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Show Thursday, February h KM. ' 1 m AW ' ! . I . - I ii if r I It I - if' -fr'-rryirr-Hirrrr ifn irn'r'IfftimwfciHt Look closely in the monitor and you may be able to pick out the interior of the Episcopal Church. f t 4 'A : 1 Samantha gets words (ITALIAN CUISINE) wi1 n J o n mx 14, 1980 Samantha gets some last I ; .v: ; - " of encouragement from Lynn Holly Johnson. Join Us! 7 days a week 5:30-10:30 p.m. 412 Main Street 649-8211 - minute touches. By David Hampshire The scene is modern-day Park City in the midst of its annual celebration of togetherness to-getherness started by the miners umpteen years ago. The name of the celebration celebra-tion is, appropriately enough, "Celebration." Into town comes Burl Ives, a veteran of many past Celebrations, to visit his nephew who lives in Park City. This year he brings with him his granddaughter, Samantha Vaughn. The camera follows Burl and Samantha as they travel around Park City, visiting friends and attending various var-ious rites of winter. And following the camera crew is a member of The Newspaper's News-paper's own camera crew, who tries unobtrusively to take pictures of the people taking pictures and to record some of the other goings on. The Feb. 5 sequence is hard for the locals to miss, since it RENTALS at the mountain PARK WEST RESORT Rossignol skis Solomon bindings Ski Clothing Accessories 8:30 a.m. 649 5 J) ) ft vi o '4 li 4 1 . 1 T L I u1 oining The is shot on Main Street in front of the Memorial Building. Build-ing. A flatbed trailer is set up in the middle of the street to act as a stage, and Park City residents are invited to act as extras in the scene by joining the Celebration. About 250 oblige. As spotlights shine down from the balconies of surrounding sur-rounding buildings, the Orlando-based singing group ReGeneration bounces across the tiny stage, its lively tunes accompanied by smooth, well-rehearsed gestures. ges-tures. Their performance is timed so well it's difficult to tell it's all lip-synched until the tape machine suddenly stops in the middle of a number. The spotlights switch to Burl Ives, and the crowd responds to his familiar tenor voice singing old favorites. Toward the end of the performance he is joined by Lynn Holly Johnson, the star of the movie "Ice Castles." Lynn Holly's role in the production becomes more apparent the next day as the shooting switches to the ice rink at Parley's Summit., Perhaps ice rink is a misnomer; the temperature is above freezing and threatens threat-ens to turn the set to slush. Park City again provides the extras for the scene, but this time they are younger. A busload of school kids is shipped in and outfitted with skates. About half the rink is marked off for the skating sequence. One camera is set up on the edge of the ice, another perched on the roof of the lodge. The 10 members of Re-Generation Re-Generation are the first on the ice. But there is no smoothness here. They stumble around like preschoolers pre-schoolers on skates for the first time. For most of them it may well be the first time. Orlando is not famous for its figure skaters. It is time to bring on the extras. The kids swarm onto the ice, and proceed to have the time of their lives, oblivious both to cameras and the sequence being carried out at the far edge of to 10:00 p.m. - 9589 4 J i- 4444 the rink. It is difficult not to notice Lynn Holly and Samantha. They are both dressed incongruously in-congruously in skimpy figure-skating outfits, while the production crew shivers in sympathy. The wind makes it feel much colder. The gestures of the two actresses suggest Samantha is getting a lesson. In a close-up close-up scene that follows, she is given words of encouragement encourage-ment by her mentor. The kids retreat inside the lodge for free hot chocolate. A night skating sequence involving Lynn Holly is supposed to take place that evening, but the brisk wind forces a change in schedule. The camera equipment is moved to the tiny Episcopal Church on Park Avenue. Again the members of ReGeneration appear, this time more in their own element. Park City extras jam the pews (with the exception of Burl Ives who is wedged in next to the aisle) and camera crews huddle in the space which remains at the back of the church. Candles are balanced on the edges of some of the pews, and director Rick Thiriot burbles his appreciation as a camera equipped with a star filter zooms in for a closeup. As ReGeneration rehearses "The Dreamer Never Dies" at the front of the church, assistant director Dennis White kneels on the floor writing Burl Ives' lines on a