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Thursday, January 18, 2001 - Filming scenes at two local motels. The schedule suddenly got changed! Because of continuing bad weather, filming today will be at two local hotels instead of at Mobile Municipal Park. One is the Rest Inn on Highway 90 and Interstate 65, the other is the Guest House Inn, not far from there. It's cold and overcast. I get to the first location around noon, and just hang out a bit. After lunch Scot asks me to be in one of the hotel rooms where the 2nd Camera Unit (Sean Finnegan and Assistant Caroline Loreto) is shooting some close-up shots of the table, some items on it and the "black, sinister plane", the Japanese Zero. The plane is propped up nose down against the table. This is Denny and Wilson's hotel room in the movie. When Sean is finished I carefully grab the Zero and go to the props truck to safely store it... I help Scot secure his stuff in the props truck and follow him out to the next location. Everyone is moving to the Guest House Inn just around the corner. This is the motel where the crew is staying. Everything is unloaded for the next scene that will be filmed in the motel's banquet room. In a couple of hours I watch them transform one corner of the large banquet room into a cozy dining room with chandelier, China cabinet and a couple of potted plants. In a bowl on the table a couple of goldfish (Shubunkins, actually...) are swimming around. Three stand-ins sit in the chairs for about an hour (really!) while the crew gets everything just right, taking directions from Lisa Rinzler, Director of Photography, Todd Louiso, the Director and Sholto Roeg, 1st Assistant Director. In this scene Philip Seymour Hoffman and two other actors, Kevin Breznahan and Andrea Powell, have a discussion at a table in a dining room. Tyler is all over the set, making reflections disappear and blocking out lights, etc. He places dishes and silverware on the table. He gets some chocolate eclairs and adds them to the setting. Four large black, cloth panels are installed at the back of the room to keep non-essential people out of the actors' sight. All of a sudden Tyler appears in front of me. He looks at me a bit bewildered. "Frits!" we have no wedding band! We forgot one! Philip has his on, but Kevin doesn't have one..." He looks panicky. "Nobody here has one. Do you have one, dude?" "Yeah, I have one." I hold my left hand up. His eyes light up. "Do you mind?" he looks desperate. Poor kid, I think. He's begging. The Props Department is supposed to have EVERYTHING! He's in trouble... "If I can get it off, Tyler." I tug and twist on the ring for some time and I finally manage to slide it off of my finger. I hand it over to Tyler. "Now if you don't get his back to me tonight, I'll cut off your..." He interrupts me: "I'll get it back to you! I promise, dude..." He snatches the ring out of my hand and disappears behind the screens. "Anyone not involved in the scene please get off of the set and behind the black panels. Quiet! This is a rehearsal. Absolute quiet!" "Aaaand ACTION!" This is an intense scene that demands complete quiet by everyone on the set except the three actors. After the first take, Tyler comes back to where I'm staying and says: "Thanks, Frits. Thanks for that ring, dude!" "You just remember what I said." I remind him. "You'll get it back soon, dude." he promises again. After each take, Tyler does "resets", meaning he goes back on the set and refills each glass and cup to the same levels as before when they started. He gets rid of the partly eaten chocolate eclairs and puts new ones on the plates before each take... This is why Tyler takes Polaroid pictures for reference of anything that has to look the same in later scenes. He labels them, punches a hole in one corner and puts them on a large ring that's fastened to his Army issue belt... At one point after the director says "Absolute Quiet! - Action!" I hear the sound of a Polaroid camera ejecting a picture: catjuie!... That's funny, I'm thinking, there's supposed to be complete quiet now. catjuie!... I hear the same sound again and again: catjuie!... catjuie!... catjuie!... Suddenly Tyler bursts through the black screens with his Polaroid camera in his hand. The camera is spitting out pictures at the rate of one a second: catjuie!... catjuie!... catjuie!... Tyler has a wild look on his face, looks around and mouthes: "Why, why? Why is it doing this!!?" Everybody on my side of the screens starts chuckling or laughing... Sholto, the British Assistant Director whips around the screens. He's NOT laughing and he is not amused. Everyone immediately stops laughing. "Whot's goin' on heah!!??" He spots a stunned Tyler, just as the camera in his hand ejects the last two pictures... catjuie!... catjuie!... and stops. Pictures are lying on the carpet all around Tyler. Tyler looks as if he's in pain. He looks at Sholto and shrugs... Sholto glares back at him, turns around and quickly disappears back behind the screens. "Okay, people... QUIET... aaaand ACTION!... The filming finally stops and Philip Seymour Hoffman and the other actors leave. Tyler walks up to me and looks a bit bewildered. "Hey, Frits, the actor left and I... uuuhhhh... I didn't get your wedding band, dude..." I look at him, visibly upset. "Tyler, I told you I wanted that ring back after the wrap!" I say. "He's gone, man!" he says. "I'm sorry, dude! - Will your wife be mad?"... But just as I'm about to grab him by the neck he grins and he holds up his hand. There's the ring! I take it and put it back on my hand. After the final take I help Tyler wash and dry the prop dishes, the silverware and the 'spit bucket'. The spit bucket is just that - a plastic bucket actors use to spit out any food they don't want to eat during take two - and three - and four - and five!... Tyler casually mentions that Philip didn't appear to have a problem consuming the chocolate eclairs during each of the takes... I help him get all his stuff to the truck. Before we leave we walk over to the old set. Most of it is still there. The major "props" used in this scene must belong to the motel! I take a picture of Tyler sitting at the table in the make-believe "dining room" where Philip Seymour Hoffman sat. He is looking at the fish in the bowl. "What is going to happen to them?" I ask. "They'll probably die right here. I ought to take those fish to my room, dude." But he changes his mind and we leave. Later, in the motel lounge, I have a beer with him. Assistant Directors Sholto and Jimi and several other crew members are there too. Tyler brings up the Polaroid episode to Sholto. Sholto laughs and admits that it was one of the funniest things that has ever happened on his set... I soon head home and go to bed... Filming of a make-believe boat race at Municipal Park is coming up tomorrow... |
