Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

If Michel Gondry’s history as a director is any indication, this won’t be just another commercial. The director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (which was filmed partly in Brooklyn) and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (which was filmed in Brooklyn, in front of Broken Angel in Clinton Hill, not Bed-Stuy) also directed a commercial for Levi’s Jeans that manages to be beautiful, touching, and hilarious at the same time. It’s more a work of art that happens to have a brand name in it, rather than a commercial. You can watch it here: Levis – Drugstore.

Update: Gothamist reports that Michel Gondry has moved to a house in East Williamsburg, so hopefully there will be lots more Brooklyn filming in his future!

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

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So after I Hate Valentine’s Day was done shooting in the Gloria Flower Shop, the crew set up for a walking shot on Court.

Rails were laid down on the street for the length of the block, and a camera dolly was mounted on the rails.

Once the lights and camera were set up and everything was in place, the crew got to practice their moves a few times with the stand ins.

Ms. Vardalos came onto the set, and got her coat and scarf on.

Here she is, waiting for “action.”

“Action!”

And Ms. Vardalos returns to the starting point for yet another take.

Filming In Brooklyn learned something new today. After watching the scene being shot, we noticed that the microphone was pretty far away from the actors, and asked if the dialogue would be dubbed in later. We were told that the actors were wearing mics, and that the big mic was for picking up atmospheric sounds – cars and trucks, mostly. A loud truck going by sounds like distortion on the actors’ mics, and would ruin the scene. But if the big mic picks up the sound of the truck, that sound can be added to the dialogue, over the distortion, so that it just sounds like a truck going by.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

It can be especially annoying when you’re trying to get somewhere to have to wait to walk down the street while somebody shoots a scene, and Ms. Vardalos was conscious of that and tried to let as many people pass as possible between takes, even holding things up a few times when parents with small children were trying to pass.

The crew members and production staff were going out of their way to accommodate the businesses affected, even holding a guy’s bike so that he could go into a bodega (chaining it up was out of the question, since it would have been in the shot).

The star herself (who looks fabulous!) was nice enough to pose for a picture, with fellow cast member Zoe.

Filming In Brooklyn was allowed to peek inside the flower shop set (Nia Vardalos’ character is a florist).

And while we managed to miss John Corbett every single time we were on the set today, we did meet two neighborhood crossing guards who had taken pictures with him, and were so excited that they had gotten the photos developed right away.

Coming up next: pics from a walk-and-talk scene down Court Street.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Right now they’re set up at Gloria Flower Shop, on Court Street near Degraw in Carroll Gardens, shooting some interior scenes. During one scene being shot inside, extras walked past the shop dressed in heavy fall clothes.

Location manager Tim Stacker told Filming In Brooklyn that the Gloria Flower Shop was perfect for the shots they needed, since it had a big window in the front and a door in the back, and met some other criteria for the movie. They only looked at flower shops in Brooklyn. Thanks for filming in Brooklyn!

We’ll have more from the set of I Hate Valentine’s Day later today.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn