Eva Amurri(Sarah) and Brooke Adams(Elizabeth), Photo / Claire Folger

Lynne told me about her "movie" when we first met. In 1998, on a blind date she explained to me that she had adapted her successful one-woman play, "Two Face" into a screenplay. Our date was dinner and a stroll through the Public Garden and then she went back to LA where she lived. I lived in Jamaica Plain.

We started emailing each other. The prospects for her movie went down and then up, then down. The emails flew daily. We fell in love online. Three months later she flew back to Boston and moved into my renovated Victorian home. We were married a year later in our back yard, amid the gardens Lynne had planted that spring.

We shared our interests. I have always been intrigued in the technology behind video art. Lynne and I talked about the power of the new video technologies, and she began to weave these ideas into her script. One of her goals was to make the production less expensive, but as a result, she created a marvelous conceit in which the story takes place in front of aspiring filmmakers shooting a documentary. "Made-Up (A Vanity Production)", became a 'mockumentary' comedy about a woman forced to come to terms with issues of her own beauty and aging.

Eva Amurri with Director Tony Shalhoub.

Lynne realized that she should make this movie herself and as a result, it became a family affair. Lynne's sister, Brooke Adams, would play the leading role of Elizabeth James Tivey and Brooke's husband Tony Shalhoub would direct and play the romantic interest, Max, a restaurateur and wannbe actor.

A key roll would be the part of Elizabeth's daughter. In the script the daughter talks her mother into a make over, transforming her middle age looks into a youthful facade. Elizabeth's sister starts videotaping as a class project but this too grows out of control as mother, daughter and aunt are caught up in the need to observe and to be observed. It is a comedy which touches on many Boomer concerns. The mother-daughter relationship is at the core of the story and the role of Sara proved the hardest to cast.

Lynne met the members of the New England film community. We talked to Bob Doyle about the newest video technology and with Susan Woll who teaches film at Harvard. Lynne met with David Keiler, who gave sage advice and with Tim Graft at the Massachusetts Film Office, who provided a wealth of contacts.

Tony Shalhoub(Max) and Brooke Adams(Elizabeth)

In LA, Brooke and Tony met Lance Krall, Jim Issa, and Kalen Conover, three improv actors from Atlanta. Lynne rewrote to include them as the three members of Kate's video class who shoot the documentary. Meanwhile, Tony gave the script to Gary Sinise who agreed to play a pivitol role.

Lynne got in touch with Mark Donadio, who produced the film with Lynne and Brooke. He brought incredible production skills and an exceptional crew that made the film happen. Lynne, Mark and Brian Robel, the Line Producer, put together a complete budget that they knew they could live with. This feature length comedy could be made for about $300,000. Wendy Harrold, Production Coordinator, set up the "Sister Films" office in our guest room and proved that "God is in the details."

It was coming together.

MADE-UP producer Mark Donadio on the job, Photos / Claire Folger

So now a feature length motion picture was going to shot in our house in the month of January. My office is on the third floor, where my staff and I are busy organizing the 2001 Boston Cyberarts Festival. The thought of the filmmaking both terrified and excited me.

Immediately after the new year, our friend Mimi Feldman came out from LA as Production Designer, to transform our house and, in the evening, cook great goulash. Walls were painted and stenciled. My art collection was moved and new art was brought in. The house was transformed into the home of Elizabeth James Tivey, a fictional character. New people arrived each day. Lisa Lesniak the costume designer showed up with beautiful clothes and stayed late occasionally to die this or that in our washing machine. Juliet Carter, art director and Russ Fisher, property manager, went through all our belongings and gently integrated them into the set, promising to put them back exactly where they found them. Signs suddenly appeared declaring this or that room to be a "dressed set."

I began to feel that I was living in one of those science fiction stories about people who coexist with a parallel universe. I would walk through my own house, but it wasn't my own house and it was full of people for whom my existence was only a reality if they focused hard on my presence.

MadeUp3 - The "film Crew" Lance Krall (Simon) and Kalen Conover (Chris), Photo / Claire Folger

Finally on a Friday in mid-January, Brooke and Tony arrived from LA. Shooting was to start Monday. But the part of Sara still hadn't been cast. That day we received a tape of fifteen-year-old Eva Amurra. She was fresh, funny and completely spontaneous. She was Sara. She was available immediately.

On the first day of shooting Lynne went down to let people in at six am. When I got up, there was a crowd scene. Forty people are wandering around my house, hanging out at craft services in the kitchen and stringing cable and carrying lights.

They used every room in the house as a set except our bedroom and the third floor; my office. When not sets, rooms act as crafts services, storage or the sound room where Tom Williams, Sound Mixer, invited all visitors to join him behind his sound rig on wheels. Liz Cecchini, hair stylist and Trish Seeney, Key Make-Up cheerfully moved their operations from room to room as a stream of actors were "Made-Up."

Mark Donadio brought a great team together. The Director of Photography, Gary Henoch, was brilliant. He orchestrated this complex multiple camera shoot so that while one is always aware of the conceit, it become natural. With the lighting team, Karine Albano, Gaffer, Wayne Simpson, Key Grip and their crew the documentary look was perfect.

The actors and the local film crew took over the entire house for three weeks, beginning January 15 and ending with a wrap party Saturday evening, February 3. Shooting also took place at the Mistral resturant and at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park.

Our neighbors expressed delight having a film shot right in their neighborhood. Even though most of the activity took place inside the house, the neighbors were fascinated, as many of the actors and crew stayed in local B&Bs and dined at various Jamaica Plain restaurants.

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George Fifield (george@bostoncyberarts.org) is Director of Boston Cyberarts, Inc. a non-profit arts organization which is organizing the 2001 Boston Cyberarts Festival. (www.bostoncyberarts.org.) In addition, he is the Curator Of Media Arts at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts.