This was written after the fact over a few days. The facts maybe jumbled, but are true.
It sounds like the title of a low budget horror film.
It started somewhere at the beginning of March or the end of February. The weather was warm for that time of year and the four of us were surviving the winter.
At the end of a day, maybe a Thursday or Friday, I pull out of the mail box a flier. Me, being me, well I start grumbling about how no one is supposed to put fliers in mail boxes without postage.
I'm gonna make a great grumpy old man. Elena likes to imitate me as an old man yelling at kids to 'get off my lawn!'
I walk back through our door that was painted green for the cable show damages starring Glen Close and read that a movie company wants to film in our house and would I be interested.
Damages paid a thousand dollars a day over three days back in 08', hell yeah I'm interested. I didn't call Teri and ask her if she was interested in doing it because last time it was easy money and we bought a pool with the money. I call the number and leave a message with my number, name and address. A little while later I get a call back from a women named Ana. She says that she would like to come by later today and she is over in upper Westchester, forty-five she'll be by. It was after four pm and I didn't question her on it. I figured she knew something I didn't. About an hour later she called and asked if we could reschedule, I was happy to. I didn't want to be disturbed at dinner time. The one thing I didn't know was it would be a pattern with most everyone involved in this movie. The would over promise and under deliver.
Ana and I got together the next day after 4pm. She walked through the house saying all these nice thing. How it was all original and looked wonderful. How it was just what they were looking for and so on. I thought she was just being nice. I figured we had little or no chance of them filming in our house. The Great Recession had put a dent in our finances and the house we bought needing to be fixed up to begin with now needed other repairs in addition to the ones we had not gotten to.
The next week Ana bought by a group of about six people to look at the house. I stuck two of the dogs outside and Athena did her wet blanket imitation making it impossible to pick her up. If you managed to she would nip at your hands hard enough that you would think twice about picking her up, so she stayed on the couch barking until she decided it was okay for these people to be in her house.
The group included the director, someone with the art and someone with design I think. They too loved the house and said a lot of nice things that I had a hard time believing, but they were very nice and they insisted this was the type of house they were looking for.
Back a few years ago an other group of people came to the house looking to film a British TV show about two people who switch houses. One from America and the other from Britain. They looked over our house too and I felt that we didn't have a prayer for that show. I felt almost the same about this movie.
Ana asks if they could bring a group of people by the next week, maybe a Tuesday. The group would come in a bus and there would be about twenty.
The Monday before or maybe even that day she calls and says they are running behind could they reschedule for Wednesday. I counter with Thursday. Having already had to cancel another visit on a Wednesday when someone was running late and I wanted to go bowling with Nastia.
There was a visit by a gentlemen sometime around this time who came in around dinner time to measure the size of the rooms. I remember he was a nice friendly guy, but he was in my house around dinner time and Teri was going to be home at any minute and I wanted him to leave. What I ended up doing was what Confucius one said and Tex Antoine, a weatherman on ABC news said to end his career on the station and is not a correct thing to say AND I will sanitize, 'If it is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it' so that is what I did. I talked to the guy a little, watched him take his measurements and he was gone in under an hour. He also arrived a little late, having gone to an other house before us.
The Bus full of people arrive promptly an hour later then they originally promised, but in there defense, they did call and let me know they were running behind. I meet the bus outside and tell them all to make themselves at home and they can park the bus in Ann, my neighbors driveway.The twenty people all pile out of the bus and I greet the first few with hand shakes.
The Dogs are all upstairs with Nastia and Elena and they will bark until they feel the people downstairs understand they mean business. This is their house. The People break off into smaller groups, the Director talking about how she wants to shoot a certain shot, where Peter Dinklage walks into the house and sees the dead bodies. Another where Peter walks into Nastia's bedroom to take an afghan off the bed, how she might want the camera in the hall or maybe at the door, so the set design person she is talking to has to have this wall and this wall made up, but not the wall to the west.
I mostly stayed out of the way, answering any questions asked of me or talking to anyone who came over to my perch on the stairs.
The visit lasts around an hour and the dogs, staying in my room with Nastia were reasonably quiet the whole time. Everyone thanks me and troops out the door.
I think around this time Ana comes over to the house to have me look over the contracts and sign them. This is a painless and quick exercise lasting maybe half an hour.
The list of events involved in having a movie in your house stretches so much longer then Damages. With Damages, they contacted us, looked over the house, set a two day period that stretched to three. Came in set up the house, shot two days instead of one and paid us. It lasted only a few days. The Movie, 'I think we're alone now' stretches the whole of the month of March, over several visits and involves a lot more people.
