BEHIND THE SCREEN // TALKBACK FOR "THE BIRDMAN" AT REEL PIECES

BY MATEO MORENO

In New York City, talk back sessions and movies screenings are about as common as finding a Starbucks in your neighborhood (if it’s not there yet, it will be by spring). However, Reel Pieces, the movie series at 92Y on Manhattan’s Upper East Side are always a little different. Moderated by Annette Insdorf, the director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia University, the screenings and talk back sessions here feel much more “can’t miss.” Often at talk backs, a moderator can confuse his information when talking to the actor/director/writer or simply ask non-sensical, or simply bad, questions. That’s not the case with Annette. Well poised and well spoken, she always gives the audience a fantastic inside view into the creative process. At their most recent screening of BIRDMAN, OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE (now in limited release), Annette spoke to Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, and Zach Galifianakis who all star in said film. First, the audience was treated to an early screening of the exhilarating film (see my review HERE). The conversation following the screening was lively, intriguing, and felt like a wonderful DVD commentary live right in front of you. Among the highlights:

• How crystal clear Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, Babel) was on how the film was going to work, making sure the cast were completely at ease (the film is set up to appear as if it is one continuous, 2 hour shot).
• Learning that the movie took only 30 days to make, which for a big budget feature film is nearly unheard of. Due to the way it was shot, the continued fast paced shooting, and elongated shots, it seemed to really help expedite the process (a standard time of a film being shot of this caliber can often be 2-4 months easily).
• How at ease the cast was, and how the moderator made them feel as if they could share silly and fun anecdotes. After each cast member spoke of how many takes they sometimes had to do and how hard that was to repeat being that the scenes could take up to 20 minutes without a cut, Galifianakis commented, “I never messed up.” And when Norton was speaking so highly of the creative process that making this film was, he responded that he signed on his first reaction was, “Okay, I just want to be clear. Once you say ‘Action,’ No one can interrupt me for the next 15 minutes?! I’m in.” He then goes on to compliment the director and cinematographer (Emmanuel Lubezki) for quite a while on their combined genius before finally Keaton chimes in, “You are aware that Alejandro isn’t here right?”
• The cast and crew worked without a storyboard but went into rehearsal (about a month) to figure out all camera angles and how the cameras would move around in the actual theatre (almost the entire film is filmed inside the actual St. James Theatre, at the time was between shows and is now currently prepping the Broadway Revival of Side Show). The rehearsal was so intense that they revealed that they had the exact spacing of the theatre in a sound stage in Los Angeles so they could practice in the exact spacing.
• Michael Keaton told a wonderfully random story where he was on the streets of Times Square shooting (in his underwear no less) and a crew member brought him up to a random New York man who showed them his tattoo on the inside of his arm: an incredibly detailed Beetlejuice. Keaton was floored and just thought it was the most amazing thing ever. The man himself looked unimpressed and once Keaton and the crew member were satisfied he hurriedly left, having no idea that the man who was so impressed with his Beetlejuice tattoo was in fact, Beetlejuice.

Having access to actors, directors, and writers talking about their craft, on how they filmed certain sequences, is a giant plus of living in a city like Manhattan. But the 92Y’s Reel Pieces film series seem to take it to the next level of care. Phones are turned off, photography isn’t allowed, so everyone is able to just sit back, listen, and let the moderator and cast go (in this case for over an hour). I highly recommend booking any event there (the talk back after the upcoming The Theory of Everything with Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones should be equally as refreshing). To finish us off, I leave you with a quote that director Alejandro González Iñárritu shared with moderator Annette Insdorf, which she then shared with us, about his view on filming such a massive, technical undertaking that BIRDMAN was.

“I didn’t want to create reality through fragmentation, but from a linear or monolithic reality. Basically the way we live our lives – no cuts. We just open our eyes and there we go, floating in a continuous steady-cam all day. The challenge is there is no room to improvise. The writing, design, blocking, rehearsal, plus all the technical aspects (lighting, camera movement) must be conceived, thought out, prepared in advance in order to flow with naturalness, truth, and honesty. It’s a process that demands the total awareness of the actors. It possesses the fear and adrenaline of the moment. You can’t fake it.”

Check out the entire talkback HERE

BIRDMAN, OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, and Zach Galifianakis, is now playing in select theatre in New York and LA.

