Shaping the film landscape

by Evan Bower

Whether it's the meticulously groomed courtyard of French New Wave masterpiece Last Year at Marienbad, or the too-beautiful forest surrounding Cameron's house in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, it's clear that behind any great film is a great landscaper.

William Gerhardt, owner of William A. Gerhardt Property Improvement in Lunenburg, has filled that role for about a hundred Nova Scotia productions since he took a job on the set of Dolores Claiborne in 1994.

Last week, for the first time, Gerhardt's work as a greensperson was recognized with a Screen Nova Scotia nomination for Film Crew Excellence alongside three other people from across the province. The award went to picture editor Sarah Byrne.

"Lunenburg has long-standing ties to the film industry, you know. The first major productions that came to Nova Scotia came to Lunenburg for its scenery," said Gerhardt. "I used my knowledge and sort of developed a passion to do it. I enjoy it - it's good work, it's really good work for the province, it's good work for the community."

Gerhardt says there's some crossover between the work he does through his landscaping company and what he does on set, but not so much in the logic behind it. With films, he'll find himself doing such things as filling a driveway with snow rather than clearing it, and when he plants a tree in the ground he doesn't have to worry about whether it'll be able to grow.

Some of his recent work has been on The Curse of Oak Island and The Mist, a television series based on a Stephen King novel set to debut in June. The latter project tasked him with recreating a moody forest inside a Bedford facility.

"To see some of that inside is pretty satisfying," said Gerhardt. "Because you walk in a mall and little do you think that you're going to see a hemlock forest with trees so big you can't wrap your arms around them."

But when shooting on location in Nova Scotia, a greensperson's workday comes with some unique challenges. The old adage "if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes" is pleasant enough as a folksy jest, but sounds more like a cruel threat to a production team trying to establish continuity between shots.

"They'd be placing this mist on camera, but you know what our weather is like in Nova Scotia, especially in the summer," said Gerhardt. "The morning is calm, but the afternoon is windy. Well, when you look at all the different shots and try to piece them together the mist levels were all over the place."

Part of what's kept him active in film this long is the effect he's seen these projects have on the province.

"Every park in Lunenburg has been rebuilt and financed from movie money," said Gerhardt. "It circulates a lot back in."

He didn't anticipate his business would help give him an in with the movie industry when he started it over 20 years ago. But over the years, Gerhardt's learned that on a film set there's a little something for everybody.

"Nova Scotia has a lot of really capable and well-rounded film people," said Gerhardt. "It's a huge honour for me, and it wouldn't be possible from a personal point without the great people I have working with me here, but also the very talented film people who are in Nova Scotia all around us. You don't even know who they are, right, but we're here."