Movie filming going on in RTP

[Vlad!]

As I was driving to work today I saw signs up saying that a stretch of NC-540 was going to be closed. As I drove under said stretch of 540, I noticed spotlights and floodlights all around. I thought "wow, that's uncharacteristic; NCDOT actually working when it's dark out?"

Turns out I was wrong. This was in my inbox this morning:

===
Road Closings Due to Film Production
 
Portions of N.C. Highway 540 and Davis Drive will be shut down through this Friday for the filming of "Main Street.”  One eastbound lane of N.C. 540, between Davis Drive and N.C. Highway 55 in Morrisville, and one lane of the Davis Drive exit have been closed. This closure will remain in effect until Friday.

Nightly closures will shut down all of N.C. 540 between Davis Drive and N.C. 55, and Davis Drive, between Kit Creek Road and George Watts Hill Drive. Those closures will last from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. and continue through Friday.

On Saturday, May 9, two lanes of N.C. 540 East will be closed for about four hours from 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
===
Hopefully they're paying NCDOT for the privilege. If so, maybe the infusion of cash will keep our highways cheap to drive on.

7pm is about the time that I'm heading home. I wonder if I'll see famous people on my commute.

[dgp11776]

I saw Gwyneth Paltrow in Charlotte while they were filming Shallow Hal.

[enemy anemone]

maybe look for Orlando Bloom in a cop car.

[Vlad!]

Woah, that actually looks like a real Durham cop car. I haven't found a lot of information about the movie; maybe it's actually named after Main St. in Durham.

[enemy anemone]

I just came across this page with some info.

[Vlad!]

I just came across this page with some info.

Interesting.

It's lame that NCDOT isn't getting any money from it, but I guess it's not exactly a big-budget film so whatever (I base this assumption solely on the fact that it has no Wikipedia article).

[Vlad!]

Also, they're probably not going to be filming today...

[enemy anemone]

the link doesn't work for me (I guess because it's "local alerts") but I looked up Durham weather. tornado alert. fun, fun. :s

I keep looking up stuff on the movie. might as well share the links here.

http://www.bullcityrising.com/2009/02/horton-footes-film-main-street-to-see-midmarch-filming-in-durham.html

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/128649.html

[Vlad!]

Those descriptions don't sound very complimentary of Durham or the Triangle area...I'm not sure that Foote quite realizes that the area has become a large technology hub and "small Southern city" and "close-knit Southern community" aren't necessarily the most accurate depictions anymore. But I'm sure there are parts of Durham and the surrounding area to which that still applies, so whatever.

[Vlad!]

Interesting story* incidentally regarding the movie filming I heard yesterday. I will tell it in the first person because it makes sense that way, but understand that I am not the one it happened to:

===
Each neighborhood in my area has a listserv [e-mail distribution list], and I'm subscribed to all of them because I like to know what's going on in my community. A while back apparently a woman was involved in a minor car collision which was witnessed by a woman walking a dog. Both parties agreed that there was no damage and that they would go on their way. The dog was becoming agitated and the pedestrian had to leave, but it didn't look like her services would be required.

So now this woman (the car driver) gets notice that the woman she ran into is claiming thousands of dollars of damage to her vehicle as well as potentially expensive damage to her person. The driver sends out an appeal to one of these listservs asking for the woman who was walking the dog to come forward and act as witness. There were no responses, so about a week later she sent out an additional, more desperate appeal, adding the information that the dog was wearing a harness labeled "Crew".

I, knowing that filming is going on in Durham for this movie, replied to her and let her know where the headquarters for the filming was and suggested she check there. She did, and though the pedestrian is now back in LA she agreed to fly out and act as a witness to own the greedy woman.
===

I thought this was pretty cool.

* Story not guaranteed to be interesting

[enemy anemone]

very cool. yay, Crew!

[danny316]

Each neighborhood in my area has a listserv [e-mail distribution list], and I'm subscribed to all of them because I like to know what's going on in my community.

Interesting. Now that I know you're close enough to me to use 540 and Davis Drive, I feel a need to ask how far south these listservs go - I've got next to nothing in terms of local news and I didn't even know this was going on. I don't end up taking 540 too often, but I'm considering going to that Sara Watkins show in two weeks (I swear, all the decent concert venues are closer to Chapel Hill than to Raleigh) - it would be a big hassle to run into this unexpectedly, particularly where my concert-going is really the only thing that drags me up there and I usually end up taking 540 back at night (sure, I live in just the right part of town that taking 540->55->64 makes as much sense as taking 540->40, but you have to know about these things in advance to actually plan around them).

...so, is this still going on?

[Vlad!]

I have no idea about the listservs. I live in northern Morrisville and my neighborhood doesn't have one. It's the sort of thing you'd be told about when moving into your house if you had one for your neighborhood.

I don't think the filming is still going on, and 540 is definitely back open between Davis and 55 because I drove on it last weekend. They're usually pretty good about putting up signs saying "we just pwned your commute" so that you know well in advance (like how they freaking closed Morrisville Carpenter for a month to work on the train tracks. It's one of the worst intersections in Wake County; think you could fix the road while you have it closed to thru traffic?).

[danny316]

I don't think the filming is still going on, and 540 is definitely back open between Davis and 55 because I drove on it last weekend. They're usually pretty good about putting up signs saying "we just pwned your commute" so that you know well in advance (like how they freaking closed Morrisville Carpenter for a month to work on the train tracks. It's one of the worst intersections in Wake County; think you could fix the road while you have it closed to thru traffic?).

I'm lucky enough to generally avoid Morrisville Carpenter, but I definitely dread using it. Now that unnecessary repaving of SE Cary Parkway, that's a killer for me now. It's anyone's guess what part of it will actually be usable on any given day. I use that to get to work every day - and of course, they're still wrapping up the construction on Tryon Rd that slowed me down getting to NC State every day.

At least they finally finished mucking around with Maynard Rd...