Now You See Me Movie

Day 3 -- Saturday Night

This night I felt amazing. I had gotten plenty of sleep and felt that I had fulfilled my motherhood quotient for the day (I made cookies with my delightedly delightful children) and that made me feel fabulous.  My husband was happy for me. What more was there to say?

Today I promised myself I wouldn't let my inferior fear of people with cameras and official-ity scare me away.  This may shock some of my readers but deeply rooted in me is this awkward shyness of people whom I presume have authority. . . please tell me at least one of you feel this way at times.

So they were filming near me and were pausing for a few glorious moments to reset things and the guy sat down for a moment's rest and I pounced. "Can I ask you a few questions?" I asked with my most brilliant you-know-you-want-to-talk face.

He nodded. I introduced myself, asked his name (Andrew was his name) and began my query. My brain was all a-tizzy because I had hundreds of questions swimming inside but few of them connected with my mouth. The ones I manage to wrangle out of my brain were the extremely exciting ones that follow (I should note the questions and the answers were from memory--on day three I had no pen and paper to write it down):

1. Do you bring your own equipment?

I own my own equipment but for movies like this they give you the equipment you will need for the style of filming they want.  For example, this camera has film. It is not digital.  [I made the appalling mistake of asking if it was old--the cameras are by no means old or in any way, shape or form outdated.]

2. What is the amount that you think I would need to have to make a quality very low-budget film?

This movie is not low budget.  [I about swallowed my tongue--I would never  in a million years make that assumption--700+ extras--amazing stars--nothing says low or comes near the word b.u.d.g.e.t. in my eyes].  I have worked on films with a million dollar budget, ten million and even a hundred million. To make a good quality low budget film I think you would need around a million.  [Um, gulp, if that is the case I may be selling my screenplay because a million dollars has yet to waltz into my Brady Bunch-ish apartment. I should perhaps say that I couldn't hear him very well at this point, but I think that's what he said].

See the anamorphic lens that Chris is holding? This was day 1 or 2.

3.  What kind of lenses are you using for filming this movie?
 This movie has us using anamorphic lenses. [For those unfamiliar with this term, dictionary.reference refers to it as "Outstanding cinematography for features, commercials, music videos . . . having or producing unequal magnifications along two axes perpendicular to each other"].

In the movie they do not have laser vision like it looks in this photograph.  It was not taken with a great camera.  From  left to right,  Jesse Eisenberg,  Isla Fisher, and  Woody Harrelson.  

4.  What is the genre of this movie? IMDB says it is a thriller.

It's not a thriller. It's more of an action mystery movie. . .[at least I think that is what he said--I could be wrong. I desperately needed my faithful pen and paper]. This movie will take the viewers on a journey filled with unexpected twists and turns.  [Seriously, those are the best kinds, right? My mother's unspoken rule is if there is a way to take an unexpected turn on a journey, do it.  Don't you just wish the movie was out already? Also, don't take IMDB too seriously for movies in the making, it's not super reliable].

The view from the top level.

We were filming on the top-most roof of Five Pointz that night. It was much warmer than the first night.  We saw all the big stars and cheered like mad.  They were cheerful and kind to all the people around them.It was exciting to see in person and hear the voices of the people that faces to gracefully (or not) have gleamed upon us from the silver screen.  

Isla Fisher

There was one point where it was very cold and very late and Ms. Fisher was saying her lines differently and much to my chagrin and embarrassment for all extras there that night, one guy yelled out, "Learn your lines!" twice.  I wanted to go over there and kindly tape his mouth shut with gorilla tape, get the scariest PAs to escort him off the roof, then do the bow famous from some 80s movies where they bow and twirl their arms in salute and apology with the phrase, "Please excuse him, he's had just a little too much pickle juice."    I know she heard, I think she did her best not to show anything and then she came back with vim and gusto.  Yay Ms. Fisher!!  I'm a huge admirer because soon after that I had an experience where someone said something derogatory to me about me and I imagined myself there, like Ms. Fisher in front of seven hundred souls gathering wits and strength and not letting it touch my emotions.  Thanks Ms. Fisher, you've inspired me!

Later in the night we saw Mark Ruffalo and Melanie Laurent.

I kept looking up whenever they called Melanie and I felt like answering, "Yes, what do you need?" 

Mr. Ruffalo got pictures with a lot of people (but again with my fear . . . stupid fear).  He was very friendly and addressed the background actors, even thanking us at the end of the night. 

There was one scene where they put me right behind him and I was supposed to look in the place where the camera was--so I ended up looking at Marc Ruffalo's back in shock (because of something  you'll see in the movie).

 Mark Ruffalo   and  Mélanie Laurent  (see what I mean about the camera?!)

Louis Leterrier, the director directed the people who were supposed to be looking at something just beyond the camera lens to look at the top of the crane, not the lens.  Good to know for next time.

I loved being able having to take pictures through out the whole shooting process because now I can look back and think of the good times and the great people I met.  Thanks Danny, Chris, and Andrew!