Thanks to my "Story Ark" cast and crew, we have our answers! 0:)

Thank-you so much to our "Story Ark" actors and crew!

It has been confirmed that the old private cinema is now unavailable. Among my cast were those who checked up for us and it has been confirmed that San Juan Bautista, being next door to the San Andreas Fault, has apparently developed various geological instabilities throughout the town. Apparently the Plaza Hotel is not the only old building in the town in a precarious position!

Hope everyone in San Juan Bautista are alright though and making sure they are prepared if any earthquakes hit that do more than rattle and roll things! (At least something that makes the town shake and car alarms go off more than the weekend bikers on Sunday afternoons!) 0:)

We also have some more answers about our Pacific Grove CA location. Hmmmm...looks like it's definitely Lighthouse Avenue we are looking for but given a suggestion from one of our Executive Producers today, we may also be continuing our search further afield.

http://www.discoverpacificgrove.com/1-shopping-pacificgrove.html

Also may be re-thinking what percentage CGI sets and locations to use or a combination. Lots of possibilities!

If anybody among cast or crew know of any old houses with private cinemas (preferably Victorian or at least Edwardian), can you let us know? It would need to be an original private cinema, not a modern one: They were usually in basements.

Anything along these lines (Queen Anne style) or vintage:

Rotha 1887

In the meantime, thankfully our Executive Producer has clear memories of the cinema in San Juan Bautista and hopefully they may be able to work with our Art Department to re-create a useful replica. As the Executive Producer said to me this afternoon, the cinema in San Juan Bautista was quite possibly too small for filming in anyway so if we do decide to re-create something (either virtually or literally), we can order it to size.


Thank-you again to the other Executive Producer and also the cast and crew who are helping us out here! 0:)

Ellen 0:)
Ellen F. Walker

"Story Ark" cast and crew, help needed re Pacific Grove, Monterey.

Note for "Story Ark" cast and crew.

We were planning on conducting some initial shots planned for the series pilot in Pacific Grove, Monterey that we are now going to use for something else. But as I'm currently on the other side of the world currently attempting to set things up by computer (aka "remote control"), it has become a tad difficult working things through. It's not like I can just grab the car and head out for a drive!

http://www.pacificgrove.org/

I need a little help here. Those of you familiar with the original plans may recall the opening sequence set in Pacific Grove. CBS have decided to go with the feature film before the Web and TV series. We need some additional information that I can't get from here; it's necessary in order to get the ball rolling.

We may have the central house in Berkeley for filming (if it is still available but we have to check on that yet) however it's the opening sequence we still want to include in the script

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Grove,_California

I have a vague memory of there being a row of Victorian houses (two or three storeys) on a cliff or high point in Pacific Grove. Do any of you remember that?

We need it to have a slope even if it's only gradual and those who we discussed the proposed opening sequence with would remember why that was desirable.

We may consider applying to film in the main shopping strip and if we got that permission, it would be fantastic and suit us wonderfully!

But from memory the particular row of Victorians I have been visualizing are red brick in various styles.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated and help CBS and I along enormously! 0:)

Thanks in anticipation,

Ellen 0:)
Ellen F. Walker

San Juan Bautista, California: Where you hope your actors have good memories!

A Facebook page I know has a cover photo of a place very dear to my heart: San Juan Bautista. 0:)

Lovely place in the Californian countryside where I have spent many hours with friends and joining in local activities. We had been hoping to film there for "Story Ark" but it turns out the property we were hoping to use has now become unavailable.

http://www.sanjuanbautistaca.com/

The Plaza Hotel is in the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park and if you enter through the saloon, you'll find a hallway leading down below street level. At the end is a wonderful private cinema, one of the first in California: That's where we were hoping to film. Sadly, we've been told this is because of the instability of the ground beneath the old property where the basement cinema is situated.

Still planning to include the old private cinema in the plot but we'll either have to recreate it as a set or find another one in an historic property somewhere else.

Hoping maybe the actor taking the role (of the character who was going to use that room) may have some ideas! He used to live in San Juan Bautista and returns there every so often. He knows the private cinema involved so hopefully he remembers it well enough for us to create some computer generated sets or can get together with our Arts department to build a set.

Otherwise, in that case, it may be back to the drawing board (so to speak) and creating it completely fresh: Always a bit disappointing when you had something particular in mind that you wanted to make happen! 0:(

Ellen 0:)
Ellen F. Walker

Man does not live by bread alone! 0:)

Finally getting back to having more in my life than work as a Journalist and Executive Producer or Conceptualist! Finding time to get some reading done; even if most of it is research related and joined at the hip to productions and assignments. 0:)

In that light, I have various articles and interviews I've promised and I need to catch up on, now the work load is shifting away from being focused completely on Production and Newspath work. I owe so many articles, interviews and manuscripts it is wayyyyyy beyond a joke.

An article requested by a magazine covering Ken Duncan and his work wasn't able to be completed and that was for Ken's 25th anniversary a few years ago. I owe him that one! We managed to get the interview fitted in but the article was placed on hold.

http://www.kenduncan.com/

Which reminds me that I bought an autographed copy of one of Ken's books back in 2001. It was a gift for someone I'd organized to conduct an interview with for an article in an Australian magazine that had been unable to get an interview previously.

My brother (the editor of the book) also sent a signature to be included in the gift. I'd been told by the interviewee's family members that this person loves Australia and as he'd only had 2 days working in Sydney and Melbourne previously, I thought a photographic book might entice him to visit our fair shores over a longer period.

http://www.koorong.com/search/product/great-southland-ken-duncan/0958668132.jhtml

Also gave him a copy of one of my books as well. 0:)

http://www.bookdepository.com/Looking-for-Dad-Ellen-Frances/9780613305655

Actually, I left it with a relative of the interviewee (someone who was interested in writing a children's book) and apparently it has only now been passed on.

So! Short version of where we are up to here, the way we left it was that he was going to contact me when he was able to do the interview. In the meantime, the magazine the interview and article was organized for has ceased to exist! However, I'd love to accept his recent offer to buy me a coffee so we can catch up. 0:)

Looking forward to it!

Ellen 0:)