Film Shoot

So as posted before, I have found myself watching the filming of TV shows around the city.  Tuesday, November 9th was one of those nights, but this time a little different.  The Tower Heist starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy and Tea Leoni was being filmed around the Trump International Tower near Columbus Circle that evening and in particular that night was a scene with Tea Leoni out on the street.  As I was walking by at about 5pm, the area around the hotel was full of activity, people and equipment.  Across the street however, was one light and a reflector shield.  Once filming starts, the crew forms a perimeter where they ask the public to move across the street or stay down the block so not to interupt the shot.  So I thought I would be a little proactive and sit across the street, close to their light, but out of the way.  Turns out that "out of the way" was in fact where they were shooting.  About 20 minutes after I sat on a bench nearby, more people started to show up, then more equipment and more people.  Eventually, the director, Brett Ratner, ended up setting up his position about 5-6 feet in front of me, the video producer about 3 feet to my right and the film shoot location about 15 feet to my left.  I didn't move and no one asked me too, so I stayed! 

The scene they were filming took about 15 seconds.  I was there for about 2 hours, saw 12 takes and they still weren't happy with the shot, so were planning on doing it again!  It was incredible not only to see the behind the scenes workings and practice (there were about 400 people on the set at that time and the scene was practiced with an stand in actress for about 30-45 minutes so that the crew could get their positioning and lighting right), but the amount of perfection that was not only demanded but expected by Director Ratner and Tea Leoni.  The scene involved Tea walking up off the street and onto the sidewalk while talking on a cell phone.  Simultaneously, a horse drawn carriage started up the street and the intention was for the horse and carriage to pass behind Tea as she was finishing her phone conversation so that the clip clop of the horse could be heard in the background.  Meanwhile, the camera started perpendicular to the direction that Tea was facing (so it filmed down the street) but swung around as she walked so that it would finish directly pointing in her face.  Because she had to step up onto the curb and camera mounted on wheels wouldn't work, so they had to setup a boom camera on this frame which they had to basically construct for that scene.  The lighting required to be not only in front of her, but another light across the street on a crane that turned on as she climbed on the curb, reflecting off a huge reflector, to make it look like she walked into the light of a street lamp! To a viewer, such a simple scene of an actress walking 10-15 feet while talking on the phone, but watching all the moving parts was mind blowing!  If the timing was off on one even one of the parts, then the scene had to be re-done...hence the 12+ takes.  The camera wasn't exactly right, the horse didn't hit the timing right, the cars driving up the street took too long to move, the lines just weren't right....do it again!

Being as close as I was, I was also able to hear the banter between Tea and Brett before and after the shot....the perfection required was evident.  On one of the takes, Tea finished and claimed that she "nailed it", but Brett disagreed, showed her the play back and even though she claimed earlier she did it right, after watching the shot, she herself agreed.  Some scenes, she called a reset as soon as she was done cause she didn't like the way she delivered!  Now I watched all the replays (cause I was close enough to see all the monitors) and I did notice the difference on some, but others looked good to me.....but I guess that's why I don't get the big bucks!

the first half of the video is setting up, you can see the scene in the second half