Date: Fri 08-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

Sleepers-film-FHH

Full Text:

FIRST DAY OF FILMING IS, FOR SOME, A SLEEPER

ITH PHOTOS AND CUTLINES

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

Five hours into the first day of filming the Newtown portions of the movie

Sleepers , many extras were still waiting to get in front of the camera. Some

even grumbled that going to school that day would have been better.

But then a large group of the teenage boys was called to be in a shot where

some would have a "confrontation" with a guard, played by Kevin Bacon. And the

glitter of movie-making returned.

The movie is based on the true story of a youth who grew up in Hell's Kitchen

during the 1960s and is sent to a reformatory, along with three close friends,

after street prank goes awry. They experience harrowing brutality that

transforms each of them. As adults, their lives follow different paths, but

the four are reunited by an act of revenge.

By lunchtime on Tuesday, director Barry Levinson and his film crew had

completed an overview of the Fairfield Hills Hospital campus (temporarily

transformed to Wilkinson Home For Boys), as well as shots of guards driving

vintage vehicles, and guards escorting boys across a field. These scenes

needed to be filmed while the surroundings were green, because they will be

used more towards the beginning of the movie, according to film location

manager Neri Tannenbaum. Filming will resume at Fairfield Hills November 15

and continue through December 7, to show time lapse through seasonal change.

"I'm having fun - it's great," said Newtown native Brett Bolmer, who was one

of eight security guards in the first shoot. "This morning I drove a Falcon

and a blue Bonneville. Driving the antique cars was a killer - you know, fun .

They did five takes."

Mr Bolmer hopes his performances will earn him offers of other bit parts. A

former patient at Fairfield Hills Hospital, he said his participation in the

movie was ironic. "I escaped from here twice and now I'm back as an extra," he

laughed.

Things don't work out for everyone exactly as anticipated, though. Joe

O'Connor of New Haven wanted to be part of the football scene because he plays

semi-pro football for the Meriden Mustangs, but found himself suited as a

guard on Tuesday. And Peter Negrini of Cromwell, who engaged no thoughts of

being an extra, was approached while he waited for his children and their

friends to have their pictures taken at the casting call. He agreed to be in

the movie provided they take his son and his buddies as extras, which they

did.

It was a hot day to wear layers of clothes. And those who weren't included in

morning shots grew restless.

"I think it's pretty cool - you're getting paid for being bored. And you're

missing school," said 13 year-old Richard Venezian of Sandy Hook. "The food's

not that good to be eating it all morning... I had my mom go out to get me a

McDonald's, and then did my math homework."

Richard explained that he did own black high-top Converse sneakers, which were

part of the boys' wardrobe, but his were too new to use. "They gave me these

because they had to be old and dirty. See this?" he said, pointing to a thin

layer of crusty brown stuff on sneaker's white rubber. "This is fake mud they

glued on."

The last "large" film produced in Connecticut was Other People's Money shot in

Georgetown in 1990, said Bert Brown, director of the Connecticut Film Office.

It was "not a lot of work" to bring Sleepers to the state because the producer

and crew "already had good ideas about what type of facility they wanted and

where it should be located," he said. "They were familiar with Fairfield Hills

and knew the hospital was being de-commissioned."

Film production is attractive to any community because it "just infuses money

in the area," he added.