WISH DAY!!
My apologies for the looong wait in between blog reports, I guess by (unintentionally) doing so, I have let you in on a bit of the waiting which Kelly and I endured while waiting for things to be official and before we could tell anyone – including the wish boy and his siblings. So with no further ado….
Wednesday morning started slightly earlier for me (that would be Kirk) as he rolled out of bed and grabbed some clothes and jumped in the rented Toyota Previa and headed off to the car rental place to return our vehicle. Except for forgetting to fill the tank, it went swimmingly. Fortunately, the rental place was literally accessed through the drive of a gas station. So after shoehorning the van into a parking space, I got to drive it 30 feet – excuse me – 10 meters and fill it and re-shoehorn. A brisk walk and a free bus ride plus one more brisk walk brought me back to breakfast and movie set preparations.
Once we had all gone through hair, makeup and costuming (not really, more like: cereal, toothbrushing and throwing on clothes…) we awaited our pick-up. We had been told that we would be picked up by a shuttle, along with the other Make-A-Wish family traveling to the set. Sure enough, at the appointed time, two matching limos pulled up – driven by a lovely, mature husband-and-wife team. We met the Ryans – Jack and his father, mother and sister – of Burnsville (yes, Burnsville, MN. Two kids from the Twin Cities wished for the same thing independent of one another in a span of two weeks) and piled into our respective chariots for the hour-plus drive out to the set.
We had a little sparkling juice and the kids enjoyed the lovely limo for about five minutes, and then it was time for iPods for them so that Mama and Papa could enjoy the ride through the countryside without having to navigate or drive. We were brought to a little ‘cafe’ that has been built at the entrance to the movie set site – basically a very tiny farm road that tees off of a very narrow country lane – where we met the owners of the farm/tour company. In addition to giving tours of their farm, they also do sheep shearing/dog herding demonstrations, so we got to feed some sheep and see a couple of dogs drive some sheep around a pen while we were waiting for our guide (for our trip to see the set of the unnamed movie, which we are not to name). Soon, our host for the day – we’ll call him ‘Mick’ – showed up and handed out our paperwork (one set per family, where we promised never to do anything lest we be strung up by our toes in retribution), which we signed and then received our ultra-special badges-on-a-string allowing us to saunter about unmolested on set.
We were shuttled by a little bus over the ridge to ‘base camp’ – where we made our first stop. The base camp looked like some kind of music festival – trucks and tents and cables and vehicles everywhere. And by tents, I mean enormous half-city-block-sized temporary structures that they somehow erect in part of a day and then suddenly whisk away to some other location. Impressive. Mick showed us around the make-up, wardrobe and other special-effect-y tent, where the kids even got to try on some cool prosthetic pieces, which I will not describe in any detail, although if you know what I’m talking about – you can probably make a pretty good guess. Mick even took some pictures on his iPhone that he later sent us – so those of you seeing us in person can have a look sometime.
From the base camp, which was milling about with some of the 250 plus people involved (including wardrobed extras), we jumped in another little bus and went up the hill over another ridge to the actual set. Part of the reason this site was chosen was for the way that it is completely separated from all signs of civilization, including the base camp just over the ridge, and so all the camera (and the actors) see is completely natural New Zealand landscape – extremely beautiful in and of itself, without the, uhm, modifications, that had been made for the purpose of filming.
We walked over to a tent to with some chairs and two monitors to have a look at the live action happening just below us on the set. There were some chairs up front that were slightly fancier (for portable, folding chairs) that Mick said we could use, but that if the head of the studio showed up (as he was set to do sometime that day), then it would be ‘that’s all folks’ and we’d need to scoot back to the second-tier seats. As it was no one showed up, so the kids could take the front row seats by the monitors. As we were waiting for some ‘action,’ a lovely assistant brought us a tray of ‘nibbles’ and then a young man came and took our drink orders. Swanky!
