I live in an older neighborhood with a lot of fixer upper homes. Some of the homes have been updated, but others have not. Our older homes have attracted multiple product vendors in attempt to solicit various businesses. One of the most frequent vendors to knock on our doors are window sales people because it is easy for vendors to spot homes in need of new windows from outside of the home.
Last fall, we noticed a group of people walking around looking at homes. At first glance, they appeared to be a group of window sales people. We thought little of their presence. Another day, I spotted a car driving slowly filming our homes. In my tired mom haze, I was not alarmed at the unusual occurrence. Later we learned that both were movie production crews evaluating our neighborhood.
Rumors began to quickly circulate that different homeowners were in negotiations with a movie company. The rumors were verified by the movie company itself once they went door-to-door to verify the pending filming. We were all giddy with excitement because it was not just a small movie, but it contained many well-known popular actors. The excitement built further as we watched movie crews prepare the contracted homes and even built a set home from the ground up a month before filming.
Although it was fall winter in real life, the movie was set in the spring and summer. The movie crew spent days picking and blowing fall leaves to give the appearance of the correct season. The crew also went as far as attaching fake green leaves on the trees to give an appearance of a warmer season. Towards the end of the film production, we received an unusual seven inches of snow. Filming was delayed a few days to allow time for the snow to melt and time for the crews to shovel snow from yards. Amazingly, the snow was specifically hauled away to another location to melt.
As exciting as it all was, we found that it was rare to be able to spot the actors because most of the filming occurred inside the homes. When filming did occur outside, the same scenes were typically repeated for hours and over and over again. To add to the rare actor spotting, the majority of the movie was also filmed overnight.
We did enjoy our brief introduction to Hollywood, but no one misses the crowds, the amount of cars that lined our streets during filming or the bright lights that gave the appearance of daylight when they filmed during dark hours.
Writer Bio: Summer Bolte
I spend most of my time and days with my three kids, husband and dog. My kids frequently play near me as I garden, cook, DIY and volunteer. My most unusual paying job has to be feeding fruit flies in a research lab, and my most fulfilling job was being an oncology nurse for seven years.
