Empath, 1979 September 6

              Page 4 Empath, September 6,1979
T h e r e B <
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1)
employment. George Schaeffer’s last two
movies were the 1978 made-for-TV-movie
“First You Cry,” starring Mary
Tyler Moore, Anthony Perkins, and
Richard Crenna, and the 1979 television
movie “Blind Ambition” with Martin
Sheen, based on the novel by Jo h n Dean
and filmed in Alexandria, Virginia. Mr.
Schaeffer’s main stars are Anthony
Hopkins, Richard Crenna, David Dukes,
and Trish Van Devere. While they are
n o t quite household names, they are
nearly that. Undoubtedly, the distinction
is one o f many between a major film
p roduction and a made-for-television
movie. If you had been down in St.
Mary’s this summer, and happened down
to the Dove’s mooring spot, you would
have witnessed a vast array o f pre-colonial
dressed ladies, pilgrims, and ragamuffin
sailors lounging in the shade between
film takes. The short, round little man
running and jumping all around in a big
blue floppy h a t was the director.
Miss Ramsey, who is also Assistant
Dean o f the School o f Arts a t New York
University said the production would
have to deal with “ logistics problems,”
when creating the storm scenes for the
Dove. Since the Dove had to be towed
o u t in to the open waters o f Chancellors
Point, there would be the hassles of
organizing wiring and generators, and
moving the crew about while on the
water. Filming was also at the mercy
o f airplanes, choppers, noisy Volks-wagons,
and gawking sailboats which
frequently broke the sound and sight
lines. There is no way of explaining
orange sailed Lasers in a seventeenth
century film.
For special effects in creating the
storm scenes, which are the major action
o f the movie, the film crew used some
unexpected equipment. To gust up
some proper wind for the storms they
brought in a wind machine. It looks like
an old fashioned room fan; the variety
with the head th a t turns from one side
o f the room to the other, only this one
is much bigger. The fan blade is made
o u t o f a wooden airplane propeller. To
create rain, overhead piping showered
water down upon the ship with all the
simulated fury
The storm wa
are produced
a fro n t end 1
b o a t’s deck. T
on pontoons,
storm scenes,
replica o f the
built by a co
Miss Ramsey s
make distant
sible. Maybe
make waves fo
The screenp
Lee Barrett,
going massive
dollar budget
television melo
plo t conflicts
into one hap
When I read t
with a secret
Statehouse),
cussing their i
New World. 1
ster, portraye
a fugitive fro
o f his heretica
a worry preser
the voyage at
pilgrims are lo;
livestock onto
Speedwell, por
ship, Adventuri
ton, N.C., th
emerge. The «
ship’s captain J
tells them the
women, childre
The crew want
“ pukestockings
forces them to
well docks in tl
introduced to
tangle develop
pilgrims and
Standish, porti
is the philand
played by Trisl
his ever roamin
David Dukes and Trish Van Devere
Cinematographer wii