Recently Comic Related was introduced to an individual who works in the film industry. This individual, who we shall call Cassandra Faust, has been good enough to share a first hand report direct from the set of the Watchmen film. Ms. Faust has been working as an extra during the filming and offers up a great summary of what she witnessed. We're pleased to share it with you and Ms. Faust has our sincere thanks...
WATCHING THE WATCHMEN
by
Cassandra Faust
Having the opportunity to work on WATCHMEN was a dream come true for this fan of the graphic novel. I got to the studio a full half hour early, had my name checked off at the gate and I was in. Extras Holding was at the back of the lot and I had to walk past the set to get there. This was an amazing experience. The New York streets were incredible with neon signs lit up over storefronts that looked 100% genuine. Piles of garbage, closed up shops, parked cars, working traffic lights and streetlights, the lot had been paved to look like road, the sidewalks had been built up. Even the lines on the roads were where they should be. This gave me a burning desire to be on that set, walk those streets. I couldn’t wait to get to sign in, get into wardrobe and get to work.
When everyone was in their proper wardrobe, the head Wardrobe guy had us line up in groups so he could give us a last minute inspection before we headed to set.
I was good to go.
But the wait continued.
In the meantime, we were told that we were not to go behind the storefronts as there were danger areas with electrical cables and high-pressure steam hoses for the sidewalks grates and sewers on set. Also we were told that no cell phones or video cameras were allowed and that anyone caught on set with either of these items, for whatever reason whether accident of deliberate, would be immediately wrapped and sent home.
At last the call came and I was the first one out of the tent. I couldn’t believe I was going to be walking into the world of WATCHMEN! What a thrill.
The first thing that caught my eye was the newsstand in front of the Institute For Extraspatial Studies. It looked exactly the way it appeared in the novel. Remembering the drawn streets from the comic, I turned to my left and there, across the street from the newsstand, was the Promethean Cab Company. Down the street from that the red Rumrunner sign glowed. Too cool! I knew that the Gunga Diner should be on my right, but it wasn’t. Peering down the length of the block to the cross street on the left I spotted the diner reproduced precisely as it appeared in the comic. Whether or not this change of locale will be reflected in the film or was merely laid out for ease of filming in and around the diner we’ll have to wait and see. But just seeing these storefronts, as real as any actual buildings though most were just Styrofoam fronts was fantastic. The set designers had done a superlative job on these.
We were told that the scenes for today involved the newsstand. The first scene was the newsvendor and the black kid reading the comic, and Walter Kovacs.
I headed over to the newsstand and checked it out. There was the box for the black kid to sit on next to a fire hydrant (not the electrical power plug from the novel) next to the dingy green newsstand. Behind the kid was a poster advertising the issue of The Black Freighter he’d be reading. On the newsstand, again, the set designers had done an incredible job. Set in October 1985, I was stunned to see that ALL of the magazines on the stand were from October 1985! These were not mock-ups or dummy covers, but the actual magazines culled from second hand stores in the city. The comics amongst the magazines were also from October 1985. Even the newspapers had that date though they might have been dummy copies. Funny that the DC comics were behind the Marvel ones. There was also a few dummy Newsweeks with Dr. Manhattan shaking hands with Adrian Veidt and a magazine with a close up of “Nixon’s” face. The guy they made up to look like an old Nixon is the spitting image. The vendor had a little TV set and a stool. There were gum and chocolate bars and a mini-fridge with drinks. On the inside wall close to the vendor was a poster advertising a magazine with Dr. Manhattan on the cover.
For the record, the newsstand looked just like the one in the novel. Dr. Manhattan looked right. So did Veidt and Nixon. Everything from the novel had been recreated with precise detail.
We filmed the scene from various angles, then they went to close ups of the actors and we weren’t needed for that. The newsvendor is a veteran Canadian actor named Joe (didn’t catch his last name) but everyone seemed to know him. Even the extras. The guy playing Kovacs/Rorschach, Jackie Earle Haley is absolutely perfect in the role. He gives the character a twilight zoney physicality. Rorschach moves to his own rhythms, clearly in a world of his own. The grungy, torn, brown suit and uncombed red hair, the crude sign, even his little green half-gloves all make a rather pathetic and tragic character which offsets his ruthless hero persona. Haley gives us a character who is truly lost. Without saying a word. A pitch perfect performance.
For the close ups we were sent back to holding to warm up. There one of my fellow extras had a copy of the novel and was trying to find the scene we’d just done. I took the book from him and found the scene. As I was explaining it to him and showing him the panels, it occurred to me just how closely they were sticking to the novel. After all, I could show him precise panels of a scene we had just brought to life! It was also fun to explain the story to the guy, and show him other scenes. He was impressed by the scope of the story and I got him more excited about being in the movie. When we went back to set, I talked with other extras. They knew very little about the story as well and it was cool to fill them in. Suddenly I was a tour guide of the comic, pointing out the actual set pieces and explaining the action that would take place there. They were blown away by the scope of the tale. After all WATCHMEN is the Casablanca and Gone With The Wind of comic movies. This is the BIG ONE. That got them pumped that they were working on the film. This is not a common occurrence on set. Most extras only care about how many hours they’ll work, if there’ll be overtime, free snacks, lunch, and when are we wrapped. This is the extra’s mantra. Most don’t care a whit about what the scene, show or movie is about. So it was refreshing to be able to explain the story to them and have them get excited about each shot.
After lunch we filmed a different scene. My action in the scene was to step out of the apartment building, then walk down the street. And, as the scene was a fairly long one, I decided to not just walk up the street but to check out the set. The scene featured Stephen McHattie who is playing the original Nite Owl. McHattie was also the sympathetic senator in 300 and he’s also starred in Beauty And The Beast, Seinfeld, Deep Space Nine and many others. Over the course of several takes, I went into the Gordian Knot Locksmith and the Rumrunner building, and even took a break inside the Promethean Cab Company, which had a small dispatcher radio and an antique black padded bench. I also saw the theater playing The Day The Earth Stood Still. It’ll be fun seeing this stuff on screen, knowing I’ve been inside these places.
While this was going on, they were testing Nite Owl’s ship outside the Gunga Diner. I would have thought they’d use CGI for the ship but a full size model hung from a tall crane. The ship was an exact replica of what’s in the comic. They raised and lowered the ship, tilted it as if it were hovering and blew steam out of the bottom of it to portray hovering thrusters.
At one point between shots, I spotted bundles of the New Frontiersman and just had to have a look. For the record the cover of the New Frontiersman is an exact replica of the one in the novel that is part of the supplementary pages at the end of one particular issue. The used the same headline about “honor sometimes must go hooded” but the pictures are of the actors in costume. So I got to see how the Comedian will look. He looks exactly as depicted in the comic with his small eye mask, not the full face one. And his picture on the prop newspaper along with Rorschach and Nite Owl is just like the one in the comic. Even the text is the same.
Later, we did a scene featuring more of the film’s stars. Again, we were not told who was going to be in the shot, but as soon as I saw what one of the actors was wearing and his glasses… I knew right away I was looking at Nite Owl and knew what the scene was to be. Same with Laurie when she appeared. I thought it was great that the characters would be created on screen so precisely matching how they appeared in the comic that anyone familiar with the source material would immediately recognize them at first sight.
In my opinion, Zack Snyder is doing an incredible job with the movie. He is staying as close to the source material as possible. Also he is taking the time to make every shot count. We rehearsed time and again, shot scenes again and again. He is not detail obsessed, but rather detail aware. From watching him work, I got the sense that he is dedicated to bringing this story to life, getting it right, and making a film that will blow people away.
March ’09 can't come fast enough for this fan!
