Photo Shoot: Hollywood Dreams
Oftentimes you meet the nicest people in the worst weather. Such was the case on an early morning in a wind-driven rain at Lighthouse Beach in Chatham.
Comedians Jimmy Tingle and Lenny Clarke huddled in their vehicles as a film production crew hustled about under a makeshift tailgate tarp readying microphones, cameras and a few props. Director Matt Ott and screenwriter Michael Yocum were on the beach scouting a location with director of photography Marshall Chen as they prepared to shoot a scene for "Clam Shack Blues."
The glamorous world of moviemaking has not always been an easy embrace for this photojournalist. One of my first memories of photographing a movie star was in college.
The George Eastman House, home to the founder of Kodak, was presenting an award to Jimmy Stewart. As usual the press was in a holding room, then escorted into a grand ballroom where Stewart greeted us, sounding just as you would expect. He was gracious as we worked in a frenzy to use up our allotted five minutes and then shown the door.
Over the years, the Cape has been the preferred location for many a film crew. Cape Cod Times movie critic Tim Miller and I spent many a day driving to Provincetown to photograph Norman Mailer as he made the film "Tough Guys Don’t Dance", based on his novel in the late 1980s.
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We would arrive at Mailer’s Commercial Street brick house on the waterfront, await the publicist and then be told sorry not today. After many aborted missions we finally gained access for a quick interview with Mailer and a chance to watch a scene filmed inside the house, but no photos I was told. That was too much; I waited for the right amount of background noise, snapped two or three frames, got angry looks from everyone in the room, except Tim, who was smiling, and then called it a day.
My other movie experiences have yielded better results over the years, but still a far away vantage point and a demand of complete silence were the overlying themes.
There was Harrison Ford on Martha’s Vineyard, filming "Sabrina" in the 1990s; David Carradine, Bruce Dern and Richard Dreyfuss shooting scenes all over the Cape with their movie "The Lightkeepers" and many others over the years.
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For a photographer watching the magic of lighting the scenes and often the sets themselves, coating Chatham Light and parking lot with fake snow for, The Finest Hours, are all memorable.
Back to Chatham and hats off to the intrepid crew with the "Clam Shack Blues" who shielded their own gear, but even gave an umbrella assist to this rain-soaked lens man as we all suffered together and produced our images.
Not just staying behind the scenes, while heading down the beach, Lenny Clarke handed me his phone, posed in front of the shark warning sign while I recorded him doing a quick 15-second standup routine for his social media.
Could it be my first step on the road to famous Hollywood cinematographer?
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Times photog on the up, downs of photographing movie stars
