Now here's a comprehensive set report from Oliver Stone's ANY GIVEN SUNDAY which was shooting up in Dallas. I hope you folks like this, personally I'm a big Stone fan, and always look forward to what he's going to pull... either in the writing or in the editing arena... His films usually shine in some area, if not in all areas... Enjoy...
The following is a comprehensive report on the April 10th shooting of Oliver Stone's 'Any Given Sunday' at Texas Stadium.
It was extra day; anybody could show up, just like in the previous reports from Miami. The shoot was supposed to last from 10 to 6. I got there at 9, and was there until nine. Luckily for us extras, the stadium is an enclosed and air conditioned one, and so we were saved from the glaring sun and muggy weather that has been plaguing Dallas lately. Most of the stars were there; Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, Bill Bellamy...there was also some guy named Andrew Bryniarski, who plays a football player named Madman Kelly. He talked to the audience a lot, and they told us some of the movies he was in ('Batman Returns' and 'Street Figher,' among many others). I was kind of dissapointed that James Woods and Cameron weren't around.
During the course of those twelve hours, from start to wrap, about eight shots were filmed, with at least three takes for each shot, all taking place during the final climactic playoff game between the Miami Sharks and the Dallas Knights (the whole stadium was completely repainted with the Knights logo, and its red and gold colors; the extras were given a multitude of Knights products to wave around and wear, and even the fake beer vendors had the Knights insignia painted on their coolers). From what was filmed, I can tell you that (SPOILER) the Sharks win the game with four seconds left--of course, during the final play they are only two feet from the goal post, so it wasn't that hard of a move. Jamie Foxx kind of just jumps over about three other players into the inzone--it looked pretty cool. As far as I could tell, all of the actors did their own stunts.
Anyway...the first shot was of Dennis Quaid's character, Cap Rooney, running out onto the field and joining a huddle. We were told that Rooney is a legendary football player, kind of like Roger Staubach, and that we should give him respectful applause. This game was his first in several weeks, after having suffered a bad injury (I guess that was another spoiler, huh?) The shot was a tracking shot following Quaid out from the sidelines into the huddle, waving at the audience all the while. Some dialogue followed, but we were too far away to hear anything.
The next shot was the aforementioned touch-down scene. Al Pacino came out for this one; it was a big crane shot. As soon as the touchdown was made, the whole cast rushed the field in a big nicely choregoraphed victory melee. This shot took a while because of some sunlight continuity issues (there is a small opening at the top of the stadium). The crowd, which was mostly supposed to be Dallas fans, were told to throw any light, soft objects onto the field in anger. It was pretty neat looking, and should be a great shot in the final movie.
The next couple of shots were some carefully choregoraphed plays, all filmed with a steadicam. They were really nicely done; the actors occaisonally fumbled the ball, but because they were steadicam shots, second takes could be done pretty quickly.
During these shots, Andrew Bryniarski got in a fight with some other player and stormed off the set. I'm pretty sure it was for real; he didn't come back for quite a while.
Then they re-did the touchdown scene, only this time with multiple steadicams, rather than a crane. It was much better this time, and the shot went on for much longer, as all of the Miami Sharks and Al Pacino and pretty much everyone ran across the field towards the locker rooms. They did this one three times.
The last shot of the day was of one of the Sharks laying injured on the field. All of the other players rushed up to him, followed by Pacino. Whatever dialogue occurred escaped all of us extras. A small ambulance cart drove up and put the player on a stretcher and carried him off. As they did, he gave a weak wave and the whole crowd cheered. They had to do this shot four times, and it seemed to take forever to set up. One of the problems was that the crowd was cheering at the wrong cue.
Tons of prizes were given away, but that stuff isn't really interesting. All of the stars took turns giving them away and talking on the microphone. Dennis Quaid was the nicest; he gave away an autographed football, and kissed the girl who won it; you could see her blush all the way back in the stands. A bunch of guys kept yelling 'Attica,' in reference to 'Dog Day Afternoon,' and Al Pacino was gracious enough to acknowledge them. Oliver Stone was out on the field frequently enough, and paused once to wave to all of us extras. For all of the time spent shooting, he stayed in a little black tent, watching the footage on a monitor as it occurred.
All in all, it was quite an experience, although being in the stands made the long wait between shots extremely boring. It looks like it will be a fantastic movie (it's Oliver Stone, so how can it be bad?)
One last thing: here is the plot synopsis, as printed in the extras program we received:
"When a devastating hit knocks a professional football player legend and quarterback Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid) out of the game, a young, unknown third-stringer is called in to replace him. Having ridden the bench for years because of a string of bad luck stories, and perhaps insufficient character, Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx) seizes what may be his last chance, and lights up the field with a raw display of athletic prowess.
His stunning performance over several games is so outstanding and fresh it seems to augur a new era in the history of this Miami franchise, and forces aging coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) to reevaluate his time tested values and strategies and begin to confront the fact that the game, as well as post-modern life may be passing him by. Adding to the pressure on D'Amato to win at any cost is the aggressive young President/Co-Owner of the team, Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), now coming into her own after her father's death. Christina's driving desire to prove herself in a male dominated world is intensified by her focus on the marketing and business of football, in which all coaches and players are merely properties.
'Any Given Sunday' is a behind the scens look at the life and death struggles of these modern day gladiators and those who lead them."
And all I got for this was a Dallas Knights key chain.
--David the Ghost-Boy
