Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Milking the Fame Cow

by Pa Rock
Movie Groupie

As mentioned in this space a few days ago, the local filming of the new movie, Tatterdemalion, was completed this past week and the cast and crew has now left the area.  Last Saturday our local newspaper, The West Plains Daily Quill, ran a front-page, above-the-fold story of the wrap-up of the filming - along with a few photos.

I subscribe to The Quill and therefore get one copy in the mail.  Upon seeing what a nice job the newspaper had done with recapping the film, I set out around town to purchase some more copies at convenience stores to send to family and friends.  Each place I stopped I pointed out the article to the store clerks and said, "My son wrote that movie," to which most replied with appropriate 'oohs' and 'ahs'. One young fellow did ask if that was the movie that Brad Pitt had been in town filming.

(No, Tatterdemalion was a real movie - while Brad Pitt's West Plains movie was imaginary!)

So, thanks to Tim and his friends in the motion picture industry, I have been busy building my fifteen minutes of fame a few seconds at a time!

The making of this movie did have a big impact on me and my family.  First, Tim and Erin and Olive got to spend a month in the West Plains area, a time in which my little granddaughter did get quite attuned to life of the farm - as well as to life on a movie set.  That little girl has had some amazing experiences in her short life.

My daughter, Molly, flew in from Oregon for a few days to visit with the family and to see the set.  Molly spent quite a bit of time watching the movie being filmed and interacting with the stars.  She told me it was the best vacation that she had ever had.

My oldest son, Nick, who lives here in West Plains, got to help with some of the location scouting, and he also got a bit part as an extra in the bar scene - along with a couple of his friends.  Although I haven't seen any of the outtakes, I have heard that Nick is located quite close to the star, Leven Rambin, at the bar.

I visited the set for an hour or so one evening with Molly where the thrill for me was getting to watch Tim work and interact with the cast and crew.  Prior to the actual shooting of the film I was also involved in some location scouting and took the first photos of two locations that became prominent in the filming.  I had lunch with Tim and the director, Ramaa Mosley, on the day that she arrived in town and got to listen in on their discussions of the upcoming project.  I also rode with Ramaa on a couple of her scouting forays into the local wilds, attended an evening production meeting, and even got to sit in and watch some of the auditions.

All in all, I had some highly interesting experiences and learned quite a bit about the basics of film making.  My fifteen minutes of fame is slowly but surely filling up!

Thank you to all of the Los Angeles, New York City, and Kansas City people who invested so much of their summer in this movie and in the small and grateful community of West Plains, Missouri.  It was a very rewarding experience for all of us.

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