Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/891583
P E R S P E C T I V E | N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 63 16mm 200 ASA black-and-white film is a format that is both limiting and exciting. Todd and I started by charting Rose's journeys on a map, imagining the path we thought she would take, where she got off the ferry or the bus, and how she makes her way to the American Museum of Natural History. Rose left from New Jersey on a ferry, so it's likely she landed at the southern tip of Manhattan. This works out because, if you know how to look around that area today, here and there you can find views true to that period. It puts you in the Financial District, which is where a lot of Rose's walk was shot. By controlling where the camera was pointed, the necessary views were found, occasionally getting a little help from those fellas with computers to make something contemporary go away. While Rose's trek was mostly downtown, the hardest set to find for the earlier period was the exterior of the theater, where she goes to find her mother rehearsing a play. There was a big, complicated interaction outside the theater between the police and the maid, with Rose taking it all in. Todd wanted to emphasize this moment at the theater, and he didn't want to place it on Broadway, which was good since it would have been hard to create a period street there, and Broadway wasn't the elite world in 1927 that is now. There were many more theaters. I found the theater location in Crown Heights. It was being used as a church, but I saw some little piece of a dragon's tail poking out from behind this giant church banner. It seemed like just a dilapidated building, but some quick research on cellphones revealed that it was the original Loehmann's department store. Somewhere underneath, there was a hidden treasure, and you see it in the movie, a beautiful corner building with dragon friezes along the top…and it just happened to be across the street from the old Studebaker factory (now condos) that also provided the bones of some beautiful architecture. C. 1927 Meteorite Room, built on stage. The current version in the museum is too modern, and the one in the film had to exist in both 1927 and 1977. The Meteorite Rooms were built on our stages along the Hudson River in Yonkers. D. 1977 Meteorite Room, stage build. E. 1977 Midtown Streets, built on location on Flatbush Avenue, Brookyln. This block is one of the last remaining that could provide a good base for our Times Square. Two entire city blocks were dressed, and caused quite a stir on the day of filming. D C E