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Posted: |
Apr 18, 2017 - 4:36 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Mike Nichols and Bllhaus re-united for 1990's POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE. Actress-turned-novelist Carrie Fisher had sold film rights to her debut novel, for an undisclosed six-figure sum. Two weeks of rehearsals preceded principal photography, which began 14 August 1989 on a Burbank Studios soundstage in Burbank, CA. Los Angeles, CA, locations included the grounds of Marineland, a former oceanarium in Palos Verdes, which stood in for the seaside movie set depicted in the film’s opening sequence; a Holmby Hills mansion that doubled as the home of “Doris Mann” (Shirley MacLaine); and an office on Hollywood Boulevard, with views of Mann’s Chinese Theater, standing in for “Marty Wiener’s” (Gary Morton's) office.
Exteriors of Doris Mann's house were shot at the home of actress Connie Stevens. Connie Stevens, like Carrie Fisher's mother Debbie Reynolds, was once married to Carrie Fisher's father Eddie Fisher. Filming also took place on the set of The Pat Sajak Show (CBS, 9 January 1989--13 April 1990). There, a scene was shot in which television host Sajak interviewed "Suzanne Vale" (Meryl Streep) about her first marriage. However, that scene does not appear in the final film.
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Posted: |
Apr 18, 2017 - 5:23 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Production on 1992's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA commenced on 14 October 1991 in Culver City, CA, During pre-production of director Francis Ford Coppola's film, it was reported that the shoot might be preemptively cancelled due to excessive cost. However, Coppola and then-Columbia Pictures chairman Frank Price denied the rumors and expressed anticipation for the future collaboration.
The production acquired the nickname "Bonfire of the Vampires," due to negative rumors about production hardships and budgeting issues. According to one article, Coppola fired veteran set designer Dante Ferrette and "hired a young nobody to start designing sets from scratch, just six weeks before shooting." It also confirmed that for a time Gary Oldman ("Dracula" and Winona Ryder ("Mina Murray/Elisabeta") did not get along with one another. Production designer Tom Sanders recalled seeing a river of blood flowing between two Sony Studios sound stages on the Culver City lot. According to Sanders, the blood, which leaked from the Dracula set, drew complaints from passers-by making their way across the lot. Coppola hired acting coach Greta Seacat to serve as a intermediary between him and female cast members Ryder and Sadie Frost when addressing issues of sexuality and nudity, subjects the director admitted he did not feel comfortable discussing with young females.
Coppola's twenty-seven-year-old son, Roman, who served as the film's second unit director, also researched early-era special effects for use in the production. Roman is credited with acquiring the 1905 hand-cranked Pathé camera used to reproduce the late nineteenth-century film-look for certain shots. Coppola explained that he wanted to channel the classic visual effects of early filmmakers like Murnau and Pabst. He explained that many effects were "in-camera opticals, or [done] with mirrors." The production could not film the London-set scenes in London because of budget constraints. These scenes were also shot on the Pathé camera to give them an antiquated film-look and the "feel of old London."
Two days of extra shooting began on 3 September 1992 for an extra scene, suggested to be an opening sequence featuring co-star Keanu Reeves and new cast member Jay Robinson. Another late-production scene with Anthony Hopkins was shot a month prior.
According to Michael Ballhaus, Coppola's main influence and inspiration for the cinematography and visual design of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) was F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU (1922). Ballhaus considered Coppola's visually inventive film one of his favorite achievements as a cinematographer and the last great 'must-see' film by Coppola.
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Posted: |
Apr 18, 2017 - 5:49 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Martin Scorsese's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE was his fifth film with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. It is is a tale of nineteenth-century New York high society in which a young lawyer (Daniel Day-Lewis) falls in love with a woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin (Winona Ryder).
Principal photography began om 24 March 1992. Troy, NY's antiquated River Street was transformed into New York City’s Wall Street, while the interior of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house was used for the home of “Mrs. Mingott” (Miriam Margolyes). The fraternity, in downtown Troy, NY, was home to about 35 men at the time. Setup and filming took approximately three weeks and was done while school was still in session. The first floor was the only one used for filming and during shoots, members of the house had to remain silent upstairs or leave the house. The shot of the house as a solitary structure on a small hill is movie magic, as the house is surrounded on both sides by other buildings. Interiors of the “Beaufort” home (Mary Beth Hurt and Stuart Wilson) were shot at the National Arts Club, formerly known as the Tilden House, on New York City’s Gramercy Park.
Various other properties were used for exteriors: For the fictional patroon house, filmmakers selected the Columbia County Historical Society’s 1737 Luykas Van Alen house in Kinderhook, NY. Although novelist Edith Wharton based the Mingott home on the residence of her aunt, Mary Mason Jones, that house at the corner of New York City’s 57th Street and Fifth Avenue was demolished in 1929. In addition to the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house, filmmakers used matte paintings to depict the exteriors of the Mingott mansion and surrounding streets as they would have appeared in the 1870s. Matte paintings were also used for the skylights above Newland and Ellen as they meet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nuits, the Italian-style villa in Ardsley-on-Hudson, Irvington, NY, was the exterior for Mrs. Mingott’s country home.
Four days of filming took place at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, PA, with 900 background actors and 1,100 photographic cut-outs used as the audience of an opera performance. Star Daniel Day-Lewis also filmed scenes at the Louvre in Paris. The ninety-day production schedule concluded 26 June 1992. Originally to be released in the Fall of 1992, the film was held back by over a year to allow director Martin Scorsese more time to edit.
Michael Ballhaus was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for 1993's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. He lost to Janusz Kaminski for SCHINDLER'S LIST.
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Posted: |
Apr 19, 2017 - 1:22 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Michael Ballhaus' second film with director Wolfgang Petersen was 1997's AIR FORCE ONE. Initially Petersen was denied access to the real-life Air Force One. A telephone call from Harrison Ford to the White House soon changed that. Thus, a large part of the crew took a tour of the real Air Force One before filming. They based some of the film's scenes, where the terrorists disguised as journalists survey the plane's layout, and begin to take their seats, on the touring experience.
The sequence set at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, was filmed at Rickenbacker International Airport, Columbus, Ohio. Because the aircraft had to be visible, even though the scene was supposedly taking place at night, a small amount of sky light was required. This restricted filming to two fifteen-minute intervals each day, at dusk and dawn.
Scenes depicting the interior of Radek's Palace were filmed inside the Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The U.S. team runs down the stairs in front of the statue, all in the Courthouse lobby. There is also a scene in a narrow hallway that was filmed in the Courthouse Law Library. The outdoor nighttime shots of the military invading Radek's palace were also filmed in Cleveland. The building that is supposed to be Radek's palace is actually Severance Hall, home to The Cleveland Orchestra. In some shots, you can see part of adjacent Case Western Reserve University's Thwing Center - a student union consisting of a glass atrium between two brick buildings.
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