Funworld February 2008

When Hollywood Comes Calling

Mary Lou Rosemeyer took the call from Hollywood. As head of PR at Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, she had been approached by movie people over the years, but she’d rarely signed the dotted line. But the producer, Declan Baldwin, was persistent. Rosemeyer agreed to a meeting, and within a few weeks it was a done deal. In mid-September, a Miramax motion picture entitled “Adventureland” rented Kennywood and shot for five weeks.

Hollywood’s invasion of Kennywood came about due to a mix of circumstances—aesthetic, logistical, and financial. The actual Adventureland park—where writer/director Greg Mottola worked in the 1980s, was no longer viable due to various changes over the years. Many other parks were rejected for same reason—no amount of alteration could make them pass for 1987. Kennywood, with the right mix of modern and vintage rides, had the right look. What made the decision a no-brainer from the perspective of the producers is Pennsylvania—a state that offers a 25 percent tax rebate on production costs spent in its borders.

The Crew Descends
When a big-budget feature film goes on location, it resembles an army. Its massive footprint requires sets, staging areas, additional power, and food and shelter for 150 extras and 100 crew members. As is the case with a military maneuver, the scouts arrive first, making decisions on where five to 10 semitractor trailers of lighting equipment, catering vehicles, “star” trailers, and “honey wagons” (toilets) will be located.

The point of no return was signaled by the one-day appearance of “The Suits,” a day Rosemeyer remembers well: “When we were told there would be a tech scout, we assumed a couple of people. We were surprised when the actual number was 30.” The studio executives arrived wearing sunglasses and power suits, talking on cell phones, text-messaging on their Blackberries, wading ashore like General Douglas McArthur in the Philippines. With their enthusiastic approval of Kennywood as a location, it was full speed ahead.

The biggest challenge, logistically, was the fact that Kennywood was still operating. Following the summer season, Kennywood flips into Phantom Fright Nights weekend mode, when the park takes on a Halloween theme. Not only was the park unavailable to shoot on Fridays and weekends, but it had to transform from 1980s Adventureland to Fright Nights on Friday mornings, and back to the vintage park set on Monday. Adventureland sets had to be secured and draped with black fabric and fake cobwebs to protect and mask them from thousands of weekend visitors. Fright Nights required thousands of red and green light bulbs to create a spooky mood. Those colors were all wrong for Adventureland’s summer feel and had to be swapped on Fridays and Mondays by Kennywood electricians working overtime. The first week was hard on everyone. “We were doing so much work for the movie that we couldn’t do our own work,” says Carlos Velez, a Kennywood electrician.

The main selling point of working at Kennywood was many areas needed only a little alteration. The “Jack Rabbit,” “Thunderbolt,” and “Musik Express” rides were timeless and only needed minimal changes. The park of Mottola’s memory, according to Matt Mund, the film’s art director, was “a couple of acres of asphalt beside a highway. We had to shrink everything down, show only parts, and make sure the camera didn’t see Kennywood’s lush landscaping.” The exterior of the “Playdium”—home of pinball and video games—also had the right “retro” look. The interior, however, was another matter. The most popular video games were both anachronistic and included verboten trademarked logos and had to be swapped out with vintage games such as “Asteroids.” To highlight how much times have changed, one of the young actresses had never seen a pinball machine!

All Hands on Deck
Nearly every shot in the film required operation of rides. Coordinating all that motion required more planning than the filmmakers expected. In addition to the need for operators, the rides had to be inspected by Kennywood’s maintenance department. It took a week of frustration and confusion before the filmmakers finally grasped that a roller coaster doesn’t turn on with the flip of a switch. By then, maintenance crews had decided to inspect all the rides within view of camera and make sure that there were enough operators to run all the rides simultaneously, should inspiration strike the filmmakers. This was fine with the production crew until the bill came in for all the additional manhours. Production quickly regrouped and made an effort to better communicate with the over-stretched maintenance department.

Kennywood staff had their own learning curve, too. A single shot might involve 100 period-dressed extras, two moving cameras, actors wrestling in a choreographed brawl, and the West Mifflin Police Department holding up traffic on nearby Route 837. From the sidelines, it was hard to see the purpose for all the electricians, designers, makeup artists, soundmen, and camera assistants, and what, if any, their effect was upon the process as a whole. This painstaking process is usually tiresome to seasoned filmmakers, but it was especially frustrating for Kennywood mainte nance staffers.

Another cultural difference revolved around safety issues. The film crew wasn’t ready for the high bar set for safety at Kennywood. If a grip left a canister of helium (used for certain lighting fixtures) standing alone for just a minute, one of the Kennywood safety supervisors would immediately point out that OSHA rules required it to be tied off to a railing.

By the end of the shoot, the two crews were getting along well. The filmmakers were impressed with the professionalism exhibited by Kennywood’s maintenance and rides crews, in particular Velez, the electrician, who not only knew the intricacies of every ride but also volunteered to wear a kangaroo suit for the sake of cinema history. In turn, the Kennywood staff was surprised by the work ethic of the film crew, whose days typically ran 16 hours. “Their lighting guys are really fast. They know how to put lights up fast, and then knock ’em down quickly,” says Velez. And as much as everyone tried to remain nonchalant, let’s not kid ourselves—it can be a lot of fun to be on a movie set, surrounded by stars like Ryan Reynolds and Margarita Levieva. Many of the games and rides staff ended up in scenes with the stars of the film—adlibbing with the actors like acting veterans, and taking direction from Mottola. “It was a real nice change of pace from the routine,” says Keith Humbel, a rides supervisor who, along with many others on the staff, got a speaking role in a parody “Adventureland Employee Training Film,” which will be part of the film’s eventual DVD release.

Kennywood’s PR department plans to “piggyback” on some of the publicity when “Adventureland” hits theaters (tentatively scheduled for this summer) and perhaps draw new crowds to the park. The general feeling at Kennywood is that regardless of dollars and cents, there were some definite side benefits. The “Gran Prix” bumper-car ride, for example, was a dark, cinderblock cave with pallid fluorescent lights. The “Adventureland” art director trans-formed the ride with a few colorful drapes and lights, and Marie Ruby, head of games at Kennywood, liked the effect so much that she decided to let them stay.

“Overall, it was a good experience,” says Jerome Gibas, the general manager at Kennywood. “Going into any new adventure there are a lot of uncertainties, and we had to learn along the way. The movie people didn’t know what goes on at the park, and we didn’t know their world. But we came out respectful of each other. I’d ask a lot more questions if I could do it again, but I don’t have a problem doing this again.

“Hopefully, we’ll grab some PR out of this. When the movie comes out, Kennywood’s name will keep coming up, and that will put a message in people’s heads, and they’ll say: ‘I haven’t been there in a while, let’s go back …’”