cue card. The Newspaper reporter runs out of film. Thursday's taping takes place at Shannon's Car 19 Restaurant on Main Street. .is SIS S I I RACQUETBALL 0 JACUZZI SWIMMING POOL SAUNAS WEIGHT ROOM MASSAGE 0 VOLLEYBALL STEAM ROOM Affyfi 40 Burl Ives discusses shooting sequence with Director Hick Celebration Although the setting has changed from the previous evening, the principals remain re-main essentially the same: ReGeneration, Burl and granddaughter, and an appreciative ap-preciative audience of locals. lo-cals. Director Thiriot asks The Newspaper reporter to sit in as an extra at one of the front tables, but then changes his mind. The reporter is crushed. Dennis White calls for the people in the back of the set to stop moving around; the movement might shake the cameras. But these instructions instruc-tions seem futile when the members of ReGeneration start leaping around at the front of the set. The song of the moment is, "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing," made famous fa-mous a few years back as part of a Coca-Cola commercial. commer-cial. The reporter keeps waiting for the refrain, "It's the real thing," but it never comes. One of the men in the group seems a little out of place. He doesn't have either the lithe build or the toothpaste smile displayed by the others. He is' slightly chunky' and has Brent Mussburger eyes. But the mystery is solved when he recites a line in a silky vibrant bass voice. Suddenly the music dies and some of the lights go out. The Car 19 circuits can't take all the added excitement; one of the breakers has blown. The taping stops while the culprit is tracked down. During the pause, a publicity publi-city photographer (distin Located in Prospector Square Private Memberships Still Available also Daily & Weekly Rates 1 w- i --' 7 il ' -J ;:iv r .4S' guished by the incredible array of still cameras draped around his neck) comes around with a stack of eight-by-ten glossies. All are the same pose: a close-up of Burl Ives, pipe in mouth. An elderly woman in the back immediately spots the pipe, and forbids the photographer photo-grapher from passing out the stills. She says it might appear they were condoning the use of tobacco. The photographer meekly complies. "I wish comebody had told me," he grumbles. The lion's share of the taping is completed by late Thursday night, when Lynn Holly Johnson bravely carries car-ries out her skating sequence in the near-zero temperatures. tempera-tures. ReGeneration is packed off to warmer climates cli-mates and the producers return to Salt Lake City to review and re-review what they have taped. The taping of Celebration is a joint venture involving the Creative Service Group and Skaggs Telecommunications Service, both of Salt Lake City. Co-producer-directors are Rick Thiriot and Dick Ross. "Everybody in town from the kids to the bus drivers to the merchants were very cooperative," Ross said Monday. "1 would say that everybody in town threw open their doors. We only found one person who was negative. "The only production problem prob-lem we had was the wind at Parley's Summit that day. We came back to Parley's the following evening and it was beautiful." 649-6670 PROSPECTOR ATHLETIC CLUB Page 9 f i - 1 3 V (J Thiriot. Ross said that one of the company's secrets to finishing finish-ing on schedule is the effort spent on pre-production. He estimated he and Thiriot spent two or three days a week in Park City for the past several months. Other than the close-up involving Samantha and Lynn Holly at the rink, all the scenes were taped in two or three takes, he said. That type of efficiency allowed them to shoot an hour show, essentially, in four days. "We've got less than 10 short scenes we've got to pick up. The principals are not in these, anyway. The rough will be done about a month after that." The Creative Service Group generally uses videotape rather than film. Ross pointed point-ed out that one of the advantages of tape is that it can be reviewed on the spot. "We've done films, but that (videotape) is our technique, and that's what we stay with. The equipment that you saw is the best that money can buy at this point." He said "Celebration" is intended to be shown on television next winter. "We'll have it ready for syndication in the fall. We'll show it at what the trade calls a showcase." Among those attending the showcase will be representatives representa-tives of the networks. One of the other recent shows taped by the Creative Services Group in Utah was "Sing America," which used the Theatre in the Pines above Sundance and also the Mormon Tabernacle for some of its sequences. |