TORONTO - Wednesday Oct. 20, 1999
This was the last night of a marathon 36-day shoot,
with the crew going on hiatus until early December. Arriving on the set
somewhere around 11:00 PM, we found ourselves in the middle of the
set-up for a scene. Standing outside a building that had been converted
into a branch of the Chelsea Clinton Savings and Loan, I chatted with
some of the crew while doing my best to stay out of the way. As a couple
of crew members came out of the building with various pieces of the set
I looked back to avoid tripping over a pile of what I had thought was
some garbage piled on the ground only to realize that I had been
standing beside the burnt and bloody upper torso and severed leg of some
poor sap who meets a grisly demise in a scene being filmed later that
night! As it was going to be a while before filming on the next scene
began I had an opportunity to visit the trailer containing the Robocop
suit. The fibreglass suit was cast from the original molds created by
Rob Bottin for the first film, and the suit is maintained on set by two
members of Bottin’s staff, up from California for the duration of
filming. As this is Robocop 10 years later the suit has been aged to
look it. I was quite impressed to find that all of the dents, scuffs,
and bashes were painstakingly painted onto the costume as it indeed
looks 10 years old. The suit is comprised of 60 different pieces and it
takes a full 30 minutes to suit up actor Page Fletcher, best known as
The Hitchhiker in the cable series of the same name, who plays Robocop
in this series.
Beside the trailer stood the extras tent, I took a quick peek inside to
see half a dozen people in OCP Detroit Police uniforms playing cards,
waiting to shoot their bit in the scene being filmed that night. The OCP
costumes are the actual costumes from the first film. Opposite the tent
were a half dozen OCP Detroit Police cars, which have bar codes instead
of license plates. Out front of the Chelsea Clinton Savings and Loan
stood some Detroit Press paper boxes and an Omnicorp mailbox. No detail
is too small, all the way down to the charity donation boxes on the
bank’s counter that have pleas for donations to pay for haircuts for the
scripters.
Director Julian Grant is one strapping, long-haired human dynamo of a
man, exuding humour and boundless enthusiam like a blast furnace.
Producing a film is work, directing a film is more work, producing and
directing a film is enough for a coronary, and Julian is doing four
films at once! Even at the end of over a month straight of filming, and
all the logistical nightmares that go along with it, Julian is
good-natured and respectful of his crew. The scene being shot this night
will be in the first film. A new character was created named Bone
Machine, a rogue ex-OCP officer with an experimental suit of body armour
that had been shelved but was covertly passed to him by a mysterious
connection in the upper echelon of OCP. Bone Machine is played by
Richard Fitzpatrick, a large and impressive actor who had the part
written especially for him. The Bone Machine suit is a black suit of
body armour with a large pack on the back with various tubes connecting
to four-barelled metallic cylinders on the end of each arm, able to fire
a variey of weapons, including tear gas and automatic machine gun fire.
The cylinders themselves weigh over 30 pounds apiece, have 9mm
Czechoslovakian machine guns outfitted with blanks inside, and have to
be supported by wooden crates as Fitzpatrick waits to shoot his part.
In this scene Bone Machine bursts through the wall as Robocop is
attempting to arrest a group of anarchists robbing the bank. Disabling
Robocop with a volley of gunfire, he then kills the anarchists, one of
whom has explosives strapped to his torso. In a last-minute decision
Grant decides to not only have the explosives blow the anarchist in
half, he wants the upper half of the torso explode through a window and
out into the street below. Before this sequence is shot the crew breaks
for lunch.
I’ve never been on a film set before and the first aspect of the actual
process of making of a film I noticed is the hurry-up-and-wait nature of
the business. While one part of the crew works at their jobs the rest of
the cast and crew wait. And wait. In order to make that wait as
comfortable as possible, a cube van called a snack truck sits out on the
street. It’s a help-yourself smorgasboard of gourmet coffee, tea, soft
drinks, fruit, baked goods, and a rack with at least 20 different kinds
of candy. Sugar, caffeine, and cigarettes are the fuel a film shoot runs
on. Across the street from the set is a pub that is catering the shoot
at this location. For lunch there is a heaping buffet of roast pork
loin, pineapple chicken, potatoes, vegetables, five different salads,
breads, rolls, and soft drinks. O’Brien tells me, "a well-fed crew is a
happy crew" and this crew is certainly not going hungry. Over lunch
director Grant excitedly outlines his plans for the series, telling me
he intends to make a gritty, no-nonsense story, dark in tone, with
plenty of action and as much mayhem and grue as he can get away with for
what is ostensibly a cable TV production. His affection for the
character and the franchise is obvious, and as careers are riding on
this production he intends to do everything in his power as both
producer and director to satisfy the discriminating Robocop fan.
