Hey folks, Harry here... Quint didn't just go up to report and do interviews from the set of Altman's THE COMPANY, but was the Ballet Advisor... donning his shoes and reenacting moments of elegant beauty for Neve to emulate, he was granted extreme access to Altman's set... a very rare treat for a Seaman. Here ya go...
Ahoy, squirts. Quint here with a little doozy of a set report over a year in the making. I was called up last November by the good folks at Bumble Ward asking if I'd be interested in going to Chicago and visiting the set of a film about ballet directed by Robert Altman and starring Malcolm McDowell, Neve Campbell and James Franco.
"I know this isn't the sort of film AICN usually covers, but I thought I'd ask," said the nice Bumble Ward person.
All I could say in response was, "But it's Robert Altman. Of course people are interested and if they aren't, they should be ashamed of themselves." OK, so the last part I wrote just now... but you get the point.
So up I went to cold, cold Chicago for the first time in my life. I settled into my hotel room and found out I was going to be spending two days on set, but only as an observer. No interviews, just sit back and watch.
As someone who has been in love with films and filmmaking since childhood, this is one of my favorite things to do. In the last 7 years, I've seen many amazing directors at work. Robert Rodriguez, John Carpenter, Paul Schrader, Peter Jackson, Roger Avary and now Robert Altman.
They were shooting in a hollowed out building down the street from my hotel. Figuring my way up to the correct floor was a bit of a challenge, but somehow I managed it. I ended up spending both days sitting behind the sound guy who had a sweet little set up. All sound guys have a little cart filled with recording equipment, but this guy, Peter Glossop, had all that plus two little monitors (one for each camera) and mini-speakers set up.
Because we were sitting in another room apart from the action, the speakers could be used and not interfere with the sound recording. Matter of fact, this whole shoot revolved around speakers. Altman would give direction through them.
You see, Altman and his script supervisor sat in one room, the action went on in another, the sound guy and prop people were bunkered down in yet another room, so the quickest and easiest way for the director to communicate with his cast and crew was through a speaker system. So every few minutes or so, like the voice of God, Altman's direction would rumble through the entire building with something like, "That's quite good, actually. Let's shoot it before it all goes wrong!"
If something was caught up and he was needed to speak eye to eye with the DP or a camera man or an actor, Altman would lumber through the various rooms. On more than one of these occasions, he looked over at me with a "Who the fuck are you?" look on his face. I just smiled and thought, "Don't kill me... I love MASH and POPEYE! You rock. I mean you no harm!"
I'd also like to point out one very interesting thing I noticed at this point. I saw the guy manning the second HD camera and he looked very familiar to me. I couldn't put my finger on it. I was thinking he might be someone I saw on another set... That has happened to me before. The film community is very interconnected... Anyway, I'll let you in on the rest later, but I just wanted to start off the mystery here because I spent two days not knowing where I knew this guy from...
Speaking of cameras, something else very interesting was how Altman was shooting the picture. He always has two cameras going. One set up in the traditional block sense. The other is always floating. Like a probing finger, it searches out the background for a little piece of magic. That perfect reaction, a beautiful angle where the sun breaks through the clouds and sparkles just perfectly off the wall or mirror or whatever. I learned from Peter, the sound dude, that Altman had directed GOSFORD PARK this way as well. That fascinated me.
The scenes I saw shooting were all with Malcolm McDowell. In the first scene I saw, he was instructing two male dancers in a room with mirrors down the length of the wall. McDowell's character (Alberto Antonelli) is based on Gerald Arpino, a famous figure in Ballet, and he was wearing this slick Yellow and Black combination. Yellow jacket, black pants, yellow socks... Pretty slick.
Anyway, the scene has the two male dancers arguing about their moves. The dance is supposed to be like giving birth to a baby and the two bicker back and forth on who is doing it better and what part of their interpretation means what. It's actually a pretty funny scene. Then Neve Campbell comes into the room, sits back and puts on her ballet shoes. The two male dancers depart and McDowell welcomes and instructs Neve, who strikes some impressive poses.
I was told that Neve grew up as a dancer and started her career as one. She's apparently a producer on the film and also helped to come up with the story. The poses she was striking were incredible and restrained. Not flashy, not theatrical, just elegant. Neve Campbell is a very attractive woman in person. She has a bit of that movie star radiance and a whole lot of that girl next door beauty. I never got to speak with her, as I was just the observer not to interfere with the goings on, but I can vouch for her beauty as I've seen it with my own eyes.
