Whew.
On Sunday, we completed an insane three days of shooting in NYC (with one day of prep after a red eye flight). Amazingly, we got all the scenes we needed, including scenes on Canal St. (chaos, honking cars, a flood of tourists, vendors and more), at a fantastic mosque, in a Turkish restaurant and at a warehouse in Williamsburg -- just a block away from where a Jonah Hill film was being shot. We stole a shot against an exterior wall that was lit by their powerful lights (it was a night shoot). Thank you Hollywood!
A big thanks goes to Ben Rubin, our local producer for this 2nd unit shoot. He's just started Columbia's MFA program for film producers and he proved he's got what it takes. Ben: you kick ass.
Also, special mention should go to Dane Brehm, our 2nd unit DP for NYC. He helped get us the camera and lenses for the shoot and brought together the core crew. He's also our post-producer for the whole film and is really helping us keep moving forward.
Couldn't have done it without either of these guys, plus the local crew that came together for the project, most of them with no previous experience on our film.
Thanks also go to Simeon and Premstar, two of our actors that came all the way from LA to NYC for the shoot. They reprised roles that we shot over a year ago and turned in fantastic performances.
Lastly, a big thanks to everyone else who contributed from the local actors to the people at the various locations who opened their spaces for us to shoot.
According to Dane, we shot about 270 minutes of footage -- that's an average of 90 minutes of footage a day, which is simply insane. Great work all around.
Next stop: the last of the major pick-ups here in the San Francisco Bay Area (probably shooting in December) and then a rough cut. Then a fine cut.
After that, it's all about the FX.
Then audio and coloring...and then we're ready to start submitting to festivals.
But there's a lot of track between here and there.
Onward.
