Step Lightly
I learned a lot about history from working on Mr. Ramirez’s film “Step Lightly”. It is set in the late 1930’s and tells the tragic story of a family who is deeply affected by the “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast. I had a chance to learn who Orson Wells is, and to see some cool props from that period such as a radio and an old Ford car with runners that only went 30 miles per hour!.
The film was shot in Sanger, near Fresno, on Mr. Ramirez’s aunt’s and uncle’s farm. It was a hot day and the air was dry. It was great to see so much wide open space, lots of fields with grape vines. The farm also had an aviary with doves, love birds, cockateels, and parrots. And, I got to see for the first time a red ant hill. Mommy and I fed some of our lunch meat to the red aunts. I kept coming back to check, and before long the meat was all gone!
I had to do some serious dramatic acting for this movie. It was great working with my on-screen dad Patrick, who looks and sounds a lot like Steve Buscemi, a favorite actor of my mom and dad. Patrick gave me super tips on how to get into my character, and the right positioning of my body in front of the camera.
Movie time
In the video clip above, I have to act like I’ve seen something really shocking and sad.
In the photos to the left, I’m sitting with my onscreen mom and dad listening to the radio reports about the aliens who have landed on Earth. In one shot, Patrick gets a gun and has to shoot it. We all have to pretend that we hear the gunshot and it makes us blink and contract our bodies. When Patrick “fires” the gun, his shakes his shoulder to make it look like there is recoil. That was cool. He knew he had to do that because the sound of the gunshot was going to be dubbed in during film editing.