When Hollywood Comes to Town

When film crews come to hometowns, they certainly keep things interesting; a local church can become a cafeteria, and

The Civil War continues to be waged in the tiny community of Middlebrook, Va.—at least until film director Ron Maxwell yells, “Cut.” When the camera stops rolling, action ceases and time leaps forward from 1863 to 2001.

It’s a challenge to keep things on track when you’re in command of not one, but two, armies. But the challenge isn’t limited to the man at the helm of Gods and Generals, a prequel to the highly successful television movie, Gettysburg, starring Stephen Lang, Jeff Daniels, and Robert Duvall.

Working as a location scout for the production company since early June, Tom Trigo of Crozet, Va., helped secure about 50 locations in Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia where crews easily could disguise such signs of progress as telephone lines, gravel roads, and modern homes.

“The goal is … delivering the best backdrop for the scenes they’re shooting,” Trigo says. “Here, we’ve got almost a 360-degree view where all you see is rolling hillsides and mountains.”

“We’ll be filming in Frederick, Md., where they have a great historic district. We have a scene that’s supposed to be the Virginia Hall of Delegates in Richmond, but we weren’t filming near there. The Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town, W.Va., is fantastic for that scene because we didn’t want just a small chamber.”

Seeking greater authenticity—and often lower costs—film companies have ventured off the Hollywood back lot and set up shop in small towns all across America.

“See, feel, and touch Hollywood”

Although shooting films on location may seem like a relatively new phenomenon, it’s old hat to the people in southern Utah, where the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission, established in 1949, touts itself as the longest ongoing film commission in the world.

Through the years, they’ve worked with such diverse films as Stagecoach, The Greatest Story Ever Told, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Thelma and Louise, and ConAir.

“We always said, ‘Nothing is impossible,’” says Bette Stanton, the commission’s former executive director and author of Where God Put the West, a chronicle of the area’s long involvement with the film industry.

The commission has been called with requests to round up 100 scorpions, find a building to crash a tractor through, and gather hundreds of people from a town of 4,779—which means the same extras may show up in a lot of movies.

Because Moab didn’t have lodging for visitors, “they had to set up tents in the old days for the crews and (the stars) stayed in people’s homes. My Aunt Ida had stars in her home all the time,” she recalls.

Comparative newcomers are just as excited about the opportunities to interact with the filmmaking. “The trickle-down from this industry is just amazing,” says Jo Ann Gordon, executive director of the Canton Convention & Visitors Bureau & Film Office in Canton, Miss., a town of 12,911. Location shooting is a boon for local businesses selling everything from lumber to lodging, she notes. In fact, the production company for O Brother, Where Art Thou? had an estimated $16 million impact on her state.

Previously capitalizing on A Time to Kill and My Dog Skip, Canton is going Hollywood with such vigor that one soundstage is under development and another is planned. The town also is cultivating its tourism business by showcasing some of the $1.5 million worth of sets that have been donated by the production companies. “They can see, feel, and touch Hollywood,” Gordon says.

Welcome guests … usually

At the very least, the bustle of Tinseltown gives residents something to talk about. For the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis starring Anthony Hopkins, location scouts found an ideal setting in Staunton, Va., (pop. 23,853). The town, recently named as one of The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations, had just the look moviemakers desired.

“I had heard horror stories about … movie production companies coming to town, but they were all proven false with this crew,” says Brian Butterfield, co-owner of Blue Mountain Coffees. His coffee shop became the informal epicenter to comfort the caffeine needs of cast and crew during downtown shooting.

“There were some real dedicated coffee drinkers,” he says with a laugh. “Everyone, from the director right on down to all the technicians, was just extremely friendly and appreciative of anything you did.”

That is not to say that residents didn’t scratch their heads as they witnessed what was required to make a set picture-perfect. Crews spread dirt over paved streets every morning and swept them clean every evening. Buildings were repainted for period authenticity. Sturdy older homes temporarily were made to appear dilapidated. To create the proper seasons, artificial leaves were individually wired into trees.

“Once they were gone, there was no evidence they had been here,” Butterfield notes of the crew’s conscientious cleanup efforts.

In contrast, the people of Huntingburg, Ind., (pop. 5,598) were quite pleased by the evidence left behind from their first foray into filmmaking. When town officials agreed to allow Columbia Pictures to use their aging minor league baseball stadium for A League of Their Own in 1991, the facility received a free $800,000 renovation. The anachronistic charm of the restored structure has since wooed the makers of HBO’s 1996 original movie, Soul of the Game, and League Stadium continues to serve as the home of the Class-A Dubois County Dragons.

The relationship with Hollywood was so positive that Huntingburg even welcomed a flood for the filming of 1998’s Hard Rain with top-billed Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater. To host the deluge, a busy downtown intersection was closed for several days and flooded with ankle-deep water. A two-block area of storefronts was boarded up to create the look of a town battening down its hatches, and sandbags were used liberally to prevent water damage.

“People had to use the alleys to get into buildings, and some of the merchants set up backdoor sales,” explains Huntingburg Mayor Gail Kemp. “The drive-through at the bank was closed for several months, and the façade of a movie theater, complete with a marquee, was erected in front of it.

“It was kind of interesting because you can’t turn a town into a closed set,” Kemp recalls. “For example, the local church became a cafeteria where local people frequently ate with the crew. Townsfolk could come down and watch the film being shot.”

As for those living near the locations used by Gods and Generals, they will have to wait until next spring to see how their fair towns fare on the big screen. For now, it’s like a war zone there.

Although it was shot on a Hollywood back lot, To Kill a Mockingbird is contributing writer Michael Nolan’s all-time favorite movie.

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