A stand-in's day on a movie set

The movie business seems glamorous, but the actual work
of making a film is slow and tedious


By Chris Samson

Moviemaking may be a glamorous profession, but the process of making a movie is a tedious, repetitive business.

Last weekend I accepted an offer to work as a stand-in for a day on the set of "Peggy Sue Got Married," the Francis Coppola-directed film being shot in Petaluma.

The experience provided an inside look into the filmmaking process. And it confirmed what I'd often heard about life on a movie set – there's a lot of standing around and a lot unused film that will wind up on the proverbial cutting room floor.

The job of a stand-in is to literally stand in for an actor while the lighting crew and cinematographer set up for the actual filming. The stand-in should be the same height as the actor for whom he is subbing. I was asked to stand in for actor Don Murray because my stature (6-foot-2 ½) is similar to his.

“Peggy Sue got Married,” a story of one woman's personal remembrances and reflections of life in 1960, is set in the fictional town of Buchanan Falls. It is being filmed entirely on location in Petaluma and other Sonoma County locations.

On this particular day, filming was taking place inside a large Victorian house in a west Petaluma neighborhood. The front rooms were jammed with crew members – as well as lights, black lighting blinders, camera equipment and cables. Heavy black cloth covered the windows to keep the interior lighting consistent.

The day's schedule called for two scenes to be shot, both involving two principal actors, (Nicolas Cage and Murray) and two subsidiary actresses (Barbara Harris and Sophie Coppola, Francis' daughter).

The first scene starts with Mr. Kelcher (Murray) in the den, answering a knock at the front door. Charlie (Cage), the boyfriend of Mr. Kelcher's daughter Peggy Sue, enters. (Kathleen Turner, who stars as Peggy Sue, was ill and not on the set this day).

Mr. Kelcher greets Charlie, intercepts him before he can see Peggy Sue, and asks him into the living room for a talk. Charlie accepts a batch of baked goodies from Mrs. Kelcher (Harris) and sits on the couch. Mr Kelcher's precocious younger daughter (Sophie Coppola) is playing piano and he orders her out of the room. The father and his daughter's boyfriend then have a short nervous conversation about Peggy Sue's emotional condition.

This sequence probably will take less than 60 seconds in the finished film, but it required more than six hours to shoot. The segment required two separate scene set-ups, one for Charlie's entrance and the other for the living room conversation between the two men.

Each scene set-up begins with the crew moving all the necessary furniture and props into place. Then the stand-ins are called in as the lights are set and a lighting director takes readings off the faces of the stand-ins. Once they're satisfied with the illumination, the stand-ins walk through the actors' roles, following tape marks on the floor. This allows the camera crew to prepare the right framing and focus.

When the lights and camera are ready, it's time for action.

Coppola, a bearded, bulky man, walks onto the set, joined by the actors. Coppola and Jordan Cronenweth, director of photography, sit next to each other in director's chairs.

After the actors rehearse the scene with the cameras off, it's time for "scene 473, take one." The second assistant director wearing a microphone-headset relays the message to a crew member outside: "we're rolling."

Outside on the street, Petaluma police officers, hired by the movie crew for traffic control, block vehicles from driving past the house while the cameras are rolling.

Inside, Coppola bellows, "action!" This scenario is repeated about a dozen times. In both scenes, the first couple of takes go pretty smoothly, but are not quite perfect. In subsequent takes, one of the actors muffs his lines and the other doesn't get his movements quite right. In another take, a truck can be heard passing on a nearby street, and Coppola orders, “cut!”

After each take, the director voices encouragement to the actors, frequently suggesting a change in vocal inflection or physical timing. He gives them a thought or idea to help them convey the expression he wants.

He reminds Cage that his character, Charlie, drives a Chevy Impala convertible. He tells Murray that his Mr. Kelcher suspects his teenager daughter is sexually involved with her boyfriend.

The Panaflex camera simultaneously records the scenes on 35mm color film and on black and white videotape. Coppola watches a small video monitor during the filming to get a better idea of how the scene will look on the screen. This gives him an instant reading instead of waiting to view the daily “rushes” in the screening room.

The living room scene with Cage, Murray and Sophie Coppola is reshot from three different angles, once each for close-ups of the actors' faces. Each of these re-shoots requires a new lighting and camera set-up.

After six hours, one begins to appreciate the patience and stamina of the movie crew. It may seem like fun, but working on a movie set is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

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