DAY 8
Tuesday, August 18, 1998

The Creek, Pilchuck Park, Snohomish, WA
5:52 AM
Todd Howard, Producer

Today, we are back at "the creek" location. A nice swimming hole on the Pilchuck River near an underpass where the normal summer days of our location scouting brought us upon hordes of toothy, matted-hair, hollering neighborhood kid-o's. Today, adults with walkie-talkies balance on the rocks around a twisted, mangled metal frame of a bike that was once both pristine in nature, coveted by our boys and loved by the character of Tink.

Today, the girls have gone too far. They have stolen Tink's prized bike, and have bashed it to smithereens with a lead pipe, a rusted plumbing implement, a tire iron and a small kickstand. They have obliterated this thing, and Paul and Quinn have tossed it into the drink, so to speak.

Over lunch, I sat on the rocks and stared at this bike and had a curious experience. I was contemplating how harsh it was that we had just directed characters in our little movie to utterly beat this bicycle to death. My thoughts drifted to Lord of the Flies, a favorite movie of mine that took the harsh to the extreme in fleshing out the metaphors of the film. I was pondering that film and its ability to touch my core when Kate Weinberger, one of the documentarians for our film peered her head over the edge of the cliff some 15 feet above me, and said, "what are you guys doin'?" I was the only person down in the ravine. Furthermore, the pinnacle of the movie "Lord of the Flies," which I have sometimes felt had its own small amount of influence on THE LAST the end, has the boys burning half the island down to smoke the protagonist out of the woods to the beach to kill him, and they all fall off the bluff onto the sand at the feet of an army general who looks at them perplexed: "what are you guys doin'?"

I got chills. Our movie is strong, and I think that is a fantastic thing.

More soon.

-Todd

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