Portland Press Herald from Portland, Maine • 53

Maine Sunday Telegram September 5E CONTINUED ROM PAGE ONE Special effects will make the scene ACROSS AMERICA! orX'onvenient Home Delivery Call 791 6000 orToll free 1 800 442 60361 A Sunday Sept 4 9 pm thru Mon Sept 5 6:30 pm said Miller do you get a 30 ton air You call Chuck But there was more to worry about than Hangar 462 There was another 1011 airliner this one a retiree from Trans World Airlines It shoot authentic take offs and land ings Miller had to make sure it flew this Miller months in order to work on And she will miss the job and the Maberly family But she miss all that shuffling only time I got to stay in one place was when I got to sit in Stephen she said Co directors Vickie Labbe Jennifer Cooper JERRY LEWIS MDA LABOR DAY WEEKEND Hosts Kim Block Doug Rafferty Teaching the darkness Most days Sue Martin teaches the blind Yet on the set of Lango Martin had a more unusual even ironic job Martin taught someone to be blind you use your cane you hold it pretty much in the middle of your Martin said to Kate Maberly a 12 year old English actress who played a blind girl in the film Maberly snapped together her white cane closed her eyes and walked tentatively across the ter minal swinging the cane back and forth may want to try that with your eyes open said Martin with a quick laugh Maberly laughed windy noisy runway Miller the production manager was glad Quigg came out of retire ment The cast hated the first food Bad food on a set can curdle labor relations overnight After arrival the number of crew members eating breakfast and dinner doubled Quigg grew up in Oakland Maine and he said of fell into the food After cooking in bars and restaurants in the south he joined a partnership in Nashville that became Tom Kats the firm that served both the touring music and movie industry Quigg joined in uart he admitted because he remembered the great money he inaue in movie catering And he said was an especially easy movie to serve since it was filmed at one location been on shoots where we had to pack up and move every he said But because he was hired on such short notice Quigg had to improvise He cooked in the back of a rented panel truck or outside at his mobile barbecue His crew was made up of friends and co workers from other restaurants His dining room was a white tent like those used at outdoor weddings He washed dishes in out door sinks 30 feet from the taxiway and the three story high metal wall built to deflect jet blast The blast wall always work had jets start up right over Quigg said tent shook the napkins flew and the paper plates went all over the Even in such make shift quarters Quigg and crew turned out grilled swordfish fresh tuna steaks and grouper and even macrobiotic rice Entrees were rarely repeated and always had to be good The movie business pays well but demands much philosophy is out who the problem people are and take care of them said Quigg the others fall into line You treat everyone as a special That meant waking at 4 am to start breakfast That meant delaying meals sometimes for as much as two hours to work around quirky shooting schedules Quigg is happy he took job And maybe he said work more movies in northern New England But not now really want to get into catering in he said there are the fairs going to work this fall Then I try to figure out what to do for the Staff photo by Gordon Chibroski This cross section of the fuselage of a plane in a hangar at Bangor International Airport was the scene for much of the action in the ABC miniscries based on the Stephen King novella had no such effects to give their actions context or to give them inspiration All they had were a instructions So Wettig and other cast members had to use their imaginations and their training Over and over they raced through the darkened ter minal as if pursued by demons eyes were wide as saucers her face twisted in terror But then when Tom Holland the director veiled Wettig and other cast members suddenly shed their characters slumped against walls flopped to the ground has been she said director would come up and explain the scene and tell us about what was supposed to happen of the giant red white and blue jetliner just love to walk under this thing so The 1011 empty and alone was the stars will suddenly appear people in a rented truck beside a parked about a quarter mile trom out of nowhere on a crowded airport the terminal 'Although the three platform In the story the groupRolls Royce jet engines were off the comes through a tear in the fabric of wind spun the garage sized turbines time causing a ghostly clatter Special effects will make the scene The jets had a reputation for seem real to viewers But the actors 1 reliability But Miller and ms crew worried that the aging Lockheed rescued from a jet retirement park would break down and instantly drain their production budget The plane held together Mostly lost a said Miller pat ting the chest high landing gear to know what it cost to replace? $12000 He shook his head All part of a work He smiled up at the mammoth plane hopped back in the modified golf cart and sped back to the terminal Ms Sensitive Patricia Wettig star of the ABC series won two Emmys for playing Nancy the most sensitive woman on television was caring and concerned Nancy was a hand holder and a listener and a midnight crier Wettig 42 has been running from the ghost of Nancy for years thought that by doing this be getting away from that said Wettig while relaxing in a cramped room in the airline terminal thought I had escaped from that sensitive listener Wrong Laurel her character in is a quiet librarian who befriends a blind girl and falls in love with a soldier Wettig shook her head chuckling guess I she said should resign myself to She still looked like Nancy with her shoulder length blond hair huge blue eyes and high forehead But there was a difference On the set Wettig seemed to laugh a lot a definitely un Nancy activity Despite its sci fi premise provided familiar terri tory for Wettig She began her