Friday, the 24th of March they come to set up the house. Ana hands me an envelop, Athena and Bandi go to Teri's parents house, Mesha goes to my Mom's house. Teri and I devise a plan to get my Mom's dogs and Mesha to accept each other. I take my Mom's dogs, two Golden Retrievers for a walk, we meet Meisha and Teri on the street. Meisha is so afraid that she tucks her tail between her legs and then proceeds to pee on it. My big bully of a German Shepard.
I leave Teri and the dogs to go and watch set up and answer any questions. I expect to head into work before noon, I never make it. They arrive late after a call and are at the house well past noon, past two. I don't remember when they left. They didn't even finish, which was a good thing considering they were going to use the Parlor, the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and Nastia's bedroom. At day's end they had set up the living room and dining room with dead bodies. They hadn't dusted yet. This is not the good dusting where you go around with a vacuum and pick up dust, it is the opposite, more on that later.
I guess they finally left somewhere around five. It was a Friday after all and no one wanted to work late. For the weekend we lived with two dead bodies in our house. I tried to not think about it, at night ,when the lights were out because it was spooky. The bodies were rubber, but if you looked close, the one at the table looked like Nastia and the guy in the chair looked like me.
Friday night was a boring night. You don't realize how much TV you watch until it is taken away from you. The TV in the living room was replaced with a 1980's style square picture style TV. On Saturday, I managed to hook up the TV to cable and it was weird looking at a square TV picture again. I forgot how much TV's have changed since We bought my Dad a TV in the late 80's. It was one of the biggest sets out at the time. I thing it was like 32". Now it would be considered small.
Cable was disconnected Sunday night and on Monday they all came back. The only good thing about the extra set up day was We get paid for an extra set up day (yeah!!) Things get set up.
Tuesday arrives overcast, the clouds and the weatherman say we're getting rain. Maybe it will hold off? I'd taken that day off figuring I wasn't going to miss out on this again. I talked to Rolando on Friday and he said they would arrive at 5:30AM. Naturally I am awake at 4:45AM. I'm laying in bed when I hear a car pull up. I get out of bed, get dressed and go outside. It is a little chilly, but it is still March and everyone know March can go either way. We'd had a big snow storm early in the month and We'd had rain the week before the movie was to shoot to get rid of the snow and we'd also had some 50 degree days. Rolando asks me if there is a place they can set up their video village. I'd shown him the cellar and the attic on Friday. Eventually we'd agreed the best place was the garage. Yes, the Mustang with the soft top roof and it's holes and the window that will not work were in there. I'd chance it that it would not rain while the car was out. When have I ever been wrong on something like this? ( yea, I can't write it with a straight face either.) I take the car out of the garage, the top won't clip into place so it is only like 98% of the way closed and the back window won't go up and I park it on the street and they ask me to move it to the church at the corner of Kings and Lake road and yes it rains all day long.
Around 6AM things get going a little quicker. One of the Movie People, whose name I've forgotten (sorry) comes up the stairs where Teri and I are. He says that Peter Dinkledge has arrived and please don't take pictures of him, people at the other house did and it was very annoying for him . He doesn't like pictures. I have to go down stairs, I think someone needed to talk to me about something and I come down to a house that looks like it was mine in another life, but isn't mine now. It's full of people doing things and there are two dead (plastic) bodies (still) in the house. I go into the kitchen and Peter is there with the director. I talk to the director I think, and Peter comments about the dogs and what type pf dogs they are? We have a quick conversation about them and I understand it is a job and it is by now maybe 6:30 or so and people treat movie stars weird, so I have to complement and thank Peter Dinkledge for be a gentlemen and taking the time and making an effort to have a conversation with me, as short as it was.\
We leave the House, the girls go to the bus, Teri and I go to drop of the dogs. I don't think it has more then sprinkled to this point. The temperature is a little chilly at this point too, somewhere in the low 40's. I leave Mesha at my moms, who will or has left for Florida today. This is an important point, because on Monday when Mesha was left alone at my Mom's house she destroyed a lot of things trying to either get out or was barking at things. She even messed on the rug in the office.
I head back to the house intent on seeing them film some of this movie.
Back in 08, when Damages was filming, I had to work. I had an appointment to see someone and my boss, Tom Schappa was going alone with me. Him and I were in one of our periods where I could do nothing right for him and there was no way I would ask for the day off. Him and I had a rough relationship during my time at Marcus Dairies.
When I get back to the house, I think I am asked to come back inside.Ana is there and she tells me to put away anything that I don't want dusted. (yea, this is the later) As explained above, they are putting dust on everything to make it look like it has not been occupied for a long time. As I was leaving I was asked if they could go and use some items we had in the basement. Like usual, trying to be nice and helpful and without thinking I said yes. BIG MISTAKE! I go outside. Some of the events during the time of Friday, Monday and Tuesday are a little muddled in my head, so if some of the sequences are wrong or out of order, the general narrative and events are real and did happen.
