So the frozen Wisconsin tundra is why we have waited to finish filming. But where to do the actual logging? In 1910 they were cutting virgin forests of white pine. Finding a location that had trees that hadn't been logged recently proved difficult. Since 1910 growth has happened, but typically the trees have been felled and replanted, sometimes multiple times, since then. After months of searching, we contacted Eau Claire County Parks and Forest and were given permission to film on county land and even cut down several trees. The white pine you see here would have been scrub in 1910, and thus left uncut by loggers, and has since grown to towering 100-year-old growth.  Led by a Wisconsin hands-on-historian who routinely logs the old-fashioned way, our cast will use restored vintage tools--crosscut saws!--to fell some of this beautiful timber. We will capture on film what it was like for the lumberjack of 1910 to work this cold and hard, yet majestic landscape. Timber!
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Well, it's been a while of radio silence in this blog, but work has been going on in-depth this whole time as the movie marches forward. We're into the exciting phase of editing. We still have one more shoot planned for the depths of winter, but the summer footage has been with the editor for a couple months now. I spoke with Joshua of joshuasteven.media just recently. As editor for The Lumber Baron, he was able to give an inside peak into some of the process and perks of his current work. The rough cut is finished! He's spent hours taking all the footage, the multiple shots/angles/takes and choosing and splicing to begin creating the story. Then, it was off to the producer, director, and production manager for their first round of comments. Next, some face-to-face work. A short time ago Barry Andersson (our excellent director) was in L.A., Joshua's home base, and stopped into his studio for two sessions of in-person collaboration. There's one more session scheduled for Barry to fly from Minnesota to California, and then this creative round is finished! I asked Joshua what it was like to edit The Lumber Baron. It's a bit like putting together a glass puzzle to make a sparkling prism. Pieces need to fit together in good order to make the final result something that "works", but there's a lot of artistic leeway making a one-of-kind crystal for that blaze of beautiful light. The editor has a lot of creative input. Then, the director molds that further, and the final picture shifts further into focus. The director has the final say in the artistic outcome, and the editor contributes to the process. A good editor will harmonize with the director to complement and enhance the whole vision.
Our director Barry Andersson excels at what he does, but he's not keeping it all to himself. Recently he filmed a webinar on set of The Lumber Baron. Take a peek at some of the work that is the making of The Lumber Baron's movie magic.
Many thanks to Moviola and ProVideoCollation for allowing us to share this video.
I was there on set the day the corsets arrived. Handmade. Designed to the exact measurements of our female leads, with detailing to even match the personalities of the characters. Imported all the way from the Ukraine where they were professionally hand-created to 1910 specifications.
I was there the day CNC Service Technician (read: machine fixer) Jonathan Hurd spent hours with our production manager Ruth Voetmann tinkering with a vintage typewriter. By the end of the day it was typing away. (By the way, did you know that an old typewriter ribbon is actually ribbon--that is, fabric? It's similar in look and feel to a hair ribbon, and then impregnated with ink.) You will see a hundred-year-old working machine in The Lumber Baron's office scenes! I had the privilege of hearing hair designer Natalya Bartelt's plans for the show. Everything was taken into account in her research. Because fashions at that time took their cue from Europe, our actors and actresses wear styles that had had time to travel across the Atlantic and disseminate to the Midwest. Characters that are more sedate keep older, more traditional styles while the more fashion-conscious young ladies pick up the newer trends. And I was there the day writer/producer Karen Hurd and Ruth toured the Cook-Rutledge Mansion and decided it would be The Lumber Baron's home. From exquisite woodwork, to elegant furnishings, to authentic embossed hand-painted leather wallpaper, the mansion is something that couldn't be re-created anywhere else. In fact, one of the crew with the best eye for artistry and authenticity, our director of photography (DP) Travis Higgins, said that being able to film on this set was a big inducement for joining the crew. He's right: we literally are in the lumber baron's world for this film. Trying to re-create something similar in a studio wouldn't have the genuineness, details, or richness. It would fall flat. Instead, we get to live and breathe the real lumber baron universe. So when you get to watch The Lumber Baron, take a minute to marvel at the authenticity. Every detail is designed to transport you back to 1910 and the glitteriness and grittiness of the lumber baron's world. From costumes, to props, to hair and makeup, to set, you will lose yourself in The Lumber Baron era. Enjoy it. Starting a project as monumental as The Lumber Baron takes a lot. For one, it takes a great deal of writing. Our screenwriter Karen Hurd labored months over the screenplay that finally made it into the actors' hands. This motion picture: it's definitely worth the thousand words poured into it.
The casual film-goer may not realize how many iterations a screenplay has before hitting the set. In the case of The Lumber Baron, the screenplay received ten different rewrites. And we're not just talking about a mini switch of lines for one character. These are deep shifts that allowed the story to blossom. What all changed? Well, some amazing stuff. Like, Mary Catherine took on more action, moving her from a nice sister hanging in the background to a woman who has a serious hand in her family's fortune. Daniel Jr., our hero, became more real and sharpened as his character was developed. The villains and vain neighbors were transformed into three-dimensional beings. We see the "bad guys" are really people like us who made a few terrible decisions. They're real, not cardboard cut-outs. And the treasure everyone is talking about--that was shifted and enhanced. What originally was the answer to the if-there's-a-treasure-what-is-it riddle is better than ever. So the months of writing, and re-writing, and re-writing were worth it. The thousand (or more) words that have been changed are making this motion picture breathtaking. Come along. Let's see this picture. |
AuthorKathryn Bartelt Archives
January 2018
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