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The making of TIMELINE

The following are excerpts from Mark’s book TRULY INDEPENDENT FILMMAKING;

            I really wanted to shoot my next movie on film rather than video. I could only afford Super 8 film, and since I had a couple of Super 8 sound movie cameras, that was my only option. Also I wanted to make another feature length movie. But my wife and I were expecting our first child, and I knew after she was born that money and time would be tight. So I decided to shoot my next movie on Super 8 film, buying only a small amount each month, and then worry about editing after my daughter was born.

Chris Jordan meets Scott Reynolds in downtown Kansas City

Don Adams runs the Super 8 film camera while Johnny Johntz waits for the next take

            There were two big location shoots that I always enjoy, because of the authenticity that it brings to the film, and it’s fun for me to capture the impressive locale on camera. The first was the Kansas City location. As always, Johnny Johntz was a lot of fun to work with, and could keep us laughing when it gets rough. The day we shot in downtown Kansas City, the temperature was over 100 degrees, which was nothing new to us from previous film adventures. But it was a long day, since we had to shoot all of the KC scenes in one day, so we next drove to the Pembroke Hill school to shoot Johnny’s footage where he’s on the phone and is shot in the lab. For some reason, the air conditioning wasn’t working in my father’s art room where we were filming, and we weren’t able to escape the heat while indoors. But Johnny, with his never-ending sense of humor, kept us from becoming physically, emotionally and comically drained. It was another time for my father to help me shoot, which I was finding more and more special. He was always enthusiastic about helping me, and seemed to enjoy the time we spent together, especially since I had moved to Great Bend and we only saw each other a handful of times every year. 

                My father recalled, “Of course, Johnny is just fun to be with – he’s always just kind of a scream, anyway. And I’m kind of surprised he hasn’t followed acting as a career, although it’s a difficult field to go into, but I think he has some talent. I really do. I always had admiration for Johnny. I remember you’ve shot a lot in the (Pembroke Hill art studio) through the years. I remember the ones you shot a long time ago, I think it had to do with one of your space (films back in high school). The whole (art) studio lent itself to a kind of set up and you could shoot in there. So it was something that we could do and be involved in at the same time. And I guess that’s the joy in doing all of this; it’s something that father and son could do. And I enjoy seeing you make a film, and admire you for it, because I think it takes a lot of ability to work with people and know what you’re doing to write the script and get the right shots and that sort of thing. And I’m glad it’s – it is an art process, and it’s not the same art process that I do. So I think it’s a great thing that you’ve got a pursuit that involves the arts, but it’s in the different facet of the arts from what my experience is in. I think it was a fun thing to do at Pembroke Hill, and it gave you a chance to come back to your old alma mater and for me to see you work and to be involved in something that you were doing. And that’s what all the fun of it is, anyway.”

The soldiers prepare for another day of defending the Santa Fe Trail

Mark Adams shooting on location at the Fort Larned National Historic Site

            The other location shoot was at Fort Larned National Historic Site in Larned , Kansas. I knew I wanted to shoot when there would be the highest number of people in period costumes to make it look like an active 1800’s fort along the Santa Fe Trail . The best day to shoot this was Labor Day weekend, but I didn’t want to wait until then, only to have it raining and ruin the shoot. During the summer, on weekends, there were a handful of people in costumes for the tourists to see, but not after Labor Day. So I decided to shoot one weekend when it was a nice day as a back up, and hope for good weather on the big three-day weekend. I was lucky both weekends and ended up using both day’s footage in the final film. I even had footage left over that didn’t make the final cut. I shot the footage with Julie Ann Willis and Tysen Johnson watching the fort on the BCCC Campus and at the Camp Aldrich stables.

“I thoroughly enjoy TIMELINE. It's a neat little movie, and I think it's much better acted than OMEGA RED (The next film produced in 1997, featuring Patrick). I guess that just goes with the characters you put in. I never really paid much attention to this before, but Kerry Marsh does a great job with the music…I really like the song at the very end of TIMELINE where the two students are talking about recycling and the National Environmental Restoration Department. I liked how you panned away from them as they start walking away and then across to the library and then up to the sky while that song is playing underneath.  It really reminded me of my time at the college...a good memory indeed.” – Patrick Dempsey

            For Randy Allen, the fun of shooting TIMELINE came from working with his co-star, “Dave Schleve was the best person to act with because you never knew where he was coming from. (Laughs) He’d throw a profanity here, a profanity there and (I’d say,) “That wasn’t in the script!” (Laughs again) You wouldn’t know what line to follow with because you were too busy laughing following his profanity. Dave always threw me off - I couldn’t get my lines right with Dave making funny comments. Shooting with Linda McCaffery and Dave Schleve – doing that scene on the dirt road pushing that car half a dozen feet. And doing that take three or four times, having the three of us push this car in hundred degree weather, that was kind of…interesting! (Chuckles) And having Dave interject those profanities in different places was funny! It was really hard to keep a straight face! I think probably the most fun scene was when we were shooting TIMELINE north of the Kirkman Building (the scene at the excavation site), and trying to get those scenes right, where Dave was kind of playing this obnoxious professor and not wanting to be interrupted. It just seems that we kept laughing at that. It was funny. I think that was the one that I enjoyed laughing the most.”

