The story of finding the canoe on the lefthand side of this shot is quite a fun little saga.

By the time we were shooting this canoe scene, all of the big sets were done and all we had to do was hang a line of laundry.

I was chilling and enjoying life.

Boats, like cars, are usually the province of the prop master and not set decoration.

I don’t quite remember the specifics of what happened that morning but the second canoe they were planning for didn’t pan out, and the canoe they had for the shot was a no go for the designer.

We were filming in two hours and the whole art department was on Operation Find a Period Appropriate Canoe in two hours.

The props teams were working some leads, and the Art Director Jaf and I both pitched in to see if we could help. Since Jaf lived locally in the area he was working some leads.

I remember this one local sporting goods store I passed by a lot driving around the area and gave them a call and asked them if they had any wooden canoes that could look like it was from the 1930’s that we could rent in the next hour.

I spoke to one of the manager who said, you know we might have something….

I jumped in my minivan and drove right over to the store and what they had was PERFECT!!!!!!

I normally don’t enjoy last minute stress situations. But sometimes, these kind of time pressure extreme shopping challenges are thrilling and what I live for!