Day One

It begins.

I should back up for just a second to mention that, on my way down to the Village, where the first day of shooting was, well, shooting, I passed a gas station. It struck me because it seemed weird.


Lukoil is a Russian company. About as Russian a Russian company as there is. So to just happen upon a Lukoil gas station here in the west Village seemed unusual and providential. Do with this what you will.


So the first day is about a scene in which two of our playas bring home several members of a visiting Russian volleyball team with the intention of, well, scoring some goals. But alas, when the games begin the men discover to their horror that their...equipment... isn't working.

Below are Marius (far right) and most of the cast of today's scenes.


The girls playing the assorted members of the volleyball team are Russian non-actors, cast here in New York for their obvious attributes. In all, they're doing a great job.


One of the three male leads is Alexei Chadov. He's one of the biggest stars in Russia. Think Keanu Reeves but good.


The apartment standing in for the character's apartment is actually the home of Ed Bennet. Ed owned VH-1 at one time. The place is stunning. It had to be dressed down a bit to make it appropriate as the home of a dentist. In the basement is a recording studio.


Among others, Annie Lennox has recorded here.


Back upstairs, work proceeded apace. The volleyball girls loitered.




Although I think to loiter you have to be standing up.

One interesting anecdote... In the scene, a couple of the girls are shooting video of themselves using one their phone cameras. The screen on the flip phone just has a green patch where the video will be added later in VFX. But no one could decide quite how to shoot this. So I suggested just using the video feature on my little digital Elph camera. Irek the DP was amused by the idea...


But finally, that's exactly what we did. So when you see the movie and you see one of the girls showing the video to another character, the video was shot with my little still camera.


I'm not entirely sure what Marius is so concerned about. It's gonna work.

Where They Got Me

It's been raining for a few days. Skies finally started to break up a bit yesterday morning. But that was only for a moment. It didn't take long for clouds to recoagulate and rain to rain.

Anyway, I went in to the editing room to continue the organizational process. I work in this building:


The one there more to the left. I"m on the 11th floor.

The building is old. I don't know how old. But old.


Inside it feels and smells old. Kind of musty. Of course it's also a film lab that's been around forever. For a long time, it was the only legitimate film lab in New York City. You walk the halls and the posters are from movies like "Broadway Danny Rose" and "Raising Arizona" and so forth and so on and etc.


Next door to me is Mikaso. That's a person, not a title. Mikaso is the assistant editor on the upcoming James Ivory film, "City of Your Final Destination."


Mikaso just started on final turnover yesterday; final reels were locked two days ago. There were re-shoots and then there was a whole kerfuffle in which last Fall Anthony Hopkins sued Merchant/Ivory for $750,000 he says they owe him for said same movie. I guess that's all worked out now. But now one of the movie's investors is suing because she says she's not getting the promised producing credit blah blah blah. But down the hall Mikaso is finishing the movie. So you know, I guess it's all getting worked out.

Last evening, I took a gambol up Central Park West, back to one of my former residences, on 65th Street. It was a very nice, if not excessively humid twilight. The park was pretty. But I have to admit to having a bit of a difficult time reconnecting with the city. I'm not sure why. I know it's changed. And god knows I've changed. So maybe that's it. I think I need to get out more. More gambols are probably needed.

55th & Broadway

I See'a Ikea

The problem is as you see:


This is my editing room. And anyone who knows me knows that this crow won't caw. So this morning I lit out for Brooklyn where way down in Red Hook there is an Ikea. It took a bit of a ride on the R train.


So there's no real subway station anywhere near this Ikea. So what you do is you get off at 9th St./4th Ave. and take an Ikea shuttle bus that picks you up there on the curb.


But there at the corner is St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. Inside it's all churchy.


Finally the Ikea Shuttle came and we trundled to the store.






Once inside, I wove my way through the maze and finally found the cheese. The Lighting Department.


Now this is where I shine. I get in, I get the goods, I get out. No browsing. No fumbling about. Just pointy-end-of-the-spear action.

