Paul Brandell, Ingham County Circuit Court Reporter, recently had the opportunity to appear in the movie “Real Steel” with Hugh Jackman.  We liked his story so much, we wanted to share it with you.  Here is Paul’s account as it appeared in The Record Times, a publication by the Michigan Association of Professional Court Reporters.

Right Place At The Right Time

By Paul Brandell, CSR, RPR

Since 2008, the State of Michigan has offered tax incentives to entice film studios to bring their work to Michigan. The Ingham County Courthouse in Mason reaped the benefits of those incentives last July when Amblin Entertainment and Dreamworks Studios filmed scenes using the courthouse for an upcoming movie starring Hugh Jackman.

Anyone who works in a courtroom has their share of interesting and intriguing trials and cases, but having the courthouse taken over by a movie production company was definitely out of the ordinary.

Every movie has an expert who scouts possible locations for the shoot. When it came time to find a courthouse, Ingham County’s was exactly what they needed. The courthouse is well over a hundred years old. It was completely renovated in 1992 and restored to its original beauty. Each floor has oak doors and trim, ornate plaster and woodwork with decorative tile work throughout. There is a majestic feel with the high ceilings, four chandeliers, two jury boxes, the gallery filled with oak seats, and the Judge’s bench presiding over it.

Whispers about the courthouse being used as a film location began in early 2010. Depending on who you talked to, though, there was a different timetable as to when or even if it was going to happen. I think the staff here started to truly believe it when studio people came up here and began to take pictures of every conceivable area and angle of the courtroom, the jury room, the second floor hallway with its marble staircase, and the beautiful courtyard.

Sometime after the first of June is when things got exciting for us. About 25 members of the film crew met with the Judge; picking his brain about the procedures that are followed during session, as well as who would be in a courtroom while session is going on.

As an official reporter, I consider the courtroom to be the reporter’s territory. We keep the record and help maintain a good working environment with the law clerks, deputies, court clerks, judicial assistants, and the Judge, so I was especially curious to know what was going on in “my” courtroom. I figured that it would be okay to go and check it out. I also thought it would be a good idea to get my élan Mira writer out of the way (you know, to keep it from getting damaged with that many people moving around in there) My wife, Carrie, didn’t buy that part of the story saying that I just wanted to see what was going on. Sue me! (No, don’t sue me.) As always, she was right.

Soon after I sat down at my desk, the director, Shawn Levi, asked the Judge, “What about the stenographer? Is there always one in the courtroom?” Apparently I felt the need to expound on the Judge’s answer. Mind you, I wasn’t asked, but I thought, what the heck. They needed to know what the best way of taking the record was and how it was done. A few minutes after that, the 1st Assistant Director, Josh McLaglen, introduced himself and asked if I would like to be the stenographer in the two scenes they would be shooting in the courtroom. After I picked my mouth up off the floor I, of course, accepted, and I don’t believe I have stopped buzzing about it ever since.

I thought to myself later that now I have an opportunity to accurately portray a reporter in a movie. There will be no one finger typing, no slow motion moving of the fingers on the keyboard, and absolutely no paper falling out of the tray and onto the floor.

Giving credit where credit is due, it was suggested to me by Melinda Dexter, a fellow reporter here in the county, that I should call Stenograph to see if they would be willing to loan me their newest machine, the Diamante. I put a call into Judy Wolfe in the marketing department and they graciously sent me their machine to use in the scene. I currently write on an Élan Mira, but I must say that the Diamante is a wonderful writer with a nice large screen and a lightweight feel. I appreciated the opportunity to sample it.

The anticipation of the actual shoot couldn’t have been higher for me. There were a few other county employees that were also selected to be background extras. Two of our deputies were selected to be, you guessed it, deputies. A handful of other employees were extras walking through different scenes as well. They transformed our courthouse from Ingham County, Michigan, to Ingham County, Texas. The building received a nice facelift from the floors up.

I was told to report at 7:30 a.m. for wardrobe check and they called me on the set at 8:00 a.m. Hair and makeup was next and then taking my place on the set. It takes quite some time to get the lighting set and perfect. Many of the crew had just finished winning Oscars for their work on Avatar, and to see them in the act of their craft was truly amazing. Everyone knew their job. They all seemed to work perfectly with each other, but I was amazed at all the equipment necessary to shoot an indoor scene. They were constantly changing a light filter or opening a blind just an inch, and then putting the light meter next to us and checking their readings. The four main actors in the scene each had a person standing in for them during this process. I thoroughly enjoyed my time, though, sitting in my chair and watching all of them.

