Yet more stories from the movie set.

One of the first assignments I was given when I showed up for my new job with Warner Brothers “Just Cause” was to make a small metal road marker sign not much bigger than a tabloid sized piece of paper. I had no idea what they were going to use it for.

Now, Production had hired four master signwriters (sign painters), which is highly unusual even for a large budget movie. Normally there would be only one or two because it was expensive at about $2,700 a week plus benefits.

I was being paid an extra couple of hundred a week to bring vinyl lettering equipment from my shop which would normally be used for smaller less important signs like this one.

Our “big boss”, the Production Designer, was an Oscar winning narcissistic hellion of a woman who decided that all signs would be hand painted. This caused props like that to take five times as long to create.

I did my duty as commanded, and the sign disappeared into the prop truck for later use. It would end up in the very last scene.
They had me make two just in case one got lost or damaged, which is typical.

Towards the end of the script, an area in the Everglades swamp had been set up with a “hunting cabin.” The construction department had built the very rustic looking shack rising up from the (very nasty) swamp water, and the big finale consisted of the actors tumbling into the goop for a fight to the death.

When the actors Sean Connery, Blair Underwood and Laurence Fishburn came out to inspect the set (which had cost many thousands of dollars), they said in unison… hell no!

The whole construction and paint department had to go to an immense abandoned warehouse building to build a fake version of the swamp, complete with large, tall trees made from some version of plaster of Paris and all the foliage from the real swamp.

Hundreds of photographs, maps and notes had to be used. Some of the earlier scenes were already shot, so the fake swampy forest had to be matched exactly. But on the fake set the streams and water surrounding the cabin were flowing with Miami tapwater.

The little road sign was an important component. In the script, the “murder weapon” was discovered next to it, and some earlier footage showing it had already been shot. It had to be that sign.

As we were about a week away from shooting, the prop guys went to go install the road sign at the fake swamp. Both copies were gone. Someone thought it was no longer needed and swiped them for souvenirs. Very common to have happen.

Rushing back to the paint department, I produced another copy by hand.

After four months, my last day as a crew member had come, and I packed all my gear for the trip home.

The next day I was relaxing at home to take some time off. Then the phone rang and my former art director was there in a full blown panic.

The sign was… you guessed it… GONE. Souvenir thief again. Only this time, it was causing 007 to have to stay in Florida an extra day. I heard he was not very happy about it.

I grabbed my kit and sped to North Miami to make this thing a fourth time!

Because of our union contract, they had to pay me for a 12 hour day, plus money for my health care and annuity funds. The cost of that last little sign was somewhere around $600.

So, you wonder why movies cost so much to make?

Thom Caraccio ([email protected]) is a retired musician and retired motion picture scenic artist living in West Palm Beach, Florida who hails from Columbus. He graduated from S.D. Lee High in 1968 and still considers Columbus his real hometown.

READER FAVORITES

• 

  Roses and thorns: 6-27-26

  By Dispatch Editorial Board • 2 days ago