OUTDOOR PERFORMANCES ON THE PRAIRIE MEANT HEAT, COLD, RAIN AND WIND FOR MUSICIANS AND CREW
Decked out in Sunday-go-to-meeting costumes from the early 20th century, the musicians of WILL-TV’s The Song and the Slogan spent five days in October
outdoors in a strip of restored prairie grass at Illinois’ Mackinaw Dells in Woodford County.
Performing the original music as crew members shifted lights, reflectors and cameras around the outdoor set, the musicians endured cold, glaring sun and rain to complete the taping of the new performance documentary tribute to poet Carl Sandburg.
The first two days were bright, and then the weather changed to bone-chilling cold after a front went through, said costume designer Mary Stasheff. "We went from dabbing on sunscreen to making a run to a Big Lots store for hats and gloves," she said.
"Hurry up and wait became the order of the day," said associate producer Barbara Hedlund, cellist in the production. The musicians had to sit around while others were being filmed, and while producer Tim Hartin waited for the right weather and lighting conditions. When the ensemble grew tired of staring into the glaring sun, opera singer Jerry Hadley, who stars in the program, reminded the musicians that John Wayne had made a career out of squinting so maybe they could too, Hedlund said.
"We tried to plan the shoots to make the best use of everyone’s time, but inevitably, there was a lot of down time," Hartin said. "Most of the musicians were very adaptable. They were real troopers."
The musicians and crew set out from Champaign-Urbana every morning at 7 a.m. and stayed through early evening. "We didn’t take our best instruments," Hedlund said, "because the temperature extremes and humidity can ruin an instrument." The group recorded the music for the documentary weeks earlier at Smith Music Hall, and taped the visuals for the program with the backdrop of prairie scenery.
Because no sheet music could appear in the program, the crew had to get creative to hide it. Hedlund had music tacked to the back of her costume. Another sheet was taped to the back side of the piano.
Everything had to look the same in every shot, which proved tricky on more than one occasion. One whole segment was filmed before the crew realized one of the musicians had removed his coat and had forgotten to put it back on, said Hartin. The segment had to be re-shot.
Musicians decided to wear period costumes because they thought evening clothes would look out of place on the prairie. "The costumes are designed to look as if the musicians were a group of ordinary people who got together on a Sunday afternoon to give a concert," said Stasheff, who made the two women’s costumes and put together the men’s costumes.
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