The inside of the Mall itself was filmed in The Stamford Towne Center in Stamford Connecticut. It is a 5 Level Mall. Also, the spiral ramp that Bette Midler and Woodie Alan run down was also in Stamford, but the exterior was not Stamford.
shareYes, two malls were used. Different exterior (in some parts), plus Stamford lacks a Food Court and theatre (although you can walk through Landmark to reach some Crown screens.
Can't recall if the other was in CA or the midwest, but a majority of the interior was STC. All I remember was traffic on the spirals and a mime getting cold-cocked.
The trivia for this film says:
"Most of the film's mall scenes were filmed at the Kaufman Astoria Studio sound stages in Queens, New York. The mall set was a huge two-story replica nearly a quarter mile long with over 150 fully stocked stores. Mall scenes with elevators and escalators were filmed at the Stamford Town Center in Stamford, Connecticut where shooting was conducted for around two weeks. Mall exteriors were filmed at the actual Beverly Center on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, the mall where most of the picture is set."
That can't be correct. There's no way they would do such a thing -- build a huge replica mall, with fully-stocked stores -- when filming at a real mall would be so much easier, in almost every way. Perhaps SOME filming was done on a sound stage, but not the majority of the film. And certainly not for the paltry budget listed here on IMDb: $3,000,000. That, too, must be incorrect. Perhaps more like $30,000,000.
Anybody have any additional information? Not that it matters really, since the film is actually pretty insignificant. The best part, everybody's favorite part, is when Woody punches out the mime. And that's a pretty obvious and hackneyed idea, as pleasing as it was to see.
here's an article talking about the movie (and yes they DID build a mall on a soundstage in New York because Woody Allen loathes shooting in LA)
[url]http://articles.latimes.com/1991-02-22/entertainment/ca-1827_1_paul-mazursky
I worked on the location shoot at the Stamford Town Center and it went on much longer than 2 weeks, it was 2 or 3 months during the summer of 1990. They then did some shooting at Kaufman Astoria Studio but that was for mostly store/movie theater interiors. They shot background plates in Stamford the first few days of production there. All the stuff in the parking garage, escalators and most of the store exteriors was shot in Stamford. No they did not build a huge replica mall in the studio. It was supposed to all be the Beverly Center.
Jaybone you are absolutely correct as the film is incredibly insignificant. There were a lot of otherwise talented people who worked (and more than a few untalented and creepy industry types) on it and it was simply a paycheck. I have a number of stories about what went on behind the scenes (nothing earth shattering but certainly better than the actual story in the movie) but it was the first Hollywood film I worked on.
I was just looking up one of the crew members as I thought I saw his name in the credits of a recent show.
Thanks so much, propinquity4, for this very interesting information. I wish more people working in the movie industry would provide this kind of "behind the scenes" info and more. Perhaps they do in the general forums, but I'd love to hear about work on specific films.
I wouldn't have been interested in, or even known about, this movie at the time of its making or release, so I wasn't aware of any industry talk or "Entertainment Tonight"-type coverage. But now, posts like yours help to fill in the gaps of my knowledge of films and filmmaking, Hollywood (or American) films in particular. "Scenes" was not a great movie, but as you say, the talent involved was impressive. I always wondered if the industry was sometimes simply making "paycheck" films, as you mention. I'd be happy to listen to (read) any of your stories. Until then, thanks again.
Sorry for taking quite a bit of time to respond here. Lots of unnecessary drama in my life.
Anyway, I have suggestions for you as you seem to like the behind the scenes type of information. I would recommend; 1)HEARTS OF DARKNESS, the documentary of the making of APOCALYPSE NOW. 2)Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (I think this is still on Netflix) and the special DVD edition of BLADE RUNNER (there are many versions but the one I'm referring to includes the theatrical release, the workprint version and the "official directors cut" as well as enough out takes to make a 4th version, story boards, audition footage, very immersive "making of" footage-it's nuts. It's like 12+ hours of extra material but I would say it's the best behind the scenes material I've ever seen on a dvd set. It will take you 2-5 days to watch it all.)
A lot of the time people will not openly speak of most of this stuff as it's not politically wise to do so if you want to keep working and there are a lot of people who won't talk about it to make the work more unapproachable (as in making it seem harder to do that it is; it's a competition for work sort of thing that some people take very seriously).
I do have stories but I feel a little iffy about putting some of them on an open forum but I certainly have no problem talking about the technical aspects of film making or the films I worked on, such as they are (I worked on a number of crap movies and nothing I feel proud of being a part).
Hope you are well. Cheers!