They're at it again. What began last week has developed into a full-blown shoot; film crews closed off Mott Street to vehicular traffic and rolled in their equipment this morning, chief among them the awesomely named SuperTechno camera crane. [I looked it up -- the SuperTechno 30 costs well over $2000 a day to rent, and hiring the guy who operates it costs another $550 per ten hours.] Tonight, they strung up lights in the trees and are filming a night scene on the corner of Mott and Prince. I can hear the Paramount Production Support trucks outside my window right now. I went home for lunch this afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of actual filming, but was disappointed. This is common, of course. Very little "action" happens on film sets; most of the time, you sit around and wait. And no, no sightings of stars Isla Fisher or Hugh Dancy, though I didn't try very hard. I did, however, brush past the director sitting in the proverbial director's chair on my way back to the office. Boy, did he look bored.
To be honest, I'm not much a gawker. Will Smith filmed parts of I Am Legend outside my office in SoHo, and although I heard that there were throngs of people hoping to get an autograph, I was not among them. If I were a celebrity, I'd want to be left alone. Do unto others, I say.
How do I know the WGA writers strike is really over? Because they're shooting movies in New York again.
Remember this post from last September? That's when I first heard about the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. I guess the location scouts decided that the street I live on would be a good place to shoot part of the film, because there was a film crew out on the street this morning. I wanted to take pictures of the real action -- they had Panavision cameras rigged to the sides of yellow cabs -- but I'd left my camera in my apartment and couldn't get it until lunchtime. By then, filming had ended and all that was left was a massive collection of lights arrays, tripods, and other important but ultimately boring things being packed up.It's not likely that I'll see the film when it eventually comes out. But if you do, and you watch a scene in which a character steps out of a cab and into a boutique with beach balls in the window, you'll know where it was shot.
This post, despite the pilfered lyric of a title, is not about "Joker & The Thief" by Wolfmother. I sort of wish it were, though. That song rocks.
Today I saw Cloverfield. I have some brief thoughts on the movie, but they involve certain plot elements that you may not want to read about before you've seen it for yourself. So I've set my thoughts in black below. If you want to read them, just highlight the text, starting here: This was a bleak film. As promised in the trailer, the Statue of Liberty is spectacularly beheaded, and lots of very big things fall or explode, like helicopters, buildings, and a monster. Sounds like a standard action thriller, right? Wrong -- this film was depressing as all get-up. After it was over, I left the theater and walked around lower Manhattan, reliving images from the film in my head, not because I wanted to but because it was unavoidable. I know the film wasn't real, but for almost ninety minutes, I had subjected myself to the inner reality of the film. There was something horrible about watching New York City get trashed -- it was like watching my hometown get trashed. At least in I Am Legend, we don't see the city deteriorate -- we merely see the aftermath. In Cloverfield, there is no aftermath.
Tonight, I saw Michel Gondry speak at the Apple Store in SoHo. I only found out about his free presentation a couple of hours before the event, and I couldn't leave work early enough to grab a seat in the front. So I ended up standing in the back among four hundred other people, who, judging by the number of men with impressive growths of facial hair, were mostly film geeks and would-be filmmakers.
I'm not exactly a huge fan of Gondry, but I've enjoyed the music videos he's done for Björk, and his 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was pretty good. I can't wait to see his next film, however. It's called Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black and Mos Def. Watch the trailer here.
To understand why Be Kind Rewind is on my must-watch list, I have to tell you about School of Rock, another Jack Black vehicle. I relate to virtually everything in School of Rock. Wanting to be in a band? Check. Teaching kids how to be a band? Check. Playing at the local Battle of the Bands? Check. Being housemates with Sarah Silverman? Let me think about that one. Actually, the thing I relate to the most is the real-world musical education part. And that's because even though both my parents were educators, I never took a day of guitar lessons in my life. It's not about which fingers go on which frets. It's all about joy and attitude.
But when I was growing up, I was also a film geek. How geeky? I built a full-scale Jabba the Hutt puppet in the living room with my brother (complete with moveable tail). I made papier mâché zombie heads with light bulbs for eyes after watching Night of the Living Dead. I could recite every line from Flash Gordon. I pilfered my dad's Bruce Lee posters. I made a cassette tape of the Conan the Barbarian orchestral score. My heroes were Frank Oz, Stan Winston and Rick Baker. I built a wire-frame T-Rex head when Jurassic Park came out. And, in what I submit as the ultimate proof of my geekiness, I'd watched Arnold Schwarzenegger's first motion picture Hercules in New York at least ten times before my sixteenth birthday. (That's probably just proof of my dismal standards.)
