"Creatively dealing with daily challenges" Every day was a new adventure in the production of Life Passion Death. We laughed, had fun, and worked hard. All of the part-time crew and actors had "real" jobs, acting classes, and film classes. Dealing with each of their busy lives made scheduling the shooting a real challenge. It forced me to re-arrange the script several times. Because of the lack of, or changing, availability of actors, I even incorporated new characters to tell the story in a better way. Sometimes the scheduled session had to be shortened or sometimes we had to improvise to finish unscheduled extra scenes because the actors suddenly announced that they were unavailable for the next few weeks. An example of a typical shoot: one day after organizing insurance, obtaining location permits for filming in a top New York restaurant, and synchronizing schedules with crew and cast (getting two actors at the same time was nearly impossible), the camera man suddenly left for other business. What to do then? I was acting in that scene as well and had just ninety minutes to prepare the set, lights, cameras and shooting. No other possible time could work to shoot that scene. So I personally placed the camera and set the lights while tottering in my high heels and short skirt. I shot the takes that just included the male actors alone. Simultaneously in my mind, I had to think through how to prepare the camera for my second camera assistant for my own takes. With the restaurant about to open for dinner, we had to roll immediately! Then the camera man arrived! In two minutes, without a second of hesitation, I gave orders to the camera and we were rolling - barely finishing in time for the restaurant to open its doors. We had to do whatever it took despite the circumstances.  "Filming exterior scenes in Manhattan" Manhattan is crazily busy, making it almost impossible to get a few minutes of “quiet on the set”. Some practical joker always had to say "Hi" or stared into the camera right in the middle of a scene. We were constantly interrupted while rolling by the idiotic question, “Is this for a movie?” There is constant noise: cars honking, buses rumbling, mobile phones ringing, and hundreds of people talking and walking. We always shouted, "Quiet on the set- camera rolling!", but it was a bit of a sad joke. However, the background noise can be suppressed with a lot of effort involving post-production companies to help edit the sound track. So with a solid acting performance, good ADR, and good sound mixing it is possible to shoot a great scene in the heart of Manhattan. After all, the thousands of pedestrians, cars, and buses make it so real! Fortunately, New York City makes it simple to obtain permits even for a low budget movie, as long the shoot does not impede traffic and sidewalks are kept clear for pedestrians. Another big plus - shooting in Manhattan is beautiful and exciting.

New York skyline. Joseph and Mark eating lunch at the Grand Army Plaza.   Angela and Joseph dating in Long Island sound. Joseph and Jane - can’t be an us... Words of Director & Synopsis   Production photos Cast & Crew   Main page