Morris

"The whole vicinity is a luminous burst of light- lights everywhere in the middle of the woods. To the side is a big rig, several vans and smaller trucks, a Lincoln Town Car for the star, Alec Baldwin, steel trunks filled with esoteric equipment, portable generators, a great welter of cable, nets, sandbags, grip stands, opaqhe boards, trucks loaded with ladders, tools, tripods, reflectors, ropes. Between the massive columns of the ruins a camera arches upward and dollies back. Paraphenalia dangles from the belts of these bustling people; many of them carry walkie talkies and wear headsets. Everyone seems to be rushing somewhere. Almost everyone has a stainless steel necklace with a laminated card attached. The cards display a blown-up Mississippi road map tinted red in the background with, The Mississippi Project Cast And Crew written across it. Muscular figures bearing tattoos shout, "Coming through! Watch your feet!" They are carrying boxes, two-by-fours, axes, sawes, crates, odd items of all descriptions. Many are wearing bandannas, which they often take off to wipe away the sweat. These, I learn, are the grips, the equivalent of stagehands, and they seem heedless to the filming itself, even to the anarchy they themselves are helping to create. They move forward to whatever destination with an almost rank and churlish resolve.

The sense of frantic motion is notable: what appears to be chaos, tension, and confusion interspersed with swift movements of utter stillness and quiet, then noise and movement again. For the maiden visitor, such as I, to an important Hollywood set, the mood appears enigmatic, almost demented. On this evening I feel like an intruder in an ant colony, the worker ants everywhere hurrying along, each with a task to do, the security men who enforce lockup being the guardian ants of the colony, protecting accesses to the heart of the compound, and in the middle of this ceaseless motion the monarch, stationary in front of the monitor, the center of attention, everyone scurrying around this personage desiring only to please: the director."


May 29, 2000