Eric A. Haynes first heard “Child Again” in 1990 at the age of 11 in San Antonio, Texas. His neighbor, Dianne Dorsett, received Beth Nielsen Chapman’s eponymous album as the selection of the month from her CD club. “Child Again” hit an emotional chord with Haynes. Thirteen years after the initial release of the song, Haynes enrolled in The Los Angeles Film School where he set out to make “Child Again” his thesis film. After countless phone calls and emails Haynes secured the rights to the song from the publisher and record company, and the approval of Beth Nielsen Chapman. 

            Location scouting began in late January 2004. Several parks, carousels, and hospitals were considered. Elysian Park in Los Angeles, CA was selected for all outside footage of Young Blanche and Esther playing because it had a playing field where nothing modern could be seen in the background. Haynes was about to abandon the carousel scenes due to being unsatisfied with the local carousels. At the suggestion of his Directing instructor, Salvador Carrasco, Haynes drove 95 miles to Santa Barbara, California to check out The Carousel in Chase Palm Park. On Haynes’ only afternoon off he drove for 2 hours in the rain to discover the carousel was closed due to the weather. With camera in hand, Haynes wiped clean spots on the windows and took as many photos as he could. Even without the lights on, the carousel was perfect. The carousel was built in 1916 by Allan Herschell and has been fully restored. After countless phone calls and rejections from hospitals, Haynes was about to rewrite the hospital location in the script. A fellow classmate, Erik Anderson, was in need of a psychiatric hospital and scouted Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, CA. Rancho Los Amigos was not suitable for his film, but it was just right for “Child Again.” Cheryl Guinn coordinated the use of Rancho Los Amigos and could not have been more cooperative. She provided all furniture, linens, and power since this was a student shoot. The film crew had an entire wing of Rancho Los Amigos for two full days of shooting. And, the birthday party scene in the house was shot at the house of the Director of Photography in Burbank, CA.  

            Mike Testin, Director of Photography, and Haynes selected Kodak 35mm film stock 5279 VISION 500T and 5277 VISION 320T. 5279 was used for all present day footage, i.e. 70^th birthday party, hospital scenes, and brooch at dresser. 5277 was used for all memory footage of Young Blanche and her mother, Esther. The different stocks were selected due to their aesthetics. The present day footage needed to have very little grain and appear clean and bright, whereas the memory footage was going to be blown out, have muted color tones, and grain was acceptable. Stan Brady from Eastman Kodak provided the film that made “Child Again” possible.   

Close to 100 actors and actresses auditioned for the various roles in the music video at the beginning of February 2004. When Renata Green-Gaber finished her audition as Beth, Haynes knew she was the one. She nailed the performance perfectly without much coaching. Anita Hacker (Blanche) was hired next. There was something about Anita’s eyes that drew in Haynes. Teresa Bianca Sciortino auditioned as Esther with jet black hair with a blond streak. She told Haynes that she was willing to change her hair color for the role. Little did Haynes know how difficult that would be. What sold Haynes on Alisa Gerstein (Young Blanche) were her eyes. She had the same pull that Anita Hacker possessed. Alisa came straight from a ballet rehearsal still in her leotard with her hair up in a bun—she looked timeless. 

Both Teresa and Alisa had hair past their shoulders, which was not the style of the 1930s. Teresa could get away with slightly longer hair if it was styled in finger waves and tucked in, but Alisa was going to have to wear a wig. Alisa’s real hair extended past her waist. For the shoot it would have to be braided and wrapped around her head for the wig to fit. It was decided that Teresa would have to get rid of the punk rock look and go back to natural brown. But, the black dye was henna based and did not strip off her hair—it remained black and streaked. A few days before the start of production, a bob wig was selected for Teresa.           

At the first rehearsal, Haynes gave all of the present day cast members information about the different stages of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as watching scenes from Iris, a film about the life of Dame Iris Murdoch. The scenes showed the progression from diagnosis to the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Haynes wanted everyone to be on the same page with regard to the disease. He felt that their performances would be improved by having a good understanding of how Alzheimer’s affects not only the person with the disease, but those around them.

