by Katharine Schroeder

After visiting with Rush Hour 3's set painter Lee Ross, it was time to break for lunch. Jackie went back to his trailer to relax for a while and the rest of us walked over to the tent where the lunch was being served. Mealtimes are great opportunities to talk to the people who are working on a movie. Earlier in the week I had spent some time visiting with Ric Spencer, Jackie's costumer (also known as a "dresser"). You may remember that Jackie mentioned Ric and his gorgeous hair in one of his early Rush Hour 3 diaries.

On a movie set, a costumer is responsible for all the clothing worn by the actor he is working for. Ric said that once the wardrobe for the movie is designed and created, it's the costumer's job to make sure everything looks just right. And it turns out that sometimes "just right" can look....well, all wrong! For example, if an actor is in a scene where he is in a fight, his clothing may become dirty and torn. Not all of the wear and tear occurs naturally; sometimes a little help is needed. And that's where the costumer can have some fun with what Ric said is called an aging kit. The kit contains, among other things, smudge sticks to make the clothing look dirty even if it isn't. Ric may have to tear the clothing and put it through other forms of wardrobe torture.

Ric was Tobey Maguire's costumer for the Spiderman movies and he said that for the burning building scene in SM2, the clothing had to go through six different stages of deterioration. That doesn't mean that for the scene there were just six outfits. There may have to be multiples of each set of clothing depending on how long it takes to film any one scene. I asked him how many sets of clothing Jackie had for this movie and he immediately recited a list of all the different outfits. What a good memory he had! Jackie has many "copies" of each bit of clothing he wears for the movie. So that means that if he needs to have an outfit of clothing adjusted, Ric will be dealing with perhaps a dozen identical outfits. Through the course of filming, there is always the possibility that an actor will gain or lose weight. That adds more to Ric's responsibilities. It's a busy job, being a dresser, and Ric is always right there on the set with Jackie to make any last minute adjustments. So when you see Rush Hour 3, remember that Ric is just a few feet away keeping an eye on Jackie to make sure he looks just right.

Today at lunch I sat with Josh Neugass whom I had been introduced to earlier in the week. I'd spoken to him several times on the set and was anxious to find out more about his artwork. (Jackie talks about Josh's work in the diaries.) As we sat together at lunch I asked him to tell me more about his work. He said that when Jackie first saw him carving on the set, he'd mistakenly thought that Josh was using ivory, which is banned worldwide. Josh explained to Jackie (and again now to me) that he uses the tusks of wooly mammoths which he gets from suppliers in Alaska. Wooly mammoths are extinct, but their bones are buried in Siberia, Alaska, and other northern areas. Their tusks are ideal for carving and they have all the qualities of ivory from elephants.

Josh carves all kinds of things including what he calls "wearable sculpture" (and he makes beautiful guitar picks as well). The designs are very organic in appearance; most of them are abstract but echo all kinds of things you see in nature. Others look symbolic or are representative. Josh starts out with a hunk of ivory and after sketching the design, he begins to carve it out:

Often on the set there is a lot of waiting, so Josh makes good use of his time. He can often be seen carving quietly between takes.

Here are some more of Josh's designs:

 You can see many more by visiting his website.

One thing you learn when you spend time on a movie set is that there are a lot of interesting people with fascinating stories to tell and luckily there's a lot of opportunity to talk during mealtimes and between takes. The first time I'd talked with Josh, we discussed something far removed from artwork. We talked about the thumbholes in my JC Action and Sports pullover. When I bought the shirt and put it on for the first time, I was surprised to discover that there was a hole on each cuff. I thought it was a manufacturing defect. Josh happened by one day when I was fiddling around with the holes. "Hey, I have a shirt with the same holes," he told me. I was confused; how could this be? He told me that the holes were for putting your thumbs through to keep the sleeves down and to add warmth for your hands. I suppose I should have felt stupid that I didn't know that, but Josh is such a nice guy and didn't make me feel embarrassed at all. On the other hand, later on when I told Jackie about my discovery, the conversation went a little differently:

"Hey, guess what?" I said to my boss. "Today I found out what these holes on my sleeves are for."
Jackie rolled his eyes and waited for me to continue.
"When I first saw them, I thought they were rips on the cuffs but Josh told me that they are thumbholes."
Jackie continued to stare at me, his mouth beginning to break into an amused smile.
"You really should include directions with these shirts," I continued, "for people who don't know."
"Yeah, I'll attach an instruction sheet to the sleeve," Jackie replied. "A brochure. Maybe a book."
Did I detect a hint of sarcasm in Jackie's voice? Had Jackie dealt with the thumbhole question before?
"Yeah," I answered merrily, playing along. "That'd be good. Thanks so much!"

As the day continued I tried to talk to as many people as possible and spent some time simply observing. Since I was stationed right next to Goldy's video assist, I got to watch the filming and editing of several scenes from start to finish. The cameras would roll, the director would call "Cut!" and Jackie would sprint over to Goldy to see what he had. Jackie would run back and forth probably a dozen times for a 3 or 4 second segment. Film, run to Goldy, edit, film, run to Goldy, edit, until the scene looked just the way he wanted it to. One scene took an extraordinary amount of time to film because each time, right before the cameras would start rolling, Chris Tucker would pop some peanuts into his mouth, chew them frantically before the camera began filming, and then say his lines. This struck Jackie as very funny, and he couldn't keep a straight face. When the director asked what was going on, all Jackie could say was, "It's Chris Tucker....he...you know...it's the peanuts!"

There is so much to see on a movie set because there is so much going on all the time. Consider that every time a scene is successfully filmed, all the equipment, crew, and actors have to move to a different place. Even capturing a different angle requires moving lights, cameras, background, and a hundred other things. So once Brett finally calls out "Got it!" the entire room is swept into a flurry of motion. It is during these times that the best opportunity to observe comes along. Here are some photos for you:

Brett consults with the cameraman.

Diana gives Dorothy a quick back massage while Cedric von Sydow adjusts his equipment.

Chris Tucker discusses the playback with producers and crew members.

Diana works on Jackie's diaries.

On-the-spot meeting.

Jackie talking to Brett. Jackie's hands are waving so fast that they appear only as a blur!

A quick touch-up for Jingchu.

"A lot of love on the set."

[There is an explanation for this photo. It's a picture of Robert "Schro" Schroer, the second assistant director, trying his best to smudge the glass partition on the set to annoy the person who was trying to keep it clean. All in good fun, of course. When I showed Schro the photo and asked if I could use it on our website, he said, "Sure! As long as the caption reads 'A lot of love on the set.'"]

After a while I went back to my room to upload my photos to the laptop and to make some notes. Every so often I would hear Jackie call me out to take a photo of one thing or another. One of the more interesting things that he wanted me to photograph was an enormous lens for shooting an outdoor scene from a distance. It was a huge 1200mm Canon lens. According to Canon's website, this is the longest autofocus telephoto lens in the world and is made only by special order. According to another source, they cost around the same as a luxury car! 

"I love cameras!"

Soon it was time for the traditional Five Dollar Friday. Jackie put in money for all his own staff and then threw in extra, something he often does. As is the custom, the Five Dollar Friday collection container was decorated by some creative soul. This week there was, of course, a hospital theme:

I never did find out who won the Five Dollar Friday but I suspect it wasn't me since I didn't get a handful of cash.

Sadly, it was soon time to go. We had been on the set for over 13 hours and it was now time to head home. This would be my last visit to the Rush Hour 3 set and it was really hard to leave. I'd met so many creative, friendly, and interesting people. I wish I could have stayed to talk with all of them and write down their stories so you could get to know these great people who work behind the scenes. But although I was sad to leave, I was very grateful for being given this opportunity. I learned so many things in the days I spent on the set and I even made some new friends.

As we prepared to leave, I took one last look around the set and had to chuckle when I saw my boss, the great Jackie Chan, doing just the kind of thing that he always does.

Text and photos ©2007 The JC Group. All Rights Reserved

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