For anyone curious to see how the mini-shoot went this past week:

Faster than expected, and with much better weather than we could have hoped for, we made it through our stadium mini-shoot. The footage we’ve gotten back from the lab so far looks amazing – the swooping shots that pan up and across the old stadium to the new, for example, make nearly getting killed by oncoming traffic while we held cars to drive our crane through totally worthwhile.

Now it’s back to the office for eight weeks of pre-production (and, in parallel, eight weeks of pre-production for the other film we’re shooting this fall) before heading back to the trenches to shoot, shoot, shoot.

Old stadium on left, new on right, 4 train heading downtown in the foreground.

Old stadium, interior. The seats are gone, chunks of wall are missing, and the field is an uneven, muddy mess.

Our director, cinematographer, first camera assistant and visual effects supervisor, checking out potential shots.

Me, coordinating crew and rocking the hard hat.

Moving the crane from the old stadium to the new.

Looking into the empty new stadium.

Watching the crane shot on monitors.