I end up back at my mom's house. This is were I think some of the events are out of order. I think I didn't leave my mom's house and go my house and return, because I do go to the set later in the day and I get a call from one of the movie people when I'm sitting in my car over on South Conger Ave getting warm after trying to look through the back gate to see what is happening. Maybe that is when I am asked if it is Okay to use items from the basement and Ana told me to put away anything that I didn't want dusted happened around the time I talked to Peter, maybe, I'm not sure. All these things happened, I've just forgotten the order.
I hang around outside, I sit in my car, I move my car over to South Harrison to the corner of my property. I think I am asked to move my car. The person who calls me is not very clear in his conversation. I do move after about ten minutes, so if I was asked to move my car because it would of been in a shot they were taking, sorry.
I leave and go have lunch. When I come back, the rain has let up, some, more will come, my poor Mustang.
A hang out, outside my house across the street, it is raining, again and I'm getting soaked and it is making the cold weather even colder. I take some pictures of everything that is set up, because it looks like nothing is going on. I miss getting a picture of Elle Fanning twice. The first time is when she is leaving the house and the second time is when she comes back.
Once I hear everyone yell quiet, I know they are filming, everything else is the same. It's raining, I'm cold and everyone outside is standing in the rain doing a job or waiting under a tent to be told it is their time to do their job. I leave, I'm freezing. I get in my car and drive it over to the lot behind the store fronts done the street on Lake road. From there I can see everything that is happening (and nothing is happening) outside of the house. I do see them film one scene outside. It is a simple scene where a truck pulls up to the house and Peter gets out and walks to the house, they do it twice.
It is late in the day by now and I'm tired of all the nothing I have witnessed.
Teri and I decide to go out for dinner. The four of Us go to The Chees Cake Factory. I wasn't too happy to spend the money, but for now we were flush. We sit down and are given menus. Teri starts to question Elena about her grades. The conversation goes something like, "Elena how are you doing in Health?"
I got a fifty-five for the quarter" My head jerks up, I don't say anything. "I brought that up from a fifty." I hear a note of pride in her voice.
I start to say something about how the hell can she be proud of absorbing half of everything done in that class when Teri interrupts me. She starts to say something and my phone rings, it's Ana from the movie, she says they are cleaning up the house so the girls can use the bedroom and the bathroom and could I come by. I know a good exit sign from a place I don't want to be in so I tell her I will be there in ten minutes. Teri more concerned about me eating thinks I should stay. I want to and need to get out of there. I can't be around Elena right now. It is too maddening. I get the hell out of Dodge. while the getting is good. I promise to pick them up as soon as they are done.
I get Mesha and head home intent on getting things back to normal as soon as possible. It's still raining. Everything around the house is drenched. The north lot if walked on will give up its grass and you will slide digging your heal into a pile of soft red clay. I walk through the house. There is no one there. I go with Mesha upstairs to check the place out. The upstairs isn't too bad. I'm thinking it will be difficult to get this straightened out. I go around closing and locking doors and gates so I can let Mesha go and go get the other two dogs. I remember the Mustang is parked down the street at the church. I close the front door and lock it, walking toward the Church. I glance over toward the gate on the north side of the yard and it is wide open. I hustle over the soggy grass, my sneakers soaked on the first step. I close the gate and on my way back to the road, I find a sink hole and do a truly great job drenching my left foot. I get to the Mustang, the lot surprisingly is not empty. I pull the cover off the top fold it and throw it in the trunk. I get back to South Harrison, in front of my house, just in time to see Mesha walking down the middle of the road. I call to her in a voice that must of made her feel she was in trouble because she walked away from me. I try for a friendlier voice and manage to grab her. I get her back into the house and there is Ana and a few of the movie people cleaning the girls bedroom and the bathroom, going way beyond their job description to make it possible to get the girls to bed at a reasonable time and get life back to normal for them. They were great. I check the back gate, it is wide open, shut it and get into the Escape to go get Athena and Bandi when Teri calls, They are done eating. I divert to get them. We go to Teri's car, she takes the girls home and I go get the two dogs. The night is almost done. A quick snack for me and everyone goes to bed. It is done for the day. Tomorrow the cleaning people come while I'm at bowling, Elena was okay with them being there, I was not until I found out they were three women. They cleaned, I tipped, they were gone. Its over..... Would I do it again? Hell yeah, just with eyes open more.
,.
We get there a few minutes after the time it was to start. Few people are there. I strike up a conversation with a women I don't know telling her stories about our trip to Russia and how CJ and Fran were with us and how he was learning Russian and it made ordering food very easy. After a while we wander away from each other.