I'm no filmmaker, but I'm as enamored with the process of filmmaking as anyone. Which is why Be Kind Rewind, in which two video store clerks set out to film their own cobbled-together versions of classic movies after the real tapes get erased, holds such hilarious, romantic potential.
Back to Michel Gondry. He spoke for about 90 minutes about, among other things:
The place of improvisation in filmmaking: "It's the job of the actors to be in the moment, and the job of the director to be around the moment."
The importance of being flexible: "Sometimes the unscripted moments in filming are funnier than the things you planned for."
Sequels: "This new movie is a reaction to the fact that sequels nowadays cost more to make than the original."
Childhood creative outlets: "My parents really encouraged me."
Gondry also showed short clips from the new film, and also this Björk video he directed late last year ("Declare Independence"), a stunning piece of video art depicting a stunning bit of performance art inspired by a stunning song:
Tonight, I saw one of the best movies I've ever seen in a theater. And it's a 25-year-old film. Sure, the film's artistic merits (great direction, bristling performances by stars Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer, a genre-bending screenplay) had much to do with how joyful the experience of watching Blade Runner: The Final Cutwas for me. But that sparkling new print! That remastered soundtrack! Those new shots and effects! It also helped that the film was shown at the Ziegfeld, a gracefully aging movie palace in midtown Manhattan with a fantastic digital projector.
This was also the first time in years I've seen a movie in a theater all by my lonesome. Perhaps this was for the best -- more time to myself, to savor every stunning frame, and to realize that Rutger Hauer's Roy Batty is one of the great screen villains of all time. I've seen multiple versions of the film, on both VHS and DVD, and only ever on a TV screen, but this was like watching it for the first time.
I found this sign taped to the front door of our building this evening: Attention Residents: Disney Pictures and Bruckheimer Productions are going to be filming a new movie this fall entitled, "Confessions of a Shopaholic". As research for this film, we are looking for apartments belonging to women between the ages of 21 and 28. We would like to take pictures of the apartment for our art department so that they can get a sense of how to design the main character's apartment. This is NOT for filming. If you fall into this category and are interested, please contact Malaika Johnson at 347.528.6709. Malaika Johnson Locations Department
We get signs like this one all the time. And film crews set up lighting and filming equipment on our street, on average, about once every two months. Since Sarah is outside the specified age range, we certainly won't be calling Ms. Johnson. But Sarah is likely to be in the target audience for this movie, which, I'm guessing, is likely based on Sophie Kinsella's book of the same title. It may end up being a fluffy chick flick, but at least you'll know the main character's apartment will be based on a real home in one of the best shopping districts in the city.
Things I learned from last night's Rocket Science premiere: 1. Paparazzi lining the red carpet have no idea who it is they're taking pictures of until someone yells the person's name. Then they all seem to not only know his name, but be his best friend as well. This is especially true for relatively obscure actors, like much of the cast of Rocket Science.2. New Yorkers are not the friendliest people in America, but they become much nicer when standing outside a theater waiting to catch a celebrity sighting. This is because they may have to ask the stranger standing next to them who that woman walking down the red carpet is. Some New Yorkers also happen to lack normal observational skills, like the guy who asked me what movie all this hubbub was for, just as we stood by this poster: 3. Being a celeb is hard, because you have to smile and look good all the time. Ah, but maybe it comes naturally to them. And maybe this is why I am not a celeb.4. I wish I learned more, but that's about it. Oh, I also learned at the after-party that warm figs and goat cheese are a magical combination that will set off divine little fireworks in your mouth. Just like kalbi and kimchi.
The first and only movie premiere we've attended was the New York City premiere of Spike Lee's She Hate Me. What, you've never seen or even heard of the film? It's probably because She Hate Me had most critics saying, "We hate this." I myself was appalled by much of the film, but I applauded its technical merit and thought-provoking content. It inspired this film review I wrote for Pixelsurgeon, a review I convinced Roger Ebert to read (but that's a subject for another post). The bottom line was I enjoyed seeing the film before anyone else in the world had seen it, and seeing it in a theater with Spike and many of the other cast members.
Tonight, Sarah and I will be attending our second NYC premiere, but it's for a movie that we've already seen: RocketScience. We saw this at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT, earlier this year and thought it was fantastic, especially since my brother-in-law is one of the leads.
I'll blog about our experience at the event. In the meantime, watch the trailer here.
I went home for lunch this afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of actual filming, but was disappointed. This is common, of course. Very little "action" happens on film sets; most of the time, you sit around and wait. And no, no sightings of stars Isla Fisher or Hugh Dancy, though I didn't try very hard. I did, however, brush past the director sitting in the proverbial director's chair on my way back to the office. Boy, did he look bored.
