Posts tagged ‘production’
NBC’s Smash – On Location in Times Square
I got a call form the New York Times photo desk late in the afternoon a few months back asking if I could run down to Times Square late that same evening and photograph a new tv show called Smash being filmed on location. I was told the show was NBC’s answer to FOX’s Glee, but was more of an adult-themed drama/musical about the making of a hit Broadway play.
So I jumped on my scooter and headed south from my pad on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Times Square around 11PM for the shoot. When I arrived, I was immediately confused because the crew was apparently on a break and all I could see were tons of tourists hanging out in Times Square…the usual. Moments later as I saw the camera crews start to move around, it dawned on me that I was actually standing in the midst of hundreds of extras who were only acting like tourists for the production! Clearly they were doing a great job as they even fooled a New Yorker like myself!
I met with the show’s publicist, who pointed out all the important folks like the director, producers, and eventually led me over to the actors appearing in the scene, Megan Hilty and Katherine McPhee. I was happy to see Katherine because previously I’d taken her portrait in the dressing room of “Live! with Regis and Kelly” for the Los Angeles Times years back. This was after she had been a top contestant on American Idol. I was pleased to find out she remembered the shoot before I could even mention it. It’s always good to know that my brief encounters with portrait subjects are remembered positively.
Pretty quickly the filming began and I was roaming the “set” taking pictures of a scene where Katherine and Megan’s character are walking through Times Square and suddenly break out singing with the accompaniment or a random trio of street musicians who coincidently are playing nearby.
The mood of the set was unlike most sets I’ve been on due to the uncontrolled atmosphere of Times Square. It was hard to even tell there was a major production filming because of all the extras. I was walking with and taking pictures of Katherine and Megan as they crossed 7th Ave to begin a scene. Behind me a real tourist says to her daughter, “hey, I think something is being filmed, do you see any celebrities?”
Only in NYC can you walk down a street and never realize you’re right in the middle of a huge production!
“Betrayed” – The Trailer
I’m very excited to announce the launch of “Betrayed“, a short thriller co-written and directed by Joshua Grossberg and starring Seth Gilliam (The Wire), PJ Sosko, and Cara Buono (The Sopranos). Betrayed, one of the first narrative works to be shot on the Canon 5D Mark II, follows husband and reporter James Vance (PJ Sosko) who mysteriously disappears, but not before leaving a cryptic video diary leading law enforcement to unravel the crime of his demise.
The making of Betrayed begins about a year ago when I shot my first video (a music video of my younger sister, Etana) with the 5DII. As I was sifting through the raw footage, my friend/filmmaker Josh Grossberg happened to be in my neighborhood and stopped by for a visit. Excited that I’d just finished shooting my first video, I showed Josh some of the footage and he was blown away with the quality produced by the inexpensive DSLR. It was at that point we began to discuss the idea of collaborating to create a film.
Together we reached out to our friends and suddenly we had dozens of talented and eager crew members willing to volunteer their time to make this film. It should be noted that the overall cost was kept quite low, especially for film standards.
As a still-photographer, I certainly learned a great deal from this experience. Making a film is far more complicated than taking a still image and requires far more time, patience, and persistence to get to the end. The ambitious 4-day shoot involved numerous company moves which meant dozens of crew members had to work together to move all gear, props, etc. to multiple sites to shoot additional scenes….at times moving everything/everyone to different Burroughs throughout NYC all in the same day. Needless to say, after four 16-hour days with little sleep and nonstop work, everyone was exhausted by the end.
After the principle photography was wrapped in the Fall of 2009, there were numerous pick-up shots and scenes that still needed recorded. I also led visuals as part of a smaller crew working with the cast to record the remainder of the film over the next few months.
As if shooting the film wasn’t enough, then came another hurdle, post-production. After many revisions, editing of the short was finished in late fall; subsequently the trailer was recently completed. The short itself is being submitted to film festivals worldwide with the goal of raising the financing needed to shoot the feature-length version.
The past year has been full of adventure, learning – and much stress. I’m glad to finally be able to give you all a peek!
Hope you enjoy the trailer!
Here are some production stills I took while working on the project:
Betrayed Behind-The-Scenes for Blog – Images by Robert Caplin