Back on the set it’s time to finish tonight’s filming. Various set-up
shots have been done and it’s now down to the final FX sequence in a
night of FX sequences I got to see filmed. Earlier I stood off-camera in
the director’s area where Grant watchs the action from two of the
cameras in a pair of monitors mounted on a stand. As they prepared to
shoot Bone Machine firing his guns I heard the cry "Eyes and ears!". A
crew member came around with a plastic tote filled with earplugs and
safety glasses. As the weapons fire is genuine the sound is deafening
and for insurance reasons everyone on set must use the safety equipment.
To simulate the tear gas smoke in this scene they burn rubber cement to
get the right effect, making one noxious stench. Perhaps the most
fascinating effect I saw done are the sparks that fly off Bone Machine’s
armour when the anarchists return gunfire. A special gun worked
off-camera by an FX specialist fires small pieces of magnesium at actor
Fitzpatrick, which spark and fly off on contact, making those richocet
FX off the suit that we have seen in the previous films. For the final
sequence they bring out an apparatus known as an air ram, this is a
device common to action films which is used to send an actor flying
through the air as if being pushed by the concussion of an explosion. If
you’ve ever seen a single episode of "The A Team" you’ll know what I’m
referring to. It’s literally an air-powered catapult. They put the torso
I’d previously seen laying in the street on the platform and cover it
with rubber cement to make it burn. Grant decides to set-up a camera at
the window the body is to be fired through and to shoot the torso
directly at the camera. They clear the set and I stand behind Grant to
watch the effect on the monitors. The FX men crouch out of sight to
light the torso on fire and work the air ram. They wait until the flames
build up to a good height on the torso and after a short countdown the
air ram is fired and the burning torso flies right into the camera,
which is behind a plexiglass shield. As soon as the torso hits the
camera Grant shouts "CUT!" and the safety crew scramble with fire
extinguishers and put out the flaming mess. After a couple of tense
moments they verify that the camera survived the stunt and they decide
to shoot a second take. The stunt is again successful and a little more
impressive, the camera survives, and the crew move out into the street
to shoot the last part of this sequence, the torso being ejected through
the plate glass window. At the suggestion of one of the FX crew they
decide to put a couple of sandbags inside the torso to give it weight as
there are concerns the torso won’t break the specially-installed window.
The crew member is concerned about the cost but Grant jokes "I’m
spending $12 million, what’s a sandbag?".
By this time it’s nearly 4:00 AM, as the crew moves a pair of OCP cars
into the shot to get the flashing lights on the wall of the building as
the torso comes through the window, the odd taxi cab and delivery truck
slows down and stops to gawk. Grant sets up his monitors and chairs out
in the street a safe distance from the window while the crew evacuate
the building leaving only the FX men inside. The cameras are set up on
the sidewalk below the window behind plexiglass shields. Through the
omnipresent walkie talkies the scene is set, the cameras roll, and the
torso is lit. From outside we see the glow quickly grow to a flaming
crescendo and the command "FIRE!" is given. The torso hits the window,
smashes the glass, and falls back inside the building. The crew inside
frantically put out the fire as the cameramen go back to the cameras to
set up for a second take. As they approach their cameras a rather large
shard of glass drops like a guillotine blade out of the window frame,
smashes on the lawn below, and there is much cursing and shouting and
frayed nerves. The effect is set up again and on the second take they
successfully eject the burning torso out of the window and it bounces
off the hood of one of the OCP cars before coming to rest on the lawn.
The crew put out the torso while we look at a still taken by a crew
member with a digital camera. A beaufitful picture, a masterful effect,
and a wrap until early December. Grant thanks the cast and crew and
invites me back to the set in December. The end of an entirely
fascinating first-hand look at "Prime Directives" comes to an end
somewhere around 5:00 AM.
