| Also taken from the original ABC press kit. |
Production Notes- Logistical Challenges
If the filmmakers have done their job properly, the audience will never realize just how many brain-boggling,
nerve-racking, back-bending, semi-impossible challenges were met to bring John Jake’s No. 1 best-seller to the
screen.
Consider:
• Four writers adapted Jakes’ 740 page epic into a 540 page script with 940 scenes to create a 12-hour
miniseries- the equivalent of six feature films.
• Two years of script development and pre-production, five months of principal photography in five states, and
four months of post-production passes between concept and airdate.
• The shooting schedule ran to 177 pages – 70 pages longer than the actual script for a typical two-hour movie.
Those 177 pages planned the details of 124 shooting days of no less than 12 hours each, scheduled in six-day
weeks (except for the happy arrival of Memorial Day, which gave the film unit its only two-day weekend.)
•Two dozen vehicles – including camera cranes, generators, honey wagons, motor home offices, a crew bus, and
several 40 foot tractor-trailers carrying more than 3,300 costumes, 1,500 pieces of furniture, 15,000 set
decorations and hand props, and hundreds of pieces of camera and lighting equipment – will have traveled over
3,000 miles, from the movie ranches and Mexican architecture of California to the carefully preserved mansions,
historic city streets, and lush gardens and plantations of the South. Making all or some part of the journey were a
cast of 30 principals, 100 smaller speaking roles and some 5,200 extras, plus more than 100 staff and crew
members.
• Behind each of these statistics lie a myriad of decisions and a multitude of filmmakers. Chief among them were:
• Executive Producer David L. Wolper, who brought the novel to Warner Brothers Television and ABC.
• Executive Producer Chuck McLain, who began guiding the transformation from novel to movie while he was still
Warner Brothers’ vice-president for television movies and miniseries.
• Producer Paul Freeman, who found the movable feats of “North and South” to be “even tougher than trekking a
family cross-country in “The Chisholms” (a 16-hour series he produced a few years ago.)
• Director Richard T. Heffron, who was finally responsible for translating the story to the screen.
Locations
Freeman once referred to the undertaking as “a circus of huge proportions,” with each move to a new location
calling for a complex juggling act and the loss of precious shooting time. It took months of scouting in eight
different states to find locations that would meet the artistic demands of the script, yet keep moves to a minimum:
The longest sojourn was in Charleston, South Carolina, in which much of “North and South” is actually set. In this
carefully preserved city were found such historic sites as Boone Hall, the magnificent plantation with its 200-year
old Avenue of the Oaks, which became “Mont Royal,” the home of the film’s Southern family, the Mains, and the
landmark Calhoun Mansion, which served as “Belvedere,” the Northern Hazard family’s Pennsylvania home.
In St. Francisville, Louisiana, the restored Greenwood plantation became “Resolute,” home to brutal Justin
LaMotte and his tormented wife, Madeline.
Natchez, Mississippi, like Charleston, could stand in for both the North and the South, Historic Stanton Hall
provided the interiors of “Mont Royal.” Jefferson College had the mid-19th Century architecture of West Point.
An abandoned downtown rail station stood in for the Hazard Ironworks, while a 1,100-acre farm served as the
Mexican War battlefield at Churubusco.
In Camden, Arkansas, the antique cars and track of the Reader Railroad were transformed into Harpers Ferry for
John Brown’s bloody raid.
Locations weren’t the only factor controlling the complex schedule. “Some of the real logistical problems had to
do with the plusses of the film,” Paul Freeman explains. “We have some outstanding guest stars – Elizabeth
Taylor, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Hal Holbrook, Johnny Cash – and we have to be ready to film their scenes
on the specific dates they were available. In order to honor those commitments, we had to hit a bull’s-eye every
time, otherwise it becomes very expensive.”
Another plus with potential for problems was filming in historic districts. Shooting days were scheduled so that
such authentic touches as sand in the streets would interfere as little as possible with regular traffic and commerce.
But such unexpected factors as a rainstorm on the day slated for filming Lincoln’s inauguration would wreak
havoc with the best laid plans. When it comes to the weather, says Freeman, “the tough part is finding cover sets
(interiors) that will work in the location, but hoping that you’re not going to have to use them, because using the
cover means you’re falling behind in the schedule and missing precious outdoor Jays in that location. After all, I
can’t shoot ‘Mont Royal’ somewhere else!”
Tremendous care was taken to insure that the historic buildings in which the company worked were protected
from the threat of damage from the influx of technicians, equipment, and cast. And that's quite a responsibility
when shooting such national landmarks as the Heyward Washington house, a more than 200-year-old brick home
build for a Charleston rice baron, where President George Washington was a guest in 1791. Yet it's the attention
to historic accuracy that gives "North and South" its rich visual texture.
