Tuesday 2 November 2010

Hollywood comes to the "holly wood"


A deep rumble shook the ground on an October morning. Was it an earthquake? Nah - it was just Hollywood arriving once again in Culross (which incidentally means "the holly wood" in a combinationof Gaelic and Brittonic). A few days to set everything up; a day to test their monstrous equipment; a night to film; two days to take it all away. All that for around thirty second of a movie!

No one was "officially" talking, but rumours spread like wildfire through our little village! Even theinternet was whispering "Culross" through cyberspace with film lovers requesting photographs of the filming! If we're to believe it all - "Captain America: The First Avenger" starring well-known names such as Samuel L Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, and Stanley Tucci. We should be able to confirm our suspicions in cinemas next year, when the film is due to be released. 

Our market cross will be a beautiful stand-in for a deserted village in Norway during WWII. They were careful to remove all evidence of our modern world - satellite dishes, window decorations, lights from indoors, and all the cars usually parked in the cross. Three-hundred people from all over, working in the "industry" descended on our village to set up cranes, light boxes suspended from above, tracks and cameras, and enough cable to stretch from here to Hollywood and back!

When this old American girl stood quietly by taking a few snaps during their lighting tests, the crew revealed their true feelings about Culross. The crew and support teams loved our village. They were very happy to support the Red Lion, the shop, and couldn't say enough good things about the locals. They felt welcomed and were happy to allow onlookers to watch them work - preparing the lights, the cameras, and the sound equipment for the shoot on that cold (but clear) Tuesday night. 

The night of the filming arrived and although none of us could get very near, the market cross glowedeerily with the bright lights and man-made fog. Two soldiers dove for cover and ran from a phantom tank which crashed through the Study. The "tank" was represented by two sets of “headlights” mounted on tall poles and will be added in production by computers. Isn’t CGI a wonderful thing??

Two days after the filming, anyone passing through Culross would never have known that anything was up! Just as quickly as they came, they were away. And Culross is once again ... our peaceful little abandoned village in Norway! 

No comments:

Post a Comment