Week 1 making the 1st Jerome Robbins ballet movie since West Side Story.  We filmed in Coney Island, the Lower East Side, Bushwick, and portions of the 2nd movement “Statics” in an abandoned warehouse.

Our cast is made up entirely of dancers from New York City Ballet.  They work incredibly hard.   They also blog and make funny videos on set about baby wipes.

Camera operator Joe Anderson nails a helicopter shot.

Something bad also happened.  Early Tuesday morning Mel was driving me home from set and disaster struck.  I think my beloved Subaru of 10 years might be totaled (it’s worse than it looks).

- Henry

After 3 years, our 35mm ballet film “NY Export: Opus Jazz” has officially been acquired by Channel 13 (WNET) for its 2010 Great Performances/Dance in America series.

The film is an adaptation of a 1958 ballet by Jerome Robbins starring dancers from New York City Ballet and shot on location all over New York City.

In 2007 we shot 1 movement from the ballet on the Highline.  Over the next 6 weeks we will be shooting the remaining 4 movements and many adjoining scenes.

Big shout-out to our Executive Producers (and NYCB dancers) Ellen & Sean and especially to our lawyer John for putting this whole thing together.

We start shooting in ONE WEEK!  Stay tuned….

xoSM

p.s.  click here to see the official website.

p.p.s.  become our fan on Facebook by searching for “NY Export: Opus Jazz”

p.p.p.s. click here to read an article in The New York Sun about our film.

“Passage For Two” is screening as part of the Jerome Robbins retrospective at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Quite an honor to be among his Oscars, Tonys, and Marias. We also met another original cast member of Opus Jazz, Beryl Towbin. Click here to learn more about the exhibit, it’s worth checking out.

(Rel with Robbins’ Oscar for West Side Story)

-Henry

Dear Diary,

OMG, Henry and Ellen were on tv this morning, talking about Opus Jazz. Good Day New York hosts Jody Applegate and Somebody McSomebodyhead tossed softballs and our guys hit ‘em out of the park.
A few people thought Henry was wearing lipstick, which he denies.

-rel

There’s nothing quite like watching one of your filmmaking idols watch a movie you made. He told us he loves it and wants to be involved. Then he regaled us with stories from his past for the next 2 hours. Unbelievable. Picking his brain about making documentaries was like winning a shopping spree in the inspiration supermarket.

-Henry