About 92nd Street Y
Now celebrating its 140th Anniversary, 92nd Street Y is a world-class, nonprofit cultural and community center that fosters the mental, physical and spiritual health of people throughout their lives, offering: wide-ranging conversations with the world’s best minds; an outstanding range of programming in the performing, visual and literary arts; fitness and sports programs; and activities for children and families. 92Y is reimagining what it means to be a community center in the digital age, transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action both locally and around the world. More than 300,000 people visit 92Y annually; millions more participate in 92Y’s digital and online initiatives. A proudly Jewish organization since its founding in 1874, 92Y embraces its Jewish heritage and welcomes people of all backgrounds and perspectives. For more information about upcoming Reel Pieces events, visit: http://www.92y.org/reelpieces

Photo credit: Joyce Culver.

MATEO MORENO is an actor, playwright, and director in New York City. He owns and runs TheArtsWireWeekly.com and has had four of his plays produced, including BOHEMIAN VALENTINE, HAPPILY AFTER TONIGHT, WITHIN OUR WALLS, & LOVES ME LIKE A ROCK.

TRIBECA FILM FEST 2014: AN INTERVIEW WITH "MATCH'S" PATRICK STEWART AND STEPHEN BELBER

BY LIZ WHITTEMORE

In the arts, like other career paths, but especially in the arts, one must sacrifice quite a bit to succeed. Putting off kids, working extra crappy jobs, and being selfish are all things most artists must do in order to live the dream. Eventually, those decisions can creep up on you, leading to regret.

Stephen Belber has adapted his Tony-nominated stage play MATCH for the silver screen. The story centers around just three characters; Tobi (Patrick Stewart), an aging dance teacher, and the Seattle based couple, Lisa (Carla Gugino) and Mike (Matthew Lillard) who fly in to interview him. The setup is simple, Lisa needs info about what it was like during the 1960’s in the NYC dance scene. Hubby, Mike, is just along for the ride. They meet at a quaint neighborhood diner where Tobi is a regular. Once the three are comfortable enough, he invites them back to his apartment for drinks and continued conversation. Slowly, and under the influence of alcohol and a little pot, the hard questions come out. Mike, being a cop, begins to use what seem like interrogation tactics in inquiring about specific sexual partners. Tobi is compliant until it becomes clear that there are ulterior motives in this supposed dissertation inquiry. Finally, at the end of his polite host rope, he attempts to end the ruse. Mike’s aggression escalates as he demands a DNA sample from Tobi. He is certain that Tobi is his father. What happens from there is a startling scene of betrayal and crossed lines.

Gugino is earnest and vulnerable in her portrayal of Lisa. She is a woman who has lost her self-worth due to her husband’s emotional damage. Her one-on-one scenes with Stewart are breathtaking. Lillard, who I will forever associate with Scream, seems uncomfortable in his own skin, and I do mean that as a compliment. He struggles with his own identity, not sexually, but as a grounded man and caring husband. The dynamic between the three actors worked so well for me. The tension on screen is strong and each beat is carefully timed by Belber’s adaptation and in his direction.

Patrick Stewart is a legend of stage and screen, both large and small. No matter what role he takes on, he is perfection. Playing Tobi, in particular, seems to be more personal by his own admission. I was able to chat with this incredible talent, alongside writer/director Stephen Belber.

Being that this is the second time he's adapted one of his plays for the screen. Belber speaks to the challenges of moving a stage play to film:

Stephen Belber: Obviously, theater is about the dialogue and I was interested in getting in between the words. The dialogue is what it is, but I wanted to use the camera to get in between and chart the emotional landscape of the faces and what's not said, and where they're conveying emotion without words. So that was a fun challenge just to set myself, and to know that I had actors who were able to give so much without having to speak it. To be up close in Patrick's face when he is lying, and to compel the audience to know whether it is a lie or the truth. And to see him hear certain information that is thrown at him and to non-verbally register it, and deal with it, is very filmic and cinematic in a way you can't get in a theater. There's a great exchange that obviously takes place with the theater and a live audience so for this it's a whole different ballgame. So that's something I wanted to concentrate on.

On casting Patrick as Tobi:

SB: I wanted someone to go away from the broad comedy and the bigness of it and go to the humanity of it and I knew that Patrick could do that hands down.

Patrick Stewart: This morning has been curious for me, because every interview that I've done I have been asked, “So what were the challenges of taking on what was a stage play and now putting it in front of a camera?” I had never realized until this morning that I never actually gave your stage play a thought and people express real surprise when I said, “I didn't see the play. I never read it. I never thought of reading it”. Well, what I had was a screenplay and it was always a screenplay but furthermore I had the author behind the camera every minute of the day so why would I need to access something that we were not doing, anyway. It was very successful as a screenplay. I had no answer to these questions I've been asked all morning.

