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December 2, 2008

What Happens in the Cornfield Stays in the Cornfield…Part Two

UPDATE: -January 2009- KANDYSE MCCLURE is shooting a new FOX series PERSONS UNKNOWN in Mexico City

KANDYSE MCCLURE concludes her report from location in Iowa…Shooting Stephen King’s CHILDREN OF THE CORN

The Lodge has become our home and we have all but taken over. The group tours of folks from Kiwanis and The Ladies Auxiliary smile and give us sideways glances as our chatter drowns out the live piano player at breakfast. We’re always in the hot-tub or chatting in the lobby.  Everyone on the staff knows our names, I half expect there to be a bar called Cheers down the hall.  But, even hanging around hot-tubs and bars can get old and we really just want to get started. Having been here over a week, almost a month for some, we’ve run out of things to buy at Target and are tired of the daily rehearsals and meetings and fittings. Just when  we are all beginning to  get a wicked case of cabin fever, we hear that shooting is about to begin. There’s one little problem though. . . . a tropical storm is off the southern coast of the US and we in Davenport have been under torrential downpour for days. I am under the impression that they’ve accounted for this by negotiating for weather days but I get the call anyway. Wednesday morning, 5am –Interior Thunderbird. We are to do almost 80% of our dialogue in the first two days on camera. Oh boy. (click ‘more’ tab below to continue reading)

Thank goodness David(Davis Anders from “Heros”) likes to drive. After being picked-up by a sweet but nonetheless extremely nervous PA who had to pull over due to an anxiety attack, we decide to take matters into our own hands. The hour long trip to the town of Lost Nation begins each morning with a stop at Starbucks. With the music from David’s new CD’s in the background, we continue mostly in silence:  at that hour, driving an unfamiliar highway in the rain, neither of us is in the mood to chat.  Arcade Fire, Lil’ Wayne, Mgmt and Radiohead fill the comfortable silence broken only by references to the call sheet and comments about the day of work ahead. Along the roadside, fog rolls over the tops of cornfields.  The sun rises, a giant orange, and the world is engulfed in an eerie, hazy glow I think I’ve seen in a movie somewhere. Was it Apocalypse Now, or Platoon? I wonder if this means, we are going to war. . .

Lost Nation – the epitome of small town America. It once used to be booming, full of restaurants, a railroad, grocery store, even a car dealership, I am told. It’s quieter now – the kind of place where kids play safely in the streets and you know your neighbours. These days the Legionnaires hall, a hair salon, an antique shop and a pub make up Main street. At one point or another throughout the shoot, the entire town is there, clicking away on their digital cameras. In this age of high speed portable Internet options and instant access, I wonder if most of this movie will be seen on YouTube before it hits the editing room.  With cameras and people everywhere, it feels like guerrilla-theatre sometimes. I notice my contraction in the face of all the little cameras, and I think about how they sometimes feel like an invasion, and yet the red eye behind the lens in front of me, is my best friend.

As folks wait patiently for something exciting to happen, we,  the cast and crew are on the clock – blocking, rehearsal , back to the works, get dressed and wired, fly in the blood/gag/prop. And then the moments they’re waiting for:  Rolling! Action! Cut! Reset! All over too soon - and then back to the waiting, blocking, wiring …  The shortest and most exciting moment on set is between action and cut.  We’ve all got stories of missing the shooting of a great scene because we slipped off to the craft service table for a few minutes.

After a couple days tied up in the car talking, the rest of the schedule is basically exterior shots. David and I are grateful for the fresh air and the freedom of movement - even though the weather is fickle and my dress is very short, barely providing my body with any protection from the wind-driven rain.  But, standing in the middle of a lonely highway, looking into never-ending cornfields, walking through a seemingly deserted town, strewn sidewalk to shingle in ominous looking corn, the whole town our playground, there’s no doubt that I am blessed to be in this crazy, amazing line of work!

I must tip my hat to the crew on this film. What an extraordinarily enthusiastic and talented group of people.. At the most frustrated moments on set, I  remember that although I may be in front of the camera , there are many people working unseen to make those movie moments happen . Them, and the locals who stand, belief momentarily suspended,  on the sidewalk in the little town of Lost Nation, are an integral part of this process. It may not be Steven Spielberg, but it is Stephen King and we worked our butts off to film it. I hope we made something the people in this corner of Iowa can be proud of. At the very least,  I hope it creeps the bah jesus outta them.