Day 14

Winnipeg, Manitoba - It is Day 14 of 20 on the "A SEASON ON THE BRINK" production. We are racing to the conclusion of our third week of filming.

Today, we were at the Winnipeg Convention Center, where the hardwood that worked so hard as the basketball floor in "Assembly Hall" has now been magically transported to a convention hall to become the floor for three teams; the Northwestern Wildcats, the Kentucky Wildcats and the Wisconsin Badgers. (What is the deal with Northwestern and Kentucky having the same mascot? Do they have that many "wildcats" in Chicago that Northwestern needed to have that name?)

I'll get to today's work in a moment. I promised in yesterday's diary to tell you about the Knight fund-raiser scene we shot last night (after we thawed out from the duck hunting scenes).

After completing the work in the Winnipeg woods, we went to lunch (the caterer had taken over a rec. center at a nearby church) and then we made a "company move." This is when the entire crew and all the equipment has to travel to a new location in the middle of a shooting day. On a television movie schedule it's not something you want to do often. However, sometimes (like yesterday) it's unavoidable. We made the move after lunch to a Winnipeg restaurant (a legendary local haunt named "Kelekis") to play a scene where Coach Knight lectures a fundraising group. In this case it was a Bloomington children's charity organization.

When you speak to people in Bloomington or Columbus, where Knight has lived and played basketball, you hear over and over about his relentless dedication to charity work. You hear how he selflessly, without publicity, will appear at fund-raisers, make hospital visits and pitch in to help families in need. If, when you finish reading this diary entry, you surf back to the home page for the "Season On The Brink" Web site, go to the link for "message boards." Read the stories that Hoosier fans have already posted about their personal experiences with Knight's charitable side. It might surprise you.

Anyway, we did this wonderful scene last night where Bobby holds court in front of a group of Bloomington faithful. I got a chance to interact with the patrons, who really responded. There were two questions from the audience, the first from an 11-year-old boy (played by young Simon Brooks) wanting to know if he could play for Coach Knight someday. Wasn't that the dream of every kid in Indiana in 1985?

The second question came from a fan wanting to know Knight's best and worst memories as a coach. The answer to "the worst memory" is a delightful description by Knight of the infamous chair-throwing incident. It's a very funny monologue, totally justifying the incident. I won't spoil it for you. It should be a great moment in the film.

Today was not nearly as fun to write about as last night. We shot pieces of IU "away" games against the aforementioned Northwestern, Kentucky and Wisconsin - two BIG 10 games and a tough loss at Rupp Arena to KU. The loss to Kentucky was without Steve Alford, who had to serve his one game suspension for appearing in the sorority calendar (see diary entry Day Seven).

Since each game is shown only briefly in the film (a play or two) we wouldn't have the time to convert the hardwood into three different arena floors. So the mid-court was Northwestern (for the tip-off), the western basket was Kentucky and the Eastern basket was Wisconsin. The court was a rainbow of purple, blue and red (basketball fans will know which team gets which color). We faced one direction for one game and another for the second. Just another part of the movie magic on "A SEASON ON THE BRINK."

Tomorrow I get to go home. Not my home, Bobby Knight's home.

Past Diaries

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13