In the Lyons Den: Location
Part Two
For a project like Schism, the main filming location is important. Very important. When director John C. Lyons finally found the assisted living facility that could serve as his character Neil’s home, Lyons described it as “huge.”
Of course, calling the development “huge” may be a bit of an understatement for an Erie production without a budget. Regardless of how you want to phrase it, Schism has its main shooting location and the fun is really about to begin.
The facility, Brevillier Village, sits at 5416 East Lake Road in Harbor Creek, Pa. With three residential buildings and hundreds of senior residents, Lyons was excited about the many options that the housing and healthcare campus offered. The majority of the indoor scenes will be filmed in the rehabilitation facility known as Ball Pavilion, but it was the “beautiful campus” that really impressed Lyons.
“I was looking for a place that can have nice outdoor scenes,” Lyons said.
The central gazebo, the wooded surroundings, and the lake shore are some of Brevillier Village’s most appealing aspects. With the quickly changing seasons, finding a suitable outdoor location as soon as possible was important to moving the production forward.
Along with the scenic location, Lyons is very excited about the indoor options provided by Brevillier Village’s Ball Pavilion.
“It has brightly lit hallways. Wide hallways. High ceilings,” said Lyons. “It’s just going to work well for having a crew in there.”
Most of the other locations Lyons scouted had a clinical, hospital feel to them. The modern Ball Pavilion facility has a flexibility that Lyons needs to make sure his filming can be completed while minimalizing the interruptions to the daily lives of residents.
“When we are there, we want to make everyone feel as comfortable as we can,” said Lyons. “If we were going to be crowding the hallway and making people feel uncomfortable, that would suck.”
Vicky Wittuck, Vice President of Healthcare, is the woman in charge of making sure the experience doesn’t “suck” for residents of Ball Pavilion. Wittuck, who was approached by a staff member about the use of the location, has already opened the doors to Brevillier’s Barnabas Court building for filming. However, that was a short student film limited to one room. The breadth of the Schism project is something that will take some managing.
“It’s the indoor stuff that will be a challenge,” Wittuck said. She envisioned having to block hallways for filming during periods of the day, but she hopes that after filming goes on for a few weeks, residents and staff will be used to the slight disruption. In fact, she’s hoping that this will be something the people in Ball Pavilion will enjoy.
“I look at it from the perspective that it might be fun for the residents,” said Wittuck.
In addition to providing the experience to the residents, Wittuck has two other reasons for allowing Lyons to shoot at the facility. She’s the mother of children extensively involved in theatre, so she has an appreciation for the arts. As a senior healthcare professional, she’s also very interested in Lyons’ story of a man battling dementia.
“We have people who are hallucinating and seeing things that aren’t there,” Wittuck said. “You wonder what is going on.”
And though she’s quick to emphasize that the work is fiction, Wittuck is hoping that the use of Brevillier Village in Lyons film will put an emphasis on America’s aging population and ensuring that care is possible in the future.
“There’s a lot of discussion of this character and quality of life,” said Wittuck. “How do you allocate these resources?”
Filmming for Schism is scheduled to begin at Brevillier the weekend of October 14, weather permitting.
This article is part two in a series about John C. Lyons upcoming Erie-produced feature Schism. More articles will follow as the production progresses. For more information on Schism visit www.SchismMovie.com.
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