Part 4 of 7 (9/26/15, DAY THREE): Travelogue for 'Deaners' film shoot!

This is Part 4 of 7. 

Here's part 1: Part 1 of 7 (9/23/15, ARRIVAL): Travelogue for 'Deaners' film shoot!
Here's part 2: Part 2 of 7 (9/24/15, DAY ONE): Travelogue for 'Deaners' film shoot!
Here's part 3: Part 3 of 7 (9/25/15, DAY TWO): Travelogue for 'Deaners' film shoot!


This is the biggest day of the shoot! Many people come from all over for Saturday to be there for just the day... there's much activity, the car show and carnival is in full swing, and Deaners have a good amount of activities to check out and participate in!

We had a later call as we would go pretty late on this day. There was also no sit-down interviews on the schedule due to all the activity. But we still managed to catch 11 interviews on the go, regardless! 

I was able to sleep in a little, wake up at Fairmount Camp, have some coffee, and hang out and chat with Matt Landis, manager/director of the camp...learning more about the camp program, about Fairmount, and more. Was great to hang. 

Sam, Rachael, and Russell 

There was much traffic coming into town, which delayed us for nearly an hour. Today, it was me, Sam (DP), Russell (Sound), and Sam's girlfriend Rachael, who was able to join us for the day to help us out with being production assistant! She was great at getting on-camera waivers signed by people we captured, and roping in a couple people to get on camera, and more. The four of us together had a positive vibe, upbeat, and we had a good amount of laughs and fun throughout the day, while still getting SO much done. I miss them already, and would hope to cross paths in person again with them someday, some way... 

There was a bit of rain in the morning, but by the time everyone got there, the rain had stopped. It was overcast for a good portion of the day, which is great shooting weather (good lighting, not fighting sun glare or much shadows, etc.)! 

We found Chad Hanna, president of the James Dean Remembered Fan Club in front of the James Dean Gallery first to say hello and get B-Roll... 

We then caught booths, carnival rides, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tattoo on the back of a guy's neck. Recognizable instantly to me, it was a James Dean signature as tattoo. Clint Hemstalk (who traveled from Vancouver) became our first unplanned, 
on-the-go interview of the day. 

We then talked to Richard White on camera who had been coming to the James Dean Festival for many years. We kept walking along and saw the James and Dean booth and was able to do a quick interview of Olivia Winslow, president of the James and Dean fan club (and granddaughter to Marcus Winslow, Jr., cousin of James Dean), and we also interviewed Rob Jarrell, manager of James and Dean. 

We ran into and got Peter Gallo and his friend Janet (from NY) on camera after having met them briefly at Jimmy's grave just the day before... Then we heard so much about the fireman's burgers booth, so we nabbed some for a late lunch as we grabbed a good spot to catch the parade! 

Parade Drum Core 

There was a good number of people that we met or would meet in the parade... Marcus Winslow Jr. with Lee Raskin, James and Dean and Scott Brimigion to name a few. Even Garfield was there! There was a drum core (that was outstanding!) that came from Dayton, Ohio (have to find out the name)...mini motorcycles, horses, fire engines, scout troops, and candy tossed to the onlookers. We caught a good amount of footage from this. 

We made our way to the Fairmount Historical Museum. We found that between that and the James Dean Gallery, those seemed to be the 2 main hangs for Deaners during the weekend. We got exterior shots of the museum with the crowds, the interior shots of fans looking at the James Dean artifacts, and outside, we met Marlin Wilson who was talking with Phil Ziegler. We interviewed Marlin and he showed us a cool scrapbook of JD photos. We went off to the Car Run for a little bit to catch some more of that. 

Lee Raskin and Me 

Returning to the Fairmount Historical Museum, at a booth outside, we interviewed author Lee Raskin, who wrote James Dean: At Speed, and James Dean: On the Road to Salinas. Having been interviewed by Jay Leno before, he's old hat at interviews! 

J.R. Dziengal and me 

I was asked to be on camera and interviewed myself by filmmaker Nadine Bass (about my 'Deaners' project). And then we got to interview filmmaker J.R. Dziengal. I had been in touch with J.R. before meeting up with him in Fairmount. He comes from LA, as well... and has a film script in the works- 'Bastard- the film' answering a question fictionally about what if James Dean had lived? J.R. is a real cool helpful cat, lending us a spare camera battery when we were in need a couple of times as he had the same camera Sam had, and fun to hang with, too. I'll look forward to catching up with him in L.A. soon... 

For dinner, we went to Grains & Grill, a new restaurant in Fairmount. It was all outdoor seating on this evening, bands playing, and we got there before the mad rush. It was good to sit down for a wee bit as we had been on our feet for hours by this point. 

Pamela Des Barres and Lenny Prussack

After a good break, we made our way back to the festival and main street to catch the night's big events. Held in a parking lot between 2 buildings, with a tent and a main stage, we caught Sack-O, or Bag-O, or some people like to call it 'Corn-Hole'. This is a hardcore annual tournament that lasts hours. We caught the tail end of it. That led right into a 50's dance competition. Armed with our dessert waffle cones from a booth, we were able to catch Pamela Des Barres (legendary groupie and author of 'I'm with the Band' who we would interview the next day) participating in the 50's dance competition with Lenny Prussack. There was a group of other couples competing for the winning title, as well, that we were able to capture on camera. 

 James and Dean got on the main stage in cool suits and performed their song 'Forever 24' for the crowd, along with doing a freestyle jam. 

Little James Dean Lookalike

This then led into the kid's portion of the Little James Dean lookalike contest. This was for kid's to participate as lookalikes on the stage... and the audience would vote for who would win based on applause. Before and after this, we worked on grabbing a few adult James Dean lookalikes who were readying for their contest. We interviewed Evan Derry, Nolan Karwoski, and Jason Naylor. Pretty stoked that we had gotten interviews of 2 of the final 3 contestants (out of 10 total) and one of the interviews was the winner! 

James Dean Look-Alikes before the contest

On our way out, we caught nighttime lit up carnival rides and booths, and made our way back to the James Dean Gallery. From 10:30pm-11:30pm we went on a night 'Walking Tour' with Mark Kinnaman (who we had interviewed the day before). He took a decent sized group to the different James Dean sites of note around downtown Fairmount. 

Group shot from Mark Kinnaman's Walking Tour

Walking that much at the end of a very long day added to us all being uber tired. Full day, very successful with tons of good stuff preserved for the future 'Deaners' film! Off we went to bed to catch some sleep before the next morn of another day for the shoot. 

To Be Continued... (Part 5 below) 


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Thanks! - David Garry 

www.davidgarry.com 

Here's Part 5: Part 5 of 7 (9/27/15, DAY FOUR): Travelogue for 'Deaners' film shoot!