Film crew returns to Lincoln to complete 'Ted K' location filming

Although Ted Kaczynski's cabin has looms large in the narrative of his story over the past 20 years, the full-scale reproduction of it, sitting in the original location with its door facing away from anything resembling civilization, highlights how almost shockingly small and nondescript it was.

Stepping into the 10 foot by 12-foot building, with it's low ceiling and an interior packed with items that replicate what the FBI discovered after Kaczynski's arrest in 1996, the feeling becomes downright claustrophobic.

Since February, the recreate cabin has been on the property once owned by Kaczynski, sitting on the original footings put in place by him and his brother David in 1971, for the film "Ted K," which resumed location filming here earlier this month.

"It's pretty impressive. It's also very strange" John Rosenthal, the co-writer and lead researcher for the movie, said of filming on the site. "For me, it's creepy, but beyond that it's really fascinating. It's close enough in memory, it's like a historical site, but an infamous site. It has a vibe to it."

Nathan Corbin, director of photography for the film, described being on the location as surreal, but said from a cinematographic standpoint, the area allowed him to find a shot almost anywhere he looked.

"It's sort of strange that they shot that other version in Georgia, because everything here lines up perfectly. Maybe they didn't check this out, I don't know. It's almost like it's made for filmmaking," he said. "The angles sort of situates him in the very cinematic, paintingesque aesthetic. The lines of the land are, like, perfect for composition."

Rosenthal said he and director Tony Stone have been working on the project for about a decade and have been trying to get as much accurate detail as possible.

To that end, the film crew came back to Lincoln for a third time to finish principle location shooting for the movie that explores the last few years of Ted Kaczynski's life in Lincoln.

They began filming here in January for several days of winter scenes and returned in May for the bulk of the location work. This month they spent eight days of filming over two weeks in the area.

Matt Flanders, the film's producer, said they filmed shots they couldn't do earlier this year.

"We are doing some of the summer shots we weren't able to complete in the spring. It was kind of a late spring and we needed some warmer temperatures," he said.

Although the movie focuses on Kaczynski's solitary lifestyle and stars South African actor Sharlto Copley, Flanders said returning several times over the year gave them a chance to further showcase Montana, which he described as the second lead character in the movie.

"Typically, when you're doing a film you just start and keep going until you're finished. This is a very odd way of doing things," He said. "It's not very common that you come back to a place multiple times for weeks. You usually just shoot everything and then for seasons, you would come back and just shoot some b-roll or just establishing shots. But because Montana is so crucial to this story we wanted to be here in these different seasons."

The crew also tackled some of the "bigger" scenes for the movie this time, including helicopter shots and scenes involving motorcycles. He said they even spent time filming at an active logging operation near Ovando.

"We've been doing some cool, things that feel really big. Those have been difficult to organize and get them in place, but they've been going very well," Flanders said. "The last time we were here we shot the big FBI raid, which was probably our biggest day to organize just because we had so many people, vehicles and background artists and all of that. This time it's just bigger vehicles and set pieces than we had before."

Although smoke from the large fires burning in the Pacific Northwest that drifted across the state and filled the valley with dense haze for several days might have seemed like a detriment to filming, Flanders said it was good for them, visually, by serving as a natural filter to soften shadows and create atmosphere.

With their shooting schedule here ending Aug. 29, Flanders said they'll head back to New York for three weeks to film some scenes on a soundstage, create certain effects shots and shoot city scenes.

The cabin will be taken apart and shipped back as well since some of the interior scenes will require them to remove walls for certain shots on a soundstage, Flanders said. Likewise, since the movie isn't a strict biopic, it will include some dream or fantasy sequences that require the cabin to be mounted on a gimbal and spun, or relocated to areas such as an industrial wasteland.

Once the film is complete, Flanders said they plan to take it to film festivals and hopefully attract the interest of distribution companies.

"We like the festival route because it just builds excitement around the film, and you get a great feel for how audiences respond," he said, adding it's also a good way to build word of mouth without a big advertising budget. "Hopefully, we'll get multiple distributors interested in it and there'll be a bidding war on the film and everybody will be happy."

Once they figure how and when it will be released, Flanders said they'll figure out how to do a couple screenings in Lincoln before it hits screens for the rest of the public.

"I'd love to figure out a way to do something here, at the Community Hall or an outdoor screening or something at the school." he said. Obviously, there are so many local celebrities involved in it, there are so many people from the town who've acted in it, I think it'll be fun for the town to see."