American Cinematographer - April 2018 - 80

◗

The Never-Ending Story

Top, from left: Associate director Teresa Cicala, director William Ludel, technical director Chuck
Abate and lighting director Bob Bessoir work at a fast pace inside the production control booth.
Above: AC photo editor Kelly Brinker (second from right, wearing black) grills Ludel and
producer Mary-Kelly Weir (right) between scenes.

and then we were right back to setting
up the next scene."
Shooting on location occurred
quite frequently during the 1980s. "I
think we maybe did four location shoots
a year, and a bunch of mini-shoots,"
recalls Hughes, who started on the show
in 1985. "We would be out of the studio,
out in the open, driving cars and jumping off cliffs, making it look as real as we
could." She explains that Monty was a
"real visionary who was amazingly in
touch with human emotion, and she
wanted everything to come from a real
80

April 2018

place. Even though we might be doing
outlandish stories, everything had to be
rooted in a real emotion and be very
human."
Some of the locations included
Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, Big Bear
Lake, Mexico, Texas and Mount
Rushmore. "The show had a lot of
money back then," Steib says, "so if there
was something that Gloria wanted to do
with the production, they let her do it."
Actor David Mendenhall, who
portrayed Mike Webber, started on the
show in 1980 when he was 8 years old.
American Cinematographer

He began as a day player hired by
Monty, but his role expanded when his
character was adopted by Rick and
Lesley Webber (Chris Robinson and
Denise Alexander, respectively) -
Laura's parents. He appeared regularly in
two to three episodes a week for six-anda-half years.
"Some tape days were different
than others," Mendenhall recalls. "Some
days were called 'block and tape,' where
we would get our blocking from the
director and tape immediately afterward.
We would start in the morning and
shoot until we were done. However,
most days were what we called 'rehearse
and tape.' When we taped shows that
way, we would block and rehearse in the
mornings. After rehearsals ended, all the
actors would be called in to receive notes
from the director and Gloria for the
scenes we worked on together. We
would start taping those scenes in the
afternoon."
McCullough started on the show
in 1985 at the age of 7, with Robin
immediately set up as an integral part of
the storyline, which was unusual for
child actors working on soaps.
McCullough worked five days a week
with 40-50 pages of dialogue a day, while
attending studio school on set, along
with Mendenhall.
"Gloria liked to work a scene to
death," McCullough says. "Even
though she was the executive producer,
she acted more like a director. She had
me audition for the role 12 times, and
the last three times were improv screen
tests to make sure I could improv with
Finola Hughes and Tristan Rogers
(portraying Robert Scorpio), who
played my parents. There was a lot of
trying to make it seem like real life, and
the scenes felt really natural because we
worked the hell out of them. It is very
different than it is today, because we
had long hours. We would get there at
about 6 a.m. and some actors would still
be taping until midnight or 1 or 2 in the
morning every day."
These days, the workday for the
actor depends on when their scenes are
scheduled for recording. McCullough



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2018

Contents
American Cinematographer - April 2018 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - April 2018 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - April 2018 - 1
American Cinematographer - April 2018 - 2
American Cinematographer - April 2018 - Contents
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