New Ghosts in an Old Place

by Joe Sheppard

If you went to or ever worked at Lawrence Academy, you’ve probably heard the legend of the Waters House ghost: Miss Waters’ maid, a restless spirit who stalks the empty corridors, consumed with guilt for having accidentally caused her employer’s death. Whether it’s true or not, the old house is a creepy place — creepy enough that when New Line Cinema was planning a new adaptation of Stephen King’s equally creepy story Salem’s Lot, producer Michael Clear ’01 had no trouble convincing the studio to use Waters House in the film.

“Originally they wanted us to shoot the movie either in Atlanta or in Canada,” Michael explains, “but Salem’s Lot takes place in a seminal New England town … I was like, ’I know a place.’” He convinced New Line to send a small crew to the Groton area to take photographs “to show them,” Michael says, “why it has to be Massachusetts. And the first thing I said to the team once we got here was that Waters House would make a great boarding house. It’s where the main character stays when he comes into town”.

“We start this project up, we’ve hired our costume designer, and then, on literally day one of our camera test, I’m just on set at New England Studios in Ayer,” Michael recalls, “and the costume designer walks over and says, ’I think you know Kristin.’” “Kristin,” of course, was award-winning costumer Kristin Achtmeyer ’02, who, unbeknownst to Michael, was in charge of costumes for the film. “What’s funny about it,” Michael continues, “is that Kristin doesn’t work out of Boston and neither do I … The first time we are working together happens to be where we’re both from even though we’re actually based out of Los Angeles.”

Kristin, whom John Bishop profiled in the Fall 2019 Journal, has worked as costumer on an impressive list of movies and TV shows including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Hunger Games, and the new Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek) series Kevin Can F--k Himself. She also earned an Emmy for her work on American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. A freelancer, she emphasizes that she is not a costume designer, but a costumer: “I like the day-to-day set world,” she explains. “I’m in charge of making sure the actors are in the right clothes. We shoot different scenes at different times — the interior of a scene one day and the exterior a week later — and you have to make sure that the costumes are all correct.”

Michael interjects, “We had a lot of costumes on Salem’s Lot. I mean, it’s a vampire movie, so almost every costume has a bloody version and a clean version. Managing the actors’ looks was critical, and Kristin made it look easy.”

A women’s studies major at Dickinson College, Kristin spent her junior year at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and it changed the course of her life. “Most of my courses were in film because they offered them there, and I loved it,” she explains. “And then I came back and did a few classes in costume design at Dickinson in the theater program. It was too short of a time to change my major at that point. But I took all the classes I could and kind of just went out to LA after college and tried to get in any way I could, first with the USC student film programs. All their students have to do theses, and they’re always looking for help in every department. So, I would do costume design for a small short film that they would be making. And then I kind of just got my name in other places, and then worked in costumes … It just kind of grew from there. I enjoy film, and then I enjoy the storytelling and what these characters can become in a costume.”

Michael has been in Hollywood as long as Kristin. After graduating from Harvard in 2005 with a degree in psychology and thoughts of becoming a therapist, he worked as a paralegal for a law firm in New York for a couple of years; however, he didn’t like it much and “wasn’t very good at it,” he admits.

Michael credits Chris Hazzard ’03 with getting him started in the movie business. “Chris was doing short films at NYU,” he recalls, “and asked if I wanted to come be a production assistant

on his short film. I was at the law firm working until 3 a.m. and was supposed to go work on the short film at 6 a.m. Despite being exhausted from the week, I was so excited to work on the film that I just didn’t go to sleep. It was a very pivotal night.”

Coincidentally, it was a friend in film school at University of Southern California who persuaded Michael to go west. He drove across the country and slept on that friend’s couch when he got there (“My parents were mortified!”). He found an apartment and, realizing that he had to pay the rent, got a job at Creative Artists Agency through a friend. “I started working there, and it just clicked. It was easy,” he reminisces. “It’s not easy now,” he hastens to add. ”It’s actually really hard because it’s a different kind of responsibility as a producer. We’re the only people who are involved in a movie from the very inception of the idea through the marketing and release of the film.”

Kristin concurs. “Michael was very involved in Salem’s Lot,” she says. “Some producers are just up in their offices, but Michael was on set every day, very involved in the whole making of it.”

On Sept. 9, moviegoers will be able to see the fruits of the labors of a few hundred talented people, two of whom enjoyed a brief, and completely serendipitous, homecoming at their alma mater last summer. Maybe Miss Waters’ despondent maid will have a bit part.

Kristin Achtmeyer ’02 and Michael Clear ’01 Kristin Achtmeyer ’02 and Michael Clear ’01