03-23-2018, 04:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-02-2018, 01:40 PM by kingandsona.)
Here's one for the resume: Frequented the most skanky motels and filthiest organic fertilizer plants in the middle of rural nowhere (New Mexico and Tennessee). Perhaps only Len Murach, the location scout for Focus Features' "21 Grams," can lay claim to this, um, unique task ... well, him and a few local harlots. Murach is just one of the unsung heroes who ground away at some of the most unglamorous jobs imaginable on the sets of this season's awards slate.
"We met the underworld of Memphis." Murach laughs. Not terribly surprising, considering the sleaze quotient of the Leisure Lodge, the neither leisurely nor lodge-like motel where much of "21 Grams" unfolds. Then there's the neighborhood of Benicio Del Toro's character, Jack Jordan: "The area's notorious for drug deals. There was a double homicide in the house next door just a few days before." And to top it all off, he had to hurtle around in a minivan for 10 hours a day to sniff out these unsavory locales. (What? No SUV?)
Richard Taylor and his crew at f/x house WETA encountered a different kind of scum for their work on New Line's "The Lord of the Rings"--hairy prosthetic hobbits' feet. Hair by hair, toenail by toenail, they created the footsies for scores of wee ones. Many of their working hours were spent crouched at the feet of Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, using blow dryers to dry the adhesive and ward oft" any moisture that might cause the prosthetics to slip oft. This, over three years of summer heat, winter rain and mud.
The elements weren't the problem for Andy Reay-Ellers, an industry rookie who might warn to consider keeping his day job as a real-life sailor. At least then, no wussy director will order him to hang from the ship's rigging all day, as if standing bare feet on three-eighth-inch rope for hours were painless. This is just what Reay-Ellers did as the sailing technical advisor/stuntman on 20th's "Master and Commander."
"We'd start on deck and climb all the way Lip the mast," he says, "then it would be, 'OK, cut, climb back down and climb up again ... Best Shoes For Standing All Day 2018 (Best Sellers & Highest Reviews) ... and again" "Before long, he and his crew would be aloft four hours at a time. And with the waits adjusting cameras, lighting, etc., they often just stayed hooked to the masts and took naps between shots.
Finally, there is the small army of handlers who looked after the stable of horses in Universal's "Seabiscuit." From Santa Anita to upstate New York to Kentucky, they fed, brushed and, yes, shoveled crap for 50-plus equines. We salute you. From a distance, of course.
"We met the underworld of Memphis." Murach laughs. Not terribly surprising, considering the sleaze quotient of the Leisure Lodge, the neither leisurely nor lodge-like motel where much of "21 Grams" unfolds. Then there's the neighborhood of Benicio Del Toro's character, Jack Jordan: "The area's notorious for drug deals. There was a double homicide in the house next door just a few days before." And to top it all off, he had to hurtle around in a minivan for 10 hours a day to sniff out these unsavory locales. (What? No SUV?)
Richard Taylor and his crew at f/x house WETA encountered a different kind of scum for their work on New Line's "The Lord of the Rings"--hairy prosthetic hobbits' feet. Hair by hair, toenail by toenail, they created the footsies for scores of wee ones. Many of their working hours were spent crouched at the feet of Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, using blow dryers to dry the adhesive and ward oft" any moisture that might cause the prosthetics to slip oft. This, over three years of summer heat, winter rain and mud.
The elements weren't the problem for Andy Reay-Ellers, an industry rookie who might warn to consider keeping his day job as a real-life sailor. At least then, no wussy director will order him to hang from the ship's rigging all day, as if standing bare feet on three-eighth-inch rope for hours were painless. This is just what Reay-Ellers did as the sailing technical advisor/stuntman on 20th's "Master and Commander."
"We'd start on deck and climb all the way Lip the mast," he says, "then it would be, 'OK, cut, climb back down and climb up again ... Best Shoes For Standing All Day 2018 (Best Sellers & Highest Reviews) ... and again" "Before long, he and his crew would be aloft four hours at a time. And with the waits adjusting cameras, lighting, etc., they often just stayed hooked to the masts and took naps between shots.
Finally, there is the small army of handlers who looked after the stable of horses in Universal's "Seabiscuit." From Santa Anita to upstate New York to Kentucky, they fed, brushed and, yes, shoveled crap for 50-plus equines. We salute you. From a distance, of course.
