{From the recent press shoot for Sometimes a Great Notion, taken in the scene shop on the set. Pictured from left to right: Leland (Karl Miller), Hank (P.J. Sosko), Henry (Tobias Andersen) and Joe Ben (Andy Paterson).} note: Those trees in the background? Not in the scene shop. Intrepid photographer Owen Carey shot and subbed in some Forest Park scenery to approximate the scenic drop that will be behind the completed set.

It was a whirlwind of field trips and photoshoots Friday, as we hosted PDX Magazine for their spring fashion shoot in and around the theater and then popped down to Corvallis with the cast and crew of Sometimes a Great Notion for a logging demonstration with OSU Forestry Department guy Jeff Wimer.

Some impressions from the day:

Coffee in hand, PDX Magazine editor Hollyanna McCollom crowds into one of PCS’ basement dressing rooms with her fashion editor and art director to survey a table of shoes borrowed for the shoot. She drools over a pair of Christian Laboutins from Marios that clock in at $785 cash. Total estimated value of clothes pulled for the shoot? About $15k. Later in the day, Holly is seen clutching the signature red bottomed pumps to her chest like a delighted child with a new, extremely elegant toy.

Superman look-alike and 3rd Floor Sketch Comedy regular Spencer Conway lounges on a padded bench in a gorgeous suit in front of PCS’ “firewall” with a silver clad model stretched out next to him, her chin on his knee. The art director leans over to the photographer and says, “the symmetry of his face is amazing… I think he might be the best male model we’ve ever had.” I chuckle, wondering what sort of ribbing the undeniably handsome Spencer will be in for from fellow 3rd Floor member Kevin-Michael Moore (who is one of the cast members in Sometimes a Great Notion)when that comment gets made public at Suki’s, the karaoke bar where the 3rd Floor folk can often be found after their shows.

{Spencer and Taymar lounge in front of the firewall. Photo by Daniel James. Fashion Editor Rebecca Moore. Courtesy of PDX Magazine.}

Later, the shoot heads to one of the cryptic back hallways of the Armory, a place the public rarely sees. Round lights set into the floor illuminate a crouching model in a backless, drapey black dress against the long dark tunnel of rough poured gray concrete that is a signature feature of the Armory’s sustainable renovation.

Switching gears, the cast of Sometimes a Great Notion piles on rain gear and mud boots to head out for what promises to be a messy field trip into the Oregon wild. Out on the forested slopes south of Lewiston, Oregonian photographer Motoya fires off shots of chokers, loggers, and the astonished faces of 20 creative city folk as a 50 ft pine tree crashes to the ground after a few artful strokes of the chainsaw.

The actors learn to not stand still for too long, lest the mud start to suck them in, and the loggers chuckle as our straggling band bobs and weaves down the felled brush and brambles to get to the site where “chokers” are being “set.” We discover that setting a choker means looping a big strand of metal wire around a log and hooking it to a long chain that attaches to a high guide wire running up the hill (imagine a tram for logs). Then the choker setter leaps out of the way as the log starts lurching up hill, pulled by a piece of machinery called a “yarder.” The logs leap and crash erratically as the guy manning the “yarder” pulls and grunts on a series of long levers that control the movement of the guide wire.

On the way home, Andy Paterson (playing Joe Ben in the show) is ecstatic, looking quietly out the window at the moss draped trees and quietly running his lines. Tobias (playing Henry, the patriarch) asks how Andy’s doing. “Blissed out,” he replies, “I just love being out there on the land like that. Makes you feel good all over.” Tobias quips that it makes him long for some great room service, big fluffy towels and a giant glass of gin. We laugh, wet and muddy and delighted.

{The Stamper family, also from the scene shop press shoot. Tobias is on the upper left, Andy is below him. Also pictured: Sarah Grace Wilson and PJ Sosko.} note:The stormy background? Owen’s screensaver.
I am reminded of a photo Motoya snapped that day, of a hard-hatted, hip-wadered Andy, who has wandered away from the group and is contemplating a giant stump from what the loggers call “the first cut” of that hillside, dating back to about 1910. The stump is as high as Andy’s shoulder, softly rounded with a thick blanket of moss, little plantlings shooting up through the cracks of its surface. It is also wider than the mini van that brought us out to the site. Andy’s hand is resting on the edge of the stump, and the mud has creeped up his boots and waders, making it hard to tell where Andy stops and the forest floor begins. The only bright spot is the electric orange of his hard hat. The whole thing has an otherworldly feel, as though man and tree are in the midst of a gentle slow-motion negotiation that has been in progress before we were born and will continue long after we are gone.

That night I get to see one of the PDX magazine shots I’d missed while mucking about in the forest: They have borrowed the dress forms from the costume shop and draped them with a variety of spring hued trench coats. The dress forms are set against the glass railing of the Armory’s third floor reception area and the white wooden struts of the Armory’s roof (made of old-growth Douglas fir, I am told) form a clean arch above the vivid colors of the coats. The roof skylights are shining down pale gray shafts of light, throwing the trenches into sharp relief.

{Taymar and the dress forms… Photo by Daniel James. Fashion Editor Rebecca Moore. Courtesy of PDX Magazine}

I’m struck by how clean the shot is…crisp and beautiful and vivid, like the coats have materialized out of thin air, never touched by human hands.

After an afternoon in the fecund wonderland of the muddy mountains, its hard to imagine anything being that clean.

I think about what elegantly distinct visions of Oregon beauty those two images have. In one, the actor turned log-man, deeply delighted by his encounter with the ancient forest. In the other, all the exuberence of a nascent Portland fashion scene, framed by Portland’s newest oldest building… the 100 year old “old-growth’ fir struts juxtaposed against the cutting edge sustainable design of the Armory’s eco roof.

To hold both images in the memory of one day…leaves me, like Andy, “blissed out” to have had the privilege to be there, and delighted to be in a position to help shepherd both images into being.

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