History in the making

You’ve heard of low-budget movies. This, according to producer Greg Starbuck, was a no-budget movie.

“We’re relying on people’s good faith and good hearts,” said Starbuck, standing out on Court Street in front of the Lynchburg City Museum on Sunday morning. “The more we talk about this project to people, the more people want to volunteer.”

Indeed, about 30 or so volunteers showed up at the museum — the city courthouse in a previous life — clad in a variety of period clothing (most of it hot).

“With the hoop skirt, this isn’t too bad,” said Carolyn Ashwell. “I have worn fabric that felt more like a drapery. The best thing is to make it yourself.”

At one point, a woman drove up and told Starbuck: “I’ve got something you might can use.”

It was an old-fashioned baby carriage, which wound up hosting 5-month-old Weston Dixon, son of volunteer Starbuck assistant Daniel Dixon.

Starbuck is the director of Historic Sandusky when he’s not helping to direct films and videos. The movie in progress may not ever make it to Cinemark, but the goal is to make it a compelling depiction of the Battle of Lynchburg for the Sandusky visitor’s center.

And just because there was little or no budget didn’t mean there wasn’t talent on the set. Like John Guss, site manager of Bennett Place in Durham, N.C. (where Gen. Joe Johnson surrendered his army a few weeks after Lee’s capitulation at Appomattox), who has worked on such Hollywood productions as “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and “Force of Nature.”

Surely, he was being handsomely paid, wasn’t he? Not exactly. It turns out that Starbuck and Guss worked together once upon a time in Savannah.

“Greg bought me dinner,” Guss said, “and I got to spend the night in the visitor’s center.”

Chief cameraman Robert Lee Hodge, meanwhile, was featured in Tony Horowitz’s best-selling book “Confederates in the Attic,” and is a high-profile advocate for saving Northern Virginia Civil War sites from development.

Starbuck’s contribution to the movie world has been a bit more subtle.

“In ‘Cold Harbor,’” he said, “I made the cap that Jude Law wore.”

At least Marshall Cofer wouldn’t get stiffed again. The Bedford County resident, who contributed two teams of horses to the crowd scene, said his previous film experiences were not positive.

“Both times, the movie company ran out of money before they could pay me,” he recalled. “The second time, the gunsmith who worked on the film wanted to shoot the producer, but I said: ‘If you do that, we’ll never get paid.’”

There was a flatbed truck with a boom mounted, and Guss drifted around positioning the extras like chess pieces. This was a scene where the alarm bell (actually held and shaken by Starbuck) sounded, warning the Lynchburg townspeople that the Gen. David Hunter’s Union troops were just outside the city. On the first take, the actors simply milled around.

“Cut!” said Starbuck. “We need more alarm! You have to act alarmed!”

On the next take, there was considerably more animation, but Guss had some things he wanted to fix. Earlier, he had taped some shrubbery over a “No Parking” sign that threatened to intrude into the periphery of the shot.

“You have to improvise, a lot of times,” said Starbuck, who has plans to simulate the arrival of Confederate reinforcements by using a large packing container.

“He (Starbuck) reminds me of George Lucas,” said Daniel Dixon. “He even looks like him.”