The Lost Coast Tapes

I got the word on Thursday night, a film crew was in town shooting a movie down the road from my house in a park.  Not much was known.  The crew was shooting by the pond, there were craft services set up for what appeared to be about "80 people."  A large prop log draped with vines was next to a set tent, and there were plenty of trailers nearby for the cast and crew.  I had seen the trailers earlier and had noticed an increase of traffic, but nothing made me think it was for a movie.  One person reported the film was a horror film about Bigfoot, something that has been seen in this neck of the woods quite a few times, and that the crew had been in Weaverville or Willow Creek the previous day.

On Friday I checked it out and saw a smaller craft services table, but a bunch of trailers and film types standing around.  That's about as far as I got as a family matter came up, but as I have learned by arcane sources like our local paper and the Internet, the film's working title is The Lost Coast Tapes and it is due out in 2012 starring Ashley Wood.

I figure it is a "found footage" (like The Blair Witch Project or Cannibal Holocaust) movie, which I tend to enjoy.  I also happen to enjoy Bigfoot, so I will probably see this one.

The pond they shot at has been in used in films before, notably the original television mini-series Salem's Lot, which was also filmed in nearby Ferndale (a town that hasn't changed much since David Soul was there).  None of this is really all that important, but it is pretty neat nonetheless.  Humboldt County has got some great film environments (see the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi) and has plenty of places (and drugs) to keep the cast and crew occupied in the down times.  I have no idea if The Lost Coast Tapes will be worth watching (I instantly thought of the SyFy network when seeing the trailers), but I'm sure plenty of people around here will be renting it/tuning in/going to the theatre.  We're no Hollywood up here, and some film experiences have let the locals with a bad taste in their mouth, but we also support whatever films are shot here ... though sometimes we wished we would've avoided them (The Majestic comes to mind).


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