On May 8th, Manke Enterprises added a new feather to our cap. Up until this point, the most unusual thing we’ve had to deal with has been an rescuing an airplane from a lake. Thursday night we topped that: we positioned trees so that they could be blown up by gangsters.

Sorta.

Thursday Morning, Neil Manke was working with his crew installing docks for a condo association on Lake Delton; normal work for a spring morning. That’s where “normal” ends and “lucky” takes over. The crew for Johnny Depp’s latest movie, “Public Enemies” was on their way to the set in Mirror Lake State Park when they took a wrong turn. That turn took them down near Lake Delton. One of the movie crew members, who just happens to have a fascination with knuckle cranes, saw our barge and got a flash of inspiration. The greensman, sitting next to him, dialed our number (it’s written on the crane), to ask if we’d be willing to help work on a movie. That night. All night long.

The answer, of course, was “yes”.

So, at 3:00 that afternoon, Neil, Blaze, and the big barge reported for duty.

Working on a movie set may sound glamorous, but it’s actually work. And waiting. With so many crews working in a small space, it’s important to know when to do the job and when to step out of the way and let others do their jobs. Our job was to transport three 18-foot red pine logs back to the area where they’d be doing the shoot. The “set” was a narrow, wooded path along Mirror Lake. Originally, the crew had been planning on hauling the logs down the hill and into place by hand. Each of these logs were estimated to be about 1500 to 2000 pounds. That’s a ton of lumber to carry down a hill, through trees, on soft ground.

Instead, a sky track was used to load the logs onto the barge at the boat landing. From there it was a 2 minute slow ride down to the set location. Under the direction of the greensman, Pedro, the greens coordinator, Jeff, and two arborists from H&H Arborists, we lifted the logs into place so that they could be rigged and secured. What would have taken a dozen hands and hours of back-breaking work, we were able to accomplish in just a few minutes. This allowed the crew time to work on the dozens of other projects involved in preparing for the shoot.

That time turned out to be extremely valuable to them. Construction work continued while the director, Michael Mann, walked through set, talking with assistant directors, special effects crews, and a multitude of others. Somewhere after 9:00pm, the cast showed up. Johnny Depp, Christian Stolte, and Stephen Lang started preparing for their night of shooting. Platforms were still being built while the film was being shot. The crews would go quite for the minute while the cameras were running, then would get right back to work while the shot was reset.

This is where the waiting came in for the Manke crew. From the time the last tree was positioned, around 6:00pm, until the shoot ended at 4:00am, we were on stand-by. This afforded us the opportunity to watch the action–both on-set and off. 8 pontoon boats from a local rental company ferried crew members and equipment back and forth from the boat landing. Two more were set up as floating lighting platforms. About 2 dozen grips and FX crew worked in one area while a similar-sized group of assistants and camera crews worked in another. The stars mingled among both locations, waiting until it was time for them to do their job.

Because of the way the schedule worked out, we weren’t able to meet any of the stars, but we did have the chance to hand out a few thank-yous. So… when you’re standing in the check-out line looking at the covers of the tabloids, if you happen to see a photo of Johnny Depp wearing a blue workshirt with the Manke Enterprises logo on it, don’t worry. He earned it.

To see all the photos of the process, look in our gallery. ( Sorry:  no photos of the cast.  We weren’t given permission.)

Normally we do everything we can to accommodate the requests of our clients.  Sometimes, however, we need to say “no”.  There’s always a good reason for it.  One of the reasons is what you see in the photograph.

Spring time is filled with unpredictable weather–especially storms.  Without a boat to hold it down, a boat lift canopy becomes a giant kite.  One good gust of wind, and it can be tossed around violently.    The risk of this happening is why we’ve created a policy of not installing canopies until the boat is ready.   This small delay can save you hundreds of dollars in retrieval and repair cost.

While we do everything we can to keep our prices down,  there are some things which we simply can’t control.  The current cost of fuel has hit us just like everyone else.    As of May 1st, we have had to add a small fuel surcharge to all of our service calls and installations.

Neil and Mark Manke–and Manke Enterprises–are featured in an article on LodiWisconsin.net

You can read it here.