| Bob
Peterssen '06 Goes Hollywood
Bob Peterssen '06 |
December,
2004—Watch out, Tinseltown! Here comes Bob Peterssen.
In a prime example of being in the right place at the right time,
Peterssen landed a coveted internship as a production assistant
on the set of an independent movie, The Legend of Lucy Keyes,
which was recently filmed in Princeton and Westminster, MA.
Moody Street Pictures of Waltham first contacted Tom Burke, media
services supervisor and television production instructor, about
the possibility of hiring an Assumption College student to work
on the set of an independent film being shot just 20 minutes from
Assumption’s campus. Once Burke determined the legitimacy
of the offer, he informed his TV students of the opportunity, and
Peterssen jumped at the chance.
Peterssen, a junior English: Writing and Mass Communications major,
had already amassed an impressive resume. In addition to learning
the TV business through Burke’s course, he serves as a sound
technician for campus concerts in Charlie’s and has spent
time working at a recording studio near his hometown of West Warwick,
RI. Film production was the one industry he had yet to try.
The Legend of Lucy Keyes stemmed from centuries-old folklore
in the small Central Massachusetts town of Princeton. The movie’s
namesake was a four-year-old girl in 1755 when she vanished into
the woods near Wachusett Mountain, never to be heard from again.
No sign of her body was ever discovered. Distraught and hysterical
over her daughter’s death, Martha Keyes went into the woods
every night at dark and screamed Lucy’s name. Residents of
early Princeton claimed to hear cries of “Lucy!” when
the wind blew, even well after Martha’s death, and several
townspeople have allegedly witnessed the spirit of Lucy and Martha
around Wachusett Mountain. The film is a work of fiction, centering
around the events of 1755 and the aftermath of the hauntings.
Lucy Keyes’ cast and crew included a mix of local,
national, and international names. Writer/director John Stimpson
is himself a resident of Princeton and an owner of part of the property
formerly farmed by Robert Keyes, Lucy’s father. Hollywood
was represented as well, with the lead roles played by Justin Theroux
(Zoolander, Charlie’s Angels 2) and French actress
Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset). Brooke Adams
(The Baby-Sitters Club, Made-Up) also appears in the film.
As a production assistant on the set, Peterssen was responsible
for “anything and everything” that needed to be done
on set. The main role of the production assistant position was to
keep the entire set perfectly quiet during scene shooting. Although
the internship required long hours and a consistently intense pace,
Peterssen loved every minute of it.
“Some days, it was nonstop,” he said. “You’d
hit the ground running at 9:00 or 10:00 a.m., and you wouldn’t
stop until midnight. There was one day of shooting that lasted from
5:00 a.m. until 1:00 a.m.”
Despite the exhaustion, Peterssen came out of the experience possessing
a new wealth of knowledge relating to camera work, sound technology
for film and video, equipment, and scene setup.
“Of course, the days of shooting are only the tip of the iceberg,”
Peterssen explains. “Next comes the post-production process—editing,
special effects, and everything else that rounds out a movie.”
Because of the nature of the film, Peterssen was able to interact
with the cast and crew much more than he would have on a larger
production, something he enjoyed immensely.
“Julie Delpy and I even had a conversation about politics,”
he said, laughing.
The Legend of Lucy Keyes is expected to be finished in
the spring of 2005. Moody Street Productions is in the process of
shopping the film around to major buyers. The film will eventually
be released on DVD, with Peterssen listed in the closing credits
as a crew member.
Peterssen has his sights set on television production as a career
path. He plans to apply for internships at Boston and Providence
television stations for his senior year. In the meantime, he has
already made a professional connection from his Lucy Keyes
experience—another production assistant from the movie has
asked him to work as a sound technician on another independent film,
in the spring.
“My favorite part of the whole experience was meeting such
great people,” Peterssen says. “The networking opportunities
are huge. I feel like I have so many future possibilities ahead
of me now.”
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