Part of the joy that comes with making films is the adventure that can be involved with their creation. Some adventures are planned and some are not. Some circumstances are scary and some are fun. Since Mammoth Films has decided that the next major project will be a sequel to the adventure film, Joshua Jones and the City of Stone, it is fitting that a series of blogs should share some of the adventures that Mammoth cast and crew have experienced in years past.
One of our most harrowing experiences is what I consider our first "adventure". The July heat of 1997 saw the production of SAM4, the fourth in the Secret Agent Man series, underway. It was a fantastic day of filming. The location was ideal. Not far from where Steven and Michael Hughes' lived was a waterway that provided a great locale for filming. Along the waterway was a wooded shoreline pierced by a long lonely trail that went nowhere. Along the trail were some nice looking cliffs and boulders that descended down into the water. This was back in the day when we could make a Mammoth Film in the course of a single day. However, this project was a bit bigger than we
anticipated and some late in the day footage shot by a novice camera man was found to be uneditable. Looking back it was not a good finish anyway. It would be two months later before we were able to reconvene at this film making paradise and finish the movie. The return visit was not a repeat of that pleasant July day and it would be on this September afteroon that the adventure would begin.
If you are familiar with Ooltewah, we were out on Short Tail Springs road near a place where a boat ramp once existed. It has since been closed off. It was Wes Brown, Michael Hughes and myself who trekked out to this place to get the final shots we needed for the movie. Michael's brother Stephen had to work that day and
could not join us. The boat ramp access had been blocked off by a guard rail and we had to park along the road. We unloaded the camera and what few props that were needed and began our hike along the trail to the spot where we wanted to film. It took 10 or 15 minutes to reach the spot and we were getting ready to film
when we heard a friendly voice coming down the trail behind us yell, "Hello!" Three of us thinking that Steven had been able to join us after all replied back with an equally jovial greeting. However, the person coming down the trail was not Steven. A disheveled looking man none of us had ever seen came around the bend.
The man was older than all of us and looked like he had shaved in the dark. He had evidence of a beard in some places on his face and just had that "I am a screw up" aura about him. His first question was, "Do you all remember me?" and proceeded to tell us he had helped pull a girl, who had been cliff jumping
into the water, to safety at this same spot eight months before. The girl was cliff jumping in January??? We did not ask him this but his questions continued. He asked if any of us knew "Mayo". Of course none of us did. He did inquire about what we were doing and I told him making a movie. With his next question, things became all the more bizarre.
"Who here has a driver's license?" was the question that took things from strange to creepy. I told him I did. He told me he needed a ride to the Highway 58 Golden Gallon so he could call his wife to come pick him up. He said he could not do this himself because he was driving on a suspended license and his uncle, a cop, had just driven by and seen him. I told him we would be a while filming, but he said he didn't mind waiting and watching. The more this idiot spoke, the more uneasy I got.
Despite my uneasy feelings, my naive 19 year old mind still wanted to help the guy, but I did not want to give him a ride. I came up with a good compromise. I told him that we would return to Michael's house nearby and call his wife for him and tell her where to pick him. Oh, this guy didn't like that. His next question
was asked with suspicion and a hint of anger, "I know you don't I?" I told him I didn't think he did. He then followed with, "Because if you are who I think you are, I better start learning how to swim." Apparently, if I was this person he feared me being, he was better off jumping off the cliff and splashing around in the water than he was just running down the trail to get away. His bizarre banter continued, "Because if you were at the Cherokee Apache rally last month, I am in trouble". For some reason, I thought I needed to put this fool's mind at ease. I told him I was in the military and lived three hours away and was not in Chattanooga the month before. He told if I was not who he thought I was, I had no reason to defend myself. Even though I felt uneasy, I did extend one final offer to call his wife for him. He declined, saying he was going to find some friends of his and began walking back to the road.
Once the mysterious stranger had left us, I very halfheartedly suggested we start setting up the shot we needed to film. Michael and Wes suggested we get out of there and it took no convincing on their part for me to agree to go. As we walked back, Michael commented that he noticed the man drive past us twice while we were unloading the filming equipment from the car. I remember very cautiously making my way back down the trail and being relieved that my car was still there with all its windows and tires unharmed and that the man and his car were gone.
Filming would move to the other side of the waterway with the safety of homes and other people nearby. This location turned out to be better than the original spot anyway. We filmed the rest of our scenes and had fun, but there was still that twinge of fear within me that the man would return with others. In retrospect, the creepiness of this day seems even greater. Perhaps with age comes more horror stories of what people are capable of doing for no valid reason. I wonder what that guy's true motivations were that day and if the three of us somehow dodged a bullet with my non-confrontational replies to his questions and comments. Our not giving him a ride certainly did not keep him from getting back in his own car and driving away. Why did he want a ride from us? There are some strange folks in this world and that day we met one of them.
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