"We're dealing with a wealthy northern family and a wealthy southern family, so we want to show the kinds of
homes those people lived in, the kinds of Victorian furniture that was used in those homes, the kinds of clothes
that they wore, the books they would have read at the time - the kind of details that would show that people really
lived there," Chuck McLain observes. "The same care is taken with settings on the opposite end of the spectrum,
like original slave cabins we're using at Boone Hall. It's like we're doing five 'Gone WIth the Winds."
"A lot of this is accomplished by hiring the best set dressing people, and the best prop people, who make sure
those things are there down to the smallest detail - like making sure that the bouquet for Ashton's wedding is wax
and not real, because that's what brides at the time carried, or that the candles don't look like they came from
Woolworths, and that the flowers look like they've been arranged by real people."
Where the historic structures were correct but the furnishings were not, or where priceless antiques were so
fragile they could not be used, the company brought in their own pieces, such as the bronze and marble statuary
valued at more than $200,000 that decorated the house used for the New Orleans bordello run by the flamboyant
Madam Conti (Elizabeth Taylor.)
Where the proper period location didn't exist, sets were built with same precise detail. For a sequence involving
an old slave woman who practices root medicine, the company erected an ancient-looking cabin amidst the
swamps and flowers of Charleston's Cypress Gardens. Set decorator Chuck Korian combined his own
knowledge of traditional Native American Indian medicine and research into the African-based healing methods
to create a setting so evocative that the park operators asked that it be left standing to delight future visitors.
The emphasis on production values, says Chuck McLain, provided the best possible climate in which the actors
could bring John Jakes' powerful characters to life. "When the actors enter such a set they can understand the
people who live there and feel comfortable being in what is essentially their homes. That, coupled with the way
they are dressed, leaves them free to act."
Wardrobe plays as equally important part in the authentic look of "North and South." With the exception of
military or servants garb, none of the principals wear the same thing twice in the film. Some of the 3300 costumes
were taken from storage at the Burbank Studios and Hollywood costume houses. One young extra even found a
name tape marked “Mickey Rooney” sewn into his coat. Some 100 dresses came from the framed London
costumers, Berman & Nathans, including several silks dating to the 1830s, while others were borrowed from
local historical collections. Many gowns were reproduced from period drawings, such as a spectacular emerald
satin and gold, re-embroidered lace, hoop-skirted Charles Worth original, a detailed copy of a gown from the
period’s leading designer.
Costuming created one unexpected problem: since med and women of the 1980s tend to be taller than earlier
generations, the dimensions of the available period wardrobe – whether from earlier Hollywood films or 19th
century sources – tended to put strict limitations of height and weight on the casting of approximately 5,200 extra
parts.
Despite these limitations, some surprising names were found to join the local residents who populate the film:
• South Carolina Senator Storm Thurmond’s daughters Nancy and Julie made their film debuts as playmates of
young Ashton and Brett Main, while Congressman Dill Blackwell found himself with but one easy word of
dialogue to memorize – a shout of “NO!”
• Alveda King Beal, from Atlanta’s Just Us Theatre, who served in the Georgia state legislature for four years and
is the niece of slain civil rights leader martin Luther Kind Jr., was cast as a slave.
• Debra Rosen took a day off from her intense behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of “North and South” as the
then director of the South Carolina State Film Office, to don a flowing red wig and period lingerie for a cameo as
one of madam Conti’s shady ladies.
• Amalie Stone Walker, a prominent member of Charleston society, not only appeared in many scenes but lent
her 1853 Italian-style villa house on South Battery to the production. She became so enamored of the cast and
crew, she invited them all to her daughter’s wedding, for which she sanded her driveway in period fashion as the
filmmakers had done several weeks before.
Casting local residents and non-actors as extras in crowd scenes could become a nightmare, but the film’s first
assistant director, Skip Cosper, orchestrated the background players with consummate skill. He fired up 200
Charlestonians to cheer an abolitionist speech, another 250 to form a very controlled unruly mob under the
skyrockets of Secession Night, and gently guided the people playing slaves through a painfully moving scene as
one of their number was being cruelly branded.
In July, the five months of filming was completed. For executive producer Chuck McLain, who was on the set
daily, the months survived in moments: “There were times,” he recalled, “as when Virgilia (Kirstie Alley) was
giving her speech while two dozen abolitionists marched down the aisles of the Dock Street Theatre singing ‘Clear
the Track,’ when I got prickles behind my eyes because it was better than I ever, ever hoped. All that’s based on
the coming together of a lot of important things – of Dick Heffron, and the cast, and Skip and wardrobe and
makeup and much, much more. I’ve had a lot of moments like that. It’s been great.”