career at New Circle Repertory Theater and since then has worked often in small ensemble dramas on stage and TV has a small core cast that included David Morse who played husband on Dean Stockwell of the NBC drama Bron son Pinchot of and Kate Maberly of various BBC dramas Many cast members have ties to New England Morse was bom in Beverly Mass Pinchot studied drama at Yale Wettig owns a sum mer house in spent about two months she said of the core cast there was no escaping each Actors worked as many as sixdays a week either in Hangar 462 or next door in the small rooms of Bangor international ter minal Days dragged on from 12 to 15 hours ilm work can be terrifically bor ing Shooting a single moment of film can take a day of moving cameras checking shots and rehearsing days escape to Bar Wettig said More often she said cast mem bers stumbled back to their rooms at the Bangor Airport Marriott and collapsed While acting with a small cast is familiar acting with special effects was not During one scene for example in Maine on the film Yet the biggest resource of any film including was is not a location or a stoiy It was the people The film included at least 130 full time cast and crew members and about 175 extras Some had never set foot in Maine before As many as one third of the crew and all of the extras live here Here are a few of their stories Just ask Chuck About half the time just break up because it seemed so ridiculous been like playing those imagi nary games we did as After two months at airport most of the time without her husband and two children Wettig was more than ready to fly home to Los Angeles for a reunion It be a long one Wettig and her husband Ken Olin lead a show biz family They were co stars in Even though Olin has switched to directing film pro jects often keep the family far apart got to get home and put my kids in she said then got to put Ken on a plane for Australia directing a film called for Dinner for 130 Mark Quigg was finished withthe movies Retired Done No more testy movie stars No more shouting producers Quigg 32 had operated one of best known movie catering busi nesses in the country But four years ago he came home to Maine and opened Beal Street Barbecue a seasonal take out cafe in reeport Instead of catering movie sets he spent his autumns towing his barbecue smoker to fairs wanted to settle he said Then this spring the phone rang It was the producers of Lango They wanted Quigg and they wanted him yesterday they called I said me just come up and take a he said Within days Quigg was cooking for 130 The secret gardener Since coming to Maine to do her first American movie Kate Maberly has gone blind been murdered with a butcher knife and traveled through time was a big change from Secret to a Stephen King said Maberly in her cultured English accent Then the 12 year old giggled was Maberly is known mostly for work in realistic BBC television dramas and for her staring role in the gentle1993 film Secret Her role as a blind American girl in an American science fiction film seems almost out of character and came seemingly out of the blue called me in England on a Thursday and said you come to New York for an audition tomor We got there but just While Maberly may be new to American films and to action pictures she was no slouch said her colleagues She not only learned the subtleties of playing a blind person she also developed an almost flawless American accent while flying from London to New York just listened to how people she said re rm IrtZintinn Innnrf in hotels for months working on accents all old hat to the Maberly family Kate auditioned for her first TV job mostly because her older sister Polly had gotten a role Two of her brothers and her sister are all in films and TV: While Maberly is an accomplished child actress she any less of a kid During a long day of shooting in Bangor she slouched in chairs kicked her feet and roamed the set in search of something to do or someone to talk to With her bobbed brown hair and traveling clothes she looked like scores of other young British tourists who troop through Bangor on their way to somewhere else Her boredom was understanda ble or more than nine weeks she lived with her mother at the Bangor Airport Marriott less than 100 steps from the airport door At the begin ning of the film she worked five days a week then six She rarely left the airport thing a bit annoying is that there other children in she said The cast and crew treated her with obvious affection Between shots she arm wrestled with David Morse She got cast and crew mem bers to sign her dog eared copy of Past the King book that includes And she spent a lots of time with Bronson Pinchot the former star of Pinchot an accomplished mimic and comic teased Maberly with a barrage of jokes and silly English accents is really Maberly said with a giggle so weird But he can be really scary In one scene Maberly wore a special shirt that made it appear that a knife was buried in her chest Between takes Maberly decided to have a little fun was walking around the airport with this knife sticking out of my she said a huge smile on her Pony Cart Rides 1 ood and Games Games Games rontier Bellamy Jazz Band Out Arlo West Band Showboat All to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association real plane Other airliner sets are not so realistic The Pig in a Blanket may have another life after Producers may leave the mock up in Maine and rent it to other film productions While the Pig was being built other technicians sawed off the air cockpit and mounted it on a hydraulic platform The cockpit was used to film action sequences since it could be tossed back and forth byhydraulic arms to simulate turbulence The hangar was convenient for workers and actors But it was not a perfect set said Miller Noise was a constant problem So was heat Charles Miller hopped had to bring in a 30 ton air condi into his white goli cart punched the throttle and grinned as the little cart drag raced across the aircraft park ing apron we first got these they were