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Director Steve Feke talks with actress Georgia Engel about a scene.
from Gennie p. 1
The two quickly leap from their pint-
sized directors' chairs to run around
a nearby clump of bushes.
Gennie's exuberance is testing
her mother's patience. Sally James,
who was calmly working on a cross
word puzzle, is now trying to coax
her daughter back to her chair in
time for the next scene.
Robert Pine leans over and guides
her with the words "Listen to your
mother, Gennie," and she reluc
tantly sits in her chair.
It's 9:15 a.m. and time for the first
scene.
A frenzied production assistant
rushes to the cleared area where the
parents of the child actors are qui
etly watching the production activity
and pulls Gennie and Joshua to the
set.
A contagion of yells fill the air as
five production assistants yell "Pic
ture Up!" and prepare the cast for
filming.
The crew has hired five Dallas po
lice officers to contain the gawking
neighbors who are now inching
their way closer to the movie set.
The officers block all neighbor
hood traffic so the only noise that
can be heard is the locust's buzzing
overhead.
In this scene, Gennie runs into the
arms of "Papa" as he pulls a 1952
Plymouth into the driveway.lt
sounds simple, but it takes the crew
a total of 75 minutes to perfect this
scene.
First, Gennie's hat flies off her
head as she runs toward Papa.
Then, the camera angle is not
quite right and director Steve Feke
will not be satisfied until another
scene is shot.
Next, an airplane flies overhead
and the production crew stops ev
erything until it is out of earshot.
The cast and crew cope with the
95-degree heat and the many ini
ruptions as they manage to
ahead of schedule.
To add to the confusion, a:
alarm system goes off across
street and the production assis
run to quiet the noise.
Feke immediately moves hist
to another set to begin filming
scene without sound until the i
lem has been solved.
The children, restless from I
a softball scene six times, retreat
the shade. They've put in a
eight hours of work and are ready
call it a day.
They end the afternoon's fil
by pulling their directors' chairs:
gether and reciting tongue twiste
Martin Jurow says he is pie
with the chemistry between thee
and the crew of "Papa Was a]
cher."
"This is a charming, loveablef
with a great deal of humor that!
prove, as Terms of EndeanneJ
did, that we can find an audien)
beyond the 12 to 17-year-old
bracket," Jurow says.
He says he's anxious to see I
the G-rated family film does note
"A film does not need to haves
violence and crude language to j
successful," he says.
'Til Tuesday: Mann controls band
By MARY CAMPBELL
Associated Press
When 'Til Tuesday was being formed, vocalist
and bassist Aimee Mann says she wanted to
make it clear she wanted to be the leader.
Mann, 23, says she wanted that point to be
okay with each member — "speak now or forever
hold your peace."
"We discussed how we would split publishing
and what we wanted to do strategy wise," she
says.
"I recently came across a typed list of strategy
policies we'd made up," she says. "Robert (gui
tarist Robert Holmes) and I would sit around for
hours, planning. We knew we wanted to make a
tape. We'd borrow money from so and so and get
such and such a studio and get this person to pro
duce it."
'Til Tuesday may have needed lists of strategies
for success, but now the band is too busy to make
them. A recent tour with Tom Petty immediately
followed one with Hall and Oates.
The band's first album, on Epic Records,
"Voices Carry," was No. 14 on the best-selling
charts of July 7. The single, "Voices Carry," was
No. 10 on the same date. Both are climbing. The
single's video is getting heavy airplay on MTV.
The "Voices Carry" video's last scene is of an
audience, supposedly at Carnegie Hall.
"A radio station in Boston, WBCN, put out this
call that we needed a bunch of people," Mann
says. "It was in an out-of-the-way place, Dorches
ter, on a rainy night. It required older people and
evening dress. We made it look like there was a
lot more people than there was."
The next video, for "Looking over my Shoul
der," was shot after the Tom Petty tour in a con
vent in New York City.
"In the video," Mann says, "it (the convent) will
be a mansion."
Three of the four members of 'Til Tuesday went
to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, although
they didn't know each other there. Mann, whose
family includes a brother, half brother, half sister
"and a bunch of step brothers and sisters," went
to Berklee from Richmond, Va.
She says of her time at the music school, "I
wasn't really interested in jazz. I went to Berklee
because all the other music schools were classi
cally based and I thought I could learn some ba
sic stuff about music. It didn't have auditions. I
couldn't play anything. I had a boyfriend who
was an electric bass player. I fooled around with
his bass. I just thought I might have an aptitude
for it.
"Berklee was good. It got me out of Richmond. It
taught me a lot about music, gave me the basis so
'"Voices Carry' was about a
guy I was going out with
who had another girlfriend
at the same time, "— Aimee
Mann, vocalist and bassist
for 'Til Tuesday
I could set off on my own and write songs and
play in a band."
She and a fellow student, a guitarist who also
liked new wave and punk, formed the Young
Snakes, a band that stayed together two years.
"Then it started to feel the music we were doing
was too inaccessible for my taste," Mann says. "I
'didn't feel like I was writing about anything I
cared about. I wanted to write love songs. That
wasn't considered cool by the underground.
"I wrote a couple of things with A1 Jorgenson of
the Ministry. I learned a lot from him about get
ting chord changes, melody and beat down
quickly. We had been hatching out every little de
tail. It was nerve wracking. In the end it didn't
seem to get us better songs.
"So I started writing songs and putting word
around to friends that I was looking for musicians
to play on a tape with me. I would make a 10]
and get a record deal."
Mann explains how 'Til Tuesday got togethe
"I met Robert Holmes. We wanted towrite|
gether, we were getting along so well,
(drummer Michael Hausman) was interested!
what we were doing. We talked him intoquitt
the band he was in. He was living withmeatl
time. We broke up about a year ago. He'sstilj
the band.
"We tried to think of keyboard players we kn|
around town. I called up Joey Pesce, whojoine
They had day jobs, Hausman in a dot!
store, Pesce in a bank. Holmes in apartm|
painting and Mann in a record store. Theypla
nights, whenever they could. They gave IanTl
lor, who produced the Ministry album, aneitf
track tape of four songs. Taylor produced!
demonstration record which recently hired m|
agers took to record labels.
"We were making this demo at the same I
we were participating in a battle of bands 1
held in Boston, which we won," Mann
"There were 24 bands competing. They oifej
$2,000, a free video, a small amount of
ment, studio time and an interview on
which was a big thrill.
"We got the offer from Epic about a montl
terwards. It took six months to negotiate,!
months to find a producer, two months to re
the album, two months to get it out and
months to get to the top 10. It was the first i
I've ever recorded — first everything."
Mann writes the lyrics for their songs.
"Voices Carry' was about a guy I was gj
out with who had another girlfriend at the:
time," Mann says. "It's a situation I often find|
self in. He can't make up his mind if he wa
break up with her or not. I was getting si(j
keeping everything quiet."
Next, 'Til Tuesday will tour for seven weeksl
Rick Springfield, make a video for a third si|
headline a tour and start a second album.
The name 'Til Tuesday isn't significant,
says. The group just wanted a phrase with <
of the week in it.