Subject: Location filming of FWWM
From: markw@meaddata.com (Mark Wasson)
Date: 1992-09-23, 10:35
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks
Last September, I took a month off and travelled the west. My route
brought me to the Seattle area for a few days. I camped at a little
park east of the city and south of North Bend (just outside of Palmer,
WA, I might add).
The first day in the area, I hit North Bend and Snoqualmie to see the
TP sites. I took a lot of photos, had dinner at the Double R, etc. I
picked up a local paper and found that Lynch was in the area filming
FWWM at another park. Those scenes were the Sheriff Cable scenes. In
order to use the site, Lynch had agreed to fund the refurbishing of
the house, etc. I suspect that is where Agent Sam Stanley got his
$27,000 estimate.
After seeing the sites in Seattle the next day and part of the day
after, I headed east on I-90 and stopped again to pick up a few more
TP sites. I stopped at Windjammers (kites/windsocks/formerly Big Ed's
Gas Farm) and talked to the proprietor a bit. Lynch had been filming
a scene the day before and had caused a school bus to be late for
school by an hour, according to her.
I worked my way toward the Mar T (Double R) in North Bend, and when I
got there, I came upon them filming the scenes we saw in the movie.
The first scene I saw filmed was of Mrs. Tremond/Chalfont and the
Creamed Corn Kid slowly walking away. The second had the camera
looking over Laura's sholder at the picture of the door. The third
was of Laura talking to someone - I now believe it was the new Donna,
but the scene wasn't in the movie.
It was interesting to see how the scenes were presented in the movie.
For instance, in the movie when we see Laura getting the picture, we
see it from a few angles, including one that looks toward the front of
the diner to her back. When I was watching the filming, there were
props, lighting gear and about 50 onlookers in that direction.
Between scenes, Sheryl Lee and James Marshall signed a few autographs,
and Francis Bay and Marshall posed for a few photos (I got their
photos but no autographs). Others there include Everett McGill (Big
Ed), Wendie Robie (Nadine) and Catherine Coulson (Log Lady). Having
never seen a real movie being filmed, it was all pretty interesting to
me. That it was TP was icing on the cake.
Other observations from the movie location filming -
Mt. Si is the mountain from the opening credits. Although Deer Meadow
is supposed to be in the SW portion of the state (near Portland, OR),
Mt. Si was in the background of a lot of those scenes.
I've seen some stories/postings that claimed Mt. Si High School was
used for TPHS. At least with respect to the movie, however, I don't
see how the two could possibly be the same.
I was there in September, and the trees were in full foilage. In
fact, when I went to take a photo of Mt. Si from the opening credits
(TV) location, I had to move to the other side of the street to see
the mountain. The events of the series started in February. I
wondered how they would reconcile that - obviously they made no
attempt to.
James Marshall's hair as he walked around the set was brown with some
sun-bleached blond. I recalled from the show that it started out jet
black. Looks like the continuity people recalled that too.
In one of my photos, a prop person is holding a little white thing -
which turned out to be the mask. The CC Kid wasn't wearing it in the
over Laura's sholder scene - the camera stayed focussed on the picture
for that brief take.
Since the Mar T was closed for the filming, I decided to get dinner
elsewhere. I continued east on I-90 and stopped in Roslyn, WA, where
the exteriors for Northern Exposure are filmed, and had dinner at the
Roslyn Cafe featured in the opening credits of that show.
I think I watch too much TV.
Mark
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