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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 9 May 18 (Day 50) Walking onto Stages 3-4 at The Lot, one gets a strange sense of deja vu when crossing a street that has been built (complete with concrete sidewalks) in front of The Majestic movie theater (in its dilapidated condition). Directly across the pavement you find the Bailey Savings & Loan Bank (a nod and a wink to what?) and the Lawson Meat Company. Sweet Jesus, we’re back in Ferndale!!! In seeing this recreation, I fully expect to see newspaper editor Titus trying to get a photo for her front page. Once again, production designer Melton has done a magnificent job in recreating (inside) what he built (outside) on Ferndale’s Main Street. Back in Ferndale, Melton’s crew erected a three-story facade for The Majestic movie palace which included a completely decorated lobby which could be seen from the street as one looked in. When you walked into the edifice beyond the lobby and concession stand, you entered a vacuous shell where various departments stored equipment and materials and where the guys from Heaven or Las Vegas actually blew their intricate neon glass tubes that adorned Melton's ornate marquee. On our sound stage, Melton fashions just the opposite -- a completely decorated theater interior (whose design pays homage to Hollywood’s Egyptian and Chinese Theaters) and Lawson’s Main Street just beyond the entrance. Thus, when you look outside while standing in the theater lobby (an exact duplicate of that built in Ferndale), you see what actually existed on location. Melton’s construction crew poured a one-inch thick concrete sidewalk on Stage 3, laid in the checkerboard-style tile mosaic for the palace’s entryway and erected the same ticket booth that welcomed moviegoers up north. What is missing here on stage is the complete marquee. The neon sunburst and vertical “M-A-J-E-S-T-I-C” tower are absent, with only the curved portion of the sign (on which the movie title letters are displayed) hanging from the front of the building.  Walking inside, one is astonished at the elaborate detail Melton and set decorator Natali Kendrick Pope have fashioned for the set. Remember, as “The Majestic” story unfolds, the moviehouse has been in disrepair for six years. Just as Melton had to design the dilapidated exteriors on location before magically transforming it into a refurbished theater when Harry and Luke decide to renovate and re-open it, Melton’s artisans did similar duty for the inside. Thus, torn , faded wallpaper blisters and peels from the walls. Plaster chips litter the stained carpet running the length of the theater’s aisles. Cobwebs (created through the use of a heat gun and artists glue by effects assistant Dan Ossello) clutter every crevice. Over 200 seats (salvaged by Pope from Hollywood’s Pantages Theater during its recent $10,000,000 renovation) sit in place, some decrepit beyond repair. The tattered movie screen effect was created, per Melton, by throwing a brick through the fading, yellowed fabric. One absorbs in wonder all the minute details created by Melton and his crew. While Melton admits that this is the biggest project of his career, he is clearly up to the challenge, and deserves recognition for his artistry come awards time at year’s end. Today begins the first of six days of scenes inside the lobby and auditorium of The Majestic before Harry and Luke embark on a total refurbishing of the theater. Frank will attempt to film Sc. 33 (Int. Majestic Lobby: None of this rings a bell for Luke) through Sc. 88 (Int. Majestic Auditorium: The band joins in with Luke) in sequence, just as he prefers to do whenever possible. Once he completes these scenes over the next six days, we move to a hotel in downtown Los Angeles for a week. During our absence from the studio, Melton’s crew will reoccupy and renovate the interiors (just as they did with the exteriors back in Ferndale) in time for the company’s return to the studio to complete those sequences that happen after the theater has been restored. Today, Sc. 33-35 feature only actors Carrey and Landau, as Harry re-introduces his long-lost son (whom he presumes Jim to be) to the place where he grew up. The scenes bring Carrey back to that zone of concentrated focus he assumed way back when we first began filming in Ferndale. Sc. 34 (Int. Majestic Auditorium: Luke’s been gone nine-and-a-half years) provides the challenge for the actor tonight, as he accurately captures Luke’s shock and disbelief when discovering from his elderly father that he’s been gone from Lawson almost a decade. Frank and d.p. Tattersall have once again designed a small dolly camera move (elegant yet telling) that begins on the backs of both actors (in wide angle, showing