SB: I'm glad that you didn't read the play because it is a different piece. I wrote (the play) 10 years ago so I think I'm a more nuanced writer and I knew that I wanted to be different so it is a different ballgame and not a great reference point probably.

PS: The role and the story resonate strongly for me because a powerful theme in the film is about the choices that people can make in their lives, especially if they are people who are passionately, ambitiously building a career and how those choices require that some things get put aside or left behind, forever. The life of an actor, particularly an actor working in the theater, as I was working for decades, 6 nights a week I was not there to tuck my children up and sing a song. It was only Sunday night I could do that exclusively and so there was a huge part of my life... I was not making choices; those were just the conditions that you had to accept to work, so this theme in the film has related to me. How you feel you've made the right choices. You feel that you are where you want to be, but you don't know until the shock of what happens in the movie comes up, that actually the choices you've made were not the best ones and that life could have been very different. You know, the path not taken. I put my work first, always. I remember once at a dinner party in my own home sitting around a table 6, 8, 10 people, some actors, directors, but all people in the arts, this was the topic of conversation. Somebody at the table said, "I love my job, I love what I do, but my family always come first" and I heard a voice in my head, quite distinctly, saying, "Not me! Not me." I think it was shocking because it was true.

Liz, The Artswire: I had a question about theatre culture in the UK versus the US and since I have you both here, this is the perfect opportunity. I have found that the respect for theatre acting is so much greater in the UK. That is really where you hone your skills and then maybe from there you are plucked to do movies and television. I feel like it's the opposite in the US. I'm a theater kid and a writer so to have you both here with your perspectives, I was just curious where do you think that comes from? Why do you think theater maybe isn't as respected or wide as it is in the UK?

PS: First of all I'm not sure that that's true, but I think tradition has a great deal to do with it. There's been Theater on stage in England for 700 years and particularly a lot of classical theatre, as I've done. You look over your shoulder and you see all these actors going back in time who has been standing exactly where you been standing saying the same lines. I think it is different now in the UK. Most actors leaving drama school, as I hear this from the casting department of the Royal Shakespeare Company, say its not what it was. We don't have first pick, anymore, of the cream of the drama school because of these guys, they are not interested in doing theater. They see the careers that can be made in film and TV and that's where they want to be. So it's different from how it was. All I ever wanted to do was to be on stage. Everything that ever happened to me on film and television was an accident it. I fell over it rather than pursuing it. And it just so happened that you guys are so much better at film acting than we are. For the most part, you are. I loved the cinema when I was a kid! It was, for me, the absolute escape from my really rather not very great life. I don't recall seeing British movies. If I thought they were British I wouldn't go see them, and I sort of lost myself in this world that used to be overwhelmed with sadness. The curtains would close and I would have to go back to real life again. So working with American filmmakers and American actors, as with Matthew and Carla, both superb actors, was such a joy to me. I mean we do OK, we got a few actors that do OK. We did not have one hour of film acting in our drama school in 2 years. I think we once visited a television studio which is to say, "That is the camera.”

SB: I think he's right in the tradition and “Who is royalty?” and I think that film actors became royalty with kids growing up, but "These (referring to Patrick) are the icons,” and they value their skill. But there are enough kids here that catch the theater bug. Matt has weekly play readings in his living room, in his house in L.A., because he's a theater nerd. And you grab those people and then cross them over into film.

Liz: What has been your proudest moment, thus far, in your career?

PS: I think, as I said all I want to do was be on stage but I couldn't narrow that down to say what I really wanna be is on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. That was actually my ambition and everything I did for the six years that led up to that wasn't going into that direction so I did one season with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford upon Avon playing quite small roles, supporting roles, and understudy roles. And thank God, never, ever, ever had to go on. But at the end of that 10 month season, all the company, one at a time, were called to Peter Hall's office, it's like meeting the headmaster, "We will review your work", and I didn't think mine had been very good or overly interesting or of any real quality but all I wanted was to be asked, given one more chance to come back and do another season, and that's all I wanted. And it was my turn to go in, and I went in and Peter Hall said, "Well this isn't going to take long." And I thought, “Oh no, this is it.”  And he said, "Look, are you aware that we have three year contract here?", and I said, "Yeah, I had heard of that." And he said, "We wanna give you a three year contract." I was speechless and outside the theater in Stratford there was a telephone box and I went down and I called my wife and she said, "How did it go?" .... and finally, getting the silence she says, "I take it it went well." That was it for me. Nothing has been quite so thrilling a feeling as that moment.

