Fillmore

After three days in the sleepy center of Lake Piru, we traveled the extra 10 miles up to Fillmore. The distant town is more like a small mountain city. Quaint in its façade, with small shops in its sprawling town center. Like Lake Piru, the energy of the people and the place is lethargic. It seems like being in a rush to go anywhere or do anything just isn’t a plausible option.

I spent some time in Fillmore a few weeks ago. I was working on a pilot staring Skeet Ulrich and Gerald Macgreve. As an additional PA, I had little required of me other than to be there to help where needed. Fillmore high school is where I met an electric who I quite fancy. He makes me smile everyday and I admire him more each day I know him. But while he’s off snowboarding I have returned to the town we met, jealous that I’m not off playing in the powder.

Arriving midday, we sent up camp in big white tents next to the railway. Under full moon, we closed off Main Street to do some inserts and a car stunt. I have worked on a few different car stunts before, but never at a location like this. With so many opportunities for people who are not with the film to wonder their way into danger, there was a certain level of stress necessary to stay aware and alert at all times.

But as the evening passed and the townspeople lay still in their quite homes, stress turned to an air of death. As I walked along the railway from set to extras holding, I felt the history creeping though my bones. Like something bad happened here. Workers died for these railways and suffered when they became obsolete. It reminded me of my hometown of Lowell in a way, the air of history on grief.

Strange how two coast can be so differant but the dark history and suffering of the industrial age can be felt throughout.