On the scene

A sunny, spring day on the main quad often feels like a scene right out of a movie.

This might be the reason Hollywood directors and producers have flocked to campus in the last 15 years to shoot their films. Since 1981, seven feature films and eight television programs or commercials have been shot on campus. Aside from the campus's beauty, University officials cite North Carolina's location and facilities as lures for production companies.

Director of University Relations Dave Roberson, who supervises filmmaking on campus, mentions Duke's Gothic architecture and the proliferation of studios in Wilmington, only three hours away, as attractions drawing filmmakers to campus. He also points to the variety of settings in North Carolina, including mountains, beaches and farms as another reason film crews choose to travel to this state, 2,500 miles from their Hollywood home.

This "Hollywood boom" in North Carolina since the early 1980's is perhaps a result of Governor Jim Hunt's 1979 North Carolina Film Initiative, which established the North Carolina Film Commission, a government-run organization set up specifically to draw film production companies to the state of North Carolina and subsequently to the University.

Bill Arnold, director of the N.C. Film Commission, partly attributes North Carolina's film appeal to the facilities which have been built here and improved in the past 17 years; this includes seven production companies, 29 sound stages, and a resident work force of 1,200 experienced film crew members, which allows companies to bring very little with them.

The film commission often encourages Duke to allow film crews to shoot movies on campus.

"[The commission] certainly works hard to find places that will allow commercial filmmaking. We hear from the film commission fairly frequently when there are projects coming up... and they say 'it would really be great if you would let this one happen [at the University],'" Roberson says. "Sometimes we're able to. Sometimes we're not. They urged us to do 'Kiss the Girls.'"

University officials rejected Paramount Pictures' offer to film "Kiss the Girls" on campus due to the violent nature of the book, which centers around detective Alex Cross. Cross, played by Morgan Freeman, investigates kidnappings of college women in the Triangle, one of which is Cross' niece, a Duke law student.

Roberson sees the opportunity for students to participate in commercial filmmaking as "the only advantage" for the University to have films shot on campus.

"We give preference to productions that will allow students the opportunities to work as interns... or in other ways involve students in the production of the films." he says.

Although he enjoyed some of his experiences working on two films at Duke, Chet Fenster, Trinity '93, says that when a student works on films, it causes a dilemma.

"As a student, you really wonder where your time should be spent," Fenster explains. "It's a real pull because it's sometimes more valuable to skip three weeks of classes and meet the crew and make connections."

The University's current film guidelines that are distributed to interested production companies say Duke "encourages" student involvement in film productions and the availability of crew members for classroom discussions.

According to the guidelines, "The University will carefully evaluate the extent to which the production might offer educational or otherwise worthwhile experience to Duke students."

The location fees that the University charges are also insignificant in terms of motivating officials to bring films to campus and only cover costs incurred by the University. Roberson says the University is constantly adjusting its fee to bring it in line with what other universities are charging.

Some faculty members say that films are allowed to be filmed at the University for misplaced motives.

"They're probably doing this more for PR than anything else-like with the basketball team," says Environment Professor Kenneth Knoerr. "I don't know the real reason why they do it. That's just my hypothesis."

Roberson responds that the publicity that Duke might receive in movies or on television is not a desired effect of filming such productions at the University.

"We don't seek that kind of publicity. In most cases, we ask that the University not be identified by its real name just because we don't want to attract tremendous amounts of this activity to campus-just a moderate amount of it," Roberson says. "We don't want the campus to be turned into a film stage, so we do not actively promote the University's use in this way."

After turning down the perennial college favorite "Animal House" in the late '70's due to problems with its content, the University allowed the 1982 science fiction thriller "Brainstorm" to be the first to film scenes on campus, using locations such as the Chapel, the Gardens and Hospital North.

The film, shot in the fall of 1981, starred Natalie Wood and Christopher Walken and was filmed almost completely in the Research Triangle; it only featured a few scenes from the University, however, in the final edit. The film told the story of a scientist who invents a mind-reading machine which horribly malfunctions.

Students and faculty were both given a chance to get involved with "Brainstorm." Then-University Chaplain Rev. Robert Young appeared in a funeral scene in the Chapel, but his voice was dubbed in by an actor in a later edit, recalls University Archivist William King.

