Romeo and Juliet

Whichever way you look at it, and however you try to say it “What time do you get off?” is clearly not a line from any of Shakespeare’s plays. Which is a shame as it figured fairly significantly last week in Seattle as part of the 48 hour Film Project.

The 48-hour film project was created by Mark Ruppert in 2001 and came to Seattle for the first time in 2004. The idea is simple, you have 48 hours to write, film and edit and if you submit a finished product before the deadline the film is screened in the 700 seat Neptune cinema which is currently showing the latest in the Batman series. At the start of the event teams draw out of a hat a random film genre and then everyone is instructed to include a given prop, character and line of dialogue (see above). Then you rush off and start work.

Since I had drawn the genre horror I decided to visit one of the two famous graves that are here in Seattle, Bruce Lee’s and Jimi Hendrix’s. I figured that a graveyard would give our film an appropriate look and one of the two graves might inspire a plot line. Jimi’s grave is some way out of the city across Lake Washington so I opted for a visit to Lake View Cemetery where Bruce lies and which is not far from the centre.

As you climb eastward from the downtown area you cross the dividing line of highway 5 that hurries aggressively across the city from the airport northward to Canada. It’s an evil road to drive along for someone used to country lanes; there are four, often six lanes of hurtling noisy steal and I always find I am in the wrong lane and therefore directly in the path of a huge truck that snarls as it swerves past. If you can escape this road you come to Capitol Hill that looks down onto Elliott Bay and views of the Olympic headland. The hill is an interesting mix of restaurants and music spilling onto the sidewalk, clothes shops and people asking for money on each corner. At the northern end the streets change and become residential and tree lined and then shaded parkland.

I arrived at about ten o’clock at night and of course the place was closed and locked up for the night. I started to wander Volunteer Park that borders the cemetery hoping to find a hole in the fence. I came across a troop of Shakespearean actors who had just finished an open air performance of Twelfth Night, which was a drag since I had just finished writing my post for that title, and I thought that the art deco façade of the Asian Art museum, also in the park, might make a wonderful backdrop for a travelling shot but it quickly became apparent that the small gap under the main entrance gate was the only way in and only big enough for my lead actress to crawl under, Minnie aged 13.

We returned the next night having written a loose story about the un-dead trying to find a final resting place and the script required a shot of the heroine mysteriously passing through the locked bars and disappearing into the darkness of the graveyard. We filmed the scene in the car headlights and one shot required Minnie to crawl under the gate and disappear into the darkness. She was absolutely terrified and needed fatherly coaxing rather than director’s insistence but the most terrifying part for her was when we had finished and she had to crawl back to the side of the living. The imagination of a 13 year old can be a powerful thing and the thought of a bone like arm grabbing her by the ankle and dragging her off almost paralysed her.

In the daytime the park is a very pleasant place, there is an unassuming tower at one end that could be easily missed as it is surrounded by trees. It is a circular brick tower that encases a wonderful wrought iron water tank; huge century old rivets holding everything together and 183 steps that lead up to a 360-degree observation deck. From here you can see a panoramic view of Seattle’s setting, the snow peaked Cascade mountain range to the East and the Olympic mountains across the bay to the West.

However, at night, down by the cemetery it feels like you are in Romeo And Juliet act v, scene 3.

PAGE (Aside) I am almost afraid to stand alone 
 Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.


www.nps.gov/history/nR/travel/seattle/s5.htm