Unbelievable!!

Last night, we were all heading to bed kinda late. Tim had been in our bedroom watching TV (in the air conditioning!) and came out around 11 p.m. He said we were not going to believe what he found on TV. We checked out the Hallmark station and the CBC movie, Betrayed, was being shown. That movie was filmed in Lumsden and Fort Qu'Appelle in the summer of 2003. Because it was showing pieces of 'home' and because we were extras in the opening parade scene, we all stayed up to watch.

It was a blistering hot Saturday that August and we had been asked to sign up to be part of the crowd as a fundraiser for the school's band program. Apparently they got a certain amount of money from the producers for everyone they recruited. We brought our lawn chairs and got a front row seat across from the old Big Way store on James Street. About a half hour later, one of the TV crew asked a local extra to find some kids to ride in the rumble seat of an old car and she grabbed Kaleb and Annie. They were taken to another street where the cars were lined up and treated royally with popsicles and water bottles. We were roasting so another crew member went into the Big Way and bought a shopping cart load of freezies and walked up and down the street handing them out between scenes. It took almost six hours to film several shots of the parade at different angles and with different light. In the movie, the parade is about 30 seconds long - UGH!

When it was all over, we went home for supper, chatting about our experience. A knock came at the door. It was one of the producers who wanted to know if they could film outside our home and use the electricity from our outside plug. He said we would be rewarded for helping out. We readily agreed and they set up this amazing scene with track running along the street for the small platform cars that hold the movie cameras and huge lights everywhere. Our street was blocked off. We counted nearly 80 people out there working. When the set was up, they all went for supper to the big catering tents across town. A university student was left to guard the equipment so Kaleb, Annie and a few of their friends went out and sat in the director and actor's chairs!!

They began filming later that evening and we watched right from our porch. If you've seen the movie, its the part at the end where the town man responsible for the water contamination is opening up the fire hydrant. You can barely see our porch steps, mailbox and driveway. It was late at night but with the amazing lighting system they had, the scene looks like daylight. Its about a 20 second part of the movie but took over two hours to film! Later in the mail we received $50 gift certificate to Montana's restaurant.

It was unbelievable to sit in the heat of our new tropical home and see scenes from our previous home, a place our hearts still long for and where so many good friends still live.