I have the odd feeling, having worked with the ineffably charming and wildly professional Emily Mortimer, that I’ve worked with an “obit-definer”. Do you know what that is? Well, think about it. When we die, if we deserve a public obit at all, it tends to be about things that

The above machine is a movieola, the ancient industry standard editing machine. I’m old enough to have actually learned to work one–it was on its last legs and flatbeds (remember them?) were already in use. Currently we’re editing on Final Cut Pro. I’m also old enough to remember when convincing

I’ve received a number of questions from various readers and thought I’d address a handful of them in no particular order.First: the most fun scene to shoot? Andy Garcia going on his first “audition”, lousing it up horribly and then unexpectedly being asked to do an improv at which he

Somehow the past three days vanished in a haze of life-cathing-up errands, phone calls and the truly transitionary shift from production to post. Said “transition” for me takes the form of a particularly strange anxiety dream–this exact dream has happened to me after every movie. In it, I am standing

One of the delights of the shoot of “City Island” was observing the genuinely warm and admiring friendship between Andy Garcia and the great Alan Arkin. Alan plays the role of the “great and failed acting teacher Michael Malakov” (as Emily’s character Molly characterizes him) and though he’s only in

What can I say? Giddy with acheivement I can’t stop the flow of love and appreciation. So more tributes! Let’s start with…myself. Click here to read a superb and insightful review of my documentary “Tis Autumn: The Search For Jackie Paris”,which opened a few weeks ago in Canada and will make

“City Island” wrapped at dawn, Thursday morning and immediately gave itself a wrap party that very evening. I hired two excellent jazz musicians–bass and sax–to accompany me (I play piano) and gave the movie’s crew the gift of jazz as background entertainment. Then Andy Garcia brought in a Cuban band

This is a post I had been meaning to do for a very long time and then there came a point when it could only be done on the final night; only now it seems apt. Our producer Zachary Matz has been the darkest of horses when it comes to

Our last night has been spent at the fitting and classic Empire Diner, right in the heart of Chelsea. Fitting, I think, because the movie takes a route from the fringes of Bronx and un-germinated dreams to the hub-bub of New York and the promise of a bright future. We

The external of our fictional Dalegrove correctional facility. The concept of filming in a prison seems exciting but in reality you cannot have your cell phone or internet! What good am I as a blogger if I am not connected to the rest of the world? So no doubt today