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During the night, equipment was stolen from one of the vehicles, including camera lenses, filters, and video monitor. Shooting was supposed to start at 1pm in Burbank for the birthday party scene in the house. Haynes made frantic phone calls all over Hollywood to replace the stolen equipment on a Saturday. All equipment was replaced and shooting was delayed by 3 hours. While everyone was waiting for the new equipment to arrive, the cast and crew lit the set and rehearsed. The only mishap, was the actor playing Joe, Nick Cimmento, had to be at work at 6pm and with the 3 hour delay in start time, his part was re-cast with Jon Haug, the first assistant director. Eric A. Haynes and his parents Roger and Ann Haynes are in this scene to the left of Blanche (Anita Hacker). After the party scene was finished everyone enjoyed the birthday cake Renata used in the scene. While the cast packed their belongings, the crew set up for Renata to put on and take off the brooch at the dresser. The crew filmed Renata putting on the brooch ten times before everything was perfect. The shot seemed simple enough, but matching the timing of the song with Renata’s speed and the camera speed, was tricky. The brooch scene at the dresser was in the original draft scripted by Eric A. Haynes, but was cut out somewhere in the revision process. Haynes liked the scenes and wanted to have the option of using them, so he tacked them on the end of the script as alternates to be shot. The brooch used in the carousel scene was also stolen in the night and Roger and Ann Haynes, Eric Haynes’ parents, went to every antique shop on Magnolia Blvd in Burbank to find a replacement. The shop keeper was hesitant to sell it because it had, “been in the safe for so many years.” If you look closely you can tell they are different brooches.

            Day three of shooting was the conclusion of the 1930s footage. The cast and crew call time was 6am Sunday morning in Elysian Park around Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, makeup was being done, hair was being put under wigs, the Steadicam operator was ready to go, then Mike Testin, Director of Photography, and Haynes visited the daisy field location to discover all the green flowing grass they had seen 2 weeks prior was dead and brown. Testin and Haynes wandered up a hillside and around winding paths trying to locate another grassy field. A happy accident occurred; they found a small hillside covered in tall, yellow flowers that was perfect. Once the scheduled shots were completed, tea party, swinging, running with a balloon, spinning in the sun drenched grassy field, combing hair, watching clouds, and playing with dolls, everything had to be packed up. The cast and crew drove up the hill to the daisy field location and then hiked a quarter mile for one shot. Haynes loves the feel of the daisy field shot. It was better than he imagined. B.J. McDonnell, the Steadicam operator, had the skill, agility, and patience to get the shots needed.

Bright and early Monday morning the crew convened at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, California for the final two days of shooting. While the crew set up equipment, Eric Haynes went over the shots and camera movements for the day with the First Assistant Director, Jon Haug, and the Director of Photography, Mike Testin. Today would be the powerhouse of emotion with the filming of the final scene where Renata Green-Gaber (Beth) says goodbye to Anita Hacker (Blanche). The day started with Renata walking down the hospital hall with the 71^st birthday cake. Timing the camera movement, Renata’s speed, as well as the speed of the nurse that crosses camera was tricky, but the shot came off beautifully. An optional scene, just like the brooch at the dresser scenes, was shot in the hallway with Hacker and Julia Flint (Nurse 1). Flint pushes Hacker down the hall just as the song says, “She’s wheeled into the hallway, as the sun moves down the floor.” This shot was eliminated in early script revisions for being too “on the nose,” but once again, Haynes liked the scene and felt compelled to shoot it. Unfortunately, this hallway scene will live in perpetuity in the Deleted Shots section of the DVD.

After finishing the hallway shots, the crew moved base into the hospital room. They shot a couple more setups with Flint when Renata enters the room. As for Flint, Haynes “wish[ed he] could have used her in a more significant role.” As with most films, scenes are shot out of sequence and “Child Again” was no exception. After Flint left, Haynes moved right into the final scene when Beth tells her mom goodbye and leaves. Haynes started shooting the scene as it was originally scripted—Beth says goodbye and leaves, camera pulls back wide on Blanche gazing out the window. At the suggestion of Salvador Carrasco, Haynes’ directing instructor, Haynes shot the eighth take with Blanche calling Beth back to the room, as though Blanche had a moment of clarity. Haynes was brought to tears by the difference in emotional impact the final scene now had. The entire crew was silent for all 15 takes of this shot. Even the men on the shoot were teary. Haynes commented later that he did not know how Renata was able to shoot that scene 15 times, but he knew he had selected the right actress after that. It was interesting to watch Haynes work with his actresses. He would quietly discuss and lightly rehearse each adjustment with Renata and Hacker before shooting each take. The delicateness of his approach seemed to pay off in the performance. After using nearly 1000 feet of 35mm film, the crew moved on to the other angle of the final scene. Since Renata and Hacker had just done the same scene 15 times, the perfect other angle was quickly achieved with 4 takes. The end of the day was approaching and the crew packed all equipment and set dressing back into vans and cars because they could not leave anything at Rancho Los Amigos.

The cast and crew of "Child Again" at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.

