Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990 TAG: 9004080269
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But many area residents who contracted show business fever during the production here got a lesson in the realities of movie-making when the movie finally premiered.
There were a lot of faces left on the cutting room floor. Local people and locations who made it to the screen generally were there for a brief stay.
"They bought thousands of dollars of furniture and spent four days at our house," said Mike Levan, the owner of one film site.
About 30 seconds of the movie were set in the Levans' house, and none of the furniture was used.
"How cost-effective is that?" Levan wondered.
Still, movies don't come to town that often. More than 400 peopled packed the Grandin Theatre, one of the movie's locations. About another 175 showed up at the Terrace Theatre, where the movie is also showing. Because the Grandin was so involved in the movie's production, manager Julie Hunsaker and her brother Jim Lindsey determined to make it an event. They pitched a private party for all those who attended.
Some Roanokers, such as Kim Clark, made it into the credits. One of Clark's relatives worked on the movie's crew and Clark was visiting the set when the casting director asked him to audition. Clark plays a customer who responds to a diet-product ad campaign.
"I thought it was a kick,"Clark said. "It was a pretty good film - a fun film. Everybody's famous for about three and a half seconds."
The crowd applauded familiar faces in this movie about an ad executive who winds up in a mental institution for putting the truth in his pitches.
Shot mostly in Roanoke and at Chatham Hall near Danville, there are local scenes at Crestar Bank, at the Grandin and some scenes shot on a sound stage in Vinton. But scenes shot at Alexander's restaurant in downtown Roanoke and Johnny's Tavern on Williamson Road were cut completely from the movie.
Pete Ostaseski, the Bolt Advertising president who made it briefly into a scene at the Precision Acura dealership on Peters Creek Road, was impressed with the humor involving the ad business. The movie has created some controversy with the use of brand names.
"I thought some of the ads were good," Ostaseski said.
by CNB