Feature article published
in Point of View magazine
Claude’s in town
~~~
J.J. Films has brought Claude to Providence.
J.J. Films is a New York-based film production company,
and Claude is their project --a feature film starring Irene
Jacob and Mark Evan Jacobs. They jointly arrived in town
the week of May 7th in the shape of Producer Diana Phillips
and her advance party of production colleagues. Shooting
is due to start July 9 and will continue for five weeks.
Phillips
and her staff are currently working out of a makeshift production
office in an Old mill building at 389 Charles Street which,
in addition to its already dingy appearance, had suffered
a flood a day before I met with her. Despite the discomfort
Phillips said that so far all was going smoothly and she
was very happy. She did add, however, that “the definition
of film production is to anticipate the problems and solve
them, and if you don’t anticipate them solve them
anyway.”
The Story
| “Claude, in his
intense and frantic search for himself, accidentally
burned down his own house.” |
|
According to Phillips “Claude is a romantic
comedy -- the story of a young man trying to get through
life and find himself.” Featured alongside Claude
are a compellingly attractive French woman, Beatrice Le
Clezio and Seap Sok, a five--year-old Cambodian girl who
lives with her. Claude, in his intense and frantic search
for himself, accidentally burns down his own house leaving
Beatrice and Seap, who live in the downstairs apartment,
out on the street. Wracked with guilt Claude invites them
to come and stay with his parents who turn out to be every
bit as offbeat as Claude himself. Ultimately Claude’s
attraction to Beatrice and his compassion for Seap combine
to bring about revolutionary changes in his life.
Why shoot in Providence?
| “Phillips looked
at Minneapolis and Toronto before choosing Providence.” |
|
Phillips looked at Minneapolis and Toronto
before choosing Providence. When she saw Providence she
knew almost immediately that this was where she wanted to
film. “We chose Providence,” she said, specifically,
for it’s look, it’s aesthetic qualities,”
and added, “it’s got architectural interest
and beauty. It’s such a mixed up big city -- big village,
mini- city -- it’s an urban environment with some
very interesting old architecture, and the area has not
been over-filmed. “
There has in fact been very little feature
film use of Providence and as Phillips wanted to find something
near to New York Providence seemed to fit the bill. It was
also important, she said, “to find a big old victorian
home on water -- not a river, and not ocean.” She
also emphasized that her choice of Providence was heavily
swayed by the fact that there are lots of “feature
film crew types” here.
A parallel factor that solidified the decision to come to
Providence, said Phillips, “was the Trinity Rep and
the fact that there was a group of talented and experienced
actors here, and in and around Boston as well.”
| “...it’s
not a community that’s used to filmmaking...” |
|
Phillips was also energetic in her praise
of Amy Shapiro, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Film
Commission, with whom she consulted prior to deciding on
Rhode Island. “Amy,” she said, ”is incredible.
She’s one of the better leaders of any kind of film
commission I’ve ever worked with. She does her job,
and defines her job well beyond the scope of most film Commissions.”
(Sadly for Rhode Island, a few days before this interview
took place, Shapiro resigned her position with the Film
Commission to pursue other interests involving a relocation
to Washington, DC.)
Has Providence lived up to expectations?
When asked if her experience with Providence
had been good so far Phillips was enthusiastic: “We’re
extremely happy with the locations. It’s everything
that the director wanted, visually. The community in general
has been very cooperative. They’ve been fun to get
to know The real estate agents have been helpful directing
us to parts of the area that have the architecture we’re
looking for. The harder things are that it’s not a
community that’s used to filmmaking. We seem to be
bringing up questions for which they don’t have an
answer, bureaucratically.” She recently started the
process of hiring a minor only to find out that nobody in
Providence knew how to set this in motion. “In most
states,” said Phillips, “you go to the Labor
Board to get a permit to hire them. Then the child goes
to the Labor Board and gets a permit to work for you. So
far we must have talked to about 800 bureaucrats and nobody
can tell us how to do this, or who can issue such a permit.
