Another Day in New York
I haven’t had this much fun in. . . I can’t even remember.
Eight days of intense bliss.
The youth, the passion, the enthusiasm, the grinding, the pursuit of perfection, the professionalism. It was all there on display, from people I had mostly never met before, people who worked in professions that I had no idea existed and skills that I was clueless about—a gaffer, an AC, an assistant DP—until seeing them perform under my own eyes.
The lighting, see how her eyes are dark in this shot, and see how his eyes are lit here. It may be a small detail, it may not even be caught by the viewer, but for the DP that’s important, having thought about it not just from the camera angle perspective or lighting perspective, but from how the character evolves throughout the film, how they react to adversity. It’s all there, in the minutest of details, up on the screen.
All I did was write a screenplay, forty pages containing three interconnected stories that take place over the course of the same day, and night, in New York City.
Then this talented, young team, including the Director, the Assistant Director, the Director of Photography and his crew, the Production Manager, the Production Assistants, the Actors. . . They took the words (and they’re just words) and breathed life into them, turning them into a moving picture. Which is what was supposed to happen, but watching the process unfold under one’s own eyes is mesmerizing, magical.
Professionals. All of them.
The story, Another Day in New York, goes something like this:
Chapter 1—The Interview. Cooper, a young tech worker who has just moved to New York to seek his fortune, goes to a job interview.
Chapter 2—The Stalker. John, searching for his brother Caleb, follows a woman (who, according to John, was the last person to see Caleb) to her home.
Chapter 3—Room 1805. Joe and Renée, a couple on vacation in New York, are rudely interrupted when they return to their opulent hotel suite after a late night out.
I don’t want to give anything away. Let’s just say that the film is a Thriller, inspired by the idiotic questions I get asked and stultifying comments that are made to me when I’m on a golf course or when I’m traveling and the person next to me asks where do you live and I answer New York and they respond with how dangerous it must be to live there and aren’t you worried that you’ll be mugged and what about that communist mayor who wants to defund the police?
Well, Another Day in New York is a typical day in the typical life of typical New Yorkers. I’m sure these stories happen every day, in one form or another, because the City is such a dangerous and lecherous and nefarious place.
If you’re scared, don’t come here. Watch the film instead.
