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The
Last Christmas Party was shot using a
variety of mini DV 3-chip
cameras. The main camera was Dora Mae
Productions pride and joy,
the Sony PDX10. In our next shoot we hope to
have enough bucks
to
get a Sony 24fps HDV camcorder.
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Becky
constructed
a light for the
close-ups. It's made of clamps, a
wooden dowel, gaffer's tape, an
old lampshade, with a china ball rice paper
casing. Debbie
named it "The Panty Light" because of the
lace that ran around the
bottom.
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Max
the Dog is a white Miniature
Schnauzer. Fergus the Dog is a wheat-colored
Cairn Terrier. Both
appear in the film with no formal acting
training. |
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The
first time the four partners of Dora
Mae Productions worked together in a
professional capacity was during
the 1988 workshop production of Debbie's
play The
Breezeway. Sam was 17; she ranprops.
Becky was
12. She ran
the refreshments at intermission. Her twin
sister Jeannine video-taped
the performance. |
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Sean
Madden (sound recordist) works as a
freelance camera and sound operator in New York
City. He met
Jeannine when they were both 14 working on the
stage crew at Fiorello
H. LaGuardia High School of Music
and
Art and Performing Arts.
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The
view
of the Empire State
building from the coat room is the actual view from
that window. |
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The
recipe for 'Goober' that the
character of Denise talks about was actually
invented by the actor's
real life father.
Click here for
the recipe.
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The
three love stories in the
film were adapted from three plays written by
Debbie Jones and Jeannine
Jones: My Type, The Wing Man and The Marlboro
Woman
were the
original titles.
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The
outdoor video journals that have the
characters of Jim and Denise addressing the camera
were originally
filmed with doubles of the characters standing in
the background. It
was too artsy so we cut it.
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Vesper
Stamper
(singer,
composer "The
French Horn") has a band with her husband
Ben. She was an art
major at LaGuardia High School and shared a
lunch table just about
every day with Jeannine.
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The
snow shoot was truly a guerilla
shoot. It was shot during one of the
biggest blizzards in New
York City history. The shoot lasted from
9:30 PM until 4:00AM and
so did the blizzard. Samantha hooded the
camera with a black
umbrella so Becky could shoot without getting
the lens clogged with
snow. Michael Birch(Jim) and Andrea
Reese (Denise) kept
warm in between takes in the ATM lobby of
the Chase Bank. Fortunately, Michael
brought his ATM card.
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122
guests, not including the actors and
crew, attended the actual Christmas party we
filmed.
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45
guests didn't attend that
year. They were a little freaked out
with the whole
'documentary' thing. They came back full
force for the next
Christmas party. |
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The
"ledge shot" with the
character of Phyllis in the snow 15
floors up was filmed on the terrace
of our dear friends Anne and Jim
Perryman's Upper West Side
apartment. |
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The
shadow
of
snow falling when
Phyllis is seated on the ledge was a
digital effect created by Dean
O'Brien and composited in post. |
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The
"ledge" Phyllis sits on was actually
constructed by Jeannine using: a folding
table from Staples, Styrofoam
and paint from Pearl Art
Supply and burlap. She covered the
surface with Fleck
Stone and
fake snow. |
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When
Edwin was being filmed
peeking out from under the bed, Jeannine
(production designer) raised
the bed on 8-inch risers to get the
shot. After the 3rd take the
actor playing Edwin realized there was a
dog
under the bed with him. |
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Edwin
buys Phyllis a pack of
cigarettes called "Louisville
Lights." It's a fictional
brand that only exists in the movie. It
took 3 days and 80 tries to
come up with the name "Louisville
Lights." The packaging was
designed by Becky. |
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The
smokers sitting on the
back
stairs are not smoking. Those are
fake cigarettes. Spray
diffusion was added to the scene to give
the illusion of smoke hanging
in the air. |
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The
group scene where 6
characters discuss the rules of dating was
shot with three cameras and
5 different angles. Another round of
takes using 2 cameras
focused on the main characters (Sam and
Stan). |
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The
Midori Sour that the character Stan
(Chuck Bunting) drinks really did taste
awful. It was made out of
peppermint extract. |
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Dan
Grennes wrote the song 'Advantages'
specifically for the film. He is the lead
singer for the band Uncle
Pumpkin and plays bass guitar for Arlene's
World Famous Rock and Roll
Karaoke Band. |
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The
bar
scene shot at Blondie's involved
many, very accommodating friends, professionals,
and friends of friends
showing up at 7am dressed for a night out on the
town.
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The
actors that appear in the film
attended the actual party in character and in
costume. The scene
in the coat room where Phyllis is searching for a
cigarette was
improvised by the actor (Linda Larson). During the
party several
cameras caught romantic interplay between the
actors playing Samantha
and Stan - again, improvised. The Michael
Caine conversation was
an improvisation driven by the actor playing Stan
(Chuck
Bunting). The entire cast improvised their
characters' arrival at
the actual party.
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Matt
Hong plays in the reeds section of
David Berger and The Sultans of
Swing. His recording of "Silent
Night" on clarinet for the film is
lonely and moving. Asked by Debbie
to 'sound like' a street musician, his
saxophone recording of "O
Christmas Tree" adds realism and flavor
to the city scene. |
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During
the color correction process at
Digital Arts, our digital colorist, Tim
Stipan, casually mentioned
working on The Departed.
That's right - we shared our colorist with
Martin Scorsese! |
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More
than half of the camera and
lighting department (Matt Kulvicki,
Andreas Wagner, Andrew Brennan, and
Heather Brown) all went to Syracuse
University for Film with Becky. |
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Due
to
a mysterious dead pixel, we had
to re-shoot two scenes 9 months after
principal photography
wrapped. Michael Birch had lost
his original Monticello cap which
Debbie found online and Jeannine
artificially distressed. The two
actors involved (Michael Birch and
Andrea
Reese) came together
like no time had passed. They were
great. |
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The whole
process of making the film
took exactly 2 years and involved 156
people from start to finish. |
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Debbie
Jones directed her first
production when she was 5 years old out of her
friend Susan Peters'
garage in Pompton Plains, New Jersey.
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We met
Nina Schelich (costume
designer) while she was doing her day job
bartending at Blondie's. (the
bar we used for the end of the film)
She designed the wardrobes
for the 7 ensemble actors with a budget of
$600. We are lucky to have
worked with this talented designer. Visit
her website.
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The
food provided on the set was always
the same. Pasta salad, bread and
butter, and candy. |
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The
apartment Jenny leaves in the
opening scene is Samantha's apartment in
Washington Heights. They
were roommates at the time. |
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When
we
shot
Debbie walking the
dogs in the snow it was a few weeks after the party.
In the intervening
time, Max the Dog had gotten a haircut. To
preserve continuity,
we had to buy him a doggie coat to conceal his new
hairdo. |
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