Hey folks, Harry here with a pair of reports on the SPIDER-MAN shoot for both yesterday and the day before... Decided to sandwich the two reports for ya... For the Spidey-geek that can't get enough... here ya go....
Hi Harry,
Romanadvoratrelundar here, before starting let me mention that the Saruman + Orc pics were
great, but for some reason really reminded me of those "ahh, the power of
cheese" commercials. Not sure why.
On to the meat:
Spider-Man is filming around the corner as I write this and a short while
ago I had the opportunity to viddy a scene being filmed from a convenient
perch high above the action, hence, no sound but a good bird's eye view.
Confirming with a friend who also saw a setup of this scene at street level,
it looked like this:
Mary Jane (Kirsten), with her blazing red hair tied up haphazardly, exits
the Moondance diner at Grand Street and Sixth Avenue in a hurry, not
stopping to tie her coat around her, and turns the corner, passing a Daily
Bugle newsstand. Later investigation noted that the bugle issue carried the
headline "Subway Bandit Strikes Again" over a photo of a graffiti'd train.
Sub-headline: "Police offer token response." MJ looks upset.
Peter (Tobey), wearing a semi-stylish blue jacket and jeans with a white
shirt and carrying a backpack, is talking to some heavyset guy on the
corner, probably looking for info on MJ's whereabouts. The corner guy
points her out to Peter and he lightly runs over to where she's at, stopping
her after a few more paces. This is played out around the corner of the
Moondance diner with a parking lot to the left side (not sure if it would be
in the shot), on Grand Street, with Sixth Ave in the background. They talk
for a couple seconds, then a REALLY big (tall and like 300 lbs) black guy
wearing a grease-stained cook's apron and a purple t-shirt hustles around
the corner toward them, carrying what look like crumpled receipts. He stops
before getting all the way over and shakes them at her, yelling something.
A huge 70s turquoise Caddy swings around the corner from its previous
position parked in front of the diner. The shot ends with the cook guy with
his arms out in that NYC "so what'cha gonna do about it" position. Kind of
reminiscent of Superman II with the abusive Canadian diner guy -- maybe
there's one of those "prove your manhood for your lady vs. reveal your
powers" conundrums in store?
Some time later I wandered around the setup area and passed the actors'
chairs which were sitting empty. Tobey's and Kirsten's were together at the
corner in front of this place called Cafe Noir, the actors themselves
probably having lunch in the white Haddad trailers around the corner. The
chairs were standard directors' chairs, with black cloth with red lettering,
which was not as serif-y as the logo, but a similar typeface. Lo and behold
-- in the pocket of the chair that said "Kirsten Dunst" was a stapled
SCRIPT, probably her personal copy. I took a peek but didn't pick it up ...
call it respect. Also call it the watchful eyes of various set dudes all
around. I did get to read down a scene description on the first page
though. Scene 29a, I think it was, begins ... "We are looking through the
window of the MOONDANCE DINER"... so the diner is definitely a location in
the story. Script voyeur moment over.
Hope this tidbit is to your liking. If you feel like using this, you can
call me ...
Romanadvoratrelundar
And we had this report from Gold Toothed McGee
hey harry---
this happened two
days ago, but i have
only seen pictures
from the nyu shoot.
I saw paramount
equipment trucks set
up all along 4th street
around mercer, so I
asked a guy rumaging
through a box of
lights what they were
shooting. He replied "
all I can tell you is it
a movie based on a
popular marvel
character." What a
fine day. Oh yes.
Well I noticed they
were shooting on
Broadway above a
French Connection and
some other stores so
i walked over to find
a camera three
stories up on a crane.
It shot from the top
of the building and
lowered down the
face of the stone
building, stopping at
the store fronts. I
stopped by later and
watched them do
sweeping pans from
the building to the
street. Then I noticed
two doors were
swung wide open with
a sign that said
TO SET with set 1:
Penthouse , set 2: 9
(floor) written
bellow. I agreed to
meet up with my
adventurous friend
later in the day to
investigate.
When we got back the
P.A.'s had set up
cones a line closing
off the street. We
walked right over it
and pretty much right
through the open
doors. We got into
the elevator and two
girls ahead of us
asked the elevator
man to go up to the
set. Easy. My friend
and I kept on talking,
trying to fit in and
such. Then we were
let off on the
penthouse floor.
There was no
shooting going on a
the time, but this is
what we saw.
There was a large bar
directly in front of us
which some P.A.'s
were behind, messing
around. We
cautiously began to
wander around the
spaciuos apartment.
On either far off side
were huge windows.
The ones to the left
looked on to
Broadway and the
ones to the right
revealed the
eastward cityscape.
Around the room with
windows facing
Broadway they had
covered up areas of
the dark wood floors
with cardboard and
were setting up (or
breakin down) a bunch
of lighting equipment.
There were a couple
of interesting things
around. In the other
room there was an
entertainment set up.
They had this T.V.
being held up with,
well, how to describe
it?, a set of metal
levers x'ed over one
another to expand and
contrast. Similar to
those guns that have
a boxing glove
attatched and when
you pull the trigger it
punches your friend
in the face. Yeah. OK.
So this didn't seem
like the typical
bourgeois television
stand. And then there
was another monitor
/ TV that had a
screen saver floating
around that said
BOOYA on it. Lastly,
there was smaller
sub-room that had a
wooden dinner table
that looked like it was
from med-evil times.
So i don't know if
they were filming any
of this stuff, though
it stood out as being
abnormal.
We went down to the
ninth floor which
looked very similar.
It had set ups through
out. At that point we
decided to get out
while we still had our
hides. But nobody
bothered us the entire
time.
It was great seeing a
piece of the puzzle. I
just wish i got to see
Raimi.
You can call me......
Gold Tooth McGee
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