It's the Rutger Hour

Last summer I did a film for a small fraction of my normal rate. I did it for three reasons: One, I owed the production designer a favor. Two, the script was dynamite. Three, my favorite film of all time might well be "Blade Runner," and this film had Rutger Hauer in the title role.

The film's not out yet, hell, I don't even know if they've finished cutting it yet, and its web site is just a placeholder, so it's Against the Rules for crew to talk about films in this state. But today I discovered that Rutger had written up some comments on "Mentor" on his own blog.

Here's the thing: Rutger doesn't really act. He is completely, utterly, and deeply insane. And I love him for that. He is a royal PITA 50% and the most charming person you've ever met the other 50%. He's a star who recognizes the crew -- constantly. One night he invited all of us to his hotel for cocktails, food, and a screening of some of his unknown (at least in the US) shorts. He's a pro, and he smokes way too much, and we're going to lose him far too soon as a result. As propmaster (well, my title was set decorator, which is one of the reasons we do little micro-budget indies, to inflate our titles; most of the time I was art director, set decorator, set dresser, propmaster and set constructor as well as scenic at one time. It was a three-man (well, two women, and me) team at most at any given time. It was the hardest I've ever worked) one of my tasks was to keep a constant supply of cigs in fake packs that our talented production designer had genned up. I still have one sitting in my prop kit. IRL, they were Marlboros. Rutger went through three packs a day of prop cigs. At least.

But, as his cig supplier (as well as chain smokers Matt Davis and Dagmara Dominczyk) I got popular with the principals. Now I know what it's like to feel like a pusher.

Oh, and I was the stills photographer too. Microbudgets, man, the best way to learn filmmaking. Yeah, that's a portion of one of my shots on Rutger's blog.

The script changed pretty dramatically between prep and shooting. I'm not sure I liked all of the changes, most of which were made for budgetary reasons -- but not all. Still, I think it could be an interesting film. Really looking foward to seeing the final project... mostly so I can comment on it more.

Locations were interesting. Johns Hopkins doubled for two colleges, one upscale, one not so. Our "beach house" was just outside of St. Michaels, a beautiful piece of land that I wish I owned. A trendy on Charles Street in Baltimore was across the street from the old money Men's Club where we shot some scenes for "Syriana;" a not-so-trendy bar uptown served as the "townie" bar. One of the most rewarding days was on a small ferry that crosses near St. Michaels. We were fighting the light, and desperate to steal shots. Matt Davis posed for some stills for me against the sunset -- he's a pro, never shot a bad frame of him. Our last location was a funeral home west of Baltimore. Gave me the creeps, but Rutger is one sprightly old SOB: He could twist himself into that coffin faster than anyone would believe.

We'll talk more about "Mentor" as it approaches release. I'm proud of the work I did. I think we all were.