Start From Beginning
She ushers us inside her smallish house, through the screened-in porch that seems to be a mandatory feature on Winnipeg houses (on account of the plagues of mosquitos), and into a cluttered interior; stacks of boxes covering spaces not occupied by furniture on the wood floors. She explains to us that she has only recently purchased this house and has been frantically making renovations in anticipation of our arrival. We are to be her first houseguests.
There is ample evidence of her work all around us. The stripped wall where the kitchen sink used to be, exposed support beams and plumbing where walls are being redone, stairs that are basically angled wooden ladders -- and yet the whole feel of the place is remarkably homey. There are stacks of books, CDs and painting supplies covering the desk and tables.
Dre is a scenic painter in the film industry, which is currently a big employer in Winnipeg. She tells of the long, stressful hours on the job, filling us in on the details and gossip of her current project. It is an under-budgeted historical drama that is constantly teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, and the crew are working feverishly to get everything shot before the money runs out. This means a lot of extra hours and brutal deadlines.
It never occurred to me before now, but apparently when you are watching actors up on a movie screen, there is a pretty good chance that the wall you see in the background is actually covered in wet paint. If the movie was shot on a tight schedule, then it's not unusual for the painters to finish at nine or ten and the camera crew to begin filming at ten thirty or eleven. So if the actors were to lean against anything during a scene, they'd end up sticking to it and getting paint all over themselves.
Wet Paint Signs would spoil the illusion.
Posted by flamingbanjo at August 3, 2004 10:43 AM