scorsesefan
Veteran
I was a big fan of the original movies. When I was a kid I made my dad take me to ep IV 8 times in the movie theater. I just can't relate to the new ones. Maybe it's a generational thing?
Set Stories
- Thread starter David Jimerson
- Start date
J.R. Hudson
Spirit Animal
I really enjoyed those sailboat sequences but at the time I was sailing a lot so it was really cool on a personal level
J.R. Hudson
Spirit Animal
Off set
Years ago when I lived in Wilmington, NC My brother and I (along with a couple of my actor friends) Dave? You know Cari and Shaun)) went downtown to party and we ended up mingling with a small group of people for hours.
Lots of drinks, very pretty girls, very handsome guys.
I start carrying on with this brunette and we're having a great conversation laughing and getting on.
At one point my brother leans into me and says do you know who that is?
I said no, who is it?
He said that is Sophia Bush
I said, who is Sophia Bush?
He shook his head and just said you're such a "movie snob."
We still laugh about it to this day. Apparently we were just hanging out with the One tree Hill gang all night and I had no idea
I think I've told this one before a while back. I added a line to Terminator II.
Terminator II was being finished at Skywalker Sound. Two weeks before it's release, they did a test screening with a random audience at the Ranch. I wasn't supposed to sit in on it since I was an employee, but I did anyway. There is the tear-jerker scene where they lower the Terminator into a vat of molten steel. They asked for comments after the movie. I said that scene didn't make sense. The terminator would have just jumped into the vat of molten steel because he always just did what had to be done.
There was no time to re-shoot. So they added the line "I cannot self terminate. You must lower me into the steel".
Terminator II was being finished at Skywalker Sound. Two weeks before it's release, they did a test screening with a random audience at the Ranch. I wasn't supposed to sit in on it since I was an employee, but I did anyway. There is the tear-jerker scene where they lower the Terminator into a vat of molten steel. They asked for comments after the movie. I said that scene didn't make sense. The terminator would have just jumped into the vat of molten steel because he always just did what had to be done.
There was no time to re-shoot. So they added the line "I cannot self terminate. You must lower me into the steel".
NorBro
Major Contributor
I was a PA on The Terminator and it was my responsibility to grab the crew's lunch orders.
JC loooovvvved his ham and cheese croissants and the rest of the group wasn't exactly on a cabbage cleanse.
So I make my rounds, say hi to Barbara in hair, makeup and wardrobe - and proceed to exit while calling out, "Alrighttt, I'll be back."
Let's just say I was not happy when I saw the first screening 11 months later.
[None of that is true, I wasn't born yet.]
JC loooovvvved his ham and cheese croissants and the rest of the group wasn't exactly on a cabbage cleanse.
So I make my rounds, say hi to Barbara in hair, makeup and wardrobe - and proceed to exit while calling out, "Alrighttt, I'll be back."
Let's just say I was not happy when I saw the first screening 11 months later.
[None of that is true, I wasn't born yet.]
CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
Great story Paul, and amazing that you are responsible for a line in that legendary film!
I shot a series of little shorts called "TV juniors" to promote Seinfeld's "Bee Movie" in 2007. After his doc film "Comedian", Jerry liked the immediacy of shooting with camcorders so we were on HVX200's (quite new at the time) with a tiny crew. Jerry had all his writers with him to punch things up on set on the day, it was fun to watch them work out rewrites. At one point they were huddled in a circle trying to come up with a notably lame type of credit card or method of payment, as the director and I watched nearby. After Jerry had rejected a bunch of options in a row, I whispered "Sam's Club" to the director. He whispered back "pitch it". Yeah right, I said. He goaded me to do it. I finally blurted out "Sam's Club!" and Jerry said "yeah...yeah...Sam's Club, that's funny. Let's do that. Wait, who pitched Sam's Club?" The writer's heads whipped around to glare at the two of us. The director pointed at me, "it was Charles". I'm feeling both elated that I successfully pitched Jerry Seinfeld on a joke and nervous that the writers are going to take me out back and break my kneecaps. We shot the bit, but eventually it got cut. My kneecaps remained intact.
I shot a series of little shorts called "TV juniors" to promote Seinfeld's "Bee Movie" in 2007. After his doc film "Comedian", Jerry liked the immediacy of shooting with camcorders so we were on HVX200's (quite new at the time) with a tiny crew. Jerry had all his writers with him to punch things up on set on the day, it was fun to watch them work out rewrites. At one point they were huddled in a circle trying to come up with a notably lame type of credit card or method of payment, as the director and I watched nearby. After Jerry had rejected a bunch of options in a row, I whispered "Sam's Club" to the director. He whispered back "pitch it". Yeah right, I said. He goaded me to do it. I finally blurted out "Sam's Club!" and Jerry said "yeah...yeah...Sam's Club, that's funny. Let's do that. Wait, who pitched Sam's Club?" The writer's heads whipped around to glare at the two of us. The director pointed at me, "it was Charles". I'm feeling both elated that I successfully pitched Jerry Seinfeld on a joke and nervous that the writers are going to take me out back and break my kneecaps. We shot the bit, but eventually it got cut. My kneecaps remained intact.
How cool. You got approval from a great comedian. I've always wanted to see comedians work on material.
