Having a whale of a time

By Amy Woolvett and Michael Gorman

TRANSCONTINENTAL MEDIA

NovaNewsNow.com

Many people got a chance for their 15 minutes of fame and a close look at how movies are made during the filming of the Moby Dick production in Shelburne last week.

Close to 100 people were called in on Tuesday, Oct. 6 – one of the final days of local filming – to be the background extras for a scene that transformed Shelburne’s Dock Street into 1851 Nantucket.

The extras were quickly dressing into their costumes while make-up and hairstylists were busy transforming their looks into characters resembling the period of Herman Melville’s novel.

Women were corseted tightly while men were brushed with brown makeup to resemble dirt.

Just before the extras were to be on set a producer stood up to go through some rules. “Do not decide to add to your character in any way,” he said. “If you are told to walk one way you are to walk that same way every time.”

The producer warned of the tiring nature of the work, as they would be standing around and working and reworking the scenes for the better part of eight hours.

He also cautioned that under no circumstance would any of the extras be allowed to initiate conversations with the lead actors of the production. By doing so they risked being kicked off of the set.

At least one of the extras made the trek from Yarmouth.

Gordon Rothwell got involved with the production after hearing on the radio that there was a need for more extras. He submitted a photo and quickly heard back. “They said, ‘yeah, you look fine. Don’t shave and we’ll get back to you.’”

Rothwell spent three days on the set in Shelburne, two of which took place in the whalers’ bar where he was one of the background characters during the scene in which principle characters are recruited to be on the ship.

Rothwell, who is no stranger to the stage, said seeing first hand how different the process is for making a movie, was a real treat. “It was amazing,” he said. “For maybe 24 hours, 25 hours of shooting time, we maybe got six minutes of film.”

Because filmmakers want to ensure they have each scene covered from every angle, there is a lot of repetition. This, said Rothwell, requires focus. You want to make sure you’re doing the same thing every time the scene is filmed.

The TeleMunchen Group’s $25.5-million mini-series hooked William Hurt, who stars as the fanatical Captain Ahab, Ethan Hawke, as Starbuck, the first officer of the whaling ship Pequod and stars Charlie Cox, Donald Sutherland and Gillian Anderson.

Despite some long cold nights of filming, extras enjoyed the experience of being part of the production. “It is so interesting to see how things work behind the scenes,” said Elizabeth Kingsland, a Shelburne County resident and extra.

Another local resident with her costumes full skirts billowing said she found the work to be interesting and experienced no stage fright while the cameras were rolling. “I’ve been around too long to be nervous,” laughed Leonna Smith.

During shooting on the waterfront, shots were taken and retaken by the meticulous director. During their off-camera time some of the extras talked about how interesting the big-named actors were and how they were just regular people like everyone else.

One extra told of how Hawke walked around the set taking pictures of groups of extras in full costume.

The scenes shot in Shelburne and Lunenburg are the only ones to take place in Canada. The rest of the filming will be done in and around Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.

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