Unit Trust
Renaissance Pictures' co-executive producer and unit production manager Eric Gruendemann talks to Ian Rentoul about his contribution to the ancient world, and reveals the blood, sweat and tears which go into bringing Xena to the screen.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 09
While the scenery is now familiar to regular viewers of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, the names by which the locations are known may not be.
Situated to the west of Auckland are the sweeping sands of Muriwai, Bethells and Piha beaches, all favourite sites, with the latter being the location for the Hercules episode The Apple, and where Aphrodite first ‘comes out of her shell'. Here, as well, is the majestic Lion Rock, rising 101 metres up from the Piha shoreline, while following inland from the north of Bethells Beach is the Waitakeri River, and from that, the Waiti Stream (infamous for the ‘Gab-Drag’ in The Bitter Suite and where Callisto kills Perdicus in Return of Callisto, as well as the location of the chariot fight in Chariots of War), Lake Wainamu (where Gabrielle waits so patiently for her friend during Xena’s visit to Tartarus in Mortal Beloved), and its now-famous ‘sand blow’ and other filming locations in Bethells Valley.
One person, Wisconsin-born Eric Gruendemann, currently co-executive producer and unit production manager for Pacific Renaissance Pictures in New Zealand, is more responsible than any other for bringing these locations to the screen. Sadly, Gruendemann was set to leave the company in June 2000, but before he left, he took time out to talk to Xena Magazine from his Auckland office about his role within the company.
Gruendemann arrived in New Zealand seven years ago with a brief to establish shooting locations and set up the local infrastructure needed to produce a series of four Hercules TV movies: Hercules and the Amazon Women, Hercules and the Lost Kingdom, Hercules and the Circle of Fire and Hercules in the Underworld (and later a fifth, Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur). The accomplished producer, whose credits included Renaissance Pictures’ Evil Dead 3 - Army of Darkness and Darkman, set about coming up with a concept for the setting of the films, choosing to keep away from the conventional approach to the Hercules legend used by so many film producers before him, which he calls the “sand on the sandals” approach. “Instead of handling them like the ‘thousand and one’ other Hercules films previously, we set about doing it with a lush and ‘primordial’ backdrop,” he expands.
“We needed to find locations that would fit in with our concept of Hercules," Gruendemann continues. “But not only did we have to ensure that we had the backdrops; equally important to us was the availability of the technical support people. We needed to make sure that we had the resources, the people and the skills required, as New Zealand was very much an uncharted domain for us. No one at that time envisioned that Hercules would go to a television series or that we would still be here seven years later!
“We didn’t just look at Auckland,” he recalls. “We also considered Wellington and Christchurch as our base. However, Auckland was chosen because there was a larger skills-base here than at the other potential sites. Having said that, we don’t just shoot in and around Auckland. We go elsewhere in New Zealand as well, and have used locations in Rotarua and Queenstown as well as Lake Tapo [some four hours travel time to the south]. It was here that parts of The Debt episodes were filmed.
“The [main] exterior locations are situated within 45 minutes travelling time from the centre of Auckland,” Gruendemann says. “We have ‘movie ranches' in the area, with six cities and villages.” So how long does it take to construct a set? “How long is a piece of string!” Gruendemann laughs. "It can take 60 days or half an hour. Rather than build new sets each time, we repaint and redress. We may need a Mayan Temple ready for filming one week and then turn it into a Roman bathhouse the next. We also have in the region of 250,000 to 300,000 square feet of warehouse space converted for sound stage work.
“All this is done with local labour,” he explains, “and Renaissance is probably the largest employer of local labour in the area. We have trained up many people and have a very symbiotic relationship with the local community.”
It's no surprise that Eric Gruendemann was given so much responsibility in determining the look and direction of the Hercules TV movies and shows. The producer’s experience goes back to his high school days in California. “I had a job as a Production Accountant whilst still at school,” he remembers, “and worked for Paramount on the films Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop. When I joined Renaissance Pictures, I was hired as a production manager [on Army of Darkness] and was promoted to producer by the time Hercules came along. It eventually became necessary to have a co-executive producer permanently based in New Zealand rather than have them all 7,000 or so miles away in Los Angeles, so by the time season two or three of Xena was in production, I was promoted again.”
Of course, Hercules viewers got the chance to see Gruendemann - or rather a satirical interpretation of him - in the Hercules season four episode Yes, Virginia, There is a Hercules. When asked what being a co-executive producer for Pacific Renaissance Pictures entails, he replies and laughs, “Doing as little as possible!” He then goes on to explain that there is no such thing as an ‘average’ day for him as they are all different. "I spend about a third of my working day on the telephone,” he says, “about a fifth of it travelling to the sets, while the rest of it is taken up with reading scripts, making notes and planning with department heads. I also watch tapes, see final edits.of episodes, make notes and try to learn from them. And I meet with the directors and talk to the writers. In total, we work about 45 weeks of the year.
“During season one of Hercules, I even had time to appear in the show,” he reveals. “I think I was in three episodes. I was a fisherman in Pride Comes Before a Brawl, as well as an extra in another episode, and I appeared alongside Rob [Tapert] in the episode Gladiator. Rob was the character in the audience with the red hair and the beard shouting ‘kill him, kill him, kill him!’ There has been nothing since then, though, as it’s been too busy.”