Aside from Young, University drama students appeared in a wedding scene as extras and the film also included appearances by J. Benjamin Smith, then-University Choral Director, and Giorgio Chiompi, a violinist and then-artist-in-residence.

There were very few complaints after the filming "Brainstorm" from the Duke community.

"Sometimes [these films on campus] go completely unnoticed... people don't even know that they're here," Roberson says, "because some of them are handled pretty unobtrusively."

Other films, however, are not so unobtrusive.

After the Durham-based filming of the hit baseball film "Bull Durham" in 1987, the University allowed the producers of "Weeds," starring Nick Nolte, to use Baldwin Auditorium for a brief scene. Two years later, in 1989, the University approved the production of "The Handmaid's Tale."

The production crew for "The Handmaid's Tale," which starred Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway, filmed multiple scenes in front of the Chapel, erecting scaffolding and a hangman's gallows in front of the building during spring break, King remembers.

This movie was set in the future after an ecological disaster has left most of the female population sterile. The fertile women, or "handmaids," are forced to bear children for the military leaders of this society. Ten students were used as extras among the film's group of 65 handmaids.

Two of the University's artists-in-residence at the time, dance instructors Jane Desmond and Barbara Dickinson, also helped to choreograph scenes in the film.

Although there were opportunities for student and faculty involvement in the film as actors and choreographers, many campus officials were upset with the content of the film and the types of scenes shot in front of the Chapel, including one in which a woman was hanged on the gallows between two rows of kneeling women.

"Duke Chapel is a sacred place to many of us, and the scene going on seems to be kind of a violation of that sacredness," then-University Minister and current Dean of the Chapel Will Willimon told the News and Observer of Raleigh at the time.

Willimon's office said at the time that they had received many letters and phone calls from disturbed community members upset by the filming.

King remembers that the scaffolds and gallows for "The Handmaid's Tale" were in place at a time when many weddings were scheduled for the Chapel.

The wedding parties arrived to find the scaffolding and props for the movie in front of the Chapel, which they thought would be free of obstructions for their ceremonies. The nooses from the gallows, however, were removed before the wedding parties arrived.

"We had many angry people. I hadn't really approved it," Willimon recalls. "People said it wasn't very conducive to worship to come in through scaffolding and tanks."

Roberson explains that film production companies don't always keep their promises.

"We have learned over the years that film companies may come in and tell you ahead of time that they are going to do this, that, and the other, but you need to make sure you have it in writing," Roberson says. "Most of our experiences have been positive. We haven't had many problems with people not keeping their word.

Professor Knoerr first raised the issue of the inconveniences that accompany filming on campus after the filming of "The Handmaid's Tale," leading to the creation of the current guidelines for filming on campus.

The next major film to be shot on campus after the guidelines were revised was the 1991 film "Billy Bathgate," based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow. It only included a brief scene from Duke, however, which was shot during the summer at the Central Campus swimming pool.

The 1993 film "The Program" starring James Caan, Kristy Swanson and Halle Berry did extensive filming on campus in November 1992. This film addressed the lives of players on a major college football team.

Shot using many locations on West Campus, the production employed a number of student extras; in addition, some of the actors spoke to students about their experiences. The production caused the bus system to be re-routed one Saturday afternoon. Also, FUBAR, a former housing group, had their sign taken down and had their bench painted over to display the colors of Eastern State University, the fictional school depicted in the film.

One alumnus remembers his experience with "The Program" as more comical than troublesome.

"It was pretty funny... all the buses had Duke taped over because [the production company] didn't want it to be Duke when they were saying it was another school in the film," says Troy Volin, Trinity '95.

Some other members of the community felt the situation was less than funny.

Knoerr wrote a letter to then-University President Keith Brodie stating that these filmmakers had become an "intrusion into academia." He cited a disruption of campus activities during "The Program" around the Perkins Library and the Chapel as well as the rude treatment of faculty members and students by the crew as problems he had with the filming. He also questioned where the $19,500 that the University received from the filming was going.

Senior Vice President for Public Affairs John Burness answered Knoerr's letter by explaining that the fees taken in were divided among the affected departments and that the University allowed these films on campus for the benefits to students.

