Friday The 13th Blog

When Friday the 13th: A New Beginning was released in 1985, there was a lot of interest and also much speculation to what the movie would be about as Jason was effectively killed in the previous movie, The Final Chapter. After its release, fans criticized the movie for the missing component that had resided in the previous films and the one constant in the franchise, Jason Voorhees. And although fans were in an uproar over the new direction that franchise was taking, there was an equal amount of disparity behind the making of the film. Some of which is documented in the Peter Bracke book, Crystal Lake Memories.

With that being said, over the years many fans have grown fond of the film and even began searching out the shooting location of the much maligned film. The shooting location and the secrets it held were one of the last true mysteries left in the franchise. What a treat it would be for fans to finally find the infamous location and see how it changed through the years. Well, one fan, known to many in the Friday the 13th community as Germaniac, indeed found the location and shared its whereabouts with fridaythe13thfilms.com!

After seeing the location on Google Earth, we were happy to learn that the land that once was used for shooting of “A New Beginning” was kept up beautifully. Major buildings used for the movie were still very recognizable. Then, an even greater surprise was revealed to us when we contacted the current owner for an interview. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the current owner of the property was also the owner of the property during the shooting of “A New Beginning” 25 years ago! Cathryn agreed to talk to us and share some of her experiences, but one of the conditions is that we do not display the address of her property or encourage any fan contact for privacy reasons. We, of course, obliged and now we are ready to give you a first hand account of what it was like during the shooting of “A New Beginning”.

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FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE RANCH
The ranch has hosted many shoots for TV commercials, movies, television shows, music videos and still photos. In fact, some scenes of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson, were filmed at this very ranch! Cathryn has met a lot of stars, but she remembers two in particular.

Randy Travis chose the ranch for a television film project and Cathryn found him to be both friendly and very much a professional on the set. She also mentioned that Harrison Ford once had a still photo shoot at the ranch and enjoyed picking a few oranges from the ranch orchard to take home.

HOW THE RANCH WAS CHOSEN FOR THE SHOOTING LOCATION
Cathryn remembers when location scouts just dropped in on homeowners when scouting in a neighborhood for a production company. Eventually, after several shoots, she contracted with a Hollywood location agency which sent many projects her way. She also submitted photographs of the ranch to the California Film Commission to include in their scouting notebooks which is where the scout from Terror Inc. found the location. The scout arranged a visit to the ranch, took photos to show the producers, and then brought key members of the production team to the site.

Since the ranch spanned many acres and housed many buildings, it was thought to perfect for filming. The ability to shoot almost the entire movie in one place was very appealing for a timely production and for budgetary concerns.

 
GETTING IT IN WRITING: HAMMERING OUT THE DETAILS
Cathryn negotiated, herself, with the producers to ensure that every piece of her property was left in its original state. All pieces of her property would be put back in its correct place and intact along with repainting any walls that had been altered for production. Additionally, insurance, on-site fire officer, overtime, specific ranch areas available, and many other details were negotiated. The production company wanted Cathryn’s family to move out of the ranch to a motel at the company’s expense, but that was not acceptable and the family stayed on site for the entire shoot.

The producers worked out a shooting schedule that would include times that the shoot would take place as well when deliveries would arrive during the production. As we found out, these schedules were not always followed. Also, a question that was raised by the producers was something that we would never think of as being a concern. Cathryn was asked if killings portrayed in the story would bother her and if not, would a lot of killings be problematic. At that point, there had been no mention of a Friday the 13th movie – just a “low budget film”. This was kind of humorous, but apparently, very necessary.

The entire endeavor for shooting “A New Beginning” at the ranch spanned 3 months. There was one month to dress the location, one month to shoot, and one month to strike. During the process there were a number of obstacles to overcome. This was the longest production that Cathryn and the ranch have ever dealt with and that is why many details were hammered out before production began.

 

DRESSING THE LOCATION
During the one month of time the crew had to dress the location, there was much to accomplish.

There was a lot of work that went into the barn to make it ready for filming as it was an integral part of the finale of the movie. For the entrance to the barn, there were three breakaway doors created to serve for filming the scene were Reggie breaks through with the tractor. Each huge door was made from Balsa wood and painted and weathered to exactly match the original doors of the barn. Cathryn mentioned that the reproduced doors looked just like the antique barn door they replaced.

 

Inside the barn, there was major construction that took place. The tool shed that Pam hides in and eventually pops out of with a chainsaw was made from scratch and was added just for the film. The bigger project involved adding the entire loft in the upper portion of the barn. The loft was necessary to achieve overhead shots of the main entrance to the barn as well as shooting the final confrontation of Roy, Pam, Reggie and Tommy. 

 

In the main house, the entire front window was removed and three sets of breakaway windows were created from scratch. Each window set was made using balsa wood and every pane of glass, 14 in total, was made of “candy” glass. Both materials broke easily and was necessary as the window would need to be broken during the scene when Roy throws Reggie’s grandfather through the window towards the end of the film.

 

Upstairs, in the main house, Cathryn mentioned that her son’s room was transformed into Violet’s room complete with new purple paint job and posters. Her daughter’s room was dressed to be the room Robin stays in with the bunk bed where she encounters Roy and Jake.

 

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Come back and visit next week as we continue into Part 2 of our look at the location filming of “A New Beginning”. We will explore the film shoot as it pertains to Cathryn’s experiences. She explains the difficulty of security, nosey neighbors, views of her property from afar during filming, her memories of the cast and crew and much more!