[GreenKeys] My experience acting for Warner Brothers

[Don Robert House]

Filming "Flags of our Fathers"

Friday, October 14, 2005. An exciting day.  Up at 5:10 a.m. for the  
drive to Hollywood.  All of the Teletype equipment and Facsimile  
equipment packed in the back of David Weil's van.  We arrived about  
8:20 a.m. at the Formosa Street gate at the old Goldwyn studio and  
drove to Sound Stage 2.  A huge studio with lots of history around.   
The people were very patient and kind to David and me. We were under  
contract to the Warner Brothers Art Department for the film  
production based on Jim Bradley's book "Flags of our Fathers."  This  
is the story of the men who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi at Iwo  
Jima.

David and I set up the equipment and then I was off to get my costume  
and 1945 haircut.  They shaved off my goatee but kept my mustache.   
They took away my good glasses and gave me horn-rimmed prop glasses.   
Great, now I can't see worth a damn!  A runner came to escort me to  
the set of the White House oval office.  Next to the oval office is a  
Secretary's office.  The model 15 was placed to the left of the  
Secretary's desk.

I tried to explain to the Director, Clint Eastwood that the format of  
the message and the age of the machine would make it almost  
impossible to type an accurate message complete with military  
formatting (especially since I could not see).  Mr. Eastwood said "I  
suppose you will want Workman's comp for your sore fingers".  I said  
"No, I have neuromas in my feet and arthritis in my hands but I am  
here to help the best I can."   I continued to explain that David  
would be transmitting the exact text from a precut tape from behind  
the set. So he said "OK, let's go with it!"  As the camera crew set  
up to film from behind me and roll up to the Teletype, I was chatting  
with the actor "David" who would be "dictating" the message to me...   
Again trying to explain the headers before the actual text.  Mr. "E"  
came up next to me and said "We have come all this way without  
thinking, lets not start now!"

After the first take it became obvious that the dictation needed to  
come after the routing and header information so David Weil marked  
the tape at the end of the word
"C O N F I D E N T I A L" That is the time the actor David started  
dictated the message as I typed while the 15 was in the receive  
mode.  Two of the character actors told me that I was a good actor  
because they could not tell that I was merely depressing random keys,  
and that it looked as if I was actually typing the message.

The next take Mr. E told me he was going to film the side of my head  
as the camera came up to the machine and that my head would be 20  
feet high on the screen.  This with his typical grin and laughter in  
his voice.  I told him I hoped he was kidding... The assistant  
director told me, "oh no he never kids."

Anyway, we finally finished the filming and the cast and crew went to  
lunch about 3:30 p.m.  Mr. Eastwood shook David Weil's and my hand  
and thanked us for our contribution to his film. David and I were too  
tired to go to lunch and were facing a three hour drive back to San  
Diego.

The filming of the facsimile machine will be next Wednesday so I will  
be on call to assist David in it's operation.  It will be a "staged"  
reproduction of the wire photo of the famous flag raising, done with  
as the prop master put it, "with smoke and mirrors."

All very interesting, somewhat challenging, and also tiring.  An  
experience I will not soon forget.  This is not the first time we  
have provided machines for films, but it was the first time our  
contributions were serving as very important contributions to key  
scenes in a major motion picture.  "Flags of our Fathers" will be in  
theaters sometime in 2006.

I would like to thank David Weil and all of my Greenkeys friends that  
helped us with our contribution to this motion picture.  Special  
thanks to Robert Downs for shipping the PP-86E power supply on short  
notice...  And to George Hutichison for Model 14 and 15 adjustment  
advice plus locating a couple of 5Z3 tubes from Glen Gallati's store.

Before I changed my clothes one of the crew took me aside for a  
production photograph.  He also kindly took a photo with my digital  
camera.  I will post the photo on my webshots site:

<http://community.webshots.com/user/realstuff>   Look in the Teletype  
& Data photo album...

Don Robert House, K9TTY