All language subtitles for 12 - Locations

after um World War 2 primarily

they began to shoot films in New York

kiss of Death

Cry of the city

a sense of a docu Drama

House in 92nd Street

things like that

and more and more films were being shot

Naked City being shot in New York that way

and so began to mix

sound stage work with actual location photography

and that slowly developed into

uh what we do now

by the end of the 50s

in the early 60s

the equipment got lighter

and were able to shoot anywhere supposedly

but back in the early 90s

Federico Fellini

he never shot outside of

outside of Italy

you know said he didn't understand any other place

so he was gonna make a series of films about um

the different jobs

different figures in filmmaking

our film let's say

on the actor

an hour on the producer

an hour on the director

an hour on the writer

that sort of thing

and we were trying to help get it off the ground

I remember we actually

um we actually got some financing for uh

uh the film he was gonna make on the producer

and he took in

in the script

uh it was purely felliniusque

of course um

he went to great detail about location scouts

and uh he said

it's really important to get a production uh manager

and produce a time to stand about location scouts

particularly when you start early in the morning

you know and then

you have to stop somewhere and then continue on

the key thing

uh was to uh

choose a location midday

uh that you really aren't gonna use

but it's near the best restaurant

so you can have a great lunch

you know and this is

this was the tone of

the kind of thing he was talking about

in terms of describing

the different roles of filmmakers and the crew

and have to make a picture

I mean a location scout

when you when you

you want a location scout to go out there

kind really knows exactly what you want

if you know exactly what you want

and what I mean by that um

is that you may feel you need something that has

sense of this particular place

of that particular time

brick work but maybe with some stuck all over it

you're not quite sure

so that person has to go and choose maybe 4 to 5

6 maybe more

different looks

and bring that back to you

so you can help make a decision

you know um

but you know

shooting stills um

of location

or even taking video

of locations today

it's really deceptive

you have to be very careful

the best thing is always to go there um

I personally don't like location scouting anymore

we can't get anywhere in the traffic

traffic is too heavy cars

it's bumpy roads

takes a long time to get to a place

you look at it

you're not satisfied with it

but look this is part of the process

you do as best you can

in pictures and in

um on video

sometimes things look really great to say

I've done this before

so I'm gonna shoot that

I have to go see it

well when I got there was different

and I should have gone

you know um

in some cases

we were able to move to another place

other cases not

um there you

you you you

if you don't actually go to a place

you may find that you think

particularly working from stills

or from overhead diagrams

you may think you have more room

for example

than you actually do

um you get to a place and realize oh

I can't put the camera here

because the door is over here

or it's not a set

it's not something you can move

you know when I was doing Shutter Island

we had a scene that we were trying to get out of this

this location wasn't actual location it was a

a place we using as a sound stage

in somewhere in Massachusetts

outside of Boston

and Dante Ferretti and myself

production designer

and we had the spiral staircase

and it was meant to be against green screen

and we were really under

a lot of pressure to finish the film

and we had this big scene the next day

was going to run up this spiral staircase

to kick in the door

etc to you know

the big climactic scene in the film

and as I'm about to leave

after the day shooting

and another part of the set

we had built sets inside this thing um

I went past

and Dante said

come look at the spiral staircase

I'm sure it's gonna be okay

so yeah cause he knew what it was

we had many models and drawings

so I looked at it

and I said yeah

it's really good

and as I was about to leave I said

could you turn it

he said what

I said could we turn it

so we'll have to dig into the ground

then I said yeah

yeah so there's always something that

that is best to always see it

I should have probably seen that the day before

but he was able to do that

because I think he anticipated what I wanted

we had discussed it earlier

we would turn the spiral staircase

at the same time as the camera was going around

um and turn it the opposite way

counterclockwise

so um he knew that

but it was an issue of um

in a case like that

there were so many sets

and so many different changes and weather

that it was very difficult to keep up with

checking out the locations

and so that I was constantly being surprised

and this happens great deal

constantly being surprised

by the actual location itself

and the limitations

then you have to figure

out how the limitations can become advantages

you know become something else um

and so it's always best to um

if you're not building a set

to go to location and spend time there

the only important thing

the only thing that really matters

is what it's gonna look like on the screen

and I find that I'm still surprised sometimes

when I sit on the screen um

very often we've had situations where actors

find it difficult to do something in the same

because their perception of the reality around them

is affecting how the characters supposed to see this

um but on film it looks right

and there are

there are times uh

people could do it

other times

you have to make some adjustments

but um ultimately

this is what Hitchcock told front

watch true foe

it only matters what it looks like on screen

he was absolutely right

how's it gonna look in the frame

the feeling of the place when you visited

the mood um

it's all great

but what will the viewer be seeing there

so you have to be thinking that all the time

because that takes in

if you go see a place

for example

with the wrong light

if you go to a place

that has a floor to ceiling windows

and you go at 9 o'clock at night

and you're doing day scenes in the place

it doesn't pay to see it

to see it you have to get a

sense of what it's like in the morning

get a good sense of what it's like about

2 o'clock in the afternoon

this sort of thing

um you know

because you're gonna

you often gonna

wind up shooting in a wide variety of places

I mean from the age of innocence

to the age of innocence

we shot in New York

um in Troy New York

in Boston and Philadelphia

and you always have to think of

how it's all gonna come together as one coherent world

The New York of the 1870s really doesn't exist

some interiors

some um in um

areas of Brooklyn

some interiors

exteriors and the city of Troy

um and interiors in Philadelphia too

so we had to put all this together

Dante Ferretti

work this out

to create the impression of 1870s New York

it isn't like

period films in England so to speak

when you go to a manor house or an estate of some kind

it exists it's there

you know it's a matter of the

certainly not nothing easy

but it is still a matter of the building existing here

it became very difficult

in the case of Taxi Driver

the locations were all in New York we built um

we're like sets

we were able to take um

a building that was gonna be torn down

and we were able to get this building

we were able to use the interior hallway

with 89 Street in Columbus Avenue

it was just the beginning of gentrification

a lot of the stuff is being swept away

so you see the last of it in Taxi Driver um

and we were able to get the building where

we use the interior of the hallway for the shootout

ultimately at the end of the picture

and on the end of the top of the first floor landing

in the first floor was Iris's apartment

we're able to use that

and then down the hall

actually we made Travis's apartment

which was in a different place

but we'll be able to use that as

like a base

that entire building

so much so that

straight ahead

written into the script

that the camera at the end of the shootout

is staring straight down overhead

tracking past

the spectacle

what has occurred

out into the street

you know out down the stairs

I should say

and we were able

by getting that building and acquiring that building

we were able to build those apartments in the building

and at the same time

start to cut through the ceiling

to put a track camera there

and when we find

took three months to get that pulled together

they just the

they track on

on the ceiling

be able to take off the

the elements of the ceiling that was still there etc

or from when we were shooting

we needed the ceiling

so they put some things in and take it out

and we were able to to to um

it took about three months

to be able to cut through all that and create the track

that you see at the end of the film

and then because of um

certain restrictions it took uh

we were only given 20 minutes to do the same

um which caused a lot of anxiety

but we got the shot