DAY 28: Thursday, August 5, 2010

Inside the Space Needle’s glass elevator, then on its observation deck, the settings of this morning’s scenes are so naturally illuminated that the lighting team can relax for once.

Watching the crowded observation deck – producer Peggy Rasjki is an extra today – I meet two women who are instrumental staff members of Washington Filmworks, an organization that fosters Seattle’s growing film scene by drawing filmmakers to Washington state.

How?  Lindsey Johnson, production services manager, explains that the office offers filmmakers the incentive of a thirty percent return on Washington state spend, for example, money paid to Washington-based cast and crew.  They also assist with permits, locations, and state resources.  Normally WFW funds features, television, and commercials.

Grassroots is going through the program, and program manager Ruthann Taylor expresses excitement over the attention the movie is bringing to Seattle’s film scene. “The Grassroots group is doing a great job creating a profile for Seattle,” she says, citing the high-profile party at the Vitamin Water Social Club that celebrated the halfway point of the shoot.

The premise of the 2001 city council race appeals to Ruthann, who appreciates how the film taps into the generally high level of political consciousness in Seattle.  Co-producer Peggy Case emphatically agrees. “All politics is really local politics,” she says.

She describes her hope that his movie encourages people to become activists in their immediate communities, rather than getting discouraged by problems on a national scale that seem inaccessible or unsolvable.  The “think globally, act locally” mantra certainly applies to Washington Filmworks, which encourages local films in the hopes of getting them distributed as widely as possible.

Fitting that the next shots are in Seattle’s famous Pike Place market. Then we’re on Eastlake Avenue, where Joel – in character – accosts both his director and assistant director, pretending they are extras he’s soliciting for support on the sidewalk.

He can wholeheartedly pretend Stephen and Jim are characters in the movie, even though he has been on a film shoot with them for twenty-eight days.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise – Joel makes his living through the suspension of disbelief – but I’m impressed.