If the filmmakers have done their job properly, the audience will never realize just how many brain-boggling,
nerve-racking, back-bending, semi-impossible challenges were met to bring John Jake’s No. 1 best-seller to the
screen.
Consider:
• Four writers adapted Jakes’ 740 page epic into a 540 page script with 940 scenes to create a 12-hour
miniseries- the equivalent of six feature films.
• Two years of script development and pre-production, five months of principal photography in five states, and
four months of post-production passes between concept and airdate.
• The shooting schedule ran to 177 pages – 70 pages longer than the actual script for a typical two-hour movie.
Those 177 pages planned the details of 124 shooting days of no less than 12 hours each, scheduled in six-day
weeks (except for the happy arrival of Memorial Day, which gave the film unit its only two-day weekend.)
•Two dozen vehicles – including camera cranes, generators, honey wagons, motor home offices, a crew bus, and
several 40 foot tractor-trailers carrying more than 3,300 costumes, 1,500 pieces of furniture, 15,000 set
decorations and hand props, and hundreds of pieces of camera and lighting equipment – will have traveled over
3,000 miles, from the movie ranches and Mexican architecture of California to the carefully preserved mansions,
historic city streets, and lush gardens and plantations of the South. Making all or some part of the journey were a
cast of 30 principals, 100 smaller speaking roles and some 5,200 extras, plus more than 100 staff and crew
members.
• Behind each of these statistics lie a myriad of decisions and a multitude of filmmakers. Chief among them were:
• Executive Producer David L. Wolper, who brought the novel to Warner Brothers Television and ABC.
• Executive Producer Chuck McLain, who began guiding the transformation from novel to movie while he was still
Warner Brothers’ vice-president for television movies and miniseries.
• Producer Paul Freeman, who found the movable feats of “North and South” to be “even tougher than trekking a
family cross-country in “The Chisholms” (a 16-hour series he produced a few years ago.)
• Director Richard T. Heffron, who was finally responsible for translating the story to the screen.
Locations
Freeman once referred to the undertaking as “a circus of huge proportions,” with each move to a new location
calling for a complex juggling act and the loss of precious shooting time. It took months of scouting in eight
different states to find locations that would meet the artistic demands of the script, yet keep moves to a minimum:
The longest sojourn was in Charleston, South Carolina, in which much of “North and South” is actually set. In this
carefully preserved city were found such historic sites as Boone Hall, the magnificent plantation with its 200-year
old Avenue of the Oaks, which became “Mont Royal,” the home of the film’s Southern family, the Mains, and the
landmark Calhoun Mansion, which served as “Belvedere,” the Northern Hazard family’s Pennsylvania home.
In St. Francisville, Louisiana, the restored Greenwood plantation became “Resolute,” home to brutal Justin
LaMotte and his tormented wife, Madeline.
Natchez, Mississippi, like Charleston, could stand in for both the North and the South, Historic Stanton Hall
provided the interiors of “Mont Royal.” Jefferson College had the mid-19th Century architecture of West Point.
An abandoned downtown rail station stood in for the Hazard Ironworks, while a 1,100-acre farm served as the
Mexican War battlefield at Churubusco.
In Camden, Arkansas, the antique cars and track of the Reader Railroad were transformed into Harpers Ferry for
John Brown’s bloody raid.
Locations weren’t the only factor controlling the complex schedule. “Some of the real logistical problems had to
do with the plusses of the film,” Paul Freeman explains. “We have some outstanding guest stars – Elizabeth
Taylor, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Hal Holbrook, Johnny Cash – and we have to be ready to film their scenes
on the specific dates they were available. In order to honor those commitments, we had to hit a bull’s-eye every
time, otherwise it becomes very expensive.”
Another plus with potential for problems was filming in historic districts. Shooting days were scheduled so that
such authentic touches as sand in the streets would interfere as little as possible with regular traffic and commerce.
But such unexpected factors as a rainstorm on the day slated for filming Lincoln’s inauguration would wreak
havoc with the best laid plans. When it comes to the weather, says Freeman, “the tough part is finding cover sets
(interiors) that will work in the location, but hoping that you’re not going to have to use them, because using the
cover means you’re falling behind in the schedule and missing precious outdoor Jays in that location. After all, I
can’t shoot ‘Mont Royal’ somewhere else!”
Tremendous care was taken to insure that the historic buildings in which the company worked were protected
from the threat of damage from the influx of technicians, equipment, and cast. And that's quite a responsibility
when shooting such national landmarks as the Heyward Washington house, a more than 200-year-old brick home
build for a Charleston rice baron, where President George Washington was a guest in 1791. Yet it's the attention
to historic accuracy that gives "North and South" its rich visual texture.
