LIVERMORE – Electrical cords coiled and twisted over the creaking floorboards of the 19th-century kitchen.

Boom microphones and digital cameras captured the scene in the corner, where four women gossiped about the new preacher as they fed wool onto spinning wheels.

First-time movie director Michael Maglaras beamed. The former New York City opera singer stood motionless as the rustic scene continued.

“He’s not married,” said actress Cynthia Thayer, twisting in her seat as her wheel continued to spin.

“Nooo,” replied Susanne Grosjean, adding a hint of conspiracy to the improvised dialogue.

“Cut!” interrupted Maglaras. “I love you. You were great.”

In a moment, a stylist appeared, trying to slide an unruly lock of Grosjean’s hair back into place as the director bounded in close to the women.

Be bigger in your gestures and expressions, Maglaras told them. “Play to the back of the house.”

Then, he leapt outside the camera’s frame, waved his arms to hush the room and softly said, “Action.”

Silently, Maglaras watched and smiled.

“It’s the most fun you can have while spending all your money,” he said a few minutes later.

No dialogue

The movie will be in black and white, will be at least three hours long and will have no dialogue, only Maglaras’ voice reading an epic poem by Lewiston native Marsden Hartley.

Will there be an audience?

“It’s easier not to think about it,” said Maglaras, who fell in love with the work the first time he read it. He promised Hartley’s heirs that he would not change a word.

Perhaps his enthusiasm for the poem will carry over to ticket buyers. “It will have to find an audience in its own way,” Maglaras said.

The poem, “Cleophas and His Own,” an account of Hartley’s experience living in coastal Nova Scotia with a family during the summers of 1935 and 1936. While the poet was there, two of the family’s sons and a cousin drowned in the hurricane of 1936.

Shortly after reading the poem the first time, Maglaras recorded a CD of his reading. He published it with his own company, 217 Records.

The movie will begin and end with Hartley, who wrote the poem in the last weeks of his life while living in the downeast village of Corea, Maine.

Last fall, Maglaras shot scenes there, portraying the poet and painter as an old man. Cinematographer Geoffrey Leighton recreated Hartley’s studio in his barn in Durham.

Maglaras and company also spent three days at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center. The movie crew of more than a dozen took over the center’s 19th-century mansion, a substitute for 1930s Nova Scotia.

Poet and painter

“So far, the movie is shooting itself,” said Maglaras during a lunchtime break. In some cases, he is trying to recreate Hartley’s own images. Though he was known as a poet, too, Hartley’s true fame came from his skill as a painter. His eclectic work made him world famous.

His subjects included everything from Nazi uniforms to Mount Katahdin to the Mason family, the people he wrote about in “Cleophas and His Own.”

Some of the motifs from the Mason paintings, such as the recurrence of roses, will be seen again and again in the film.

Much will be decided in the editing, which Leighton will also do. The film will likely come out sometime next year. And Maglaras hopes to hold the premiere in Lewiston.

There’s a lot to do, yet.

The crew plans to spend time this summer at Wolfe’s Neck State Park in Freeport. And with each shot, Maglaras and Leighton try little adjustments.

Back in the kitchen at the Norlands mansion, they unveiled something called a “hazer.” They placed it on the floor and plugged it in. Soon, it began exhaling a white mist, filling the small room.

It’s meant to soften the image that the camera sees, which Maglaras viewed on a 6-inch screen.

After a few minutes, he smiled and clapped his hands.

“Let’s shoot some film, kids,” he said.

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