Date: Fri 11-Jul-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

Harvey-Hubbell-V-film

Full Text:

Emmy-Winning Filmmaker, Harvey Hubbell V, Lands In Litchfield

(with photos)

BY DOROTHY EVANS

For someone who grew up in the center of Newtown just a stone's throw from the

flagpole, Harvey Hubbell V has visited more places in this world than most of

us dream about.

Plying his trade as "First A.D." (in film-speak that means first assistant

director), Mr Hubbell has been creatively involved in the making of features,

documentaries and commercials that take him to such far flung sites as Peru

and Honduras, from the high rise roofs of Warsaw to a UFO landing base in

Elmwood, Wisconsin.

"Traveling, I learn something new every day," he said in an interview June 26

at his Litchfield home.

But the film business isn't always as glamorous as it sounds.

"It takes endurance to live off my work," Mr Hubbell understated.

He might have added limitless energy and a sense of humor, two qualities that

Harvey Hubbell V seems to possess in spades.

Attempting to explain exactly what a "First A.D." does for a living, Mr

Hubbell called himself a "film cop" and an "air traffic controller for

organized chaos."

That would be an apt description, he said, of any film project he was working

on (often several at once), whether it is "film as truth" (documentaries) or

commercials. ("Film lies. But there's a lot of money there.")

Being first assistant director means "juggling a million details," scheduling

the location shoots, booking the voice-over actors, hiring the technical

expertise needed to "carry the package" (entire film project equipment and

personnel) from point A to point B, and generally keeping the producers and

the celebrity stars happy. ("All you really need to do is be nice... and give

them their space.")

While Mr Hubbell is doing all this for his bread and butter, his creative mind

is continually generating new ideas for his own film projects, such as the

recently acclaimed 26-minute film he wrote and directed titled Electronic Road

Trip: An American Odyssey.

Aired on Connecticut Public Television, Road Trip won an Emmy Award just a few

weeks ago for Outstanding Entertainment Program. It was produced by his wife

of seven years, Andrea Haas Hubbell, whom he calls "Andie."

Andie Hubbell is a Philadelphia native who has maintained her own career as

film writer, producer and director and who works in tandem with her husband on

their current projects, or writes for her own productions.

Her award-winning documentary, The Roots of Roe , has been cited at numerous

film festivals worldwide. It explores the historical basis for attitudes about

controlling human reproduction, especially in light of the 1973 Supreme Court

ruling, and was produced by Connecticut Public Television and the Connecticut

Humanities Council.

In 1992, the two Hubbells formed the corporate entity Captured Time

Productions, and they have slowly been purchasing state-of-the-art equipment

and gathering a pool of talented interns and industry professionals to draw

upon as they lay out future projects.

"Electronic Road Trip"

Not only was Newtown the place where Harvey grew up, it is the place he thinks

back to when he looks for inspiration.

His imagination is filled with the images of the world outside his doorstep,

just as it looked in the 1960s to a young boy living at 6 West Street.

He remembers the open spaces, the many produce and horse farms, Main Street

around the corner from his house, and the flagpole before it was lighted, "so

at night you could see the Milky Way from your bedroom window."

He "walked everywhere and knew everybody."

He remembers running to catch the school bus with his sisters, having family

picnics on the lawn, the Labor Day Parade and family vacations as captured in

vintage 16mm home movies.

These memories are interspersed with earlier images of family get-togethers

and vacations that were filmed in the 1920s by his great grandfather Harvey

Hubbell II.

"Most people want to forget their youth. I'm still trying to recapture mine,"

Mr Hubbell said only half-jokingly.

He remembers going to Earl Meyer's General Store on Main Street to buy onion

sets for his garden.

"Thirty years later, I'm still trying to grow the same onions," he said,

describing his yearly ritual of planting the bulbs in whatever piece of ground

he can find, then harvesting the offshoots in the fall and saving them for the

next year's crop.

"I grew up in a wonderful fairy tale American New England environment," Harvey

said.

But at the same time, darker images that he saw on television news programs

puzzled and worried him. Hippies dressed in colorful clothing, flashing peace

signs and being mobbed by an unruly crowd. Demonstrators at the 1968 Chicago

Democratic convention being arrested by the police.

"I used to wonder, who were the bad guys?" Mr Hubbell said, and he'd ask his

parents to explain what was happening.

His father, avid hot-air balloonist Harvey Hubbell IV still lives in the West

Street home, but his mother, Jean Simpson Hubbell, once Newtown's Republican

Registrar of Voters, died while Harvey was still in high school.

He remembers her as "a very strong woman, who taught me a lot about being

determined and getting things done."

Beyond Newtown

In 1977, when he was 18 years old and had graduated from Newtown High School,

Harvey decided it was time to see what lay beyond Newtown's fields and woods,

to explore the country for himself.

He set out to hitchhike across the country from coast to coast. His main goals

were to see the sights and meet the people, and he was especially fascinated

by the idea of the Great Plains and the Pacific Ocean.

"I neglected to take into account what lay in between, namely, the Rockies and

the Cascade Mountains," he said ruefully.

He didn't take many pictures but remembers toting along his 35mm camera.

In 1989, after more than 10 years working in the film industry, Harvey

repeated the journey, this time traveling in a Volkswagen with his 17-year-old

nephew and using a Hi8 camera to record every stop.

He visited many diverse places: an Indian reservation; the basement of Martin

Luther King's church in Atlanta, Georgia; a large Hare Krishna estate in San

Francisco.

In each town where he stopped he talked to the local people, recording on film

and audio what he calls the "quirks and commonalities" of the country's

citizens, all the while marveling at "what people do for work."

Quoting from his own voice-over, Harvey said that among other things, his

electronic road trip taught him that "people who are different from us are not

necessarily our enemies."

When the film was completed and aired on public television, he admitted to

feeling a tremendous satisfaction, but he didn't look for an Emmy.

"We were on vacation in a cabin in Cornwall and didn't have a TV. Our writer,

Jeremy Brecher, knocked on the door to tell us," Harvey recalled.

"We never expected it," Andie Hubbell remarked, because "we were outspent by a

lot" by competing entries from well-funded studios.

On Permanent Location

In Litchfield

Until now, the Hubbells have been on the run, moving themselves and their film

company from a succession of locations in Woodbury, Cornwall and, most

recently, Southbury.

They needed a permanent space with room to grow, a place that could house

their growing production company and an environment that would inspire them as

writers and producers, and the 1812 Litchfield farmhouse set back on a quiet

country road is just what they've been looking for, Andie Hubbell said.

"Harvey told me, `Find something with fields.' So 200 houses later, we've

landed here," she said with a big smile.

In the surrounding fields, two herds of cows ("the beefers" and "the milkers")

graze placidly. It is a pastoral view that they treasure, an important feature

of their 36 acres along with the corn rows, the ponds and the old barn across

the street where Harvey eventually hopes to move all the production equipment

and gather his "brain trust" people.

Meanwhile, after only a month "at home," the computers and an Avid film

editing system are up and running on the second floor. Several young interns

are hard at work and Andie's office boasts at least two full-sized wall

calendars set up like flow charts, showing a month full of days with scribbled

notes and reminders hastily filled in.

Harvey's idea room that he has dubbed "Harveyland" is in the attic. It's the

place he goes when a feels a story coming on.

In all the rush to get wired, though, they still haven't hung curtains or

gotten hooked up to cable TV.

"Who needs television when we can watch the cows?" Andie said.