I grabbed the lamps, etc. I needed then hustled back out. I retraced my steps and ended up back on the subway. Apparently it was Mariachi Day on the R Train.

Rectangle Round Table

Thursday we had the traditional Big Pre-Production Meeting. We had the confab in the commissary at Kaufman/Astoria. We only had four hours because "Life On Mars" was coming in for their "lunch".


So everyone gathers around a gathering of tables and the 1st AD leads the meeting. In this case, David Cluck (on the right). Director Marius Balchunas is on the left.

So the 1st AD goes through the shooting schedule day by day and outlines locations, special needs, etc. Anyone from any department who has a question or a problem chimes in and the situation gets worked out. A lot of the time, however, a discussion is "sidebarred" since to tackle the issue would take more time than the meeting could spare.

Below are the two key hair people:


And then there's Gaffer Mike Castro (right) and DP Irek Hartowicz (center):


After the meeting I went back to the subway. I was going back to Manhattan but Irek and his wife Ingrid Fuentes were headed deeper into Queens in search of a particular and alleged Polish restaurant:


Actually, Ingrid is also the movie's key make-up artist. That's how she and Irek met; he was DP'ing a show and she was making it up and the rest is current events.

Beheamoth

My building is ginormous. I'm way up on the 30th floor, the second from the top on the left. And on the other side.

Alright, What the Hell

I wasn't going to do this. But for me, blogging a bit during every show is a way for me to keep my photos organized. The discipline I have to bring in order to sort and process my photos helps me stay sorted. So this is really about me and my natural lack of order.

Also, since New York isn't exactly exotic, this blog's novelty and cache is suspect. Very suspect indeed. But there may yet be some things of interest to see and some stories to tell so I'm gonna go ahead and do it. Banality be damned.


So this is another Russian film. Translated from the Russian, the title is something like "No Love In the City." (It has a more fun turn of phrase in Russian) We were going to shoot in St. Petersburg. But the weather in St. Petersburg this time of year is vicious, wily, and inconducive to life. So the movie was moved to New York City.

In essence, NLITC is a romantic comedy with a fantasy element. The basic premise is that three men, all womanizers (one married) are visited by St. Valentine. The spectral saint, well, how can I put this... takes away their mojo until they can manage to fall in love, sincerely, authentically and...you know...nicely.

jetBlue was perfectly fine. I had a good seat at the front of the plane. And while the flight was a little bumply, at least we had a 30 minute hold over JFK while some U.N. General Assembly VIP held up commercial air traffic while they departed the U.S. of A. That was cool.


I was picked up at JFK and taken to Kaufman/Astoria Studios in Queens. "No Love In the City"'s production offices are here. KAS is one of those studios that's hosted virtually every classic NYC movie ever made. ALL THAT JAZZ shot here. No, literally,

here:


In this very stage! Also a dozen Sidney Lumet movies and countless Woody Allen movies and a Paul Mazursky here and there. "Moonstruck" built the interior of the Castorini house on the stage seen above. The list goes on forever. Also, SESAME STREET is in the stage next door. I half expect to see Elmo and Big Bird hanging outside the stage smoking cigarettes.

But now, ABC's "Life On Mars" is occupying most every stage here.


The movie starts shooting in three days. Pre-production has been scarily short. So there's an added urgency to everything. Much movement. Phones ringing. Standard basic production environment.


"The Cotton Club" also shot here.

So Marius and I were then driven into Manhattan, back to our apartment building on 42nd and 12th. My apartment is on the 30th floor and affords the following view from the window:


I quickly unpacked and then walked down to a semi-nearby Food Emporium to stock up on some staply basics. But I couldn't get a cab back, because west of 9th Ave. there's essentially zero cabbage. So I ended up having to walk all the way home, plastic grocery bags cutting into my fingers. By the time I got in the elevator I was drenched. But I got milk!

Got up this morning and took a gander out the window in daylight.


Looks like there's an MTA bus hatchery right below me.


The web service in the apartment is on the fritz. So this morning I had to jump on the 'A' train and go all the way in to the production office in Queens just to get online. Bummer.


That's all for now.