City Island

Confusion on Tenth Avenue

Here's a clip shot late one night on 10th Avenue in New York's "Hell's Kitchen" district--so named for its past history as a slum environment but now home to numerous high rises, lofts, theaters, restaurants that won't seat you, etc. In it, Andy Garcia and Emily Mortimer begin a scene and promptly stop as the camera fails to be in the right place. Emily is a tad upset and voices her disapproval by saying, quite rightly, that she was told to step wide of her mark--and now she's being blamed for not hitting her mark. As I recall, this was the night that we had a strange, out of control Police Officer (the film commission assigns an officer to every shoot) yelling at us about what time we had to stop. His deeply unpleasant manner (this wasn't our first encounter with him) rattled everyone. I believe a letter was eventually written, by our producers, to the NYPD suggesting that in terms of public relations between film crews shooting in New York and the Police, this particular officer might be better deployed on some other duty--like wandering the projects in the Bronx looking for crack dealers. By the way, to those who wrote asking me what "picture lock" means: it means reaching a final, FINAL, edited version of the film that will not change any further. Locking picture enables the composer to have accurate timings of scenes, the sound editors to begin building the tracks etc. We'll lock picture next week, making our editing period a nice, tidy eight week process.

Burning Film

Yes, it's come to this. Clips of the crew wandering around the set. As I begin to run low with these precious clips, I have to find new ways to make even the least fascinating material relatively interesting. And so I come to the subject of burning film--those strange moments when the camera is left rolling for unknown reasons when a take is not even close to being contemplated. These tidbits are actually not entirely worthless as they show in action what I was describing the other day--that leisurely disorganized vibe that permeates every movie set (in between explosions of temper, of course) which make every day civilians wonder how the hell a movie ever gets finished. The first clip is outside an office building on Lexington Avenue and 57th St. and features cameo appearences by, among others, my producer, our hair stylist, several pa's, a member of the art department and, at the very end, two members of the camera crew--who presumably were responsible for having turned the camera on at this point and presumably forgot it was rolling. Next is a nice shot featuring Julianna Marguiles waiting patiently on the stairs as more non-work goes on. This clip also features my cinematographer Vanja Cernjul. He's the one standing there acting like a cinematographer. Strangely, as a director, I'm frequently told that I'm "shooting too much film". Since I always warn the producers at the outset that I believe film stock is there to be shot--and that they'll be happy later to have more material rather than less--it puzzles me that they continue to under-budget my film spends. Truthfully, I wont be happy and truly satisfied as a director until I pass the "one-million mark"--on any number of movies this happens during the shooting and is always an excuse for a Champagne celebration for the whole crew. On City Island I exposed a mere two-hundred thousand feet of film--not so bad really but enough to prompt a few stern lectures. My usual response is: we're here once, on this set, with these actors, having gone through all the trouble that it takes to get here. Why not shoot a little extra film?

