Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1184216
Another large task was to find the town of Concord; a small rural town where the family lived that would contrast with the large NYC streets. After scouting town after small town in the Boston suburbs, no good candidates were found. Everything was too big, too developed or not interested in having a film crew transform their town during the Thanksgiving season (and I don't blame them for that). Finally, the producer and I stopped for coffee in the town of Harvard, not the school but a small town outside of Boston. There was one building and then a church down the block from it with nothing in between…in other words, room for the film to build our own small town. So we did! Another set I really liked was the Hummel House, a small shack in the woods where a poverty-stricken family lived, and where the F E March girls brought them Christmas dinner. This was actually a Girl Scout camp that was out of season. Also within the story was the need to create three plays. For me, and for a few of my fellow crewmembers, this was especially fun because we all started out in the theater. We did the big show of Twelfth Night at one of the oldest theaters in Boston, The Colonial. A melodrama was staged at the local Concord community theater, and was actually done in Concord, MA. The third play was the Christmas show the girls put on in the living room. All in all, it was a really good experience shooting the film in New England. Almost everyone I dealt with was happy to be a part of a film that took place where they lived! And for me, I got to go back to a lot of the locations I had worked at twenty-five years ago!! ADG A A. CHINATOWN ALLEY. ILLUSTRATION BY GREG HILL. LOCATION RENDERED IN PHOTOSHOP. B. CHINATOWN ALLEY. DRESSED FOR THE SHOOT. SET PHOTO. C. CONCORD STREET MODEL. DRAWN BY SET DESIGNER PAUL SONSKI AND BUILT BY ZACK GONCHOR. D. CONCORD STREET. COLOR STUDY RENDERING FOR PAINTERS BY GREG HILL, GRAPHICS BY CARLY SERTIC. E. CONCORD STREET. (MOVIE SNOW ON SET!) SET PHOTO. F. FINISHED CONCORD STREET SET ON LOCATION IN THE SMALL TOWN OF HARVARD, MA. PRODUCTION STILL. B C D