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Lea este articulo en español aquí.
There was a sense of a calm before the storm at the San Juan Bautista State Park as the crew finished setting up in the afternoon for the Feb. 26 evening shoot for director Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled film known as the “BC Project.”
Some of the crew relaxed at picnic tables and chairs that were set out on the square in front of the mission, now renamed “Mercado Plaza,” surrounded by poles decorated by brightly colored papel picado that swayed in the breeze. Others lingered by a neon sign in front of the “Hotel Plaza Hostel Bed & Breakfast,” AKA the Zanetta House, which resignedly indicated there are no vacancies.
Crowds began to gather shortly after the streets closed at 2 p.m., two hours before shooting was set to begin. Most of the action seemed to be taking place by the Texas Mason Building at the corner of Second and Muckelemi streets.
The production is using the lot across the street, near the Mission San Juan Bautista office, for the trailers and a commissary. Six Ford F450 turbo diesel trucks, all ominously marked as “Border Tactical Response Police,” are parked nearby.
The wait was worth it for some of the crowd when they got a glimpse of actor Sean Penn, according to resident Dan Clifford. He said Penn left his trailer there to walk down Second Street, heading to the State Park’s Plaza Hotel Bar, the location of the first scenes to be shot that evening.
“He stuck his head out first and looked around,” said Clifford. “He was the only star I saw. Mostly it was just people bringing things like costumes and makeup down to the saloon, but there were also a lot of people in border patrol costumes.”
Real-life law enforcement was present as well, though they were fairly low-key as the crowds did not seem particularly interested in testing the barriers between them and the filming—though Clifford did see one person get escorted off the set.
“He was trying to get in anywhere he could,” he said. “He said he had tried going around the back of the mission, and later I saw him near the fire department just before he got caught.”
The largest crowd in the early evening was at the corner of Mariposa and Third streets, the closest anyone could get to the actual shoot. The crew seemed to be shooting through a window at the far end of the saloon, down Mariposa Street.
Entire families watched from behind the barricades, and many people were taking videos with their phones, though a large light set up on the edge of the shoot, pointed straight at the crowd, worked to obscure any details of the proceedings.
Resident Kim Ramirez, watching with son Maverick on her shoulders, said she wanted him to witness the evening shoot, even though it was a school night. “We came down to watch with my cousin and my two nephews,” she said. “It is kind of amazing. You never see this many people around here.”
Though the whole town had been eagerly anticipating the start of the shoot, visitor Alana Tischer found herself in the crowd totally by accident. “We had come down here just to see the mission,” she said. “But then when we got here we found out about the filming. I looked online and saw that it starred Leonardo DiCaprio, and I thought, ‘This is really cool.’”
Besides the people watching from the end of the block, there was also a steady stream of people driving by and pausing at the intersection long enough to take in the scene and join in the festive atmosphere.
“There was a sense that being at the shoot was like a cool community get-together,” Clifford said. “I ran into a bunch of people I had not seen in a while, all saying this was a historical event, like when they filmed ‘Vertigo’ here. We are going to be talking about it for a long time.”
The filming was also held Feb. 27 will continue on Feb. 28 starting at 4 p.m. and finishing at 6 a.m.
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