Movie Crazy

City Island, thy cup runneth over

The Denise Thing

Forgive the shameless self-promotion (to say nothing of the unattractive need to point out positive things about myself), but click here to read an excellent review of my last film, a documentary soon to be released on DVD called "Tis Autumn; The Search For Jackie Paris". The film is rolling out theatrically around the USA and Canada on the art-house circuit and this review is from Winnipeg. The man who wrote it is a genius. You have to think that of someone who calls your film "one of the finest music documentaries ever made"... Now back to City Island for a moment. My property master, Dan Fisher, sent me a blog entry he'd written over the summer which never got posted. It has to do with a part of the story which I always referred to as "The Denise Thing"--a sub-plot that was quite bizarre and relatively controversial, which I'd regularly been asked to drop from the script but which I think is an important element of the movie. Without any "spoilers" being an issue, I can tell you that the BBW community (big beautiful women) and the FA movement (fat acceptance) are a part of this sub-plot. For a few years now, I've been interested in this world and its very open, very loving suggestion that we all accept how each other look--and that fat people don't have to go through this life being ashamed of or made fun of because of how they look. Size acceptance is all about the celebration of being a large person and women, it seems to me, have been the backbone of the movement. So I created a BBW advocate named Denise as a character and worked her into the story--she's played by one of the loveliest people I've ever met, Carrie Baker Reynolds. Alas, the two clips I have of Carrie are short and perhaps have been posted before, but I include them both below--Ezra Miller is in both. By the way, if the size-acceptance movement is something you're curious about, click here for the original plus-size movement magazine, Dimensions. The climax of the Denise sub-plot comes with a dinner table scene where she lays out a feast for her guests. It's a short scene but a necessary part of the larger puzzle and Dan Fisher had to buy and make a hell of a lot of food for it. Below is his account of the prep and shoot, titled "Dinner With Denise". Thanks Dan--my day just got a little longer. DINNER AT DENISE'S: Bill of fare for Sc. 139, Friday Aug.8: Baby-back ribs smothered in sauce, encircled with mixed grill meat, swaddled in steaks (Weighs about 40 lb.) Fried chicken cutlets on a bed of pepperoni, decorated with cherry tomatoes Sliced boneless ham, garnished with bacon strips, salami slices, and pineapple chunks, drizzled with Cheez Wiz Potatoes au gratin Macaroni and cheese 3 dozen Pillsbury Pop N Fresh biscuits Creamed corn Baked beans Salami chunks drizzled with cheez wiz (appetizer portion) Cheese curls Plain marshmallows Coconut encrusted marshmallows (Ezra's new favorite snack) Relish dish Dish of cold green bean salad Bowl of red cherry tomatoes Enormous Chocolate Death cake Various cakes, pies, and muffins Beverage choices: Milk, Coca-Cola, water NOTES ON FOOD SCENES: 1. If you work with a writer/director of Italian heritage (Scorcese, Chase, De Felitta) expect lots of food scenes. Sex scenes, not so much. 2. I kept asking myself, "With all of this meat, what kind of vegetable does Denise eat?" Then the answer came to me, like Excalibur offered to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake: CREAMED CORN. Denise only eats vegetables with cream in them. Yes, note above the relish dish and cherry tomatoes, but for Denise, those are mere table decoration for the guests. She doesn't touch green food unless it's guacamole or lime jello. 3. The day before shooting the dinner scene, Raymond approached to let me know that the scripted dialogue for Denise -- announcing that she's making baby-back ribs with potatoes au gratin -- had been modified to become baby-back ribs with mixed grill, swaddled in steaks. Ordinarily, this type of day-before change would make me or any prop person groan. Changes in props mean you have more work to do, more of production's money to spend while you're worrying how to tell the line producer that it's just quite possible that you may go over budget on this job. (My six least favorite words from a director or actor on a film set: "You know what would be great....?") But when this fairly ordinary meal of ribs and potatoes morphed into the ridiculous -- ribs with mixed grill and steak? What is she, a professional boxer? -- that gave me free rein to leap into the Land Of Ridiculous Food, both feet forward. The next day, the day of the shoot, I left for work early so that I could shop at BJ's Wholesale on the way. Screw the budget, I thought, I want to enter the Pantheon -- "Tom Jones", "Babette's Feast", "Tampopo", "Big Night" -- where the audience sees the amassed food on the table and collectively gasps, "Holy s--t". As I prowled the aisles of BJ's, cart practically tipping from the amassed weight, I was honest-to-God laughing, I kid you not. Pre-cooked, microwaveable bacon? Sure. Cheez Wiz? Hell, yeah. 4. The secret to good food scenes is the same as the secret to good comedy: TIMING. One must constantly seek schedule updates from the Assistant Director and cook accordingly. Because remember, the food not only has to look good, it should be hot and palatable for as long as possible. After all, actors will be eating this stuff, not just once but over and over for the next two to ten hours, so all efforts should be made to make the experience pleasant, rather than vomit-inducing. (A side note: Almost without fail, actors will dig hungrily and greedily into the food in the first few takes -- It's food! It's free! I can eat as much as I want! Cool! -- but by the third setup they will be picking at it like the proverbial birds. Be sure to have a spit bucket and/or paper towels handy.) 5. The enormous chocolate cake, seen not only in Sc. 139 but in the big finale as well, was from Zeppari's Bakery, of Pelham Bay, NY. Carmine, the owner, gave us an extremely fair price and really understood what I wanted and why I wanted it. I can't recommend Zeppari's highly enough. Oh yeah, and the cake was delicious. Additional shout-outs to Artie's Steak and Seafood of City Island and to City Island Diner, for your help in all of "City Island"'s many food scenes.