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April, 2004

Vol.5. NO.4......................................................................cover and 1

   

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Movie Making in New Mexico
Let’s Drink To The Salt Of The Earth
by Ron Ramsey

“We must never forget that we are human, and as humans we dream,
and when we dream we dream of money.”
—David Mamet

“Count backwards slowly. From ten to one,” the Hypnotherapist instructed. “When you get to one, you will feel deeply and completely relaxed, and you
will remember—everything.”
3… 2… 1…

I remembered—walking, barely shuffling, exhausted, across a desolate desert landscape. Alongside remote railroad tracks. The dry wind was merciless, the
air hot, the dust thick, swirling, choking; the sun beating, scorching, searing
down. I was carrying two wooden water buckets, on a staff across my
shoulders. There were men all around, hundreds of them. All kinds of men: Chinese, Indian, Black, White. Working, slaving, driving spikes into the pitiless hard ground with sledge hammers, lugging railroad ties, and hoisting, straining, heaving, the long heavy steel rails, dropping them in place.

The pitiless sun glared off the steel tracks, in the far distance, a great steam locomotive idled, waiting, the smokestack churning dark fumes.
My face was streaked, caked with dust. My skin burned from the sun. My
ragged ill-fitting wool clothes, hot, scratchy, my big hat soaked in sweat, the
hat-band shrinking, squeezing tighter around my head, my boots cramping my aching feet. I carried the buckets, back and forth, again and again, ten, twenty, thirty times.
My god! Is this a past life regression? A door opening to some previous incarnation, maybe 1884? Working on the railroad at the final frontier, as
the Old West changed, vanished into the sunset, because here came progress and time marched on?

No, this was only a memory, of 1994, working as an extra on the epic “Wyatt Earp”. The water buckets were empty. The great locomotive was a plywood cutout façade. The tracks were real, but didn’t go anywhere. The workers?
More extras. There were 300 of us that day. The choking dust and searing sun? Those were real. Those hadn’t changed much in 100 years.

Behind us? A camera on a large crane towering over the scene. Behind that,
under a big canopy, sipping Evian Water, wearing cowboy boots and a fancy Western hat: the visionary director Lawrence Kasdan. And his busy crew.
Peering at a video monitor, ordering us to do take after take until he got what
he wanted: a poetic visualization of the changing Old West at the final frontier, encroaching civilization symbolized by the railroad, as the camera rose, gracefully panning from a close-up of a single railroad spike being hammered to the idling locomotive against the vast horizon.

Later that night, at a café, over one last cup of coffee, a 6 a.m. call to set
looming the next day, I mentioned to someone that I was working as an extra
on “Wyatt Earp”.

“Oh, movies! You must make a lot of money doing that.” she remarked.

Well, no. Movie extra work is one hard dollar. On “Wyatt”, $75 for a 14 hour day. Ah well, maybe a little under minimum wage, but they gave us lunch. In between the numerous takes, we were herded under a huge canopy. Given
plenty of water and sunscreen, and repeatedly admonished: “Be sure to take off your sunglasses during takes!” No stylish shades in the Old West.

Waiting was the hardest part. The wizened extra brings a book. While the crew stays busy setting up the next shot, or studying the last take on the monitor, the stars are back in their trailers meditating on their characters, the extras wait. Sometimes for hours. Wandering over to watch the director work is quickly discouraged.

Some do quietly wander off the other way, sneaking over the ridge, firing up a doob to pass the time. They’re the ones who forget to take off their sunglasses during the next take. A hard dollar.

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth
laborers into his harvest.”
—Matthew 9:38

The Planet of the Extras

Today, fortune smiles, the Movie Industry in New Mexico flourishes like never before. Money pours in, the union crew workers do well, the hotels, the restaurants, the State, everyone gets a nice share of the pie. But alas, what of
the lowly extra? Still hauling water for that $75. In some cases, merely $50 for
that 14 hour day. Plus lunch.

Admittedly, of all the people on the movie-making food chain, the extras are
easily the most disposable. Try making a movie without an electrician, or a
camera operator, or an actor. You can’t. But extras? Who needs ‘em? Cattle.

Well, okay, you can’t do a crowd scene without extras. A bustling Old West outpost would look like a Ghost Town without the extras staggering like zombies through the background. What if Billy the Kid was captured and no one
showed up? What if Godzilla rampaged through Manhattan and everyone was
on vacation in Florida?

My old friend, Hexagram Tannenbaum worked as an extra in LA.

Hex T: “Yeah, I was a lowly humiliated extra for two straight years in LA. That’s all I did for a living. But it’s different in LA, they have the Screen Extras Guild. There is an extras union in NY City as well.

“When I got those union jobs I was treated real good. The food was the best.
I was more or less treated like the other actors. It was easy money. A union
job was $100 a day, more after eight hours. $100 a day 20 years ago was big money to me. Hell, it’s still big money to me.

“Most professional extras are desperate wannabes. I was one of them. It was
the closest I ever came to a Hollywood career. Someone should make a movie about being an extra.”

