page_title: Andersonville (film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Andersonville (film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: American director John Frankenheimer relaxing between camera setups on the set of the Turner Film Production "Andersonville".
context_page_description: Andersonville is a 1996 American television film directed by John Frankenheimer about a group of Union soldiers during the American Civil War who are captured by the Confederates and sent to an infamous Confederate prison camp.
  The film is loosely based on the diary of John Ransom, a Union soldier imprisoned there. Although certain points of the plot are fabricated, the general conditions of the camp accurately match Ransom's descriptions, particularly references to the administration of the camp by Captain Henry Wirz. His line on escaping prisoners is very similar to the book, "The Flying Dutchman [Wirz] offers to give two at a time twelve hours the start".
context_section_description: The mini series was a pet project of mogul Ted Turner, an American Civil War enthusiast who wanted to bring to the screen a series of historically accurate films about the conflict. After the critical acclaim and financial success of his previous production Gettysburg in 1993, he would go on to produce its prequel Gods and Generals in 2003. All were massive productions on huge scales.
  Andersonville was filmed on location on a farm some fifty miles south of Atlanta (about a hundred miles north of the actual location of the camp) where a huge set was built (not quite to scale) of the actual camp. Accurate in detail down to the officer's quarters outside the camp gates, the fifty foot high raw timber walls and thousands of ragged tents, a working stream, and even a full scale railway depot with half of a locomotive made of wood were built on the property. At any given time there were hundreds of extras employed every day, many of whom were Civil War reenactors who came from all over the nation to take part in the production. Their deep devotion to the subject matter and attention to detail gave the film much of its authenticity. Many of the extras were also college students, both men and women brought in by the busload for the larger scenes. At its height more than four thousand extras a day were employed, making it necessary to have an ultra early call time of three a.m. for a general set call of seven. Dozens of additional makeup, hair, wardrobe and production staff were needed for these scenes, which actually went very well due to military style organization with the "troops" even being marched in platoons from the preparation tents to the set.
  Shot in the early to late fall of 1994, it was a typical southern season of change with the weather proving difficult at best. With temperatures swinging between extremely hot to cold and rainy, the heavy red clay that makes up Georgia soil would turn into a sludge up to three feet deep during rains and would solidify to rock hard status a day later when temperatures soared. Long days took their toll on the cast and crew and the situation came to a head when disaster struck at the end of principal photography. 
  
  The critical scenes involving the trials and hanging of the raiders were shot over two days with the raw film being shipped out to Los Angeles labs every few days. The crate containing this film was lost in transit by the shipping company and though there was tremendous effort to find it the film was never located. Shooting had just wrapped with sets being torn down and the farm location restored. This necessitated a partial re-building of the set on location in North Carolina and a gathering of all the principal actors involved in the scenes for a very costly re-shoot which took about a week to complete.
caption: John Frankenheimer, director of Andersonville, on set in 1994.
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