Production
This film required different shots and different cameras to be used. A few steady cams were used to shoot the SQUID at work on those who were using it and Director Bigelow took as much time as possible to get the scenes perfectly shot. She also rehearsed the passages so everything could be conveyed to the viewer without any foul ups. The alternate reality parts took a year to devise, but came out well after filming and editing. In addition, the film marked the first teaming of both Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett. Fiennes made a U.S. film debut in this film: he spent most of his time before in British and European films, including Schindler's List. Now he got to do an American made film for the first time, which he enjoyed appearing in. It was a good opportunity for Angela Bassett as well: in an interview with Cinemax, she said that before this film, she was typecast as victims: inclusive on the list were playing Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It and Betty Shabazz in Malcolm X. Now as Mace, she got to do lots of things that she didn't do before, including swimming from a submerged car and beating up on thugs that attack Lenny in one scene. She liked casting against type, and this role would serve as a tribute to other Black actresses who played tough women on screen, including (in particular) '70s actress Pam Grier, who was in part the inspiration for Bassett's character Mace.
Bassett's quote 'Right here, right now' was used in the 1999 single 'Right Here, Right Now' by English DJ Fatboy Slim.
In order to get the large crowd scene around the Bonaventure hotel, the director hired rave promoter Philip Blaine to produce an event featuring Aphex Twin and Deee-Lite. The event was called Millennium (based on the films plot that it was a NYE party) and tickets were only $10 plus food and drink was free. The reported attendance was 14,000 people. The event went till 2am when the fire marshall called it off because there was several inches of confetti around the entire site and cigarette butts were starting to cause little fires. No one was hurt.
Read more about this topic: Strange Days (film)
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)
“... this dream that men shall cease to waste strength in competition and shall come to pool their powers of production is coming to pass all over the earth.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“Perestroika basically is creating material incentives for the individual. Some of the comrades deny that, but I can’t see it any other way. In that sense human nature kinda goes backwards. It’s a step backwards. You have to realize the people weren’t quite ready for a socialist production system.”
—Gus Hall (b. 1910)