About that Movie!

Yesterday I mentioned that our Farmhouse had been chosen by a producer and director to be used in a movie.  

We moved out here to live a slower life.  And so we'd hardly ever have to deal with a traffic jam. Let me just say that this ideal that we'd built up in our minds of moving to the country where acres separate us from neighbors and where the only people we have to see are those we want to see (excepting those occasional visits from various contractors/repairmen!) gets a laugh from David and me now.  

The very first year we were here, John Travolta filmed part of the movie "Lonely Hearts" in the abandoned farmhouse across the tater fields from us.  This required various detours of the roads leading to our house...which translated into we could leave our house using one road in the morning only to have to drive another to get home.  We'd have to show ID sometimes to get to our house.  While it was exciting (and I will admit to using the zoom lens on my camera to gaze at the lovely Travolta during the filming - Counting those blessings! :) it also rather quickly became a situation that could make your head explode.  Especially if you'd moved here to avoid traffic and people and noise.

The second year we were here, Extreme Makeover Home Edition chose the family of Hunter's third grade classmate for their show.  The house was just behind their school.  I'm sure you realize already that this meant traffic detours...where you'd go to the school to drop off your kid using one road only to come back to have to use another...and where you sometimes had to show ID to get to the school to pick up your kid!  But, Hunter got to be a part of something very few ever will be blessed to experience. (The kids participated in "Tear down that house" and "Move that bus" and got to take time out of class to watch the process - Counting those blessing! :)

The years in between were filled with lots of things that made it hard to feel as if life had slowed down out here and then there was another filming!  Over Christmas holiday, two young men walked up our driveway and spoke first to Dallas.  They explained who they were and what they would like to do.  David and I spoke with them, got the details on just what the movie would be about and said "sure"! 

Now, we didn't get a lot of money from allowing them to use our home for two scenes in the movie; that's the first thing that folks ask.  This is an Indi film by a young man who built himself a very good reputation in the short film genre; this would be his first full length movie.  Basically, we broke even since they ended up borrowing quite a few things that we needed to replace afterwards...let's just say we did this for the experience!

And, the second question always is..."will you do it again if asked?".  That's a hard one.  Letting movie folk come into your home and your neighborhood (even if it's a neighborhood with acres and acres between the houses) is kind of like letting your world be turned upside down.  And could be one of those things that make you feel like your head might explode~