Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 Hi everybody. My name's John Raby and I'm the host of the somewhere in time podcast called call back yesterday. This is a pod let designed for anyone who is unmatched an Island this weekend at the 30th annual somewhere in time weekend at grand hotel or anybody who wishes they could be there like me to get the time travel experience, just right. Go to the place where I conducted the interview during last year, somewhere in time weekend and listen, very intently and concentrate if you do it just right. It'll feel just like it's 2019. Oh, here's her duty. Grab a rocker on the West end of the front porch. Look out at the bridge and Lake Huron and the fairies. Oh, just too beautiful and listened to this interview. What's your name? Steve Ellis. What's your connection with somewhere in time and grand hotel?
Speaker 1 00:00:56 I have been coming to the grand hotel, uh, basically my entire life and for the last 29 years, I've been involved with the grand hotel somewhere in time weekend. Um, and I got involved early on, uh, with the insight coordinator who was bill Shepard and got the ball rolling. And for the last 17 years, I've been in charge of planning and coordinating the events and gathering all the people together to make it happen.
Speaker 0 00:01:26 When people come to Mackinac Island for the summer in time weekend, are they getting into a time machine?
Speaker 1 00:01:32 Oh, absolutely. I think they are. I mean, I think that's part of the fascination with the grand hotel and the Island, you know, there's no motorized vehicles here. You have to get from point a to point B either by walking or, you know, horse drawn carriage. And I think a good portion of the fascination that people have with this film is just kind of escaping the hustle and bustle of 21st century life and escape into a much simpler time. So yeah, it's kind of like stepping into a time,
Speaker 0 00:02:00 The machine a time when you could sit on the front porch of a luxury hotel built in 1887 in a rocking chair and past the time of day with a friend exactly right. From a film historian point of view, where does this film fit?
Speaker 1 00:02:15 I think it fits into, um, a pretty narrow category with films, like a portrait of Jenny. Um, it's just a good old fashioned love story that happens to be wrapped in a time-travel, um, motivational piece. We got to get the main character from everyday life and his present circumstances and travel back in time to 1912. And I think that expresses things for people that, um, it kind of becomes a universal feeling.
Speaker 0 00:02:49 One of my themes is that when people come here, there are no 1979 pennies, so to speak that's right. To take
Speaker 2 00:03:00 Them out of it.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 I think you're you're right on the money. I mean, in a very literal sense, people come here and for the summer and time weekend, you know, I've been to a lot of film conventions in my life and this film convention, so to speak is really unique because there's no Trekkies here. There's no people that are just strangely connected to the film. They're all passionately connected to the film in a good way. Um, I think that they're kind of hopeful romantics as opposed to hopeless romantics that there's really maybe somebody out there for them. And I think it just in genders really positive feelings and, you know, I've watched people, uh, come back year after year after year, who tell me stories about, you know, meeting somebody here and going in vacationing with them, you know, going to their home state and meeting up for different, you know, events and, and what have you. And it's all because of Richard Matheson's book, the screenplay, the movie, and now this film,
Speaker 2 00:04:02 The convention somebody's Uber, somebody's Uber is driving by.
Speaker 1 00:04:07 Yes, they are. That's how we get around on Mackinaw Island.
Speaker 2 00:04:11 How old are your students in film studies? That's, you know, generally
Speaker 1 00:04:16 You get students that are 18, 19 years old that really have very little affinity for cinema. You know, one of the things that always amazes me is when, uh, you show a black and white film to students and they ask why aren't we watching the colorized version? Or what, why was this movie shot in black and white? So it will, you know, cause it was made in 1935 or something and they don't get it. Do you show somewhere in time to your students? I certainly show them bits and pieces of it. Yeah. Like there's a really specific example I can give you. There's a, it's called a split diopter shot, which kind of tricks the film, uh, the lens of the camera, uh, into being able to do a close focus and a deep focus. Uh, there's a shot in the movie where Jane Seymour is down in the, uh, the grounds of the grand hotel.
Speaker 1 00:05:09 Um, and Christopher Reeve is sitting up on the porch and, uh, there's a split diopter shot. Chris is in focus up close Jane's and focus way down on the lawn. And the cinematographer is a doormat Kosky, uh, set that shot up so that it was framed with the, uh, the porch post that kinda masking the split lens so that he could make that shot happen. Um, there's also a great shot in there where, uh, is a door set up a reflection of Jane in the window of a door and has a, uh, you know, crew member drawing the shade behind the window of the door. And you see reflected in that pane of glass. As she's walking down on the beach by the Lake, that's just cool stuff. And you know, a lot of times, you know, cinematographers now we're so concerned about how many explosions we can make happen and you know, how much flash we can get on camera that you forget about good old fashioned cinematography. So that's the kind of stuff I get excited about because the kids get it. They get it when you show it to them.
Speaker 0 00:06:26 Thanks for listening to a call back yesterday, Padlet, please subscribe and give us a rating. And I hope I'll see you next year on Mackinaw.
