Envoy Newsbreak

Reprinted from the Woodbine Twiner, Jan. 18, 2006

By Nikki Davis
The Woodbine Twiner

On Jan. 25 at 7 p.m., Woodbine residents will be able to the view the footage that the Great Plains Production Co. and Envoy Inc. captured at two locations in Woodbine for commercials and a plant tour presentation title “The Milk Movie.” Roberts Dairy collected the footage for the commercials and presentation as part of their 100-year anniversary. The hard work of the city employees, the Saddle Club and others will be put on display for all to see and the hard work of seven lucky Woodbine students that were chosen as extras will pay off.

Alyssa Blum, 10, Tiffannie Blum, 16, Taylor Blum, 12, Audrina Dickman, 13, Jake Ehlert, 12, Kyle Dickman, 9 and Stetson Dickman, 5, were all selected as extras for the footage. Some of the students woke up the morning of filming knowing that they would be in front of the camera.

Prior to Woodbine’s selection for filming Bracinda Blum had e-mailed pictures of Kyle, Stetson and Audrina to Roberts Dairy. The three dressed in their best imitation early 1900s garb to pose for the pictures taken outside of Merry Brook school. Stetson enjoyed taking the pictures the most.

“I got to climb up to the bell,” Stetson boasted. “And I just jumped down.”

The Dickmans were the only students that knew prior to filming to come prepared. Tiffannie, Alyssa, Taylor and Jacolby were caught off guard as they were “drafted” for the commercial as they helped with the horses or stood idly by to watch the excitement.

According to Bracinda, Tiffannie’s story one of the most humorous.

“The company I sent the photos to wanted aged characters, because the early 1900s was rough, hard times. They told me that they didn’t want any ‘pretty’ girls and it was a predominately male culture, so they wanted to stick with traditional looks that didn’t include any rodeo queens,” Bracinda said.

“I showed up to help with the horses and they wanted me in,” Tiffannie finished simply. “The next thing I knew I was in wardrobe being put in bibs, a long-sleeved shirt, pig-tails and an old straw hat.”

“I couldn’t believe the film producer was getting his ‘rodeo queen’ and he didn’t even know it,” Bracinda laughed.

Tiffannie and her cousins were not the only ones caught off guard for filming. Jacolby’s grandfather had to return home in order to retrieve a horse for him in order for him to participate.

In order for all the students to participate they all visited a wardrobe designer and make-up artist to change them from today to turn-of-the-century. The students’ makeup was painted onto to match the times just as they were clothed to match the era.

According to the four girls, the make up artist was efficient.

“She was so fast,” Alyssa said.

All of the girls agreed that it fun to have their makeup done, but even the boys couldn’t escape the make-up artist.

“They put freckles on Stetson,” Kyle told. “Then they made my cheeks like reddish.”

Their dress was just as crucial as their makeup.

Taylor received the most interesting dress as she was clothed as a young boy in wool knickers.

“They were so uncomfortable,” Taylor said. “And so hot.”

Taylor wasn’t the only one that was uncomfortable. The costume designer had a limited number of items with her, so the students had to wear what she handed them.

Stetson kept loosing his boots as they were entirely too big for his small feet and kept falling off as he ran. On the other hand, Taylor was ecstatic when she was done filming because the boots she was asked to wear were entirely to small and made her feet sore.

Alyssa also had a wardrobe story to tell.

“I had to wear pony tails and they were tied with the strings off of Audrina’s dress,” Alyssa said. “The just cut them right off the bottom of her belt.”

Audrina was clothed in a very plain dress of the era with a sash around the waste. In order to tie Alyssa’s hair up, the costume designer snipped the ends of the sash off.

“The lady was so fast in figuring out what it would take to make it look old,” Taylor said.

The costume designer wasn’t the only staff member the students felt was easy to work with.

“There was a guy that was cueing me and one time he asked me how many dresses I had and I told him three,” Audrina told. “Then he said, ‘me too!’ He was really funny.”

The students all agreed that everyone tried to make them feel at ease. They were each given plenty of water during the heat wave that day and took several breaks.

“It was weird how we did it,” Tiffannie started. “They’d say ‘background’ and then we’d start to move then they’d say ‘action’ and then the cart would move. We did this a thousand times.”

“We had to keep doing the same thing over and over,” Audrina agreed.

Each of the students had something different to do “over and over.”

Audrina repeated her work with Elaine Ehlert as the pair was window shopping for the commercial, Taylor led Kyle and Stetson on the horse, Jacolby rode a horse behind his father, Alyssa walked with Hazel Mohn as a mother daughter combo and Tiffannie worked downtown in the background.

“I had to keep wrapping the reigns around the hitching post that was set up and then I’d walk into Swain’s,” Tiffannie said. “I thought it was great because it was so hot and Swain had their air-conditioning on. Every time I went in, I stole a piece of candy.”

Although hard, repetitive work was involved, the students were able to have fun and poke a little fun at some of the other filming crew and paid performers.

“You could just tell that some of them were from the city. They kept complaining about how hot it was and there was this one girl. She had this fake cowboy hat on and just kept complaining about how hot it was and kept saying, ‘I’m going to die, just die!’,” Tiffannie relayed.

The students were able to use the entire experience to their advantage as a learning experience as they watched all the changes that occurred in Woodbine where the filming took place. They took special notice of the dirt placed on the cement portion of the street where the filming was done, watched fake flowers and weeds being placed and watched trees being made.

“They took these poles to make fake trees,” Jake said.

“Then they would put these branches on it and stick it by another tree,” Kyle finished.

The students anxiously await Jan. 25 to see all of their hard work and new found talents on the big screen, or at least on the television set.

“I just think it is so cool that the kids just came along to watch and to help the Saddle Club with the horses. They weren’t expecting anything but they were rewarded by being put into the commercial,” Bracinda said. “Plus they go a history lesson out of the deal.

“They learned about the era by what they wore and they were allowed to ask a lot of questions. I will never forget that day or the pride I felt when the film crew personal, news reporters, business executives and strangers told me that this was one of the most joyful and rewarding experiences they have had with a town and the people in it.

“We should all take great pride in our well-maintained homes, the restoration of the Lincoln Highway and our friendly community. I hope everyone will be able to come and enjoy the presentations on Jan. 25.”