XL Cover Story: Behind-the-stars All-stars
They may not get top billing, but this ensemble of Austin-based crewpeople makes the silver screen shimmer
By Robert WinterodeAug. 4, 2005
It's a wrap.
After surveying the far-reaching richness of the Austin film community, XL selected eight outstanding local behind-the-scenes film crewpeople and associates. Their sage words reveal much about the art of filmmaking and the energy and creativity of the local scene. Unfortunately, we couldn't cover every category and every gifted person working in Austin film. But we hope our choices reflect the talent and scope of Austin's film community.
Bonnie Clevering
HAIRSTYLISTCredits: "Ocean's 11," "Office Space," "The Mexican," "Out of Sight," "Insomnia"
One day, Bonnie Clevering was watching "Oprah." Julia Roberts was the guest. The host glanced at Roberts' slim figure.
"She said (to Roberts), 'I heard that sausage, biscuits and gravy are one of your favorite things. Now, tell me when was the last time you ate them?'
"(Roberts) says, 'Oh, about two or three weeks ago. My good friend Bonnie makes the best.' "
Clevering, a hairstylist, also has cooked breakfast for Brad Pitt and Matt Damon.
She's styled hair for even more celebrities. In fact, at her home, Clevering has two walls full of autographed pictures of stars she's worked with. There are photos of Hugh Grant during "Nine Months," Roberts during "Erin Brockovich" and Pitt and soon-to-be-ex-wife Jennifer Aniston during the "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" shoot, which was rife with rumors that Pitt was having an affair with co-star Angelina Jolie.
 Bob Marshak WARNER BROS. |
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 MGM Bonnie Clevering made a good impression with Elvis Presley, above, with Nancy Sinatra on the set of 1968's 'Speedway.' Clevering also styled hair for the movies 'Ocean's 11,' top, and 'The Mexican,' right. |
 Merrick Morton DREAMWORKS SKG |
She thinks the same of Jennifer Lopez, with whom she worked on "Out of Sight."
"She was just as sweet as can be," says Clevering.
Currently, she's working with Hilary Swank (with whom she became friends four years ago) on three films. The first is "The Black Dahlia," set in 1940s Los Angeles but filmed in Bulgaria. Soon she'll be leaving for Baton Rouge, La., and the set of "The Reaping," her second film with Swank. She's also launching her own line of hair-care products, called Just B.
While she counts current stars as friends, she also has plenty of stories from Old Hollywood. She styled the hair of Bette Davis. And Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra, starring in the campy movie musical "Speedway" in 1968, were among her first big names.
"And then Elvis went to MGM and wanted me to do all of his films," she says, smiling.
At the time, newly wed and with a blossoming career, she didn't want to be on location everywhere. She declined the King's request.
On "Ocean's 11" and "Ocean's 12," she was impressed by the lineup of the "new Rat Pack" though she admits they're no competition for the original pack, whom she glimpsed in her early career.
"Nowadays, everyone's traveling everywhere," says Clevering. "They're all over the world and doing a movie here and doing a movie there. While the old Rat Pack, they were buddies ... George and Matt and Brad, they're so busy with their lives. While with (Frank) Sinatra and Dean Martin, they'd be in Vegas together and sing together."
Jeanette Scott
SET DECORATORCredits: "Mississippi Masala," "Selena," "Spy Kids," "Double Jeopardy," "Sin City" (also art director)
Jeanette Scott's work has taken her from New Orleans to Puerto Rico to Zanzibar. And when she worked on the 1991 feature "Mississippi Masala" she was part of the first film crew in Uganda since "The African Queen" in 1951.
"I found myself bargaining with tribal chieftains under a tree about making metal trunks for me and having the village elders be witnesses to the transactions," Scott says.
Scott graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in psychology, moved away and then returned 10 years ago. She's been set decorating for close to 25 years.
One of her most recent projects is also one of her most unusual. Because of the heavy use of computer graphics in "Sin City," there was only one real set: the strip bar, Scott says.
