When I was a boy my father shaped human figures out of sand on the beach in Wellfleet on Cape Cod. Sometimes I asked him to cover me with sand and shape it around my body, so that I could be a part of the Sand People family. There was something magical about this and slightly sinister. The Sand Man and the Sand Women were like large golems that might just stir to life. Last weekend, while attending the Mendocino Film festival, I took time out to go to the beach were Big River meets the sea. I bought a shovel at the hardware store and borrowed a bucket from my host. Then I made my Sand Parents as I remembered them. I took pictures to show to Zsófi Tasnádi, my art director in Budapest, exactly what these figures looked like. Here they are. They took 2 ½ hours to make.
All twenty-five recreations scenes are being shot in Hungary with sixteen Hungarian actors in non-speaking roles and a Hungarian crew. Because Hungary in a landlocked country there are no ocean beaches, but fortunately there is an a white sand beach just outside of Budapest where an enterprising Hungarian developer has created a Caribbean beach resort in the heart of Central Europe. Go figure. There are no waves but we can add them in post production. Why not shoot the American scenes in the United States and the Hungarian Scenes in Hungary? To be continued…
