Henryat1140
Senior Member
If you happen to catch the movie 'J Edgar' currently playing, there is a scene where Hoover and another actor are coming down the steps of the Capitol, if you look in the background, you'll see my '36 Phaeton.
The scene was actually shot at the Masonic National Temple in Alexandria Va. last March.
We were parked to the side waiting for the scene to be set up and Clint Eastwood - the director - arrived and wandered over to the '36 which, caused a moderate spike in my blood pressure. He looked the car over, and said something to the effect of it being a nice car, then he peered in through the hood louvers and said, "I see it has the original engine" (which I thought was pretty cool for him to know that). He remarked that in the old days he had a '46 Convertible, 'but it wasn't as nice as this one", and then ambled off. He was very gracious and does speak in a soft voice.
For the rest of the afternoon he stood on the steps directing the scene, along with several other workers, the art director and assistant directors. It was a cold day, and it required a bit of stamina to do that. They did 5 or 6 takes from different angles.
The other thing that was remarkable was the atmosphere on the set. There are probably a hundred people involved in doing a scene, lighting people, extras, camera, people, safety people, still photographers, script people makeup people etc. And you would think there would be a lot of shouting and directions given in a loud voice - no so - everybody talked in a calm low voice. I was chatting with the script girl, and mentioned that for all these people it was so low key and orderly, and she said 'that's the way Clint likes it".
An interesting experience. At the end I was left with an admiration for him and the amount of physical work it takes to shoot just one scene, as well as the staggering amount of logistics it take just for a few seconds of a movie.
We saw the film last night - I wasn't sure the car would make it into the actual final cut - and it was well there if only for a few frames.
Henry
The scene was actually shot at the Masonic National Temple in Alexandria Va. last March.
We were parked to the side waiting for the scene to be set up and Clint Eastwood - the director - arrived and wandered over to the '36 which, caused a moderate spike in my blood pressure. He looked the car over, and said something to the effect of it being a nice car, then he peered in through the hood louvers and said, "I see it has the original engine" (which I thought was pretty cool for him to know that). He remarked that in the old days he had a '46 Convertible, 'but it wasn't as nice as this one", and then ambled off. He was very gracious and does speak in a soft voice.
For the rest of the afternoon he stood on the steps directing the scene, along with several other workers, the art director and assistant directors. It was a cold day, and it required a bit of stamina to do that. They did 5 or 6 takes from different angles.
The other thing that was remarkable was the atmosphere on the set. There are probably a hundred people involved in doing a scene, lighting people, extras, camera, people, safety people, still photographers, script people makeup people etc. And you would think there would be a lot of shouting and directions given in a loud voice - no so - everybody talked in a calm low voice. I was chatting with the script girl, and mentioned that for all these people it was so low key and orderly, and she said 'that's the way Clint likes it".
An interesting experience. At the end I was left with an admiration for him and the amount of physical work it takes to shoot just one scene, as well as the staggering amount of logistics it take just for a few seconds of a movie.
We saw the film last night - I wasn't sure the car would make it into the actual final cut - and it was well there if only for a few frames.
Henry
LOL. Your engine chain is on the floor of my truck just waiting to be delivered to your doorstep next Friday, on my way to Western Maryland 