 Rico Torres WARNER BROS. |
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 Rico Torres DIMENSION FILMS |
For the movie 'Selena,' above, Jeanette Scott tried to find the same furniture that was in the late Tejano singer's family home. And because 'Sin City,' below, was mostly computer-animated, there was only one set for Scott to work on. |
She talked with co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (who also created the "Sin City" comic on which the movie is based) and created a few initial set models. The look they were going for, Scott says, "was definitely a bit of a menacing cowboy bar." To achieve that feel, they mixed in a lot of metal with the wood of the booths, tables and chairs.
She has lots of stories from the sets she's worked on.
On "True Stories": "We had a character (and) I had the sofa upholstered in this cutesy, floral fabric," Scott says. "And they made her dress out of the same fabric, so when she sat down on the couch, she sort of disappeared into the couch."
"Selena": "We were doing a biography and trying to be as true to the reality of the situation as possible right down to trying to get the exact furniture that was in her parents' home when she was living there."
"The Newton Boys": "We really tried to paint the backdrop to track what was happening in the characters' lives," she says. The film's palette goes from washed-out to saturated and back to drab as the characters' fortunes rise and fall.
Her occupation can be a high-pressure one, Scott says; "Weather comes along and all of a sudden you have to scramble and change your whole plan."
During one crisis, she had made drapes "out of this authentic period fabric that came from some abandoned warehouse" and she mismeasured by 8 inches. The crew spent the whole night sewing on fringes.
Sandra Adair
FILM EDITORCredits: "Dazed and Confused," "Waking Life," "The School of Rock," "Bad News Bears," "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
Sandra Adair's field is misunderstood.
"People have no idea what we do," she says. "They think it just comes out of the camera, we cut off the (film) and put it in the projector."
In fact, the Austinite usually spends six to nine months per feature. She previews the "dailies" (footage from each day of production) and later wades through an ocean of film. She whittles it down to a rough cut and then works with the director and focus groups to finish the film.
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Deana Newcomb
Sandra Adair has worked on several Richard Linklater films, including 'Waking Life,' top, 'Dazed and Confused,' above, and 'Bad News Bears,' below. |
Adair mostly edits the movies of acclaimed Austin director Richard Linklater. It's a 12-year partnership that's functioned remarkably well.
"He's extremely collaborative," Adair says. "He has the highest degree of integrity."
Adair moved to Austin in 1991, the year Linklater's seminal film, "Slacker," came out. But she had never heard of the film when she went to work on Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" some months later in 1992.
"Every day was like revealing this new talent in Rick and new talent in the actors and a new talent in myself," she says. "It was exhilarating."
She's worked on every Linklater movie since.
"He always presents something new and different outside of my realm of experience," she says. She cites the animated "Waking Life," for which she had to learn new editing software (Final Cut Pro) and deal with a script that was evolving during production.
For her bigger projects like "Bad News Bears," the screening process can be extensive and sometimes not entirely helpful, she says.
"Going through the whole preview process is in some ways very enlightening and very ridiculous," she says. "Actually sitting in a theater and watching the film with an audience is very enlightening. All the other stuff that comes with it is ridiculous. ... The focus groups and getting the marketing people's reports and all that stuff, it just isn't as effective."
After nearly a 30-year career and with a high-schooler to take care of, she's also not tempted to go to Los Angeles and work on more of those big features.
"Of course, there's always that Hollywood carrot dangling and it's very enticing to think I could be on some giant Hollywood movie," she says. "But I've also got a better thing going here."
Carla Palmer
MAKEUP ARTISTCredits: "Miss Congeniality," "Robocop," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (2003), "The Alamo," "Secondhand Lions"
For Carla Palmer, makeup doesn't mean just lipstick and mascara.
It also means baby oil and glycerine, to simulate sweat. And it means fake sideburns to give an actress armpit hair.
And "I don't go to the set without my blood and my dirt," she declares. She's talking about fake blood, of course, and a product which "is kind of like colored Vaseline."
