SHOOTING THE
BUMBLEBEE
Martin Duffy,
New York,
March 14th 1998.
Christmas of 1996 was a bad time for me. I'd come back from a fruitless
business trip to Los Angeles only to see THE BOY FROM MERCURY drop dead
at the Irish box office. I ignored a message from film journalist Paul
Power, and didn't contact him for several weeks. He had met Jim Powers,
head of development at the New York film company The Shooting Gallery,
who had seen my film at the Hamptons Film Festival.
When I contacted Jim, he said he had liked my film and wanted to send
me a script for which they were seeking a director. So began the
process that led me to sitting here in my Manhattan studio apartment
writing this on the morning after the wrap party of my second feature,
THE BUMBLEBEE FLIES ANYWAY. The film stars Elijah Wood, Jeaneane
Garofalo, Joe Perrino, Rachael Leigh Cook and Roger Rees. I would
describe the story as a teenage 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. It's
based on a novel by young peoples' novelist Robert Cormier and was
developed by Steven Haft (producer of such films as 'Dead Poets
Society', 'Emma', and Robin Williams' upcoming 'Jacob the Liar'). The
original script was written by Jennifer Sarja though I worked over an
eight month period on rewrites.
I first came to New York for the project in May of 1997, having read
the script and novel and responded with a twenty page breakdown of how
I would rework the script and approach directing the film. I met with
Jim Powers, Steven Haft, and Shooting Gallery co-founder Bob Gosse. I
sat with them in a Manhattan hotel to pitch for the job, and the day
after my return to Dublin they phoned to say they wanted me to direct.
There followed months of delays, and a further trip in September,
before I finally moved here in November to settle in and start the
process of getting the film onto the screen.
Being something of a control freak, I arrived with the the film
story-doodled (my term for my pathetic matchstick drawings),
shot-listed and scheduled. I need to make a film in my head before I
can start talking to other people about what I want. The budget was
about two million dollars but my ambitions would test the limits of
possibility.
One of the oddest aspects for me was that I was the new kid on the
block in every aspect of the film. I had tried and failed to get some
of my Irish cohorts on the film (people like Seamus Deasy and Tom
Conroy) so I had to start from scratch. The assigned Line Producer was
Jonathan Starch who aside from being brilliant at his job has become a
trusted friend. From November we began in a room at the Shooting
Gallery offices with Jonathan, myself, and locations manager/scout
Jason Conti. Shortly after my arrival I went to Los Angeles for a few
days of auditions and to meet Elijah. Fortunately, he and I got along
really well from the start (we met for lunch and wound up chatting for
five hours) and there was the added bonus that Elijah, having recently
made the TV film "Oliver Twist' in Dublin, was a major fan of Ireland
and all things Irish.
Official preproduction began in mid December by which time I had
assembled all the key crew. Steve Kasmierski was the cinematographer
and over several weekends we had met to work through my storydoodles.
On THE BOY FROM MERCURY Seamus Deasy had allowed me, in my fear and
insecurity, to present the storyboards and have them virtually copied
shot for shot. By the time I sat down with Steve I felt I had
sufficient confidence to put the plans to him and then discuss other
ways of approaching the task. I found the process very enjoyable and we
spent many hours visualising the the film and devising a new shot list.
While for most department heads I met several people before making a
choice, Jeff Lazar was the first and only AD I met. I took to him
straight off and felt we were so in tune about the work ethic and
on-set atmosphere I aspire to that I chose him there and then. For me,
the most difficult task was to find an editor. With fifteen years
experience as an editor I know enough about the job to want a strong
editor who will bring his or her own vision to the material. My choice
is Suzanne Pillsbury who has edited many feature films and who had
coincidentally worked in the past with John Victor Smith the veteran
editor who cut MERCURY.
The story is set in a medical research facility where the central
character, who has no memory, becomes involved in the lives of a group
of young terminally-ill patients. Extensive scouting led us to choose a
building in a vast complex called Creedmore Psychiatric Institution in
Queens. Since the early eighties there has been a Thatcher-style policy
of releasing psychiatric patients 'back into the community' (meaning of
course to live in cardboard boxes on the sidewalk) and Creedmore had
two vast buildings that sat unoccupied. When we first visited good old
Building 74 it was dank and filthy, littered with dead birds and weird
artifacts from its life as an institution. Production Designer Susan
Block had the unenviable task of gathering her crew (and hiring in a
team of industrial cleaners) to turn the place into our own world with
the space to organise all we needed for sets, department rooms,
artistes' rooms, canteen and so on. The final sequence of the film is
set in an attic and one of the buildings four eighty-foot long attics
was selected as our 'hero' attic. A plug was built fifty feet down the
attic so that we could build a fake exterior on the other side which
would then match the sweep of the roof we built as a huge set on stage.
The exterior world of Creedmore is bleak to say the least, so we found
other places where people could walk and talk on what were supposed to
be the grounds of the research facility. It meant that the six week
shoot, starting at the beginning of February, took us from the grounds
of a college on the Hudson River called Mount Saint Vincent to such
lavish locations as a pizza joint in City Island, the operating room of
a hospital on Roosevelt Island, and a junkyard in Brooklyn.
My area of least experience is working with actors, and this film
requires some very heavy performances. I was blessed to be working with
Elijah because he has the ability to deliver all one could want and
more without having to agonise over the work. Joe Perrino (one of the
young cast of 'Sleepers') had the heaviest drama to carry and did so
with astonishing power. Jeaneane, who normally works as a comic actor,
brought much needed lightness and humanity to a role originally written
a bit on the dour side.
My favourite part of the otherwise terrifying task of directing is the
camaraderie on set and it was a happy shoot. I also got to play with a
whole new set of toys; steadicam, crane, special effects, and a car
crash stunt. My favourite moment of the film was hanging out of the
passenger side of a red convertible (to stay out of shot) as Elijah
sped down a hill with the cameraman in the back seat. The most bizarre
thing for me about the shoot is that I wasn't allowed to talk to
extras, only the first assistant director can do that; if a director
says anything other than 'hello' to an extra they can say they received
special direction and get paid a higher rate.
I had all kinds of fears and stresses as the shoot approached. One in
particular was the schizophrenic situation I found myself in with
regard to how my role was perceived. The Shooting Gallery have a policy
of supporting the vision of their film makers while Steven Haft is of
the Hollywood school of thought whereby the director's task is to make
the film the producer wants. If nothing else, it has taught me that I
never want to direct a Hollywood studio film - where directors are
apparently assailed on a daily basis by instructions from studio
executives. I'll probably try to stick with developing my own projects
and forego any vague hope of fame and fortune. One absolute truth,
however, is that I've learned a huge amount from Steven and I know I've
done a better job with his involvement than I would have done without
it.
The entire task has been a huge learning experience for me and a great
boost to my confidence; though I still get a queasy sensation in my gut
when I think of the days and their challenges. At the end of the first
day's shoot, I commented that it felt like I'd just spent twelve hours
in a dentist chair.
I'll be in New York until at least August when post production is
complete. I've been too busy (for over two months I've been working six
days a week, usually fourteen hours a day) to enjoy being here but I
aim to change that now. The weather has been freakishly warm through
winter and the fear is that summer will be a killer, but I live near
Central Park and I'll be safely tucked away in the editing room during
the extremes of the day.
The intention or expectation is that the film will be released here
early next year. It has already been presold to several world
territories. Hopefully the end product will do justice to the vast
human effort that went into its making. And hopefully I'll be allowed
to play ship's captain on another film voyage in the not too distant
future.
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