"We're dealing with a wealthy northern family and a wealthy southern family, so we want to show the kinds of
homes those people lived in, the kinds of Victorian furniture that was used in those homes, the kinds of clothes
that they wore, the books they would have read at the time - the kind of details that would show that people really
lived there," Chuck McLain observes. "The same care is taken with settings on the opposite end of the spectrum,
like original slave cabins we're using at Boone Hall. It's like we're doing five 'Gone WIth the Winds."
"A lot of this is accomplished by hiring the best set dressing people, and the best prop people, who make sure
those things are there down to the smallest detail - like making sure that the bouquet for Ashton's wedding is wax
and not real, because that's what brides at the time carried, or that the candles don't look like they came from
Woolworths, and that the flowers look like they've been arranged by real people."
Where the historic structures were correct but the furnishings were not, or where priceless antiques were so
fragile they could not be used, the company brought in their own pieces, such as the bronze and marble statuary
valued at more than $200,000 that decorated the house used for the New Orleans bordello run by the flamboyant
Madam Conti (Elizabeth Taylor.)
Where the proper period location didn't exist, sets were built with same precise detail. For a sequence involving
an old slave woman who practices root medicine, the company erected an ancient-looking cabin amidst the
swamps and flowers of Charleston's Cypress Gardens. Set decorator Chuck Korian combined his own
knowledge of traditional Native American Indian medicine and research into the African-based healing methods
to create a setting so evocative that the park operators asked that it be left standing to delight future visitors.
The emphasis on production values, says Chuck McLain, provided the best possible climate in which the actors
could bring John Jakes' powerful characters to life. "When the actors enter such a set they can understand the
people who live there and feel comfortable being in what is essentially their homes. That, coupled with the way
they are dressed, leaves them free to act."
Wardrobe plays as equally important part in the authentic look of "North and South." With the exception of
military or servants garb, none of the principals wear the same thing twice in the film. Some of the 3300 costumes
were taken from storage at the Burbank Studios and Hollywood costume houses. One young extra even found a
name tape marked “Mickey Rooney” sewn into his coat. Some 100 dresses came from the framed London
costumers, Berman & Nathans, including several silks dating to the 1830s, while others were borrowed from
local historical collections. Many gowns were reproduced from period drawings, such as a spectacular emerald
satin and gold, re-embroidered lace, hoop-skirted Charles Worth original, a detailed copy of a gown from the
period’s leading designer.
Costuming created one unexpected problem: since med and women of the 1980s tend to be taller than earlier
generations, the dimensions of the available period wardrobe – whether from earlier Hollywood films or 19th
century sources – tended to put strict limitations of height and weight on the casting of approximately 5,200 extra
parts.
Despite these limitations, some surprising names were found to join the local residents who populate the film:
• South Carolina Senator Storm Thurmond’s daughters Nancy and Julie made their film debuts as playmates of
young Ashton and Brett Main, while Congressman Dill Blackwell found himself with but one easy word of
dialogue to memorize – a shout of “NO!”
• Alveda King Beal, from Atlanta’s Just Us Theatre, who served in the Georgia state legislature for four years and
is the niece of slain civil rights leader martin Luther Kind Jr., was cast as a slave.
• Debra Rosen took a day off from her intense behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of “North and South” as the
then director of the South Carolina State Film Office, to don a flowing red wig and period lingerie for a cameo as
one of madam Conti’s shady ladies.
• Amalie Stone Walker, a prominent member of Charleston society, not only appeared in many scenes but lent
her 1853 Italian-style villa house on South Battery to the production. She became so enamored of the cast and
crew, she invited them all to her daughter’s wedding, for which she sanded her driveway in period fashion as the
filmmakers had done several weeks before.
Casting local residents and non-actors as extras in crowd scenes could become a nightmare, but the film’s first
assistant director, Skip Cosper, orchestrated the background players with consummate skill. He fired up 200
Charlestonians to cheer an abolitionist speech, another 250 to form a very controlled unruly mob under the
skyrockets of Secession Night, and gently guided the people playing slaves through a painfully moving scene as
one of their number was being cruelly branded.
In July, the five months of filming was completed. For executive producer Chuck McLain, who was on the set
daily, the months survived in moments: “There were times,” he recalled, “as when Virgilia (Kirstie Alley) was
giving her speech while two dozen abolitionists marched down the aisles of the Dock Street Theatre singing ‘Clear
the Track,’ when I got prickles behind my eyes because it was better than I ever, ever hoped. All that’s based on
the coming together of a lot of important things – of Dick Heffron, and the cast, and Skip and wardrobe and
makeup and much, much more. I’ve had a lot of moments like that. It’s been great.”
| Copyright ABC Public Relations Dept. |