In a Place As Strange As Brooklyn

Being fully caught up with the editing and having a half-day wait for new film, I decided to hang out on set. Today the show started in Times Square then moved to Brooklyn. Deep, distant, heart-of-darkness Brooklyn. I didn't go to the Times Square shoot but I did grab the 'D' train and trundled to Fort Hamilton.


Fort Hamilton has a mighty concentration of orthodox Jews. That probably explains why the hospital at which we were shooting is called Maimonides Medical Center.

This is Maimonides




The scene involves two of our principal male characters accidentally running in to each other at a sex therapist's office, each one loathe to admit the real reason why they are there. I was drafted to play one of the patients waiting in a chair outside the office. So when the two leads get in to a bit of a shouting situation, blurting out humiliating details, myself and two others have to be drawn by the commotion then pretend to be uninterested. It was fun.


Ville Haspasalo plays Sauna. In the story, Sauna owns a gym. He's a ladies' man. But not after St. Valentine puts a dispiriting curse on he and his friends. Hence their encounter at the sex therapist's office.

Below, Aleksei and Ville rehearse.


And Marius & Co. watch...


Richard Murphy is our set mixer, the guy who records the sound.


Richard recorded "Miracle at St. Anna," some "Sex in the City," and about a bajillion Laws & Orderesses.

Below is a comely extra.


Monica sits across from me in the scene. We created a mutual backstory for our characters in which we had gone out for Indian food, gotten sick, and come to the hospital. Our intention of falling to the floor and writhing in gastrointestinal distress was met with skepticism from Marius.


In spite of Marius' inability to understand quality collaboration, work proceeded...


Continuity pictures were taken...


Extras were wrangled out of their pen...


And we were off.


I'll probably cut me out of the movie.

Soup Nazi

I've found this great place across the street on 8th Avenue called Hale and Hearty. It's a soup/salad/sandwich joint. Newfangled and shiny and fantastic. Amazing, filling soups and terrific sandwiches and wraps. It's seems to be shaping up as my every day thing.

Which got me thinking about soup. I always had it in my head that somewhere in the neighborhood is the actual soup place on which SEINFELD's famous "soup Nazi" was based. So I took to the interwebs and found out.

It's right next door.


Yeah, it's literally right next to where I work, here on 55th Street. For now, it's closed and a notice in the window suggests that owner/character Ali Yeganeh is now in Argentina for the Summer. Will he be back? Or will it be "No soup for you!"

That Looks...snif...Great

What the hell is a cold anyway? I mean seriously. What is it? I'd rather fracture my tibia in three places than suffer the indignities of the common cold. Standing sheepishly on the subway platform trying to hide the snot dribbling from your nostrils... What...is...that?


So I had to drag my sniffly butt downtown, to Post Works in SoHo. Post Works is doing our telecine, our sound, AND our final lab work. But this afternoon was the first day of film transfer. So I needed to be in the room to supervise the set-up. At least the room is dark so they can't see my red nostrils.


I did have to press the colorist to properly execute an anamorphic 16x9 frame so that I can cut the movie in the Avid the way I want to. There was some resistance but eventually they agreed.

After all that wrangling, I was thirsty. They said there was water in the hall outside the suite. You can see it - right there, against the windows...


But there was no way I was gonna go back and forth with my little Dixie cup that I could swig down in one fell gulp. So I asked for something a bit more voluminous. That's what I got.


Finally after three hours the session was over and I headed out in to the drizzly twilight. I think I'm starting to connect a little bit.


I'd feel better if I felt better.

I Have A Cold

I'm suspending my campaign in order to deal with this crisis.

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