As there was filming happening just below us, everyone and everything had to be absolutely silent while they were rolling, which meant keeping three young children from making noise while essentially watching a 30-second silent film over and over again. (There is no sound to the video feed – ’cause it’s noise, right? Hence the reason you always see directors wearing headphones in those DVD extras.) Thankfully, the kids were great and the fruit and crackers and cheese and sweets we kept stuffing into their mouths helped quite a bit. Mick also brought us out of the tent and around the corner in between takes to peek down at the site, and then we’d all race back to the tent when they yelled ‘rolling.’ After a bit (and our coffees and juices and teas from Sebastian), Mick brought up two remote headsets for Espen and Jack, so that they could actually hear the dialogue along with the images. Espen was sitting in front of us, but Kelly and I were sitting next to Jack, and when they started filming again after the headphones arrived, as soon as the actor began to speak Jack got this HUGE smile on his face like, whoah! this IS really happening! That was really fun.
Once the scene was finished and they broke for lunch, Mick brought us over to meet his boss who was coming up after talking with the two actors who had just finished filming what was basically the first scene of the movie. The Director was very congenial and chatted with us and their staff photographer took shots of both families with him and he signed a few things for the kids. Very lovely and kind. Espen handed over our gift to the Director, whose birthday, we discovered, was only a couple of days after our visit. He seemed genuinely pleased and interested in the local movies we had brought him, and I dare say I think he just might have a look at some of them.
Once the meet-and-greet was done (did I mention that as we stood there in front of the producers ‘director’s chair’ waiting for the Director, that the composer was sitting around the corner and then the head cinematographer walked by? Crazy.) Mick walked us down through the set, where we got to look up close at where they had just been filming, and they took another few shots of us on set. We wandered around the set, and while not saying anything in detail about it, I can tell you that the level of detail put into the design and decoration of the set was incredible. Even things that would never be filmed from closer than 50 feet away had been done with excruciating detail in even the smallest items. Very impressive.
After our wander-about, we hopped back in a transporter and were shuttled back to base camp for lunch. We ate from the buffet surrounded by extras as well as crew members, all of whom were exceedingly lovely and friendly. The food was amazing, not to mention that it had been prepared in a kitchen in the back of a semi-trailer. I’m not sure how the whole crew isn’t going to gain 100 lbs. (uhh…40 kgs?) eating that stuff every day.
Mick then took each family one at a time to meet with the actors who had just filmed the scene we watched. As with everyone else involved, I can say that it was like visiting with some old friends or meeting some lovely new folk at a party. Simply wonderful people and paid Espen and all of the kids great attention, and even had excellent knowledge of the Twin Cities, despite not being from around here (or even this country…)!
After that, the actors were called back to set, and we took our leave of Mick as we jumped on to our final shuttle of the day to take us back to our awaiting limos, back with the sheep. We had a good time joking with our limo drivers about what we hadn’t seen and where we hadn’t been on the drive back. We enjoyed our plate of ‘nibbles’ on the return trip (as if we needed more food…) and got a little tour taking the scenic route home. We got to see where the world rowing championship had just been held – not quite as publicized as the Rugby World Cup, but cool all the same. The best part was driving through a number of small towns as schoolchildren were returning home from school. I don’t think it’s all too often that two stretch limos come driving through town, and as our windows were tinted, our identities were anyone’s guess. We felt very star-like.
Finally, we pulled back in to our motel and, as Jack said later, “the movie star dream ended as we pulled up to the Best Western.” The Waldorf or the Four Season’s it was not, but it was comfy and convenient. We were left to cook up our own dinner in the kitchenette, and then we Skyped Oma and Opa, as we had to share the experience immediately with someone. We ended the day with a lovely walk down by the Waikato River in Hamilton with Jack’s mother and sister (walking off some of our ‘nibbles’ from the limo ride).
Espen was in his quiet, subdued mood during much of the day, but as we were walking around the set, he and Jack were having a good time joking about all of the things they could now say they had done on the set, like, “I tripped and fell down on the movie set.” or “I jumped up and down on the movie set. ” and so on. He definitely had a wonderful day. All he could have hoped for, I think. It was interesting to watch Jack, who is 17, take things in, as he had a little better idea of the craziness of what we were allowed to experience. I’m sure Espen will appreciate it more and more as he looks back on it. As for all the adults, we were just walking around in awe and in a stupor at how surreal and cool the whole thing was. We’re still not sure who had more fun – definitely the climax of the trip.
Up next: The denouement begins…































