car accident. "It was four blocks from my house at 8:30 in the morning on
March 11th. I was reaching over my seat taking notes while talking on the
cell phone and ran a traffic light. A city bus T-boned me."
Rushed to the hospital with collapsed lungs, broken ribs, a fractured
pelvis, a concussion, a damaged aorta, and other injuries, he was given a
one percent chance of survival. On the eighth day after the accident, the
film was coincidently sched-
uled to film at a location near
the hospital. Garner and
Woods came to visit Baxter
and a walkie-talkie was
brought to his room so the
crew could talk with him.
Baxter was released from
the hospital just ten days after
the accident. A month later he
received a telephone call from
British film producer Bernard
Williams, offering him the
location manager job on Navy
Seals. Another Williams-
produced film, What About
Bob?, followed.
"Navy Seals was one of the
greatest experiences I ever had.
We built all of the sets in the
interior of a National Guard
Armory in Roanoke, Virginia. We had carefully laid down this sub floor
and laid everything down on top of it because . . . it had a traditional
gymnasium floor. On the last day, at the end of the shoot, everything was
done; everything was over and everybody was happy." One of the crew
members dragged a genie lift across the floor, gouging a furrow that cost
the production $50,000 to replace the floor. "Those are the little things
you get to deal with. You think it's all over and guess what? The floor is
ruined. Everybody is gone and you've got to call the insurance people
and deal with it. It's a headache."
Baxter went on to work on True Colors, the series pilot for The Monroes,
and features Major Pane, First Kid, and Hush. For Hush, he scouted loca-
tions from Georgia to Rhode Island looking for the right setting. "I was on
the road forever. They finally settled on a house near Charlottesville . . .
When we looked at it, it was so magical and beautiful in the middle of
nowhere . . . [By the time the production began filming, it was] summer,
What do you like
least about your job?
"Probably my least
favorite thing is that it's
a lot of hours, a lot of
changes, and a lot of stress
in trying to rectify all the
changes. It's all-consuming."--Charlie Baxter
What do you love most
about your job?
"I like the creative aspect. I like being able to
give my opinion on how and why something
will work. I like the collaboration between
people trying to make something happen. I
like meeting new people. I like the satisfac-
tion of not just finding a location, but actu-
ally making it happen."--Charlie Baxter
VOICES OF
EXPERIENCE
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