Hollywood meets history in local film production

Posted Sep 15, 2011 By Chris Must

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EMC Entertainment - The blue-clad infantry advance nervously through the thick underbrush. Creeper vines tug at their ankles, low branches snag their canteens and fully packed cartridge boxes. The men reach a low rock wall and begin to take cover, squinting through the trees and trying to catch the first glimpse of the grey-coated enemy they know are out there somewhere. Their hearts are pounding with a fear they struggle not to show to their comrades.

"Ready!" screams the young lieutenant. "Aim..."

Back to reality. There were about 30 of us, including this EMC reporter. Dressed in full Union infantry uniforms and armed with muskets, bayonets and blank cartridges, we squared off against a small contingent of Confederate troops, ending with some intense hand-to-hand combat. From among a group of about 140 historical re-enactors who came to Robert Moses State Park for the annual Civil War Weekend Aug. 27 and 28, we had volunteered to help out as extras for some battle sequences for a film being made by Ottawa-based independent filmmaker Brian Lutes.

Many of the scenes in the movie, entitled The Percy Harris Story, are being shot in eastern Ontario, including some crucial scenes at Upper Canada Village. The creative historical consultant for the film is Michael "Doc" Doxtater. The Carleton Place resident is the long-time captain of the Second Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Company E, a group of Civil War re-enactors who live in Ontario, upstate New York, and several other U.S. states. Doxtater's wife Betty is the president of the group.

The filmmaker originally approached another re-enactor, Cathy Aire, at an event in Stone Mills, New York, for help with the movie. "She said, 'There's somebody a lot closer to you than me, and I'll put you in touch with him,'" recalled Doxtater.

Doxtater, a retired OC Transpo driver who has been a Civil War re-enactor for 13 years and captain of the 2nd Michigan for the past eight, readily agreed to lend his expertise to the production. The plot of The Percy Harris Story revolves around a Confederate soldier who is to be hanged for a crime he didn't commit. At the critical moment the rope breaks and the condemned man somehow escapes to freedom and makes his way back to his family - or does he? After he is reunited with his wife, the man's story is told through a series of flashbacks.

"I want to make this as historically accurate as I possibly can," said Doxtater. "What we've got here is Hollywood and history clashing."

Doxtater has helped with the production by providing authentic uniforms for the actors. He has also advised the cast and crew on how the 19th century clothing should be worn, and about appropriate etiquette and how things were done in the 1860s. "Brian never thought about filming at Upper Canada Village until I suggested it to him," Doxtater added. The central "hanging" scene was shot on location in the village Sept. 11 and 12 using as many extras dressed in period costume as could be rounded up.

The use of Civil War re-enactors for the battle sequences in the film has become standard practice for movie-makers. "First of all, we come with our own stuff," said Doxtater. "Also, we're trained."

Doxtater said there have been some comprises between the competing aims of entertainment value versus historical accuracy. "I look at it from a historical eye, and (Lutes) looks at it with an entertainment eye," he said. "You have to meet in the middle, because if you don't, you get a lot of people stomping off the set and nothing gets done."

As the writer, producer and lead actor, Lutes' dedication to the project is such that he has been on a "starvation" diet in an effort to approximate the emaciated appearance of a Rebel soldier after four years of warfare and sparse rations. He began the regime (a steady diet of chicken and apples) several months before production of the film started, and has lost 55 pounds.

"He is so lucky that he's assembled a fantastic bunch of people to work on this movie," said Doxtater. "Everybody gets along and there are friendships being formed that are going to be lifetime friendships."

Being a consultant on a movie may have been a little more than Doxtater originally bargained for, but he says the experience has been positive. "It's been fun, it's been tiring, but we have a lot of laughs on the set."

Lutes is a former session musician who worked for Atlantic Records before an illness forced him to leave the music industry. He wrote a novel, and worked with a California-based literary agent whose husband is a movie producer. The producer encouraged Lutes to submit screenplays, and later suggested that he try his hand at producing a movie of his own. The result was a 30-minute short film entitled "Last Ride," completed over the winter.

Lutes' current project is a full-length feature film involving a crew of 25 to 30 people, including four camera operators. "I'm just working on a much, much bigger scale now," he said.

The original inspiration for The Percy Harris Story is the fact that Lutes' great-great grandfather, Percival Harris, who had settled in the Pennsylvania area, was actually a Civil War veteran. Although the plot of the film is fiction, said Lutes, "It inspired me that this guy was a soldier."

Although the project is an action film - "Percy gets beaten up pretty good in this film," said Lutes - violence isn't the point of the story. Lutes said he's a romantic at heart, and that for him the real story is Percy's love for his wife and children, and his overwhelming desire to get back home to them.

Lutes plans to finish shooting by mid to late October. The editing process will follow, and the production should be ready for release in the spring. Lutes said he plans to "hit all the festivals," including the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, and the Cannes Film Festival, in the hopes of attracting investors to give the movie wider distribution in theatres.

A NEW EXPERIENCE

Being an extra in a movie (during the scenes filmed at Massena, New York Aug. 27 and at Upper Canada Village Sept. 11 and 12) was a new experience for me, and one I admit I was definitely looking forward to. Honestly, who wouldn't be thrilled at the chance to put on a DVD in front of a room full of friends, and freeze the action at the exact moment (split second?) when you appear on the screen?

In Massena, Lutes explained to those who volunteered to participate that the action sequences were going to be used as flashbacks to help tell the story. About 30 re-enactors took part in the filming of a skirmish in the woods next to the state park, a process interrupted by a change of camera angles when the cameraman noticed that a row of parked cars was visible through the trees in the background - not a likely sight in the 1860s. After the skirmish was successfully captured on film, Lutes asked if anyone would like to volunteer for some individual hand-to-hand combat scenes. While most people hadn't had lunch yet and wandered away in search of nourishment, six of us volunteered for another chance at silver screen immortality. Three extras in Union uniforms and three dressed as Rebels were paired up to attack each other for the camera with rifle butts and bayonets - being very careful not to make contact, of course. My "opponent" and I were in the mood to go the extra mile, and worked out a scenario: we charged at each other, and clashed in the centre of the dirt laneway. The impact caused him to drop his musket. He punched me in the face, causing me to drop my own musket and fall backwards. He dove on top of me and proceeded to choke me, while I retaliated by grabbing him by the throat.

The first attempt ended with slightly comic results when I dropped the musket and it landed directly on his foot. By the third run through, the cameraman had captured something we were assured was absolutely priceless, and guaranteed to wind up in the final version of the film. I guess we'll see.




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