Knoxville Goes Hollywood with the production of Dog Years

Do you remember me telling you Hollywood was coming to Knoxville? It happened! Whitener Entertainment Group was here for most of June through the first few days of this month filming Dog Years.  One day, DH and I happened upon them shooting downtown and let me say it was mega cool fun.

Scene setup
The two chicks in the foreground passing the camera crew truck are extras in the movie.
Scene set up continues. What I didn’t realize when I snapped this picture is I can see the director, Adam Rifkin sitting down on the bench with his head resting on his hand.
Here’s a better picture of Mr. Rifkin. I couldn’t get a clear shot of him looking up. There were too many people moving around and crowd control keeping everyone in check.
I got to meet one of the producers of Dog Years and he’s a Tennessee boy. Meet Richie Walls. He was very nice. I asked about being an extra, even gave my info to Mr. Walls’ assistant, but sadly no call ever came for me. Hollywood just doesn’t know what they are missing out on, do they? 🙂
Two of three gentlemen sitting in front of the monitors are producers. Going left to right meet Neal Mandt (Producer), Colonel Dixon, and Don Whitener (Producer). I didn’t meet these guys, but they looked like a friendly bunch.
This picture doesn’t need any explanation.
The gentleman waving is Burt Reynolds. Can you believe he’s 80 years old? I still think of him as the Bandit. At one point I was only 4-6 feet from the golf cart as it passed. That was so amazing!

If you’re a fan of Burt’s then, you may want to check out Monday’s post: Burt Reynolds Movie Theme Songs Move Me.

I barely got this shot with everyone hovering around Mr. Reynolds. Thank heavens for zoom lenses!
I missed my chance to get a shot of Clark Griswold, I mean Chevy Chase. He slipped in while I was taking pictures of Burt, but thankfully DH got a good one with his iPhone and he said it was okay to share it with my peeps.
This was a lucky shot. I used my zoom lens blindly snapping my shutter without a clue of who was in my viewfinder. You can see Burt, but part of the camera man’s equipment is blocking Chevy’s face. Drats! Oh well, at least I got a scene shot with the stars.
Richie Walls interviewed by local color Russell Biven with WBIR.

I tell you this, if I ever catch wind of another film production in our area then I’m going to act quicker to get cast as an extra and to look for other times to photo the whole shebang. 😉 Thanks for including me in your day, kittens and dawgs.  In case you missed the mews I’m working on my site, repairing broken links and videos while summer blog traffic is slow. What this means is I’m minimizing my content to two posts each week, especially those that are very similar such as (Not-so) Wordless Wednesday and Skywatch Friday.

Contrary to what I said a few seconds ago, I will add a third post this week and hope you’ll join me on Friday for Battle of the Bands round two with More Than A Feeling #BoTB showdown. Have a fototastic day!

 

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18 comments

    1. Lydia, Thanks for stopping by for a visit. The only thing I’ve seen by Adam Rifkin, the director, is MouseHunt. So, I’m anxious to see his latest work filmed in my backyard, so-to-speak. Plus, I’m crossing my fingers to get a shot as an extra should they return for more filming. lol

    1. Claudia, yeah, it was pretty cool. If you noticed the produce, Richie Walls, commented on this post. I sent him an email thanking him for stopping in and he said they were coming back for more filming. So, maybe I’ll get another shot at being used as an extra. *fingers crossed* lol

  3. My apologies! We will use you in the next one coming soon. One of the downfalls of the amazing turn out and interest we had in this production was we had over 4500 people that we even made it through and auditioned. We look forward to using the ones that weren’t available our dates or we were not able to use this time around. What an amazing experience to come home and be able to do this. Love the pics!

    1. Hello, Mr. Walls!

      Oh, you made my evening with your visit! You know, I basically knew the turn out for this movie would be amazing. This is something that doesn’t happen a lot in East Tennessee, as you know, especially in one’s own backyard so-to-speak. I am happy your return visit home and filming experience was a good one. I guess the only thing that’s changed is the attention you get now. I mean, you leave as a Tennessee Boy, but come back as a Hollywood Producer. I can’t figure out the fuss, can you? lol No apologizes are needed, really! I certainly appreciate your thoughtfulness and you bet I’ll look forward to getting a chance to work with you next time. That would be totally awesome! Thank you for commenting on my photos and leaving your footprints in comments. When are you coming back to film next? Have an incredible weekend!

    1. Rhonda, we were fortunate to get the timing right. Our youngest daughter works downtown and mentioned they were filming there a lot, so we took a gamble in going. Luckily for us it paid off! Thanks for stopping by, next up your place!

    1. Steve, we had a good time watching the flurry of activity leading up to the scene shot and the arrival of the stars. I’m glad we did this because if we hadn’t then I’d be kicking myself for not having done it. Life is too short for regrets Thanks for stopping by, my friend!

    1. Keith, it was a lot of fun. The only thing I didn’t like was the heat. It was very sunny and humid. I wire a ball cap to protect my face, but it gave me heat exhaustion instead. I have always been sensitive this way. My face was all patchy red when I got back to our car. All I thought was, “What an awful impression I made with the producer(Mr. Walls).” Lol

  8. I would have avoided this at all costs. Okay, I’ve actually avoided this kind of thing. Not my cup of tea. I’m glad you got a kick out of it though.

    Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ☺

    1. Normally I stay away from crowds, but this is one of those once in a life time events I wanted to be apart of. I did get a kick out of it! ?

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