Before she started working on big-budget features, the Dallas native apprenticed in her hometown and then did her tour of duty in Los Angeles. She met her husband, a gaffer, in Pittsburgh, when they were both on location, staying at the same hotel but working on different projects.
She's worked alongside Ron Howard, Bette Davis and Brad Pitt, who reminds her of Clark Gable. She's a big fan of old black-and-white pictures.
More recently, she did Robert Wagner's makeup in "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery." She also made up Frau Farbissina and the Fembots.
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Photos by Van Redin TOUCHSTONE PICTURES
When working on sets like 'The Alamo,' Carla Palmer doesn't forget to take 'my blood and my dirt.' |
"The makeup for that show is very minimal," she says. "It's mostly making them brown, and all of your makeup is brown because you have to have them look not freshly bathed. That's my term."
Before she ponders any aesthetic decisions, Palmer reads the script, makes character evaluations and meets with the actor.
"I ask them, 'What do you see this character looking like?' " she says. "Does she wear visible makeup? She doesn't have a lot of money, so she doesn't have a lot of money to buy expensive makeup."
Palmer's concerns often resolve around the vagaries of the weather, a big issue with "Lonesome Dove."
"We had just every kind of element," she says.
She does all she can to prepare for the difficulties she might face.
"You try and think ahead. OK, we have heat factor or we have cold factor or it's windy ... Or it's a swimming scene, is it going to come off?"
"It's usually the films that you're going to think, 'Oh, it's a piece of cake' that something is going to come up," says Palmer.
John Pritchett
LOCATION SOUND MIXER/ENGINEERCredits: "Road to Perdition," "Wyatt Earp," "The Alamo," "The Breakup" (upcoming), "Memoirs of a Geisha" (upcoming)
John Pritchett can make Tom Hanks sinister.
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Francois Duhamel TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
Sound mixer John Pritchett helped make nice-guy Tom Hanks appear sinister in 'Road to Perdition.' |
The Dallas native and current Austin resident is used to problem-solving. He's done this kind of work on 79 films. His job is to eliminate the background: the wind's whistle or the peripheral noises from a nearby live concert. His goal is a clear, flawless capture of recorded sound.
Currently, he's fighting the noise of Chicago's busy Michigan Avenue on the set of the upcoming comedy "The Breakup," with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. (He says of the rumored couple, "They don't have anything to do with each other. That whole tabloid world is so disgusting because it's just fabrication.")
To mask the sounds of the surrounding cars, the actors wear wireless mikes that minimize the whirrs and honks.
But "The Breakup" is far from his most challenging film.
" 'Wyatt Earp' took six months to shoot," says Pritchett. "And it was in all of the worst conditions possible, from the hottest hot of summer to the sub-zero weather of winter in New Mexico, which had its own set of chores."
His only source of disappointment is also one of his favorite projects: 2004's "The Alamo."
"(It) was immensely gratifying to work on," he says, adding that the version that came out was not the version that was shot. "The real meat of the thing, that's not in the final version."
Pritchett got his start as a drummer and then a sound engineer for a band called the Rainbow Blues. His first film work was with Robert Altman, for whom he's done seven movies.
"(Altman) likes to have a lot of control over the dialogue," says Pritchett. "He wants people to be able to say what they want to say but he wants everybody to be able to talk ... Also, he doesn't like to do things like control background. He likes to have everything be sort of real and natural, which is another challenge to us."
Heather Page and Todd McMullen
CAMERA OPERATOR AND CAMERA OPERATOR/DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHYCredits: "Dukes of Hazzard," "How To Eat Fried Worms" (upcoming), "The Green Mile," "Man of the House" Film brought Heather Page and Todd McMullen together.
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Ralph Nelson CASTLE ROCK
Heather Page and Todd McMullen met on the set of 'The Green Mile.' |
They also worked together on the screen version of "The Dukes of Hazzard," which comes out Friday.
