Berryville, Virginia.
92 degrees. Heat index well over 100 degrees. Our challenge? Taking this day and making it look like November. This was no easy accomplishment in a circa 1864 farm house with no air conditioning. The ladies' make-up slid down their faces while the wool military uniforms caused Steve and Ben to constantly dab at their gushing perspiration.
While Peter was busy maneuvering the lighting for the re-shoot of Scene 15, ’"The Fight on the Stairs and Milbrowe's Proposal," I walked in the room. He had me stand in front of the camera so he could get the shadows just right.
"I guess shadows are fine as long as they are not the camera man’" I said.
"Hey," he replied, "that's the only way I get in the film."
While Meredith and Peter put the final touches on the parlor set, Lindsay, Morgan, Abby and Michelle sat in the kitchen singing 80's songs in full costume while others waited in the respite of the 100-year-old maple tree's shade.
Nancy Griffith (Assistant Director) explained how an older lady friend of hers would sit in her sweltering living room, fan herself and exclaim in a deep southern accent, "I feel close." Well, that just about summed it up for all of us.
In addition, there was no Sound Guy for this shoot which left Peter holding the camera, wearing the headphones and attached to about as many protruding wires as a person could be without actually being Frankenstein. Abbie-normal?
The shooting of this scene was relatively swift since everyone was so well-rehearsed. By the end, however, the camera lights had raised the temperature in the room an additional 20 degrees or so and when Meredith said, "Cut," everyone spilled outside, gasping for breathable air.
Peter and Meredith moved the lighting to the kitchen for Scene 24, "Hutchinson's Warning," which was, again, completely blocked out earlier in the day so the actors could spend as little time as possible feeling like they were cocooned in a plastic shower curtain.
Not only did Michelle (as Lizzie) have to add a shawl over her wool dress for the November effect when she went outside to the well for water, but her wooden bucket sprung a leak. After many attempts to repair it, Nancy found a plastic plant liner that fit perfectly inside and stopped the steady stream of water spilling on Michelle.
Steve's flushed, sweat-beaded face presented a small quandary but Meredith had him continue to mop and decided he could have been red-faced from walking, or from the fire in the kitchen fireplace.
When this scene was filmed, we took a short dinner break. After an air-conditioned convoy into town and an air-conditioned dinner at the Berryville Mexian Restaurant Camino Real, we re-convened at the Clermont barn.
Meredith, Peter, Steve and I went to the barn to clear a spot for the shoot of Scene 26, "Hutchinson's Proposal." We left Abby (Lida) at the house until the last possible moment after her disclaimer, "I HATE barns!" She told us of her hay allergy and her paralyzing fear of Wolf Spiders. "If I see one, it will be really, really bad," she said. Fair warning.
At the barn Clermont Farm Manager Sam Monroe warned us to be careful as he pointed to a big hole in the floor where someone had fallen through. Meredith and I tiptoed around after that... like that would help.
Peter decided to use natural lighting and opened the huge doors at either end of the barn as we raced against the fading light and the approaching storm. Abby stoically endured the old musty, dirty barn to finish the shoot of the romantic proposal and kiss.
I never stop being amazed with these actors and their stamina, courage, talent and charm. They are working under often grueling conditions, yet I rarely hear a word of complaint. Instead, friendships are formed, bonds are strengthened and the discussion of dreams is a constant undercurrent in conversations.
At dusk, as the rain began to sprinkle its reprieve, I drove away with the strange sensation of leaving a home of sorts and our little eclectic Waterford's War film family.
