On-set Visit to The Cradle at Celebration Hotel
(released
7/20/2008)
By Douglas Lorah
The New York Film Academy takes up an entire building in Manhattan across from Union Square. Banners drape the sidewalk while students litter the sidestreet with cigarette butts. Definitely a full time film school... kinda sounds like Full Sail.
They also have a summer program at Disney Hollywood Studios. This program is for high school students or pre-college as their website states. There was definitely much less smoking going on.
When we checked out the set of The Cradle on July 9th, these young filmmakers-to-be took over the Celebration Hotel and used up much if not all of the meeting rooms for rehearsal, prep, and shooting of their short films.
The Cradle is the brainchild of Philip Pape. He and his production team converted one of the small meeting rooms into an interrogation room for his film. Each of the NYFA student filmmakers writes and directs their own film. For The Cradle, Phil was not only writer and director, but also an actor alongside a couple of local Orlando actors.
Everyone there was having a lot of fun while learning their new found craft. They were shooting with a Panasonic DVX-100, which seems to be the de facto camera of choice among indie shooters over the past couple years. The instructors moved around from one room to another giving assistance and offering suggestions as did each of his fellow students.
Since the rooms had thin walls and the halls were full of other students and tourists, you can see the importance of sound proofing and having a controlled environment. Cacophany is usually not welcome by the sound recordist, unless of course you're going for the New York street life. Alas, it was a learning experience and that is what it was meant to be.
Photos from the interrogation room set of The Cradle.
Below are part 1 and 2 of their finished short The Cradle.
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