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Once the film was developed, Eric A. Haynes, Mike Testin, and Jon Haug went for high definition telecine at The Post Group. It was invigorating to see the beautiful images on the HD monitor, but they soon discovered that the camera was mis-calibrated. The ground glass which shows what is being shot in the eyepiece was not perfectly aligned with the actual image going on to the film. So, all shots were right heavy with extra empty space on the left. Many of the shots were blown up and moved to the left to improve the aesthetic framing. Several of the shots in which the zoom lens was used had the edges of the zoom lens vignetting the left corners of the frame. The color in all shots was adjusted within the acceptable range, as to not lose any color information. Eric A. Haynes would come back to The Post Group many weeks later to do an HD tape to HD tape color correction. At that time, the colors would then be adjusted outside of the acceptable range. After several hours of telecine the tea party scene came up with the only accident. In the background, under the tree, water bottles, a soda can, and a Styrofoam cup could be seen. Haynes immediately put a job posting for a rotoscope artist to fix this glaring oversight.           

When the telecine was complete, all footage was turned over to Adam Hecker, Editor, to make the first assembly. Haynes and Hecker scoured over the edit for many weeks. After many constructive criticisms from the faculty screenings with Donn Cambern, John Hora, and Jeff Young, as well as classes with Laurence Rosenthal and Linda Cowgill, the final cut was made. With one month to go before the graduation screening, Haynes had to online his film, have two scenes digitally corrected by Spencer Armajo, reinsert the digitally corrected footage into the onlined picture, sync sound, output to HDCAM tape for color correction, color correct, then bring the color corrected HDCAM tape back to online, output color corrected scenes for the credit sequence, get the high resolution credit sequence back from Armajo, online the credits and output the final music video. Haynes was a little stressed. 

Although “Child Again” is a music video, Haynes wanted it to play as a short film. He took great care in crafting a film where the story could be told without the music, but the music would enhance the emotional impact. A matter of great importance for Haynes was the credit sequence. He did not want to bore the audience with just white text on a black background. With Spencer Armajo, Haynes created a credit sequence that combined the standard text with additional footage. By adding the Beth removing the brooch at the end of the credits Haynes felt he brought the story full circle. The credit music was arranged by Christopher Stafford, a graduate student from the University of Southern California. Sheet music is not available for “Child Again,” so Stafford transcribed the music, found a similar sounding synthesized piano, and hired a flute player to record the solo melody. Stafford arranged three versions at different lengths because it was unknown how long the credits would be at that time. 

Everything was right on schedule, until the color correction. Haynes is grateful that The Post Group extends their services at a student rate. But, students can be bumped off the schedule if a full paying client comes in. Haynes was bumped three times before finally getting a color correction session on the Monday before graduation at 11:30am. Haynes planned to be at The Post Group for 2-3 hours. Haynes left at 5:30pm and was only half finished with the project. Unfortunately, color correction is a very tedious process and Haynes is very particular. Wade Felker, Colorist, could not have been better. He, too, had a critical eye for color and made sure every scene matched the one before it. He stayed late and came in early to fix the scene dissolves that, due to technical difficulties, were not working properly. Haynes was blown away by Felker’s dedication to a job well done—Felker did not treat this project as though it was just a student film, but handled it in the same manner he did with the every studio feature and network TV show that he regularly works on. And, talk about a small world, Felker grew up in New Braunfels, Texas, which is just 20 miles north of San Antonio, where Haynes grew up. The next opening Felker had in his schedule was 4:30am-6am on Wednesday, hopefully that would be enough time for final adjustments. Nope. The final lay down of the color corrected master took place Friday morning. Eric A. Haynes was brought to tears while watching the final color corrected version of “Child Again” at The Post Group. Wade did an amazing job. The remaining problem was the sound. After watching the film over and over it was very evident that the sync was off. The nursery rhyme lip sync was off, but the “Beth?” at the end was on. Haynes was supposed to online the color corrected footage on Friday, but due to the prolonged color correction the session was moved to Monday. Thankfully, this allowed time to fix the sound sync.

Haynes will never forget what was said to him while waiting for his bill in the lobby of The Post Group. Before leaving for the day, Felker came out and complemented Haynes on putting together such an emotionally moving piece. Felker said that although he is just a member of the viewing public, and not a big Hollywood player, “Child Again” was great and Haynes would go a long way in the film industry. Haynes will always remember that moment because Felker had not said anything about the film until that moment. He was also the first person outside the school to see the music video. Felker works on countless big budget TV shows and studio features and sees the good and the bad. That one comment meant more than all the feedback from the instructors at school. 

Sunday afternoon, Stephanie Wimmer, Post Sound Mixer, spent several hours remixing the sound till it was ready for Steve Cook, Online Editor. Bright and early Monday morning Haynes and Cook went to work and brought all the components together; color corrected picture, credits, and sound. The film was finished. 

During the month before graduation Eric A. Haynes spent his evenings building the menus and compiling all the bonus footage to put on the “Child Again” DVD. He also, designed the cover and disc label, color corrected all still photographs for the press kit, and assembled the complete DVD package, i.e. copying, cutting, and inserting the covers into the cases, as well as putting the DVDs into the cases. A lot of time and love went into each copy.

"Child Again" DVD Disc Label