn, Briscoe and Whitmore, the Lumberjacks band provides their own brand of entertainment with complete renditions of “Sing, Sing, Sing,” which garners much deserved applause from the locals, now shivering in the uncomfortable conditions. An unexpected visitor spends a brief time on the set today -- Oscar-nominated actor Woody Harrelson, who is currently participating in a bicycle tour down the California coast to promote the environment. One of his recent stops was Humboldt State University in Arcata, not too far from where we completed filming last week. Harrelson drops by at 6:30 p.m. to chat with Carrey (whom he met through director Milos Forman, who directed each of these stars in separate projects, “Man on the Moon” and “The People Vs. Larry Flynt”) and meet Frank. It’s unfortunate that actor Landau has already left the set, which would have marked a reunion with Harrelson, whom he greatly admires among the current younger generation of actors and with whom he co-starred in Ron Howard’s comedy, “EDtv.” As it turned out, the pair caught up with each other later that night for dinner in Mendocino. |
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