Book of Not-so Secrets

It was fun reading the imdb.com discussions about "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." All kinds of rumors would pop up, some founded, others not so much. For instance there was talk of "shooting at the Smithsonian." Well, sort of: We used the Masonic Lodge in Alexandria to double as an unnamed Smithsonian building; I feel sorry for anyone who camped out on the Mall waiting for Nick Cage to show up.

It was delicious knowing the cast changes before they were public; when Helen Mirren was signed on, I saw her name on a callsheet a week before the info hit the web. But of course, it's no fun when you can't tell anyone!

Lots of fun locations: My third project at the Library of Congress. A stunningly beautiful Mount Vernon (and my third project there). Chevy Chase, University of Maryland, The White House, The Capitol, a mini-tour of the DC area. It was a great crew, the All-Stars of Baltimore, and even the LA guys were a hoot to work with. Six weeks straight, and one back injury later, I was ready for the wrap. Our giant warehouse in Landmark, once filled with all of the set dressing, the carpenter's shop, the paint shop, and the clutter from the effects guys... it was strange to see it all gone, packed away onto 18-wheelers destined for South Dakota or LA. A big empty, echoing room. I was the last one out. I remembered an old Don Henley line, "I need to remember this." Look around one more time.

Then pulled the door shut behind me.

"NT2" is scheduled to open Dec 21.

Next for me? Directing six commercials for an insurance company in Delaware, directing an emergency response training video for a local government, shooting some stills, shooting and editing for a small production company in DC. Should be a busy summer (I hope).

Lazy sod

One of the fun parts about satellite radio is scanning the channels. Some of the stuff I didn't even know was there; besides Squizz and Fred, I rarely wander elsewhere. So I'm checking out conservative talk radio last week, listening to Larry Elder. He says he's got a story about Hollywood polluting LA. Being a film professional, I decide to listen. In short, he introduced the story, quoting verbatim from the text of an NPR report. His only original comments were "hmm!" and "where have I heard this before." No problem so far. Then he procedeed to play the NPR story in its entirety, all 20 minutes or so of it. Again, all of his commentary was pretty useless, consisting of "hmm!" in a faux surprised tone, "really," and "Bob's not happy." I don't think anything consisted of more than five words. I figured at the end, having spent almost half an hour simply replaying someone else's production, he'd have a wrap up. Nope. Before going to commercial, he gave us his synopsis: "Unbelievable." And that was that.

Thing is, he's right: Film productions are ridiculously wasteful. Time being the most expensive commodity in the business, productions do whatever they can to ensure that high-priced actors never have to wait for anything. Food is cooked constantly, generators run all the time, and a slew of production professionals are standing by to supply greens, sets, props, wardrobe or makeup at a moment's notice. The generators really are big towed diesel rigs, which makes sense if you're shooting "Last of the Mohicans" in the mountains of North Carolina, but seems less obvious in downtown DC (the reason is that most of the lights run three-phase power; it eliminates the flicker that can occur if a 60Hz light is captured by a 24fps camera). We should be greener about that aspect.

We also generate a mountain of trash and waste. Most interiors that you see on films are specifically-build sets. When we're done, we fill a dumpster with the stuff. It's cheaper than keeping it for the next project. I could go on and on.

That said, perhaps Larry could have had someone from the film business comment on the study, or (gasp) even done a bit of research himself. Instead, by adding nothing more constructive than "hmm!" for half an hour, he earned a paycheck.

Nice work if you can get it, I suppose...