This is the thing that bugs me about sets. Everyone has to stay in their place. It sometimes gets downright silly. I was doing sound for an amateur short; all volunteers, just for fun. They were doing a hanging scene and they couldn't figure out a safe way to show the guys feet off the ground. So I told them how to shoot it and a background plate so that they could make it look like he was in the air. I was told off to keep my place and that night got an email from the director (copy to producer) lambasting me and threatening to walk off the project if I didn't keep my place. Hilarious. ...... walk off the project. Are you kidding me? The big director walking off a no-budget movie.
I don't think I would have done well in Hollywood.
scorsesefan
Veteran
Getting a warning email on a volunteer set is ludicrous...
CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
Okay okay--oy, what have I started! haha.
My honest observation is that there is more sensitivity to people stepping out of lane and overal "protecting one's fiefdom" on indie sets, largely because of insecurity and inexperience. It's people play-acting at how they think things go on the big sets, because they've seen the videos of name directors throwing tantrums and assumption that in the union world everyone is a gruff hardass and constantly drawing lines in the sand. In reality, it's usually a lot more chill on union sets in that particular way, it's a group of people doing what they do every day and trying to get home at a reasonable hour. There's the odd skirmish in these terms, but it's usually more of the exception than the rule.
As far as stepping into someone else's rice bowl: there's a right and wrong way to do it, a time and a place. When the "brain trust" is solving a problem that has multiple moving parts, it can be distracting to have someone else pitch a suggestion who may not have all of the background information. Generally speaking it's best (on ALL size sets) to bring up the suggestion quietly to one person who can then invite you into the group, not to interrupt the discussion between director and whoever else is trying to solve it. The hierarchy exists for a reason: it would be a free-for-all of ideas otherwise, especially these days when everyone on set is a filmmaker, bless 'em. There are times when I can accept solutions from my crew and other times when I can't take the time to explain all the variables to them and we just have to keep moving in a straight line on the path we are on.
WIth the example I gave, if one of those writers wandered up while I was working out a lighting or camera complication and yelled out a suggestion, I probably would have been equally as thrown.
My honest observation is that there is more sensitivity to people stepping out of lane and overal "protecting one's fiefdom" on indie sets, largely because of insecurity and inexperience. It's people play-acting at how they think things go on the big sets, because they've seen the videos of name directors throwing tantrums and assumption that in the union world everyone is a gruff hardass and constantly drawing lines in the sand. In reality, it's usually a lot more chill on union sets in that particular way, it's a group of people doing what they do every day and trying to get home at a reasonable hour. There's the odd skirmish in these terms, but it's usually more of the exception than the rule.
As far as stepping into someone else's rice bowl: there's a right and wrong way to do it, a time and a place. When the "brain trust" is solving a problem that has multiple moving parts, it can be distracting to have someone else pitch a suggestion who may not have all of the background information. Generally speaking it's best (on ALL size sets) to bring up the suggestion quietly to one person who can then invite you into the group, not to interrupt the discussion between director and whoever else is trying to solve it. The hierarchy exists for a reason: it would be a free-for-all of ideas otherwise, especially these days when everyone on set is a filmmaker, bless 'em. There are times when I can accept solutions from my crew and other times when I can't take the time to explain all the variables to them and we just have to keep moving in a straight line on the path we are on.
WIth the example I gave, if one of those writers wandered up while I was working out a lighting or camera complication and yelled out a suggestion, I probably would have been equally as thrown.
rob norton
Veteran
Definitely! It also sucks when crew members used to working on mega projects can't scale down and complain about the different circumstances.
It would've been funny if the writers were whispering "pitch it" about lighting changes. But you'd probably have to be noticeably stuck and vocal about it, which would probably never happen.
Ok, one more from Skywalker Ranch. I saw a guy I didn't recognize in one of the offices and noticed he was writing music on blank music sheets. The door was open, so I wandered in. We chatted a bit. I noticed it was for Godfather III. So as they were completing the editing, he was watching each reel and started to compose.
Typically, when they did an orchestral session in the scoring stage, I would see 60 or so musicians.
So he was hand writing perhaps 60 parts for each musical cue. To my surprise, he was writing with a fountain pen, not pencil. So he just had it in his head and wrote out each part. I was really impressed. It wasn't until later that I realized I was talking to Carmine Coppola. So while his son, Francis, was in the front of the house in the mixing stage, Carmine was in one of the offices writing the music.
The scoring stage at Skywalker Ranch:
Typically, when they did an orchestral session in the scoring stage, I would see 60 or so musicians.
So he was hand writing perhaps 60 parts for each musical cue. To my surprise, he was writing with a fountain pen, not pencil. So he just had it in his head and wrote out each part. I was really impressed. It wasn't until later that I realized I was talking to Carmine Coppola. So while his son, Francis, was in the front of the house in the mixing stage, Carmine was in one of the offices writing the music.
The scoring stage at Skywalker Ranch:
I came across this on Linkedin. That is the side entrance to the Technical Building at Skywalker Ranch. It leads directly to the lunchroom I showed in other posts in this thread. To the left is the scoring stage. To the right is the Stag theater (pictures of those in this thread). . Those are French doors above the entrance. That was my office. Yep, it was pretty special.
lnkd.in
Jack Bryant at the Ranch, rehearsing for the upcoming San Francisco Symphony’s Return of the Jedi run this September! | Skywalker Sound
Jack Bryant at the Ranch, rehearsing for the upcoming San Francisco Symphony’s Return of the Jedi run this September!
lnkd.in