Yesterday, I was rocking out to a badass song on my iPod as I walked home from a club (ok, ok, I was listening to a lecture on my BlackBerry on the way home from the grocery store), when an attractive black guy in a bright yellow t-shirt said, "Excuse me, miss..." He had a businesslike air, so I didn't think it likely that he was going to flirt with me. But he didn't look like the kind of guy who'd ask me for a dollar either - he was both clean cut and, well, clean. Curious, I pulled out an ear bud. "You can't cross Amsterdam," he said, "they're shooting a movie." I glanced up and down the street and, sure enough, most auto traffic had come to a halt. He told me that I could wait a few minutes - the "rig" would be by shortly - or else walk two blocks down and cross there. Naturally, after a slightly guilty thought about the heat of the day and the container of yogurt in my shopping bag, I decided to stay and watch.
Turns out, this wasn't a very monumental decision, because the "shot" was over in literally seconds. I had scarcely found a spot to stand in the shade a few feet from the intersection when the traffic suddenly picked up and a truck with a camera, a huge reflector screen, several spotlights, and one of those big fuzzy mics protruding from it went by at about 35 MPH. Alongside the rig, was another truck hitched to a full-sized tricycle, and on the tricycle was an actress I didn't recognize. She was staring straight ahead as she "rode," illuminated with artificial lighting even more than anyone else on the street at noon, and yelling some line which I couldn't quite catch. And then they were gone.
The guy in the yellow shirt looked up and down the street so I did too, and I noticed for the first time several other people in yellow shirts stationed in various places along Amsterdam. All of them were good-looking. My guy muttered a few things into his headset, then said, "Cut," and motioned that I could be on my way. The movie, he told me as I was leaving, was going to be called "Premium Rush." I learned via a quick Internet search at home that the movie, which will come out in 2011, is "a fast-paced action story about a New York City bike messenger who is pursued by a dirty cop." It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, fresh from his work on "Inception" which recently rocked box offices. Alas, based on what I've read about the movie, he may be sinking back into mediocrity with this project. It's likely that the scene I saw filmed is likely to be the only part of this movie I'll see.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt working on another scene somewhere else in the city.
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