I began to talk the sound guy about his past. He's not an old man, but he was at least in his 50s. I'm always interested in what I find out talking to these people on set and this guy... He worked with Kubrick on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE!!! He and Malcolm talked a few times while I was there and it was clear they went back a long way. Peter was a boom operator on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and because he was the boom operator and necessary to the filming process, he was always by Kubrick's side.
Kubrick apparently didn't much care for the crew and hated a large group around the actors. He operated the camera himself and those not essential to the immediate scene were shooed away from the area. Peter told me about this particularly famous scene of Alex and his Droogies walking toward camera in slow motion. The scene where Alex reasserts his leadership and they all end up in the water. Peter said that it quite literally just Kubrick and himself (Kubrick with the camera in his hands and Peter with the boom in his) for the entire series of shots.
I also found out he worked on sound with Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman on the set of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, one of my favorite films. He didn't say much about working on that film other than how they lots of trouble getting the audio playback of the songs for the actors to lip synch to and it was a constant hassle trying to get the bloody thing to work.
At lunch on one of the days I was eating with a couple of the extras who were telling me that Sam Raimi was about to film a bit with Doctor Octopus on the El Train in a week or two. This was before production started on SPIDER-MAN 2, way before, so the guess it was either a background plate to be used later or some sort of special effects test.
Then Malcolm McDowell came in and was sitting with the dancers... By the way, all the dancers in the company were actually real dancers, not actors. I think they all work at the Joffrey Ballet, which THE COMPANY is based around, but don't quote me on that. A few of them were talking to McDowell about getting agents and entering the acting field. He was giving them advice and then one of them asked him what he was doing next.
"Oh, I'm playing Sherlock Holmes. Just signed on to do it. I'm playing against Christopher Lee as Moriarty..."
Now, I reported what I found out about this movie, called BAKER STREET IRREGULARS, at the American Film Market earlier this year and talked with Christopher Lee about it when on the LORD OF THE RINGS set over the summer, so you folks should already know about this project, but I was just struck dumb with the idea of Malcolm McDowell as Sherlock and Christopher Lee as Moriarty.
It was around this time that the familiar camera operator guy caught my eye and extended his hand. "I'm Pete Biagi..." BING! Those fans of the HBO series PROJECT GREENLIGHT know who he is... He was the jackass Director of Photography who kept screwing up shots because he didn't like the performances and such in the first PROJECT GREENLIGHT.
Feeling very stupid that I didn't recognize him earlier, I introduced myself and he seemed like a nice enough guy. He told me that the GREENLIGHT people really pulled all that shit out of their ass and painted him as an asshole just because they needed some dramatic tension. Apparently the set wasn't at all like it was portrayed in the series. I don't know if I buy it, but like I said... He was nice enough in person.
I saw a few more scenes shot... One with McDowell arguing with a round table of people, talking about AIDS and it's effect on the highly homosexual dance community. McDowell really shines in this scene. There was also a scene with McDowell at his desk fielding complaints from some of the dancers.
On my way out, I ended up on the freight elevator with McDowell and got to speak with him for a few moments. He was a very kind and nice man. I had a one sheet of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE I brought, but ended up not wanting to go the super fanboy route and ask for an autograph. I got to see him work and that was enough for me.
In the end, what will this film be? I can't say. The trailer is out now (trailer link here) and the movie goes in limited release on December 25th. It looks like a Robert Altman movie to me. Whether or not a movie about Ballet will pull in a huge audience, I can't say. I'll go see it because of Altman. A lot people will go see it because of Neve Campbell in skin-tight outfits. Some will go see it because of the Dance. It'll have an audience, I just don't know how large of one. I can tell you to expect solid performances out of McDowell and Campbell, but the rest... I'm just as in the dark as you guys are.
That's it from me on this one, squirts. I got a few really cool interviews set up that I guarantee you'll all dig, as well as my CHRISTMAS SHOPPING FOR THE GEEK IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD article, which I've officially begun work on. I'd like to thank everyone who has emailed me about the geek shopping guide report so far. I've gotten some great ideas and links. Keep 'em coming! Email me at aicnquint@yahoo.com if you have the perfect, off the wall geek wet dream of gifts. If you're working at a big toy or game developer and want me to check out some upcoming products that you think fit into the GEEK category (or just want to send me the entire SIDESHOW/WETA catalogue... hint-hint), you can email me at aicnquint@yahoo.com as well.
This is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
