BLOOMINGTON - The antique wooden furniture and oriental rugs of the Vrooman Mansion stood in sharp contrast to modern wiring, television cameras and metal lighting stands set up Friday to capture the building's ambience.

Sitting in the dining room of the circa-1869 home was St. Paul, Minn.-based filmmaker Matt Ehling and Bloomington resident Pete Guither, editor of a popular blog on the drug war. Their conversation will be part of a documentary on interpreting the Constitution.

Ehling's independent ETS Pictures previously produced "Security and the Constitution" a documentary that aired in 2004 on PBS. That program looked at how American civil liberties are affected during wartime.

The upcoming film will address four areas of the U.S. Constitution, said Ehling. In each segment, he'll use real-world situations to illustrate debates about interpreting the document.

"For example, if you're a gun owner, what does (how the constitution is interpreted) it mean to you?" said Ehling.

Guither edits the blog www.drugwarrant, an online site that examines the drug war and its ramifications, he said. "I've always been fascinated with constitutional law," he said.

The filmmaker isn't the first to take notice of the site.

"It gets between 1,000 and 2,000 hits a day," said Guither, who noted he also has been interviewed by a Massachusetts radio personality about the site.

Drug War Rant has posted details and discussion on Raich v. Ashcroft, a 2004 Supreme Court case that dealt with the medical marijuana issue. The case will be featured in the film.

"The question there is, can the federal government regulate down to a person growing marijuana in their yard?" said Ehling, explaining the case's significance to his segment on the Constitution's rules for interstate commerce.

Making the Constitution accessible to the general public is one of the filmmaker's goals, he said Friday. "The topic doesn't get a lot of in-depth discussion in the media," he said.

"People think you need to be an expert in constitutional law to understand the issues, but you don't," he said.

Filming at Vrooman - a home originally owned by Carl Vrooman and now operated as a bed and breakfast - was suggested by a friend familiar with Central Illinois, said Ehling.

"Historic buildings work well. I like to film in nice-looking places," said Ehling.

"And I hate to go to people's offices," he said.

Busy traffic around an office can interrupt the filming process, and the ETS camera crews' 2½-hour setup can prove disruptive to a person's workplace, said Ehling.

Guither, an Illinois State University administrator, also liked conducting the interview at the Vrooman. The building is beautiful, but on top of that, he prefers keeping his hobby " the blog " separate from his professional responsibilities.

The ETS crew's use of the mansion marks the second time in a year the Vrooman has been the site of filming, said Theora Stark, innkeeper at the mansion.

In 2005, PBS crews filmed a fashion makeover of a State Farm employee, she said.

"It's really starting to get noticed, and we're trying to get the word out that it's a hospitality center available for different uses," said Stark.

The ETS interview with Guither marked the first interview for the film. It followed about three months researching the topic, said Ehling.

On Sunday, the filmmaker will head to Washington, D.C., where he'll film Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.

He expects to shoot more interviews through the next few months, with the final film ready for broadcast sometime this summer or fall.