The Hawaiian Islands are an ideal shooting location for movies of all kinds and when Hollywood comes to call, they find multi-talented residents such as Tom Penny of Waimea to lend their skills.
In 1979 a “strange artistic yearning” brought Penny to Waimea from O`ahu where he had morphed from a U.H. Manoa art student in 1971 to a journeyman carpenter. “When I walked into the back door of the Kahilu Theatre for the first time, I thought well wow, this is it. Music, acting, painting, carpentry. The possibilities were pretty endless.”
All through the 80’s, when Richard Smart graced the Kahilu stage, Penny worked on all aspects of theater productions. “The first one I did with Richard was The Man Who Came to Dinner. It was really great to see him doing what he loved,” said Penny.
In the ‘90’s Penny wanted to focus on acting and studied Meisner technique with Jim Jarret. During this time he was cast in Waterworld, (filmed at Kawaihae) where he had just one line. But more importantly, it gave him the chance to watch film production in all its facets, eventually finding his way to set work. Since then Penny has worked as set dresser, prop builder, and as a grip on many movies large and small.
“The first blockbuster that I worked on as crew was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was a set dresser and we shot at the Shipman Estate,” said Penny. Set dressing is both meticulous and creative work. To maintain scene to scene consistency, a file of closely guarded continuity photos are kept. However, there was one photo Penny would have like to keep. “Harrison Ford was sitting in an amphibious vehicle and Spielburg was leaning in talking and I was standing behind them talking to the head set dresser,” said Penny.
One of Penny’s jobs on Jurassic World was prop and set construction, which doesn’t have the flash and glamour we associate with movies. “I worked in Honolulu for three months to create all the props for a particular scene and that part of the movie took less than a minute,” said Penny.
Grip, one of Penny’s other jobs, means manipulating light sources, whether natural or artificial to show subjects to the best affect. He was key grip for Descendents and grip for Predators, shot partially in Waipio Valley. “Lanakila (Mangauil) gave the blessing (at Waipio) and he was very specific about respect for the land and that we could expect the unexpected,” said Penny. They were soon to discover the meaning of those words. “We were loading sand bags into the back of the mule (utility vehicle) and I had the wheels chalked with sand bags and it just rolled right over them and headed down the hill toward the cliff, but there was just enough of a flat run and it stopped before it went over, and I couldn't help but think about Lanakila's words,” he added.
Penny was in the right place at the right time with a willingness to follow his heart, work hard and learn his craft from the ground up, and is an example of what the island spirit makes possible.
In 1979 a “strange artistic yearning” brought Penny to Waimea from O`ahu where he had morphed from a U.H. Manoa art student in 1971 to a journeyman carpenter. “When I walked into the back door of the Kahilu Theatre for the first time, I thought well wow, this is it. Music, acting, painting, carpentry. The possibilities were pretty endless.”
All through the 80’s, when Richard Smart graced the Kahilu stage, Penny worked on all aspects of theater productions. “The first one I did with Richard was The Man Who Came to Dinner. It was really great to see him doing what he loved,” said Penny.
In the ‘90’s Penny wanted to focus on acting and studied Meisner technique with Jim Jarret. During this time he was cast in Waterworld, (filmed at Kawaihae) where he had just one line. But more importantly, it gave him the chance to watch film production in all its facets, eventually finding his way to set work. Since then Penny has worked as set dresser, prop builder, and as a grip on many movies large and small.
“The first blockbuster that I worked on as crew was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was a set dresser and we shot at the Shipman Estate,” said Penny. Set dressing is both meticulous and creative work. To maintain scene to scene consistency, a file of closely guarded continuity photos are kept. However, there was one photo Penny would have like to keep. “Harrison Ford was sitting in an amphibious vehicle and Spielburg was leaning in talking and I was standing behind them talking to the head set dresser,” said Penny.
One of Penny’s jobs on Jurassic World was prop and set construction, which doesn’t have the flash and glamour we associate with movies. “I worked in Honolulu for three months to create all the props for a particular scene and that part of the movie took less than a minute,” said Penny.
Grip, one of Penny’s other jobs, means manipulating light sources, whether natural or artificial to show subjects to the best affect. He was key grip for Descendents and grip for Predators, shot partially in Waipio Valley. “Lanakila (Mangauil) gave the blessing (at Waipio) and he was very specific about respect for the land and that we could expect the unexpected,” said Penny. They were soon to discover the meaning of those words. “We were loading sand bags into the back of the mule (utility vehicle) and I had the wheels chalked with sand bags and it just rolled right over them and headed down the hill toward the cliff, but there was just enough of a flat run and it stopped before it went over, and I couldn't help but think about Lanakila's words,” he added.
Penny was in the right place at the right time with a willingness to follow his heart, work hard and learn his craft from the ground up, and is an example of what the island spirit makes possible.
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