People have been very pleasant, they just can’t tell
us how to do it.” Even so she was high in her praise
of almost everyone she has encountered: “Everybody
from people in the local congresswoman Claudine Schneider’s
office, to the Mayor’s office, to the Police Department,
have all been very helpful. It’s just a matter of
people getting used to what a movie demands, and what kind
of impact it has on the environment. We come in and we start
buying a lot of things and needing a lot of things which
maybe the community doesn’t have.”
| “I think one of
the nice things we’ve found in Providence
are the service industries.” |
|
One incident, however, which has become a
major stumbling block to production, is the refusal of the
Fire Department to allow the effected burning of a building.
As this is a “pivotal scene”in the story had
Phillips known ahead of time that this was going to be a
problem she would not, she states, have come to Providence
to shoot. Said Shapiro as she was leaving her position with
the Film Commission, “I wish this had happened after
I’d left. Things were going so well. The Fire Chief
had agreed to it, which is one reason Diana brought the
production to the city. But when it came right down to a
final decision he was unavailable and the Acting Chief,
Gilbert McLaughlin, categorically refused to have anything
to do with burning a building in the city.” Phillips
is clearly frustrated. She has gone to great lengths to
illustrate the methods they would use to simulate the burning
of a building and to fully explain to McLaughlin that “this
is the movies, it’s not reality. “We’re
not actually going to burn a building.” Of a recent
meeting with the Fire Department Shapiro said: “There
were all these “Fire people” wearing lots of
medals and McLaughlin was downright patronizing. He didn’t
even listen.” In a final effort Phillips has appealed
directly to the Mayor in the hopes that he will step in.
If he fails to do so Phillips has two options open to her:
to build a facade that duplicates the building they are
using and burn that, or to find a building with the same
exterior in New York and shoot there. Neither option is
appealing. “I even have a signed contract with the
people who own the condemned building we were planning to
use,” said Phillips. The situation has taken some
of the shine off the company’s experience with Providence.
| “There’s
a lot to be said for having local people in the
production office.” |
|
On a less depressing note, however, Phillips
said: “I think one of the nice things that we’ve
found in Providence are the service industries. When a production
comes to town they need to immediately make a working office
-- we have to have telephones, copy machines, office supplies,
print stationary with our name and address, and understand
where to get people’s lunches every day -- suddenly
40 people land on this town and eat in restaurants, rent
videos, do everything that they do at home, get cable TV
-- we’re here so long. We rent a million cars and
trucks -- the service people have just been wonderful.”
The Writer/Director
Cindy Lou Johnson is the Writer/Director of
Claude. Ms. Johnson recently wrote two pieces for HBO’s
critically acclaimed “Vietnam War Stories,”
-- “The Promise,” and “R&R”
for which she won an ACE award for the best writing in a
dramatic series. She also wrote the film “Sometimes
I wonder” starring Colleen Dewhurst, which also aired
on HBO and Showtime. Ms. Johnson’s most recent play,
“Brilliant Traces,” completed a sold out run
at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City. It was produced
by the Circle Repertory Company and starred Joan Cusack
and Kevin Anderson. The play was also selected by Circle
Rep to be the NBC “New Voices” production of
the 1988/89 season. A graduate of Cornell University, Ms.
Johnson is currently a recipient of the National Endowment
for the Arts.
The Crew
About the crew Phillips said: “A lot
of the crew members are from Rhode Island, or Massachusetts
close to Rhode Island. We’ve been hiring mostly Providence
residents to work in the production office. There’s
a lot to be said for having local people in the production
office -- people who know where to run and get xeoxing late
at night, know where lunch can be picked up, and who can
tell us about interesting things to do at the weekends.”
Most of the department heads and technical
heads, are from Los Angeles. The Writer/Director, the costume
designer, and Phillips herself are all from New York. Much
of the cast is from New York but some are from Boston/Providence.
Post production will be done in New York.
Parting Shot
“Again, the definition of filmmaking,”
smiled Phillips, “is solving problems and compromising.
You have the script, and then you have reality. The trick
is to make it work. I just hope we can.”