"It was very hectic," Page says. "They had so much that they needed to shoot to make the feature a little more up-to-date and a little more exciting than the original series ... All day long, we just shot so many setups."
Page is a fan of the old series.
"Everybody tried to keep to those icons and really cherish them," she says.
Each has favorites among their work. Page, who's also done camera work for "Master and Commander, "Scooby-Doo," "The Rock," "Scream 2," and "Armageddon," singles out her work shooting additional footage for "Seabiscuit."
"My shots were the ones that kind of revealed Seabiscuit for the first time with that wonderful David McCullough narration over top," she says. "It was just a beautiful way to put images to some narrative."
McMullen cites Martin Scorsese's "Casino" as a formative experience. But he also has lots of comedies on his résumé, including "Kicking and Screaming," "Anchorman," "American Wedding" and "Starsky and Hutch."
Another career highlight came with "Superman Returns," which is still filming in Australia. McMullen worked on scenes involving a spectacular disaster.
"We shot a lot of those plates where we kind of moved from the sky down," he says. "We did a lot of setups and plate shots that way." He says the actors will be filmed and added to the scenes later.
Besides camera work, McMullen has also optioned a script about slain atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair that he's looking to get produced in Austin.
The couple is excited by the possibilities of their new home, but they realize the difficulties that can crop up in a town where the major industry is not film.
"It's not always fun to have generators grinding in your backyard at 7 in the morning but we are people who live here too," says Page. "We pay our sales tax here as well (as) our property taxes. And for us, these are careers and these are jobs. And we're feeding our families doing this. And it's important for us to keep in mind that the film community isn't just like a movie star coming to town, and a little gossip ... It's also working families."
Richard Hancock
STUNTMAN/STUNTS COORDINATORCredits: "Rush Hour 2," "Robocop 2," "Casino," "Miss Congeniality," "Superman III"
A 1957 Caddy with big fins backed out of a parking space, whipping itself wildly across the lot. Like an unlucky matador, Richard Hancock got caught by the corner and flipped onto the car's front.
Recalling one of his many stunts in his storied career, he also explains the process, "You stand in the street and here comes the car and they go, 'Now,' and you turn and look, and the car hits you and you roll up on the hood."
The Austin native got involved in stunt work after participating in gymnastics in high school. He's been doing stunt work for close to 25 years. His favorite project was "Weekend at Bernie's," for which he was a stunt double for Andrew McCarthy.
So what's a day's work like for Hancock? He's landed on an airbag after falling 12 stories from the top of what's now the Radisson Hotel downtown. (He says he has a "respect for heights.") He's been fake-punched by Kirk Douglas in the 1986 film "Tough Guys." He was engulfed in flames for the film "Alien Nation."
"It usually entails several layers of long underwear that are soaked in an ice-cold fireproofing gel, and you put a lot of that underneath and you put the fire on top of that," he says.
 Peter Sorel NEW LINE |
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Richard Hancock has performed stunts for the sequel 'Rush Hour 2,' above, and for 'Casino,' left, but his favorite gig was being Andrew McCarthy's stunt double in 'Weekend at Bernie's.' |
He's never bungee-jumped, though.
"I'm not a continual thrillseeker," he clarifies.
He also doesn't do rodeo work.
"You can't learn how to do that without a great deal of pain," he says.
About his line of work, he says, "I still have the same threshold to pain. I'm just a little more willing to accept it. It sounds silly, but I know it's going to hurt. I don't want it to hurt. I don't like to hurt. But I'll go ahead and do it because it will be a cool shot -- it will be worth it."
After being "stabbed" by a bayonet on the "Alamo" shoot, he broke his little finger, but he soldiered on and continued working.
After hurting his knee a couple of times and breaking a shinbone, an ankle and a "few fingers and toes," he's concentrating more on stunt coordinating these days.
"There are a lot more younger people that are willing to hit the ground a little harder than I am willing to," he says. "I don't think I'd enjoy getting hit by a car anymore. I don't think I'd enjoy falling down an escalator anymore. But I'd still do the right flight of stairs."