too said Miller as he steered around a parked airliner one of our PAs (production was brought in so film crews could assistants figured out now to taxe the governors off Now they really go If there was one man who needed is To go fast on set it asked rubbing his hand on the belly was Miner as proaucuon manager the 47 year old Miller was responsi ble for everything Literally Is the food late? Call Chuck Are there hotel rooms? Call Chuck Is the set built and the filmstock avail able and the lights on? Call Chuck ilm producers make overall deci sions about money and planning Directors decide what happens in front of the camera But the day to day operation of a film an enter prise that is the equivalent of a small factory is overseen by the produc tion manager ii is only one worse job that this and a location said Miller as he wheels around the terminal know been one of those He looked and dressed nothing like your average manager In films comfort and casualness are big Miller could be mistaken for a high school football coach with his shorts and tennis shoes and graying mustache and crew cut was first film in Maine It was also a home coming The son of a former Univer sity of Maine professor Miller lived in Maine in the early 1960s and graduated from Orono High School was four of the most wonder ful years of my he said was a wonderful place to grow Although he wanted a career in film he initially studied education And during a visit to Monhegan in 1969 he found himself with a job as the island school teacher He enjoyed Monhegan But when his marriage collapsed he left Maine for Ohio film school should just have gone to New York and become a go he said laughing what I ended up doing Some people drift into acting others into directing Not Miller got into this because I think my talents are in he said was the most compact film set Miller has ever seen Central to it all was Hangar 462 The dull silver metal building is bigger than many college sports stadiums Two KC 135 air tankers the Air orce equivalent of a 707 jetliner can fit inside at the same time The ceiling rises five stories above the concrete floor Around the edge9 of 32000 square foot building Miller and his crew built dressing rooms machine shops make up areas and storage rooms for equipment There was plenty of room left over In the center of the floor was one of the big stars The Pig in a Blanket Miller led the way into the shad owy hangar and pointed at the Pig used to be an 1011 jet that belonged to a Japanese he said as he slowly circled the 140 foot long airplane set had been retired to the Mojave Desert We bought it sawed off the tail and the cargo compartment underneath and then cut it into 10 14 foot The Pig was then trucked on flatbed trucks to Maine Once here each piece was put on a big wooden cart The carts were then lined up so that inside the plane appeared intact The walls of the jet were sliced open so they could be opened like garage doors makes it a lot easier to get shots said Miller The mock up is the only one of its kind in the country The Pig in a Blanket named because of the brown soundproof mats piled atop it has the original seats doors and even oxygen masks of an 1011 It even has the musty plastic smell of a UThere is one thing learned from working on this picture You have to be patient Someone told me they work all day and just get one or two minutes of film I find that amazing 99 Sue Martin who coached Kate Maberly 12 an English actress who played a blind girl too and tried again Martin and Maberly who worked together for weeks on the film set ignored the sounds and actions that swirled like a summer flood Maberly a veteran of British television was used to scampering production assistants and move ments of film crews Martin was unfazed by the bustle knnoiica cho cpp if Shp is blind in one eye and can see only the faintest shapes and shadows with the other As Maberly continued to practice the main crew finished a shot The cast and extras more than 150 people moved with a slow resigned air 100 feet to the other side of the terminal waiting room mother Gina helped Martin past wires false walls camera tripods and recorders Lead ing Martin was Quoddy her German Shepherd sceing eye dog is one thing learned from working on this said Martin as she sat down and petted Quoddy have to be patient Someone told me they work all day and just get one or two minutes of film I find that Martin 38 lives in Ellsworth' yet retains the soft twang of her native Alabama She has short brown hair and expressive dark eyes and a ready laugh She moved to Maine with her husband Jim after gradu ating from Western Michigan Uni versity Both received degrees in rehabilitation for the blind just decided Maine was where we wanted to Martin' said Martin works for the Maine Cen ter for the Blind and Visually Impaired helping people in central Maine learn to use specialized equipment It was that skill that drew her to called me because they needed some said Martin later the producer decided they needed a Sighted actors who play blind people often make mistakes ones that can damage their credibility and the Martin is convinced Maberly make such errors was really said Martin thought ahead and asked really intelligent Over the course of the shoot Martin and the Maberlys became friends Kate and Sue and Gina snent hours together on the set Maberly and her mother escaped face the the expression on the set to visit Martin in Ellsworth faces were really quite Martin juggled her schedule for MDA Deering Oaks amily un Day Labor Day Sept 5 10 am 5 pm with Dianna letcher plus: SERIES Continued from Page IE Try a free introductory class Sun Sept 1 1 2:30 pm at THE YOGA CENTER of Greater Portland 137 Preble St 775 0975 or 799 4449 ALL SESSION BEGINS SEPT 12th Discover why so many people love Cj A OAK STREET PRODUCTIONS invites you to experience life in the Old West Tina Young in ROM A WOMAN HOMESTEADER Sent 8 10: Thu Sat 8 pm OAK STREET THEATRE 92 Oak Street in Portland Tickets only $10 775 5103 1' 1 IB MHKK xT i CONTINUED ROM PAGE ONE I.