The scene shifted. Suddenly, I was traveling in a remote desert. México. On my way to a Kickboxing Tournament, hosted by the evil drug lord, Tong Po. It
would be a fight to the death.

“In a moment, I will count from one up to five,” the Hypnotherapist said. “You
will feel the urge to open your eyes. Go ahead. It means you are fully out of hypnosis, totally aware. At peace with yourself.”

I opened my eyes, and I remembered: Stay in your own movie.

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
—Matthew 5:13

No Child Left Behind - Part 4
“Choosing a School for Your Child”
by Finn Clark-Brown

Spring reminds us that life wants to happen. It is a time of renewal and a time for assessing your child’s progress over the past year and making decisions about
their anticipated progress for next academic year.

One of the largest commitments you make for your child is choosing a school. Should you be a parent looking for a school, I hope that some insights from a school principal may cast some light on your path when looking beyond the programs offered by the school.

Firstly, a school is a place for your child to grow. My experience of children is
that ultimately their intellectual and social progress cannot exceed their spiritual-moral barometer. This is not an old fashioned observation; it is a timeless truth.
You have provided the family values from which your child will enter into relationships with others and with their teachers, and you will take time to
support your child in practicing the virtues you have taught them. School will
then be a step into independence and promote strength of character. S/he will
need a cheering team that includes the teacher as a sturdy partner. My
predecessor principal who kept a notebook of insights, which he shared with us, wrote, “The child learns first the teacher, then the subject”. This is a truism.
Visit the school of your choice and be a sponge to what you see. Don’t be
afraid or critical, but assess your own comfort level with the teachers, children
and parents. Several parents chose my school simply because they liked the
other parents and wanted their children to be in the community of the children
of the parents they had met. The decision to choose a school is often a gut level response, checked by questions.

Secondly, does the school know itself – its own mission - rather than simply teaching and testing? Is the mission of the school written into the social
relationships you see when you visit the school? In order for a child to grow
along the right lines physically, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually, these
have to be demonstrated in relationships with others. Do teachers correct sloppy work and misbehavior, or simply accept it? Do you notice any bullying, verbal
unpleasantness or social exclusion? Are you drawn to learn more about the
school community and be a part of its mission, perhaps volunteering? Do you
feel noticed, acknowledged and respected? An inspector at my school initially
felt this intangible joy children had of being in a safe learning environment, and
was then able to trace it back to the school mission through programs such as carefully matching each new child’s needs to a peer group mentor who would introduce the new child to all aspects of the school. In addition, parents were assigned another parent in order to guide them through the social intricacies of being a new member of a community. In addition I would call the parents after
the first day, the first week, and the first month to check their concerns and to
keep them abreast of the school.

Thirdly, success in life depends on organization. A school that has a mission provokes a sense of purpose among the children. This is confirmed in the organization and assessment by the school of a student’s progress. Homework diaries, teacher’s preparation book that includes daily observations of the
children, regular communication between parents and the teacher, with the
teacher and the principal, busy and productive classrooms, regularity, etc., point toward children who are taught and supported in staying organized. Order is heaven’s first law. Order allows for clarity and depth of thought that ultimately
will lead to the final school quality to absorb. One visiting parent went further
than the usual checking of children’s books by insisting on walking through the boy’s washrooms and changing rooms to see whether habits of order and cleanliness were actually applied!

Academic results are the fourth mental box to check off when considering a
school. The purpose of a school is to teach. A school must be creative and find ways in which a child can think better, perform better and contribute to their
peer group. This is the reason for a schools existence. A school must consciously evaluate its own progress, and be clear on the progress that is expected of
children in their schoolwork. Children can then learn how to set goals and
evaluate their own performance against a standard of benchmarks and
performance criteria that will lead them onto maintaining high standards of performance in the expertise they can offer others in the workplace.

I hope these four pointers that go beyond the obvious questions of facilities, programs, teacher qualifications, etc., will help you trust your gut feeling about
any schools you are due to visit, and so deepen and add confidence to any
choices you may make.

Finn Clark-Brown is principal of Innésence School in Nambé-Pojoaque. He
can be contacted at innesence@msn.com or (505) 455-0004

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Inside This Issue
 

2004 Bumper Stickers
GOP ........................... 7

Arab Nightmare...............13

Azi Comes to Life ...........14

BioDemocracy ..................2

Book Reviews .................15

"Check This Out"..........  5

Cleaning Up.................. 14

Colymbosathon
Ecpleticos ................. 14

Country Western Titles... 11

Darwin Awards........... 5, 11

Digital Shoot Out............ 12

Got Dignity ....................14

Grandparents................. 10

Human Glow Light .........11

Important Action For Your
to Take........................13

Lara's Theme .................. 9

Letters to the Editor......... 12

Movie Making in New
Mexico ........................ 1

No Child Left Behind....... 1

North Central NM Events . 3

Not So Smart Robber ...... 14

Pass The Mustard..............8

Smart Blonde................  10

Smarter Than The Old
Timer ......................... 5

Unclassified.....................11

Weird News ....................14

 
     

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