According to Burness' letter dated February 9, 1993, 90 percent of those who worked on the film as paid extras and interns were University students. Overall, the film used 430 paid extras, almost all of which were students, and were paid a total of $38,000 for their work. Burness writes that although the University may lose money on this filmmaking, the benefits to students and goodwill towards the N.C. Film Commission outweigh the negatives.

Alumnus Fenster, who worked on "The Program" as a student intern, doubts that the experience was so worthwhile.

"It's a big show. They basically hired students as interns to appease the University," he claims. "We really weren't given much to do on that film."

At the Academic Council meeting in February 1993, three months after the film had left campus, Knoerr and others once again expressed concern about allowing production companies to film on campus.

According to minutes from the meeting, Stefan Pugh, a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, expressed his discontent with the inconveniences during "The Program."

"I resented walking across the main quad and being shushed from 100 yards away because they were doing some sort of small conversation. Also walking up the main quad and trying to get to our building and finding men with walkie talkies telling us not to walk there," Pugh explained. "I thought there was another gunman on campus. We should be getting checks for every one of these disruptions."

Engineering professor Robert Hochmuth said that filmmaking on campus is as disruptive as Final Four victories.

"Let's be honest about it. We do a number of things at Duke University that have nothing to do with the primary academic and intellectual function," Hochmuth said. "We sell T-shirts. The point is we cannot reject [filmmaking] on that basis, as we accept many others."

Despite complaints by faculty members campus officials continue to see the University's experience with "The Program" in a positive light.

"You could find someone who will complain about anything that's ever done here," Roberson explains. "From our standpoint, 'The Program' was not a negative experience."

The people involved with these films may have ulterior motives for filming on campus, though.

"For actors and other [film crew members], they are psyched to come to campus and scam on coeds," Fenster asserts. "Some of the actors and producers would call Duke women and men months later. This is the flipside to it-the true, gritty reality."

After the controversy surrounding "The Program," the University continued to allow production companies to film on campus.

In the spring of 1992, Turner Network Television filmed "Painting Churches," a made-for-TV movie based on Tim Howe's stage play that starred Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall and Peck's daughter, Cecilia.

The film, which dealt with the relationship between a grown child and her aging parents, needed an "Ivy League" setting like the Chapel for one scene of an alumni reunion, which included a crowd of 200 extras recruited from the Triangle area.

University students and faculty served as production assistants and extras on the film.

The 1993 small-budget film "Getting In," which starred Kristy Swanson and Andrew McCarthy, was filmed during the summer of 1993, helping avoid inconveniences for students and faculty. The film focuses on the pressures of getting into medical school and was filmed extensively on campus.

Students with experience on "The Program" were afforded greater opportunities when the crew for "Getting In" arrived on campus. Fenster stayed at the University for the summer and served full time as assistant propmaster and propmaker for the film.

"I had a real job on that film," says Fenster, who is currently a graduate student at the University of Southern California. "When I came to L.A., the people from that film were my core group of friends-people already in the industry. I could now get work with people I knew on that film."

The latest film to be done on campus was the made-for-TV movie "Margaret," starring Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty. Filmed on West Campus the week before classes began, the film chronicled the life of "Gone With the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell. The scenes done at the University, chosen because it was near the Wilmington studios, featured Mitchell's days as a student at Smith College.

The production company on this film wanted to film on the quad during final exams, Roberson says, but it was re-scheduled in order to avoid an inconvenience to students.

In that vein, some films that have been scheduled to be filmed at the University have either never materialized or were delayed for some reason.

In 1984, the college football film "Everybody's All American," originally starring Tommy Lee Jones and Jessica Lange, was approved to be done at the University in such locations as Wallace Wade Stadium, East Campus, and the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Ironically, the film's plot was loosely based on the experiences of a football player at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from the 1950's.

However, problems with casting delayed production of the film, the film commission's Arnold recalls. When Warner Brothers was finally ready to shoot the film, with Dennis Quaid re-cast as the star, the weather in Durham was too cold, forcing them to shoot the film in Louisiana.

The recent rejection of "Kiss the Girls," and such inconveniences on other films, has not signaled an end to productions on campus. As for future film projects, Arnold relates that he is currently working with University officials on a undisclosed film, and that officials have kept an open mind throughout the discussion. So, keep your eyes open and your schedule free because you never know what faces or opportunities may arise.