Friday, April 8, 2011

Robert De Niro Filming in Astoria

Walking to work today I noticed several hundred cones placed strategically down 30th Avenue and its side streets. When the orange man told me to “Stop” at an intersection, I looked over at a green slip of paper hanging on a nearby pole.

Ah ha. An explanation in 200 words or less.

The film, “Another Night” based on the book Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn was going to be shooting during the evening, starting around 6pm. IMDB summarizes the movie with this quote:

“During his twenties, a young man works at various homeless shelters in Boston, where he often intersects with his brilliant but troubled father (2011)."

"Another Night" in book form.

Later, when I was meeting up with my roommate after work at Mexi-Q (hello $3 happy hour) we stumbled upon the crew setting up outside of a bank. Some people had stopped to watch, but no actors were present nor had filming begun. An hour and a half later, another friend joined us and we decided to migrate to dinner - but by now the curiosity was killing me, so our group paused near the set.

“No flash please,” a man said. “You can use your camera, just no flash.” And then BAM. I looked up to see Robert De Niro RIGHT across the street. We excitedly attempted to take pictures with our cell phones.

“Quiet on the set!” someone shouted. "Whoa, they actually say that?" I mumbled.

“Action!” Ah! This was thrilling. What if I told security I needed to withdraw money. Would they let me into the bank? It was a thought...

Robert De Niro's character walks into the building while cameras film him from the outside. A woman walks by, a check is written, the cameras pan out…

“And cut!” This 30-second clip must have been shoot dozens of times, but it was hardly boring for the gathering audience. I called my mother, happily explaining my movie location.

"Oh his real friends call him Bobby!" she exclaimed, like they'd grown up together or something.

So if you were strolling down 30th Avenue on April 8th, 2011 you were privy to the likes of Robert De Niro (too many films to name), and Director Paul Weitz (About A Boy, American Pie). We didn’t specifically see Julianne Moore or Paul Dano, but they will also be starring in the 2012 film.

Don't miss these classic pics of Bobby D:

Here he is in "Once Upon A Time In America." Coincidentally, I watched this almost 4 hour film in Ireland.

More recently, De Niro in "Meet the Parents."


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9 comments:

Mom said...

Oh my gosh, I made it on The Why!!!!!. Sounds like you had a fun evening with Bobby D!!!!!

Kyle said...

Funny, read that book years ago, never thought they would make it a movie or have de niro in it =P

britney fitzgerald said...

kyle, was it good???

Hector Feliciano said...

Britney!!! I was talking to Dr. Waldron and i was telling her about all your stories and updating her on ur life and i just want to say you are making steps!!! way to go for you! I can't believe you met de niro! that is crazy! next time i know i would be reading your books and everything haaha congrats on the good news of getting that internship!!!

britney fitzgerald said...

ha! i hope one day you'll be reading my books! thanks hec :) hope your doing well... maybe random phone chat soon? jeesss

Mullin - Tiendas Muebles said...

Robert de Niro is probably Jack Nicholson and with the best actor alive today and, undoubtedly, one of the best actors in history.
However, the screening of his latest films serve us well to know the quality of cinema. And frankly, in recent work of De Niro only highlights his own interpretation.

Bernardo - Nutricionistas said...

The problem with De Niro is inherent in contemporary cinema: the films that are made with a few exceptions lately with scripts are lousy kindergarten, and of course, the papers give De Niro are in line with the overall quality

Rosa - Tiendas de animales said...

Today there is a great lack of good scripts in the world of the cinema, which does that big actors choose for very slightly elaborated papers.

Animaladas said...

Of Niro it has not lost endowments as actor, which has lost they are movies good where to act, lately they are almost all a few americanadas that do not cost for anything.