Discuss all things Ghostbusters here, unless they would be better suited in one of the few forums below.
By choop
#4903328
Stumbled across this board and thought you folks might enjoy this story.

In 1983 I was a freshman film student at NYU, interested in cinematography. I was particular fascinated with the Steadicam, which at the time was a relatively new method of filming. I'd read articles but was desperate to see one in person. At the time the top operator in New York was a fellow named Ted Churchill, who ran ads for his services in American Cinematographer magazine.

After plucking up a LOT of courage, I cold-called him from my dorm one day. He was very gracious on the phone and invited me to visit him on set. Said he would be at the Public Library the following day and I was welcome to come visit, they had a 5 a.m. call that day. Needless to say, the next morning I was at the corner of 42nd and 5th at 4:45 a.m. promptly! Ted came out to greet me puffing on his signature pipe (he can be seen in the original making-of featurette running with camera past the army trucks at City Hall, with red cap and jacket...and pipe!). He took me inside where he was balancing the Panaglide (Panavision's version of the Steadicam) and for this wide-eyed 17 year old, I was in pure heaven taking in all of the gear and crew and excitement of a big feature set. Eventually we moved into the main reading room of the library, where I watched Ted shoot a scene with a few characters. I was at the back of the room so I couldn't recognize any of the actors, I remember the guy sitting cross legged under the table with the stethoscope (Harold Ramis of course) and thought that seemed a little silly! After a while, I got a little bold and went and sat at one of the empty tables in the scene. Ted spotted me as he walked past and said "just don't look at the camera". I kept my head down and complied. I was very excited for that scene to come up a year later when I first saw the movie, and perplexed that I didn't seem to be there. Called Ted and he told me that scene had later been re-shot. Obviously, I'm sad about that to this day!

At some point between takes I recognized Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd as they stood off to the side of the set. Being a fearless teen, I approached Murray and started up a conversation. He was tired, as one would expect at that early hour, and characteristically snarky, but he was accommodating enough to a young fan. My NYU roommate at the time was a huge fan of Stripes and I thought it would blow his mind if I came home with an autograph for him. "Would you mind signing something for my roommate?" I asked. "The old 'it's for the roommate' bit", Bill said to Aykroyd over his shoulder. "What would you do for your roommate? Would you take a bullet for him"? Without much of a pause, I went off on a paraphrase of dialogue from Stripes: "as a matter of fact, we were in Vietnam--I got shot up, he pulled me into a foxhole and patched me up..." I remember Aykroyd and Ramis cracking up that at this wiseass kid sparring with Murray, who cut me off with "alright--gimme that!" and grabbed the paper and pen out of my hand. Mission accomplished!

After the entrance to the reading room, the company moved to the side chamber where the interview with the librarian was shot. I was much closer to the action this time and I can remember Bill performing the legendary line "back off man--I'm a scientist" differently every take. Sometimes he shouted it, other times he whispered it. I work in TV and film production now, mostly in comedy, so the concept of "alts" is all too familiar, but at the time my incredibly limited experience had led me to think that actors were supposed to keep their performances consistent for editing purposes, so I found this very strange! (but of course--amazing to watch).

I left the set at lunch and floated back downtown on a cloud--it was the experience of a lifetime for me and as I later sat in a lecture hall as a professor droned on about the subtext in "Battleship Potemkin", the die had been cast that day--I quit film school at the end of that year, never to return, and began my now 35 year-long career in the industry.

I had kept in touch with my new cameraman friend Ted and after some pestering he invited me to return to Ghostbusters some weeks later when the company was at Spook Central on Central Park West. Coming around the corner of 66th street I immediately saw the huge chunks of asphalt perched at odd angles. Approaching from the side, they were all plywood and 2x4's and looked terribly fake (well, not a whole lot better in the movie!) and I couldn't see how anyone would be fooled into thinking that the street itself had been torn up vs these things just hunkered down on a pristine street. I watched them shoot shots of the crowd, a cluster of extras grouped onto the steps of the church (I remember the rabbis!) and the plate shot that was used for the marshmallow man stepping on the church. That was shot with the huge Vistavision camera, which impressed me, but again from my perspective the extras being cued to run past the camera cowering in fear looked terribly unconvincing! I also noted a huge construction crane with what looked like a massive cloth bag hanging underneath it, and asked Ted what that was for. "Well, a giant marshmallow man walks up from Columbus Circle and climbs the building; they blow him up and some poor guy gets covered with foam that's supposed to be marshmallow". I nodded, and thought to myself--how dumb IS this movie going to be? Thankfully I couldn't have been more wrong!

Even at 17 I had a pretty good sense of where to stand on a film set and not get in the way, yet I do remember being very close to the action a bunch of times, standing close enough to Ivan Reitman at times to hear his conversations with crew. I'm still amazed that no-one ever asked me what I was doing there. Probably assumed I was a PA or something.

The last shot I remember seeing was Bill and Sigourney climbing up on the chunks of road covered in foam and kissing as the crowd cheered. He kept saying things to her that made her laugh, which I assumed at the time was dialogue but I'm fairly sure now it was just him being him.

So those were my adventures on the set of Ghostbusters!
#4903449
I especially like the point-of-view in this story of wondering how dumb the movie is going to be, when hearing about giant marshmallow men walking down the street. It points up Reitman's "Domino Theory of Reality", that the audience needs to see things in their proper increments in order to accept them.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!

Alex
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By Dr.D
#4903452
Fantastic story. I'm working as a PA right now and can attest to being kind of ignored on-set as long as you're not in the way. But I can't even begin to imagine approaching any of the actors, let alone someone like Murray. Kudos, that's the kind of memory you hold onto forever.
#4905228
This story is fantastic! It must've been a lot of fun--thanks for sharing, choop! Right now I'm kind of at a crossroad trying to decide whether I want to study film production or English (or maybe something else entirely), but being on a film set seems like such a great experience. :)
#4905524
choop wrote: February 19th, 2018, 10:07 am The last shot I remember seeing was Bill and Sigourney climbing up on the chunks of road covered in foam and kissing as the crowd cheered. He kept saying things to her that made her laugh, which I assumed at the time was dialogue but I'm fairly sure now it was just him being him.
A couple of photos you might like...

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Alex
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