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WQED Multimedia is producing a four-part documentary that will bring to life the French and Indian War, a fascinating yet little-understood conflict. Produced and filmed locally, the production is an important, regional economic-development project. "The War That Made America" is planned for broadcast on Wednesdays Jan. 18 and 25, 9-11 p.m. It was a normal day at WQED Multimedia. It was early spring, and one of the first nice days of the season. Employees were busy making magazines, TV shows, radio broadcasts . . . even educational programs for kids who were about to be set loose from school for the summer. And in WQED's backyard, right in the middle of Oakland, Indians in full war paint were stalking up a snowy hillside to get a good vantage point of the Forks of the Ohio. As you probably guessed, the Indians were full-blooded Native American actors - specially cast in these roles - playing out a scene for WQED's upcoming dramatic documentary on the French and Indian War called "The War That Made America." It's set to air nationwide on public television stations in January 2006, and Pittsburghers will see a lot of their hometown and its history featured prominently in the film. "We started with a few guiding principles: to tell the true story of this region's key role in our nation's founding, to help bring tourists to the many French and Indian War sites that surround us, to make a first-class series for public television, and to do as much production as possible in Southwestern Pennsylvania," says Deborah Acklin, executive producer of "The War That Made America" and general manager of WQED Multimedia. But many challenges came along with filming here. The locations that played big roles in the war have changed dramatically in the past 250 years. Filming at Fort Pitt in Point State Park, for example, would have meant including fountains, skyscrapers and sports stadiums. It's no longer the picturesque confluence of three wild rivers that existed during young George Washington's time.
Through clever techniques and state-of-the-art technology, however, the filmmakers solved these problems. Principal photography was done in the nearly pristine forests and mountains of the Laurel Highlands, in Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset counties. The film crew built huge structures, including a fort, a log cabin and an Indian village. Interior sets were housed inside an abandoned ski lodge, which served as a makeshift soundstage. And the Native Americans filmed at WQED Multimedia will be seamlessly blended into re-creations of Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne by using a technique called "green screen." Many scenes contain special effects created to give viewers a true sense of what our region looked like 20 years before the American Revolution. "Over two solid months of filming, we reinvested more than $3 million in the local economy," Acklin says. "The project was developed, researched, managed and headquartered out of Pittsburgh. It's a huge undertaking for a local station, especially a nonprofit, and WQED Multimedia is one of the few places in the country where it could have been done." Acklin notes that it couldn't have been done without an extraordinary financial commitment from Western Pennsylvania's foundation community and the National Endowment for the Humanities, combined with the talents of local film workers. "Most people don't think about things like truck drivers, but the Teamsters drivers were amazingly skilled, able to transport hundreds of people on old logging roads." The local lighting, grip, electric, makeup, hair and assorted crew worked tirelessly and gave the series a real Hollywood-film look. From start to finish, this film is the product of the Pittsburgh-area, and this region gets a starring role. |
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A PITTSBURGH STORY 
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