There were many moments that stand out for me. The most prominent ones, though, deal with my job as a reporter. The first came when Hugh Jackman entered the courtroom for the first time. He has a certain presence when he enters a room. Any thought of him having a large Hollywood ego goes away very quickly, though, when you meet him. While standing next to my desk, he was chatting with a crew member about how nice our courtroom is. I took the opportunity to speak up and comment that it is a great place to come to work every day. Of course, they did not know at the time who I was. We introduced ourselves, and Hugh asked, “So this is your gig?” He then seemed genuinely interested when I showed him how the Diamante worked.

After all the lighting and camera angles were set, the actors came in. In addition to Hugh Jackman, in the scene the Judge was played by Miguel Sandoval, who you will probably remember as the main drug lord in Clear and Present Danger with Harrison Ford. The other two actors were Hope Davis and Jim Rebhorn. Hope has been in numerous TV shows and movies, and was recently nominated for an Emmy as a lead actress in a miniseries. Jim has been in so many different things it would take a couple of pages to list them.

We proceeded to go into scene rehearsals at this point. During the first one, the director happened to be standing right behind me leaning on my desk. I had not noticed him until he said “cut”. His next words, however, couldn’t have been sweeter to my ears. He leaned over my desk and said, “Oh, my gosh! Do you guys know what he is doing with his machine? Everything that is said he is writing and it’s coming up in English. It’s like magic!” At that point I felt like a rock star. Here was somebody, who didn’t have any idea what reporters did or what we are capable of, commenting to everyone within earshot how awesome the technology was. How cool is that? Throughout the rest of the day I fielded questions from the rest of the actors and crew about reporting and how it is done. At one point when I was sitting in the gallery watching a scene being set up that I was not a part of, I saw a crew member looking at the writer. She looked around to see if anyone was watching. She apparently felt the coast was clear and proceeded to slowly and gingerly depress the keys. When I went back later there were lots of S’s, T’s, its, the’s and a few untranslates on my screen. It was great to have so many people show an interest in what I do.

My day of shooting was done at around 7:00 p.m. I was not needed on the second day as they were shooting in other areas around the building. I was fortunate at that point to be able to watch much of what was going on. My family was also able to come out and spend about three hours watching a scene being shot outside. There were a good two to three hundred people outside behind ropes also watching and hoping to get a glimpse of Hugh. My nine-year-old son, Matthew, was, of course, one of them. He is a big Wolverine (the movie character, not the University of Michigan) fan, and all he wanted to do was get a chance to meet him. He was not disappointed.

After shooting his last scene, Hugh went out into the crowd to sign autographs and take pictures. This was the third time he had done this in the two days of shooting. We were lucky to be positioned where we were in the courtyard, however, and right before he was to get in his vehicle and leave, I caught his eye. He came right over and I introduced him to Matthew. Now, Matthew is all of four and-a-half feet, and Hugh is easily 6’3”. Hugh talked to him and shook his hand. Matthew was starstruck, eyes wide open, but thankfully remembered his manners and said hello. One of my best memories, though, is having Hugh tell Matthew, “Matthew, you know your father is a great actor. There was a scene that the director wanted to cut, and I said, ‘No, you can’t. We need Paul’s hands in that scene.’” I could just see the words flying over Matthew’s head, but it just made my day. Hugh also took the time to introduce himself to my wife and my daughters, Megan and Mollie.

The right place at the right time. That is how I feel about my whole movie experience, from my first thought about going into the courtroom and checking out what was going on, to being in position to introduce my family to Hugh. Everyone I met during this experience was more than accommodating. Josh McLaglen and his staff went out of their way to make sure everything went smoothly here in our regular place of business. All the actors were nice to a fault, regular people who have a not-so-regular job.

We are all hoping that this will not be the last time that Hollywood comes to Mason, Michigan. I can assure you that it if it ever happens again, though, I won’t be shy in speaking up about making sure they have a real court reporter portraying the stenographer. It was an amazing experience that I won’t soon forget.

Look for the movie, titled, “Real Steel”, released in November of 2011. When you are in the theater enjoying the movie, look for me. I won’t be hard to miss. I will be the only “real” court reporter on the screen.

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