            The biggest disappointment with TIMELINE was how dark some of the footage turned out. I used a home Super 8 movie camera that was completely automatic; I couldn’t adjust the iris or film speed or anything. I also had a problem with backlights, which flared into the lens. Since the iris was automatic, it would close down if a bright light would appear in the lens like the sun or a backlight on a set. It was an educational experience in working with film, and how much of a different approach you must take in shooting with it versus video. Video is much more forgiving with shadows and bright sunlight, but it does not have the texture, warmth and depth of film. 

                Randy Allen also noticed the difference with the film footage, “It (shooting on film) certainly made it a very different experience just seeing it as a completed project. It looked more like something you would see on TV. Yeah, in some scenes that (the film footage that was too dark) was disappointing because you look at it and you see, ‘this looks like a really bad 8mm home movie my dad would shoot because the lighting is really, really off!’ in places. And that just wasn’t something that was anticipated. Shooting TIMELINE was harder because of actors not showing up when you needed to do the shoot, so it was funny - you know the jokes about having stunt doubles for people who didn’t show because we had to play those people’s parts. That was funny for that reason, but you can’t imagine that happening on a regular movie set or TV series. You can’t shoot those things when some people don’t show up. So in those occasions (filming TIMELINE) it was a more problematic shoot, a more political shoot if you will. From seeing the movie, it’s a more satisfying experience because it looks more ‘movie-like’. From that standpoint I liked it just because it did look more like a movie.”

            Johnny Johntz found that working with film is more stressful, “There was dialogue in that so we had to nail it in one take if at all possible. The thing I remember about that was that pressure to do that, I mean that’s what really stands out. We did a really nice job with most of it, but then there was one (shot). I just seem to recall one shot where I blew it. I think I may have blown it more than once and you were like, ‘We’ll just cut it, that’ll be good.’ (Laughs) Everybody’s always telling me that, ‘That will be OK John, on your way.’ “

            The experience with shooting on film also put some pressure on Julie Ann Willis, “Film is different because there’s more pressure to get it right in one take. With TIMELINE I remember that was a major thing, it was like, “We have to rehearse it to get it right, because we can only do it once.” And then there were some things that once we did it, “Well I would have done that different” but I really can’t go back and fix it. And with video at least you sort of have that luxury that you can do it several times and then take the best version. But yeah, film is different that way. At least on a small budget film, maybe they don’t do that in Hollywood . I don’t know. I think it’s cool to use real film. I mean it makes it feel like a ‘film’ film. But I guess there are probably advantages to video, too.”

Decker and Kelly find Thoren in a church in the 1880's

Filming on location at the Barton County Historical Society Museum in Great Bend, Kansas

“You were doing a lot of great stuff in Great Bend . You were using actors that I didn’t know, and most of your films had been with actors where I knew everybody. So it was nice to see this new crop of talent. ‘Crop of talent?’ (Laughs and shakes his head) ‘Crock of crap’ is what we were doing with you! (Continues to laugh)” – Johnny Johntz

Chris Jordan holds up the mystery: a paper from the future found buried in a late 1880's fort

Decker and Kelly find themselves in the future that shouldn't exist

            I was quite proud of myself for writing a script with such a complicated plot and mixture of characters. I hoped with this thought provoking science-fiction story that was really shot on film, there would be a lot of interest and excitement generated. But I found out that not everyone likes a good thought provoking science-fiction movie, as Randy Allen explained, “I think that of any of the movies from a plot standpoint, that’s the one (TIMELINE) that people would enjoy the least. It seemed to be the truer science fiction one - it had a more complicated idea of how this piece would relate to this piece. Where DEATHGRIP is a horror movie - people relate to that. They’ve seen all of the slasher films. When they get to the scene with the young man getting killed in the washroom, they can relate to that because they’ve seen this in other movies. It’s not so weird - it’s not so strange to them. And at the same time they can enjoy the gory-ness of it because of how far that scene (goes). It’s funny at the same time. It’s gory and you think, “Oh, yuck!” But you laugh at the same time. But with science fiction you don’t laugh at the same time.  You don’t have a lot of comedy in TIMELINE. Besides (the two subplots) I don’t know if there was much in the way of comedy. So it was a much heavier picture I guess for that reason, and it was harder to follow. Whereas some of the past Adamstar films – the ones with the less complicated plots were also the more accessible ones, and to me from the viewer’s standpoint they were more fun. Like ROAD TO NOWHERE – it’s not a complicated plot. But the absurdity of it, of someone being hijacked in this fashion by these four nut cases, it’s funny! The situation itself is so inherently funny. (The later 1999 film SIDETRACKED), the absurdity of that as well lends itself to being a funny, enjoyable movie. Where the PROPHECY one (PROPHECY, DEATH AND OTHER FUN THINGS from 1998) and TIMELINE, they were more serious or dialogue-driven movies. And I think that movies with exposition (in) dialogue films are harder movies to get audiences to love, which is sad. So I can see why some people didn’t like TIMELINE.”

It won a Certificate of Merit Award from the 44^th Annual Columbus International Film & Video Festival, but in general it wasn’t as well received as TRUE IDENTITY or even DEATHGRIP. (Remember that my film, TIMELINE, was made 4 years before Michael Crichton originally released his book, TIMELINE, about time-travel back to the Middle Ages in France, and about 7 years before the film version of Crichton’s book was released.) I know that the darker film footage did distract the audience by pulling them out of the story when they noticed the technical errors. But I learned that time traveling science fiction stories are not as widely embraced as I thought.