shooting a movie

[lucretius1957]

Here in New Haven, CT they are shooting the new Indiana Jones movie. It has the town all agog but it's very inconvenient. I suppose I might have been an extra, but they said that the line to apply at the Omni Hotel was a 4 hour wait. I waited in line one hour and said Skip it. They were auditioning girls as cheerleaders for a scene at the Yale Bowl, but then they found out that Yale back in the early 60s had male cheerleaders. Duh!

The main inconvenience is that they are rerouting the buses around the downtown area. It's a bummer.

They have put false fronts on the stores in front of several blocks of Chapel St., to make it look the way it looked 45 years ago. Savitt Jewelers is now Woolworth's with old merchandise in the window (and a little sign "not for sale." Starbucks has become McCurry's Tavern, with a sign for Guinness in the window. Unfortunately, they won't sell you one...

In a few days I suppose that we will be able to get back to our own humdrum lives.

[lucretius1957]

This movie shoot in New Haven is getting to be a regular pain. Crowded streets, blocked-off streets, and I don't expect to be paid anything for my personal inconvenience, though (theysay) it is pumping several million dollars into the local economy. I am not one of those who are willing to stand around for hours for a glimpse of Harrison Ford's stand-in.

The other day, after I had spent a lot of time walking in the hot sun trying to get to the place where they had rerouted the buses to, I was thinking "May the film tank and may the production company go bankrupt and may Harrison Ford have to go back to selling two-by-fours!"

But now I am calmer. I wish them a moderate box office and a poor opening weekend.