In addition to his hand in the production of the various shows that Renaissance is committed to in New Zealand at any one time, Gruendemann has additional responsibilities in his role as Unit Production Manager. “We have upwards of 450 people working for us,” he says, “and this increases when you have extras in for various scenes. I will get involved with producing call sheets and deciding where the crew is going to be on a certain day, as well as being involved with the directors, assistant directors and the actors. I am also a member of the Director’s Guild, and this means that I can deal with the crew’s pensions, health and welfare.”
Gruendemann is happy to reveal the preliminary work and research he is required to do before work starts on a story. “Rob [Tapert] works with the writers in Los Angeles, and when a story is proposed I will be given a one line synopsis from them such as ‘We are going to send Xena to Hell!’ I then throw questions back at them and they start to conceptualise the story and go off and write beatsheets [the initial story outlines]. These are sent over to me here in New Zealand and I then start talking to the costume and production designers.
“With more beatsheets coming through, we can then start to look at the proposed characters, the sets that will be needed and how to present the episode,” Gruendemann explains. “We may also get up to three of four drafts of a script before it is finally produced. We are very much ‘left alone’ in the production stages of an episode to get on and do the job.
“I get involved with all stages of the production here in New Zealand,” he reveals “and I would say that we will be working on up to eight episodes at any one time, broken down into four episodes in preparation, one ‘working’ and three in post production. Even though we will be starting to shoot season six at the beginning of May, at the moment [in late April] we are still working on the last three or four episodes of season five. I think it’s fair to say that on some days I feel buried in work, while on others I feel less buried!
“While we are shooting an episode I will be on set,” Gruendemann explains, “and by then I will already be working with the director of the next one in the schedule. We have two units: a ‘Main’ and a ‘Second’. The Main Unit will normally shoot their part of an episode in about seven to eight days and work Monday to Friday [taking Saturday and Sunday off], while the Second Unit [which shoots concurrently with the Main] works Tuesdays to Saturdays. This unit will also normally complete its part of the episode in about eight days. The Main Unit looks after the main actors and actresses: Lucy Lawless, Renee O’Connor and Ted Raimi, for example, while the Second Unit is responsible for working with the stunt team and the stand-ins.
“On average, it takes approximately 16 days to shoot an episode, with maybe 14 to 15 days as a minimum in some cases. But for a more complex episode, this may increase to 17 to 18 days. I think the one that has taken the longest to date has been Fallen Angel [the season five opener]. That ran to about 30 days in total, with the Main Unit working for about 9-10 days. This episode involved a lot of complex stuff, with shots in front of blue screens and people on flying rigs, which took a long time to set up.
“The Bitter Suite from season three was also complex, and that one ran to between 20 and 22 days. We shoot in blocks of eight episodes and then take a week off before we start the next. If you consider all the planning that goes into the 42 minutes of, say, Fallen Angel, this can be extrapolated into 60 days of shooting a two-hour feature film.
“In addition to all this, I am also responsible for adhering to the budget!” Gruendemann adds.
“Once a script is written and conceived, I start to work with the actors. Rob works about six months ahead in the planning, and I would say that I’m usually looking about three months ahead. Rob could be described as the ‘Ideas’ man, while I am more the ‘Make It Happen’ man. Rob decides where he wants the show to go and comes up with the ‘hair-brained’ schemes, and then I say ‘why don’t we do it this way’. So I guess my strengths are deciding which of the ideas are workable. Rob and I have been the only real constants Irom the beginning.
“I have no training in classical history,” Gruendemann admits of the series’ subject matter, "but like others, I took it at college. I think I can say that we pick out its highlights and use it dramatically. We decided at the beginning that we weren’t going to be conventional. If Xena was going to fight Romans in Rome, then we would customise it for our own purposes. We try and make the whole show work rather than be historically accurate.”
Asked how much he has enjoyed his time with Renaissance Pictures, Gruendemann is full of enthusiasm. “It’s a dream,” he admits. “I’m the luckiest producer. All the people here are genuinely nice people, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are located away from Hollywood. I have been able to staff the cast and crew with individuals who don’t stand for inflated egos, and they all know where we are going.
“Lucy, Renee, Kevin and Michael have all been a dream to work with. I have been extremely lucky.”
Although Gruendemann won’t be drawn to reveal any anecdotes of the (alleged) practical jokes that are played on set, he did admit that he was “constantly having tricks played on [him]. Kevin Sorbo, Michael Hurst and I had a lot of fun together. The days are very long, so we try to have fun while we are working.”
Asked to name a favourite episode of either Xena or Hercules, Gruendemann ponders for a moment before responding, “I think that my favourite episodes have to be The Debt, Part One and Two. Everything came together on these, and it was a good production. We took the show to a new level. Having said that, we have done many great shows, but every time you see that show, it makes you both laugh and cry. It was everything we envisioned right at the beginning, rolled up into one.”
So how does it feel to be moving on, given the major part Renaissance Pictures has played in Gruendemann’s career and the enjoyment working on the two shows has brought him? “It’s been a great seven years of my life and I’ve worked with some great people. Now it’s time to pull up stakes and move on,” he explains. “I’d like to spend some more time with my wife and my two young children, who are growing up quickly. We have a house here in New Zealand and we have also now bought one in Los Angeles.
“I’d like to do some more directing and I’ve never attended a fan convention, because we have always been shooting while they were on. So I might try and ‘hit’ one next year.
“My only other ambition now is to be a burden on Society for a while.”