The rail-trail is a beautiful place to walk.
We don’t make movies to make more money. We make money to make more movies.
-Walt Disney
The Assabet River Rail Trail is a very pretty walk. It has a special place in Waldo’s and my heart. The forest it passes through is thick enough that, in places, you can’t see, hear or smell the surrounding city and all its human hubbub. It leisurely winds its way through the woods from near downtown Marlborough to downtown Hudson. Birds sing, insects buzz and chirp, squirrels cavort and, in the winter, deer wander nearby. It’s a place, in the middle of human habitation, where one can go and feel they are far from the madding crowd.
Yesterday, Waldo and I were just entering the Hudson part of the trail and we came across a cart carrying a movie camera filming a commercial for New Balance running shoes. Apparently, the crew was trying to create a commercial that appeals to the common recreational runner, as opposed to the worldclass athlete. In any event, it was nice to see the trail getting some broader exposure. It deserves it.
Waldo, of course, was oblivious to what was going on, and I was neither too curious, nor very interested. I’ve seen movie-making up close before. We just walked past them, said hello, and continued on our way.
Years ago, before I went to medical school, I was living in Sherman Oaks, just over the hill from LA. I had an apartment and my roommate was the apartment manager – a job that neither required much energy, nor took much time. One day, a guy came by and asked if they could use our apartment to film an episode of Dragnet, not the original, but the remake with Jeff Osterhage and Bernard White as the detectives. Of course, we agreed and we hung around to watch them film.
I learned a lot about acting professionalism while watching them do their shtick. You know how the camera changes perspective when different actors speak? It’s focused on one actor and then the other. One person speaks and the camera is focused on them and then the other person speaks and the camera is directed at the other person. The way they film that is they film the entire scene with the camera directed at just one actor and record the sound at the same time. Then they refilm the scene with dialogue, but no sound recording (so the already recorded sound can be synced), with the camera directed at the other actor. That way the scene flows more naturally without having to wait for the camera to reposition.
Because no sound was recorded on the retake, the people off camera didn’t have to be quiet. And they weren’t. Some of the crew found a bodice-ripper novel on my roommate’s bookshelf and they read some very sexually suggestive passages out loud while the actor in view of the camera was redoing the scene. And this was Dragnet. Even though it was a remake of the series, the deadpan acting was still the tone of the piece. The actor being filmed kept the most placid expression on his face and his body language exuded what you might expect from a Dragnet detective while everyone else in the room was giggling and carrying on. I was impressed.
There was nothing like that going on while we were walking the rail-trail. I don’t even think there was any sound being recorded at all. They were probably going to do a sound-over in the studio after the filming was done. So, in a moment of mischief, I suggested that what they needed was some footage of an old fart out walking his dog. They could focus on my worn-out boots and suggest that I would be better off with some New Balance shoes. They smiled and ignored me. Waldo and I went on our way and they finished doing what they needed to do.
It is so interesting being exposed to what happens out here in the woods. You never know what’s coming next. Yesterday, it was a commercial being filmed; in the past, it’s been running into all kinds of interesting people at opportune times. Tomorrow, who knows. But one thing is nearly for sure.
Waldo and I will be there.
Of course people want to film it.