Due to scheduling constraints, I’ve decided to give more of an overview of my FROZEN film shoot experience, rather than a day by day log, because if I keep doing it the way I have been, I won’t finish until the sequel is out on DVD. So here goes…Preproduction continues for another week or so. The production design crew is at the Snow Basin ski resort trying to devise ways to get 35,000 pound cranes and condors up the mountain to where we are going to shoot. One of the major problems being that there are no roads to get them there.
The rest of the crew is in the production office trying to solve the brutal problems of shooting this film practically 50 feet in the air on a chair lift, in arctic conditions on an actual mountain, rather than a heated soundstage using green screen, fake snow and digital FX to create their breath. Green feels audiences today are too smart and can tell when a film is made on a soundstage. He says that in order to really sell the fear it has to feel 110 percent real. Problems like, “How do we get supplies up to the actors if they need anything (food, water, coffee, hand warmers, etc.)?”; “If it takes an hour just for the chair lift to go up and down the mountain, how are the actors going to go to the bathroom?” (I suggest adult diapers, but they aren’t too crazy about that idea.); “How do you capture the actors on the chair lift while it’s moving, when the ski mountain owners won’t allow you to fasten anything to the chairs or the lift cable itself?”; “How do you light the scenes when your actors are 50 feet in the air on the side of a mountain in the snow?”; “How do you get the camera up to the cast in the first place?” and “While the film is called FROZEN and portrays characters struggling to stay alive under atrocious conditions, how do you keep the cast—who are up there for six hours at a time, barely moving, in negative 40 degree weather with bone chilling winds (not to mention the days it hails, snows and/or rains)—from actually freezing to death?!” Those are just a couple of the minor problems.
Every day of the shoot has to be planned down to the minutest detail and anything that could possibly go wrong has to be accounted for. Each day Adam leaves the office and laughs to himself saying, “It’s just three people on a chair lift. How hard can it be?” (He doesn’t know I was listening.) Despite the challenges ahead, the significance of what we are all trying to accomplish really set in when everyone on the crew starts getting e-mails from other film crews, directors, producers and cinematographers from around the globe asking, in disbelief if what they heard we are trying to shoot on this mountainside in Utah is actually true?
It is.
Now let’s jump to about a week before shooting started: The first day of the tech scout. (For those of you that don’t know, a tech scout is when the majority of the crew and department heads go to all the locations the film is being shot at and work out all the problems the location presents to the job at hand.) This would be my first actual day on the mountain, and I had been hearing nothing but horror stories about how cold it is up there since before I even arrived in Utah. Wearing five layers of clothing, snow pants, a jacket, hat, gloves, face mask, scarf, the thickest snow boots I could find, and a pair of goggles, I get in the crew car ready for anything…except the barrage of insults about to be heaped upon me. Already in the car are Green, producer Cory Neal and some scary looking dude in the back seat, next to me. The guy is about 6 feet 3 inches, jacked and his entire neck up to his ear is scarred from burns. Instantly, Green and Neal begin to make fun of me…and my goggles. Even the big, scary guy chimes in with, “Nice goggles. You going to a fag party?” Now it is one thing to be busted on by the director and producer, but I’m thinking, “What the fuck? I don’t even know this goon!” So while I’m trying to think of something really insulting to rebuke this guy with, “Because I like my goggles,” Green butts in with, “Oh, by the way, Cody, this is Kane Hodder.” Now for any of you who don’t know who Kane Hodder is, let me enlighten you. He is the Jason Voorhees from the FRIDAY THE 13TH movies. The guy who made him actually scary…and for most of the fans of the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise, the only Jason who counts! Kane also portrayed Victor Crowley for you HATCHET fans and is one of the biggest stunt coordinators in Hollywood. So having watched this man kill scores of people on screen, I’m not about to risk my head getting torn off and eaten to defend the honor of my goggles…no matter how much I like them. So I quickly change my snappy “Fuck you, lumberjack Joe!” comeback into “Nice to meet you, I’m Cody.” I extend my hand for Kane to shake, but he just leers at it for a couple of seconds. His nostrils flare and then he speaks:
Kane: “Did you fart?”
Me: “No, why?”
Kane: “’Cause I smell cum!”
Everyone in the car begins to laugh and to show I could take a joke, I was going to laugh too, but then Kane adds, “Get it?!” and hits me in the chest, knocking the wind out of me. The laughter continues and when I finally regain consciousness and realize there isn’t a gaping hole in my torso, I begin to laugh extra hard, not that I thought it was funny, but because I am just so damn happy to be alive.
When we finally arrive at Snow Basin, where we are going to be shooting, it is storming on the mountain. We get out of the car and it is so bad out no one can see 10 feet in front of them…unless of course they have goggles on. I could see just fine. Just watch this video.
The art department is having a rude awakening, too. They are struggling to haul up the mountain a 100-foot, 35,000-pound Condor, stuck in the middle of a ski run. Brutal.
While we are waiting for the rest of the crew to be brought up by snowmobile so we can begin, I am given the job of waiting for uber producer Peter Block to arrive. For you guys that don’t know who Peter “Chopping” Block is (I don’t know if that’s his nickname, but if not, it should be), he is the man who made Lionsgate the horror powerhouse it has become and is responsible for bringing some of the biggest horror movies and franchises of the 2000s to life. (Think SAW, HOSTEL, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, etc.) After years of running the horror show at Lionsgate, he has gone off and formed his own company called A Bigger Boat. FROZEN is to be his new company’s first film and therefore has to be huge. And in case the point hasn’t been made…Peter Block is kind of a big deal.
So, I’m waiting around for Mr. Block in the storm, with no goggles on (thanks, Green), when I barely make out two people getting off of snowmobiles. I begin to walk over to them to introduce myself and realize that I am an idiot; Block is not going to give a shit who I am. Cody Snider, Adam Green’s 19-year-old assistant? As I approach them, I notice they are wearing jeans, sneakers, light jackets and sunglasses. I introduce myself and it turns out that Block and his partner Tim Williams are the exact opposite of what I expected; they are nice as could be. I escort them up to the tech scout where they remain seemingly unaffected by the weather conditions and their lack of proper attire for hours. They obviously cared about the movie; this wasn’t just another job for them.
We finally finish the tech scout and have to literally dig our cars out of 3 feet of snow to leave. Everyone is exhausted and silent on the car ride back to Salt Lake City. At last, Kane breaks the silence. He flares his bull-like nostrils and speaks to me:
Kane: “Hey, did you burp?”
Me: “No, why? Do you smell cum?”
Kane: “Nope.”
Oh, how I walked into that one.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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