the shabby auditorium) as they enter the playhouse. There are only three lines of dialogue, as follows: LUKE Harry? How long have I been gone? HARRY Nine and a half years. LUKE (stunned) Nine and a half...years? Once Landau delivers his line, the camera moves around him onto Carrey, in close-up, as he incredulously tries to comprehend the stunning loss of time he has endured since leaving for the war. As is his usual practice, Carrey sits and watches each take on Crabbe’s video replay system. He confers with director Darabont, saying that one take is too sad, and realizes the reaction must be one of shock more than sadness. While actor and director compare notes in between takes, a small fleet of vintage autos slowly ambles on by the theater out front. To add that special touch of authenticity, Melton has built Main Street wide enough to allow two cars, traveling in opposite directions, to drive by the Majestic. Yet, we’re on a Hollywood sound stage, not a backlot, where it would not be unusual to see moving vehicles on the streets. Is it not risky to have a few cars burning fumes inside a shuttered building? Well, that's where Darrell Pritchett’s special effects team comes into play. Special effects (or F/X, its affectionate moniker, and the title of a popular 1986 movie) covers many areas in the movie business. There are also different kinds of special effects. You’ve read here about Oscar winner Charlie Gibson, whose specialty is in visual or computer graphic images. He creates his effects images digitally, away from the set, usually during the third phase of filming, post-production. Once he finalizes his images, they are combined with the actual film footage (hopefully, seamlessly, so you never notice or detect that the effect exists.) Effects that are created live on the set during the actual unfolding of a scene are known as physical or mechanical effects. This happens to be Darrell Pritchett’s expertise. Fire, rain, snow, wind, smoke, explosions, gunfire and bullet hits, and other sundry effects created live before the cameras would be handled by Pritchett and his movie magicians. Pritchett reunites with Frank after creating and supervising the mechanical effects on “The Green Mile.” One of his big scenes in that film -- the fiery execution (sabotaged by the evil guard Percy) of Delacroix, the diminutive Cajun played in the film by Michael Jeter. During our final days here, Pritchett and his crew will design the effects for the car crash that almost kills Appleton after he leaves Hollywood. While he has a crew of technicians building the various bits in a Burbank (California) warehouse that will be used in the crash, his gang of geniuses have today devised a most unusual system to “drive” these two cars down the Main Street road constructed on the sound stage. Upon inspecting the trio of cars sitting on Stage 3, one notices steel cables tied to the under carriage of each car. Called a “cable pull,” the circuit of cables ends around the rear wheel of a golf cart sitting behind the fake wall representing the Lawson Meat Co. The ignition of the cart has been wired to a control device operated by one of Pritchett’s technicians. When the cameras roll film, one of the assistant directors signals Pritchett’s operator to roll the cars across the road. The hand-held starter turns on the golf cart (bolted down to the floor). As the cart accelerates, the rear wheels silently spin, the cable rolls up and the car is pulled across the stage. In the event a cable breaks and the car rolls uncontrollably, Pritchett’s men have erected a cushion made of several barrels tied together, which, if necessary, would absorb the impact of any crash (which would be minimal, as the cars roll at maybe 7-10 m.p.h.). Pritchett’s special rigs illustrate some of the true magic that makes the movies special. We end our Friday, as usual, with a treat from Jim Carrey (he always supplies a special snack meal for the crew at week’s end). Tonight, Jim’s driver, Jerry McMullen, has secured a caterer called “Carnitas Michoacan” out of Sylmar, California. McMullen found these guys on the set of his last project, “Jurassic Park III” (he drove actress Tea Leoni during filming). When they arrive at the studio tonight, I immediately recognize their unique, traveling stove from our days on the dino epic (which we finished in January, about a month before starting on “The Majestic”). About six Mexican chefs prepare mini tacos (on hot grills that look like upside down woks) filled with your choice of beef, chicken or pork. The normal condiments (guacamole, salsa, pico-de-gallo, etc.) sit in plates off to the left as the crew quickly lines up for platas deliciosas! Tomorrow -- “Groundhog Day” all over again! |
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