Friday afternoon, my wife and I took a quick drive out to Clackamas (and I forgot my camera, damn it!) to check out a bit of shooting on the next-to-last week of production for Untraceable, the serial-killer thriller that’s been filming in town for the past few months — while they shot exteriors all around P-town, they’re down to interiors only for the last weeks. After surveying the mess tent and partaking in a bit of a giant cookie while getting the scoop on the catering situation (though I didn’t catch the name, I’m guessing it was local, and it got the thumbs-up from the crew), we got to tour a number of the interior sets, including a basement featured in the finale, which was part of a re-created SE-style home that was on the stage in three pieces in the studio set-up.

We also go the scoop on some of the (awesome!) deaths in the movie, and I was able to suss out one of the major plot points of the second half when quizzed about how something might happen — it’s actually pretty cool, but I’ve watched a lot of cop shows and thriller-types — though unfortunately, we didn’t get to see anything action-y filmed that day.

After walking through the main floor of the mock-up home, which had nicer wood floors than my house, we were led to the interior FBI office set, and I have to say that the set dressers did their jobs well: every desk looked well-worn and real, with actual computers set up, FBI mugs, Anti-Terrorist folders, little post-its, etc. (though one of the post-its had on it “what’s a four-letter word for waste on the set?” with the answer being “GRIP”, most of the others were in-movie authentic, my favorite of which was “get coffee and donuts — jelly”). My guess is that it’s a little more sexy than the real thing, what with the black metal and chrome all over, but hey, it’s the movies. The only clue that it wasn’t a real office was the drop-in curtain outside the windows that showed the bridges and downtown… so apparently, the movie FBI office is on the east side of town, as opposed to the actual FBI offices.

As much as I wanted to yoink a souvenir, like one of the office nameplates or an FBI cap, I kept my hands to myself lest I be kicked off the set before the stars arrived. There was a lot of bustling going on as the camera crew decided where they were going to set up and shoot, and we were given a pretty prime seating arrangement, right next to the chairs marked with the actors’ names.

And then soon enough, some of the talent walked in, the most recognizable of whom was Colin Hanks, son of Tom (taller than you’d think). He seemed like a nice guy, joking around with some of the crew and such, and he did a bit of stretching while waiting for filming to start. A while after he and a few other actors showed up, so did Diane Lane (shorter than you’d think) for final rehearsal and shooting. And then they shot about two minutes of film — and what will likely be about 30 seconds in the movie — over and over and over again. As the DP said, it’s kind of like watching paint dry, if your paint is full of movie stars and rubber guns. I thought it was pretty damn cool, myself. The rubber guns, by the way, look o-so-fake in real life. Ah, the magic of the movies.

We heard a rumor while we were there that another Lakeshore Entertainment production might be coming into town sometime this summer, which would be their third this year after this and Feast of Love, so I guess Portland’s made a good impression. Anything that keeps Vancouver, BC, from being Stumptown’s stand-in is a very good thing in my book.

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2. Report from the Grindhouse
3. Hollywood is Coming (Back) to Town
4. Portland Picture for the day
5. Millions