Random Thoughts-51
February 22, 2009

I was going to do a rant about the Negative Nillies that inhabit every community. You know who I’m talking about; all of the Chicken Littles of the world who think the sky is falling and they only see what is bad about a situation, never what’s good about it. But, alas, what good would it do? You see, they’re a stubborn lot, and regardless of how sound one’s argument against their attitude is, you can never change their minds.
While their numbers are small their voices are loud making it difficult to ignore the negative rhetoric. No matter how hard one tries to ignore the negativity it always surfaces with half-truths and rumours.
Now, I know that I am sounding a little negative myself so that’s all I am going to say on that matter. If you give them too much attention they might just think their way of thinking is right.
I will say that the negativism that I am talking about is regarding the shooting of the film Rust. I have stated in this column before and I’ll get on my soap box any time to proclaim my staunch support for this project. It’s great for Kipling, it’s great for rural Saskatchewan and it’s great for any project that starts with the words, “They’ll never do it.”
Well, they are and they did. I was an eye witness. Yes, we were asked if they could use our house, warts and all, for some scenes in the movie. We immediately said “Yes”, then immediately said, “Whoops”.
For you know that “A guest sees more in an hour than a host sees in a year”. That, coupled with the facts that our handyman has been on hiatus for a while and the empty nesters, that occupy the house, have been relaxing a little bit more than they ever used to, so we were a bit worried about what we were exposing our home to.
But, what the heck, how many people do you know that have had their house used in the making of a movie?
So, on Sunday the 22nd, in they came and transformed our humble home into a sound stage. There had to be close to forty people involved in the fourteen odd hours of shooting in our house. We were fortunate observers to the amazing process of movie making. There aren’t enough pages in this paper for me to properly verbalize my feelings on the events that took place throughout that day. In the risk of being redundant it was, again, simply amazing.
The cast, crew, producers, directors and support staff were respectful and gracious guests in our home. Permission was asked for everything. They used a mixture of our stuff and theirs to get their required effects and when they left there was no evidence (other than the pictures on our camera) that they had even been there at all! Everything was returned to its original spot, down to the tiniest knick knack.
I know that the vast majority of the town of Kipling, and its surrounding area, are very supportive of this project and I think the whole production staff are genuinely happy with the local support and the results that they have had. My family is thankful that we could be of service in this unique adventure and the only gratuity that is required is to see our house in the finished product of this film.
I read an article about the film project in the January 27th edition of “The Globe and Mail-Canada’s National Newspaper” and a few readers’ comments were published after the article. I will leave you with a quote from one of those readers:
“Is this the next “Slumdog Millionaire”? Good job, Kipling, for showing the gumption to do something like this. And well done, Mr. Bersen for taking the “leap of faith” on a small town.”-Michael Cawthra from Lakewood, United States.