Match is a beautifully intimate film. It dares to go places that some might be scared to approach.  How have our decisions in our lives affected where we are now? I think that remains to be seen.

VERDICT: MUST SEE

Written/Directed  by: Stephen Belber Starring: Patrick Stewart, Carla Gugino, Matthew Lillard Runtime: 94 min

BOTTOM LINE:  It's a contemplative film. You will, perhaps, reexamine your choices when you leave the cinema.

TRIBECA FILM FEST 2014: COVERAGE OF THE "BOMBAY SAPPHIRE" premiere party

BY LIZ WHITTEMORE

I was extremely lucky to be able to attend the Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series premiere at the House of Imagination Series at Tribeca Film Festival. For the second year in a row, Academy Award winner, Geoffrey Fletcher has written a short script in which Character A and Character B take center stage. 5 fresh filmmakers were chosen from a pool of submissions numbering more than 1,300  from 68 countries. Each individual filmmaker was instructed to use Fletcher’s script as a base, adding their own personal flare where they deemed necessary. Fletcher comments, “Nurturing and inspiring upcoming filmmakers is very dear to my heart and the Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series continues to provide a unique platform at a time when it’s difficult for new voices and creative visions to be realised.” One of last year’s films, Room 8, received the 2014 British Short Film BAFTA. Who knows where this year’s filmmakers will achieve.

Exit Log from Chris Cornwell (UK):

In 2249, two space engineer’s journey through deep space takes a dramatic turn when they discover an emergency message from the past. They’ll have just three minutes to decipher the message and decide their fate forever. WATCH HERE

Reflections from Anthony Khaseria (UK):   

A beautiful couple in beautiful surroundings - it should have been the start of the ultimate love story. But a romantic meal turns dark and fantastical when they discover a hidden mirror which shows their true reflection. WATCH HERE

Graffiti Area from Maite Fernandez (Spain):

This is a mesmerizing look at the inexplicable and unpredictable nature of our own fears. When two young graffiti artists start painting, the graffiti takes on a monstrous life of its own. Can they escape their own creation, or even themselves? WATCH HERE

The Other Side of the Game from Kiara Jones (USA):

A newly married couple is battling to get out alive from an unfamiliar hostage situation in this taut psychological thriller. You won’t expect what happens next. WATCH HERE

Need for Speed (Dating) from Allyson Morgan (USA) :

Nate and Polly have the perfect relationship. They have a nice house, a white picket fence. There’s just one problem – the relationship is just a dream. In this light hearted comedy, Polly tries to find her dream date at a speed dating event. But will anyone live up to her dream boyfriend? WATCH HERE

The premiere party in itself was inspiring. The theme in the first room was The Blue Dahlia. Guests were transported back in time with actors and waiters in period costume. Numerous seating vignettes were assembled for unique photo ops. The screening room was a vast, all white space lit in reds, blues, and yellows as we sipped our specialty Bombay sapphire concoctions and were treated to the premiere screening of the 5 films.. I had rose buds floating in my sweet martini creation. The next room was something Lewis Carroll would be proud of. The room appeared to be upside down with flowers on the ceiling and clouds projected on screens on the walls. Cotton candy, popcorn, and more specialty bars appeared. A DJ cranked the tunes once the screening room transformed into a club space. Over all, these are the types of evenings New York City is famous for.   

Independent Films, a BAFTA winning Production Company, produced the 2014 Imagination Series Films. For more information on Independent Films please visit: www.independ.net

About BOMBAY SAPPHIRE®

Bombay Sapphire is the fastest growing of the major premium gin brands and the world’s number one premium gin by value. Based on a secret 1761 recipe, Bombay Sapphire gin is created by perfectly balancing a unique combination of 10 hand-selected exotic botanicals from around the world. The natural flavours of the botanicals are captured through a delicate distillation process called Vapour Infusion which results in the tantalizing, smooth and complex taste that is Bombay Sapphire.

Written by: Geoffrey Fletcher Featuring Films by: Anthony Khaseria, Maite Fernandez, Chris Cornwell, Kiara Jones, Allyson Morgan

Check out Bombay Sapphire’s Youtube page to see the films and behind-the-scenes action:  www.youtube.com/BombaySapphire.