The Story Behind "The Basket"

As stories go, this one's a beauty. Boy is born in Spokane, leaves for the big city, then returns home to point his camera toward the city's daily drama of life and death. One day, he walks away from television news to start his own production firm, founded on a shoestring with a few friends. The company takes off, attracting clients across the West.

But the story doesn't end there. A movie director wants him to help piece together a feature film. Next he's asked to run the entire shoot. He makes half a dozen action films, from sound to special effects. Still, the man dreams about making a movie his way, in his own part of the world. Images run wild in his head. An ancient leather basketball leaving a child's hands in an arc toward the evening sky. Clouds swirling over the golden valleys of the Palouse. A man and a woman embracing in the glow of a lantern. Bombs cascading into a shattered city.

That man, Rich Cowan, decided to take the leap. His company, North by Northwest, puts up $3 million for the project. With three friends, he writes a gripping story of opera, basketball, love and war. His father scouts the region for the weathered schoolhouses, lonely farms and old gymnasiums. The project signs two major stars and a supporting cast of dozens. The young filmmaker and his talented crew shoot for 25 days during the harvest season, capturing the elusive play of light and shadow over the rolling wheat fields, like an Andrew Wyeth painting in fluid motion.

Set near the turn of the century, the film features Peter Coyote and Karen Allen. Rather than settling for the quick thrills of sex and violence, The Basket burrows deeper in the human condition. The film explores the boundaries of tolerance, the lingering effects of war and what it means to pull together as a community.

"We just wanted to do a film with positive values," Cowan says. "When you're going to throw your heart and soul into it, it's nice to have something you can take pride in. It's not a formula-type film. This one s a little different. We think you can make a family movie that is still interesting and challenges the audience."

For one thing, there's the opera music. The Basket features more than 70 minutes of stirring original music recorded by Spokane composer and musician Don Caron with the help of the Hungarian Sym phony Orchestra. The unusual musical form sets a backdrop to the tale of a small Northwestern town trying to make sense of World War I. Into this tumultuous scene comes a schoolteacher (Coyote), teaching a strange new game called basketball.

The screenplay took two years to write. Moved by images of opera, early basketball and a one-room schoolhouse, Cowan and composer Caron, along with the husband-and-wife team of Frank and Tessa Swoboda, wrote the script. For all, it was their first outing as screenwriters. They strove, Cowan says, "to create a story with multiple layers, something that would appeal to sports fans, kids, music lovers and everyone else who saw the film."

When Coyote stepped off the plane, he had one question, Cowan recalls. "Who wrote the script?" he asked. The screenwriters stepped forward. "It's good." Coyote told them. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't." Fresh from the Robin Williams film Patch Adams, Coyote has also worked on E.T. with Steven Spielberg. In The Basket, he plays the new teacher in the farming town of Waterville. The town's families aren't quick to welcome the teacher's unconventional methods, or his passion for the odd new sport of basketball. The community is further threatened when a German family moves to town amid the turmoil of World War I. At the heart of the whirlwind is a headstrong woman played by Allen, the wide-eyed beauty we remember from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Animal House. Ultimately, the story is about accepting differences and putting away prejudice.

The story plays out against the vivid landscape of the Inland Northwest's rolling wheat fields and old buildings. "We took advantage of all of the elements we have to give the film a unique look," says Cowan. Cast and crew adapted eight major locations. They dusted off an old schoolhouse south of Spokane, burned down a barn on film and transformed a downtown apartment build ing into a war-ravaged village. Working together, they shoveled several tons of debris out of old buildings.

"Togetherness is the theme of the movie," Cowan says. "It's amazing how all of us who made the movie have had to mirror the people in our own movie. We needed, and still need, each other to make it all work. It was as collaborative an experience for those of us who made the film as the people of Waterville experienced in the movie."

That spirit was a evident on the set and it made a difference for the actors, according to Peter Coyote. "The thing that I couldn't get over was how everyone in the crew was friends. I mean, their families knew each other, their kids knew each other. It was such a different atmosphere and I took to it like a duck to water.

One of the film's intriguing aspects is a rare on-screen look at the early, awkward days of the game that is so well known in Spokane, the home of the world's largest amateur basketball event, Hoopfest. Production designer Vincent De Felice searched far and wide for an old style leather basketball, finally tracking one down in South Carolina. Creating authentic nets was another challenge. The solution came in the person of an 80—year—old woman—someone's acquaintance from church—who spent days figuring out a system and then crocheted the nets by hand using a single piece of string for each. The nets worked fine though the players found the balls difficult to dribble and shoot.

Basketball itself has changed as much as the gear. In 1918, it was an entirely different game with "sideout" calls and players called "goal tossers." It was also a rough and rowdy sport, with cigar-smoking fans placing bets and sometimes throwing objects from the sidelines. The filmmakers stayed true to its original form, which meant that the actors - many of them accomplished players - had to learn basketball all over again.

Screenwriter Frank Swoboda, who choreographed the basketball action, had to teach Coyote to play the game just one day before they shot his hoop scene. "No one's ever tried to create basketball like it was in 1918 on the screen, so we took great care," Swoboda says. "The challenge was to take people who know how to play modern ball, make them forget what they know, and relearn a whole new way to play." Actors, both veteran and new, praised Cowan's directing style for keeping the shoot organized, low key and supportive.

"I like that he sort of gave you your head," says Ellen Travolta, who plays the owner of Waterville's general store. "He trusted what you did and supported your choices. I've never been in a film before where the director calls you at the end and thanks you."

The first-time director says he worked about 110 hours a week during the shoot. His methodical organization, carried over from North by Northwest's hectic production deadlines, paid off. "I must admit, I'm always a little skeptical when I work on an independent movie," says Karen Allen. "I've actually been left for an entire day in full costume waiting to shoot, only to find out it was happening the next day. This was a breeze. Everything was ready. I didn't have to wait. It ran so smoothly, and I'm not used to that on an indie. These guys know their stuff."

Although the film will ultimately make its way to television, Cowan says the glowing landscapes of "The Basket" are made for the theater. "[Cinematographer] Danny [Heigh] shot a movie too big for the small screen," Cowan says. "On the big screen, it just looks and feels right." Peter Coyote agrees. "I'm telling you Dan Heigh's cinematography is astounding. This looked like a forty-million dollar movie.

 

[ The Peter Coyote Official Web Site ]