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Sunday, January 21, 2001 - Prop Meister has another surprise for Frits. Sunday is the Love Liza film crew's day off. I get up around 6:30, pour me some coffee, and spend the next few hours writing about my experiences on the set. The writing of my movie diary has fallen behind - I still have to write about Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Any time now I'm expecting an inquiring e-mail from Web Master Alvin Reed asking where the daily updated Love Liza Movie Reports are... Today I'm supposed to call Scot Broadus, Love Liza Production's Property Master, to discuss the plan for the next day or two. Tomorrow will not involve the "black, sinister plane", the Zero, so I can probably play hooky and catch up on home stuff. Perhaps put my Christmas tree ornaments up in the attic... Chop some fire wood, water the dying plants in my greenhouse... See if Carol, my wife, is still speaking to me... As far as I know I am still to fly the trainer plane for them Wednesday, Thursday or Friday for Sean Finnegan, 2nd Unit Director of Photography. Oh, that's right, I promised to draw him a map to the field. Can't forget that!... The plan is to film some flying at Irvington Field, late in the evening under a nice, partly cloudy, red evening sky... Yeah right... There are close to 80 names on the daily call sheet, but I haven't seen Mother Nature listed anywhere... She hasn't helped much during the first four days of filming anyway... My friend Scott Gayle is supposed to come over around 10:00 to finish his new plane, a Spectrum, to get it ready for its first flight that afternoon. He arrives as I am just finishing up my write-ups. I transmit them to Alvin Reed, the Web Master... Scott G and I start to work on the plane and we get to the field around 1:00. It's a great day, sunny and bright, just like the day before. Scott G's new plane flies just fine, and after several flights we pack up and go home early for a change, right around 5:15. As I'm driving home, there is this beautiful, late night sky with red-lined clouds. This is probably the sky they will want to film my flying scene against, I tell myself. I hope that the next few evening skies will be just as vivid in color... But then, perhaps that's not what the Director has in mind. In any case, Mother Nature, your assistance is needed!... Oh shoot, that's right, the plane! The movie production company's trainer plane is sitting at my house. I can't forget to charge the batteries! Better start tonight and keep them hot in case the schedule gets changed... You never know... Then I realize I don't have the transmitter! ^&¢¶•ªº! The transmitter is in the props truck at Scot's motel! (Scot Broadus, that is. Notice that his name is spelled with one t...) I've got to get that transmitter tomorrow and put it on charge. And the backup plane's batteries have to be charged up too. Must not forget!... After I get home I call Scot Broadus, the Props Master. I get his answering service. He calls me right back and I ask him what's up. "Weeeell," he says, "how long will it take you to build another Zero?" "Huh? What!?" I pause. I can't believe what I'm hearing! "Before when?" "Before Wednesday. We now have to shoot some close-up scenes where Wilson (the movie character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) buys the plane in a hobby store. The Zero has to be a new one, you know, and it has to be a lot sturdier. ... You know?..." Then he adds "Or... the one we are using now will have to be fixed up to look like a new one..." (Oh, aaarggghhhh %^&¶•ª†§¶ª!!!) (And by the way - If you thought movie scenes are shot in numerical or chronological order you know absolutely nothing about making films...) I say nothing for several seconds... "Frits, you still there? What do YOU think?" he asks in an almost-pleading voice... "Do you have the new kit now?" I ask. "Well, no... I thought I just go to the hobby store in the morning and buy one." "And if HobbyTown doesn't have one? You may have bought his last Zero and he may not have restocked..." Pause... "You don't think he has another?" His voice sounds pretty concerned now. "Is there another store?" "Not here in Mobile... Nearest one is in Pensacola, its name is Bobe's Hobby House, I think, and it's not really geared toward radio control from what I've been told." "There's another, Radio South, but they are mostly a rc electronics distributor and repair shop. They have rc stuff, but I'm not sure if they stock this type of kit." "Well, *†¥¨§¶•!!!" Now there's a long pause at HIS end... He finally comes back: "You can make the old one look like a new one, right? You can do that, can't you, Frits...?" His voice trails up, anticipating a positive answer... Yeah, sure! Make the old one look like a new one! ^*¶•ªº•ª! Make a piece of crap look like the Venus de Milo!? The plane is held together with hot glue and T-pins for God's sake! Parts are missing, things were not fitted very well. It's split here, cracked there, melted here, bent there... There were times I felt like smashing it!... All the people who have handled and messed with it during filming these past five days have shown it absolutely no respect! Philip, the star, has walked around with it nonchalantly, bumping into things at the Park... Then it was kicked and split apart by young Props Assistant dude Tyler. He practically destroyed it... Make it look like a NEW one?.... Crazy movie people!... "So can you?..." Scot asks again... I take a deep breath. "Yeah - sure. Nooooo problem..." ... "GREAT!" he says. "I'll stop by HobbyTown tomorrow since we're filming at Municipal Airport anyway, and if they have one you'll build it, and if they don't you'll make the old one look like a new one, right?" I can just see his face all lit up now... "Yeah - sure..." I feel like a flower that's wilting fast... "Okay then. Frits, thank you SOOO much! I'll call you in the morning and let you know..." "Yeah, sure..." We hang up... ¥%•ª ©¥ crazy@$$ movie people... If I didn't have to fly for them again I would tell Scot just to go to... Nah, I can't let him down! Plus, I remember what he told me a couple of days ago. We were talking about my very small contribution to this movie and Scot said: "Hey, the flying part is an essential part of the story. Just remember this - film is a PERMANENT record. It's forever, Frits!" Yeah - That's right! A permanent record! Generations from now, people will probably pop quarter-size DVDs in their holographic movie players, sit back, and watch Denny drink a beer while flying his airplane at night in some parking lot. Some futuristic kid with a shiny cucumber head will say: "Look, Daddy! Back then they used their thumbs to fly those things. Why didn't they use their brains?... (You think about that one...) And the bigger and wrinkled cucumber head will say: "Whoever flew that plane in the dark must have been a total idiot! Those movie people were crazy! I wonder who that idiot was..." And they'll wait for the credits to roll at the end and look for my name (probably in letters too small to see.) And it'll say: "Special Thanks To Frits Jetten, R/C Consultant." And - they'll probably have my first name spelled wrong. They always do! They'll spell it with a Z instead of with an S. I just know it. Yeah right - a PERMANENT record!... Oh well - at least it'll be there... And my wedding ring will be in it! Carol thought it was exciting that they used it. I wonder if it will be visible in the movie. I wonder if they did any close-ups of the guy's hand... And I will be in it! In one scene my legs should be in the background, at least up to my knees... In another my whole backside, as I'm walking away (I hope my pants weren't droopy in the back...) And in another I'm walking across. In other scenes my whole body will be in there! (Did I have my belly sucked in during all those takes? - I hope so...) Even my face should be in it. I know they picked me to be an extra because of my greying beard, my wild hair, my baggy pants, my scruffy look... Ahhh, yes! A permanent record... It's forever and ever... I feel much better now and I am looking forward to tomorrow. It should be an easy day for me... The call sheet mentions the Municipal Airport on Airport Boulevard and Murphy High School on Carlene Street in town with no toy airplane activity in any of those scenes... |
