Deep in the woods by the Sol Duc River, a young man who appeared to be Native American climbed over logs, avoided berry bushes and stepped around bear scat.
He stopped at a log to catch his breath, scanned the woods around him, then moved on.
“Cut,” said Ryan Herring, director of “The Olympians: The Series,” a North Olympic Peninsula adventure television show he plans to pitch to the networks.
“You are one-shot wonders,” he said Friday after reviewing the scene on a portable monitor.
Herring, along with a skeleton film crew of about 15, were finishing the last few scenes for the series pilot, called “Shanghaied,” on a 96-acre private plot of second-growth forest near the Sol Duc River.
Herring’s creation, what he envisions as an epic historical drama, focuses on a young frontiersman, Jacob, played by Tommy Ruddell, a Los Angeles actor with Port Angeles roots.
It also has used many people in the area as extras and assistants.
Principal filming for the episode wraps up today, with a bar fight and kidnapping scene planned in a made-over Bar N9ne in Port Angeles.
Other locations have included Lincoln Park’s log cabins, which were transformed by filmmakers into an early 1800s woodlands community.
“The Olympians” is based on stories that emerged from the arrival of American settlers on the Olympic Peninsula, including shipwrecks, crimes and legends, Herring said.
As soon as filming wraps up, post-production will begin, including weaving an original soundtrack into the scenes.
The soundtrack is being created by area musicians at Dungeness Records in Sequim, Herring said.
He expects the final product to be ready for viewing in October, with a public viewing and sales of DVDs or online digital downloads to help finance the next episode of the series and entry fees for film festivals.
No firm dates are set at this time, he said.
While the local public is being introduced to the product through showings and film festivals, Herring will be pitching his series to the networks.
Herring brought in actors and film crews from the entire Pacific Northwest but also used local talent to make his project come to life.
Among them were several members of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, who wore traditional cedar dress to help recreate the feel of the time and place, Herring said.
Ruddell, who plays Jacob, had a minor role in the 2008 version of “Land of the Lost” and received several call backs for the role of Superman/Clark Kent in the latest incarnation of the comic book movie series.
Ruddell, who is the brother of Port Angeles auto dealer Howie Ruddell, attended Port Angeles High School and Peninsula College, where he performed in several productions in the Little Theater.
Most of the actors and crew members are from the Pacific Northwest, and many have connections in the Port Angeles area.
Some, like David Baker of Chimacum, have Hollywood experience.
Baker, an actor and violinist, appeared briefly as a fiddle player and sailor in “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World” but is primarily a set guy this time, he said.
As a collector of artifacts, Baker has been helping outfit the actors and sets with authentic, or authentic-looking, period pieces, including a sword he will wear in the show as an extra during today’s bar fight.
“I’m really impressed with the quality of the actors he got,” Baker said.
Baker said playing a pirate on “The Olympians” is more fun than being a sailor in Her Majesty’s Navy in “Master and Commander.”
“Pirates are pretty cool,” he said.
Students from the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center have been interning on the set to learn the art of movie-making.
A group of 15 students from Port Angeles, Sequim, Joyce and Port Townsend are working as assistants on the set, working with actors’ makeup, on lighting, still photography and scene continuity, and working at the film’s “base camp,” where the crew retreated to eat and rest between scenes.
After last year’s class experience with “Serenity Farm,” a thriller filmed in Port Townsend and Sequim, the class was popular — so popular that entry to the movie-making class became a competitive process, requiring teacher recommendations and interviews.
“I had to turn people away,” said Lisa Hitt, an instructor at the skills center.
On Friday, only nine of the 15 accompanied the crew, since most of the filming was done and only a few scenes remained.
Matthew Roragen, 14, of Sequim had one of the more visible jobs: operating the “slate,” or “clapper,” to start each scene.
Roragen was given a few lessons on how to notate each scene by First Assistant Director Allen Esparza, 38, of Tacoma, then had to find a way to get between the camera and the scene, sometimes half hidden inside bushes to keep the slate visible.
Others were assigned to assist the makeup artist, which sometimes included tasks such as gathering both mud and dry soil to properly dirty the actors for the scene.
Four of the students interning on “The Olympians” set also interned last year on “Serenity Farm,” Hitt said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
