Brooklyn's Finest: Shooting In The Projects

11 June 2010

Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn's Finest sees Antoine Faque return to the cop genre of film, how could we forget Trainng Day back in 2001?

But the director wnated authenticity to his movie so took the production, as well as it's high profile cast, to shoot in the projects.

The film’s story is set in the East Brooklyn Housing Projects (the ‘BK Projects’) where Michael Martin grew up. His grandmother lives just two subway stops away from where the crew set up filming. It was the world that inspired him to write the film.

"You grow up in New York and you work at a place like the M.T.A., you come across a lot of personalities. You get a good understanding of people and their differences and the conflicts they have with each other, their perspectives on life, religion and politics. It all kind of melts together."

The time and place was something producer John Langley responded to in the screenplay. "Michael captures something screenwriters in Hollywood aren’t necessarily going to capture: the smell, the taste, the feel, the reality, the sensibility, the environment - all of these things - and the layers you don’t normally get from people sitting around writing scripts."

Filming took place over 5 weeks from May 15th to July 14th 2008. Most of the filming took place in and around East Brooklyn, in Brownsville’s Van Dyke housing projects, made up of 23 buildings all within a few blocks of each other, squeezed between other public housing complexes.

The crime rate is high within Brownsville and like many of the neighboring communities, can be dangerous. Initially the filmmakers were warned of the risks of filming there and advised not to shoot there. City officials warned that crew members could be assaulted and that they would be unwelcome.

"The police officers didn’t want me to be there, they told us it was a very violent and corrupt area," recalls Fuqua but he insisted the film couldn’t be shot anywhere else.

"I wanted to put it in the ‘hood and make it as real and gritty as I could," he said. "It’s most important when making a movie to film in the locations where the writer set the story. As a director, I need to be as close to that world as possible; I need to be in the jungle, feel it and smell it, and make sure the actors feel the same way."

As a result, out of a 41-day shoot, only one day was spent on the stage and the rest were spent in real locations which capture the grit and authenticity of the story.

Once filming began, any fears whether the crew would be welcome quickly dissipated. The locals were genuinely excited to have the film crew in their neighborhood and Fuqua and the producers insisted that some of the locals were given roles as extras and were also part of the crew.

Before the end of the shoot, Fuqua donated $100,000 of professional equipment to four teenagers he selected for a filmmaking project he created to thank the community.

"It was a great opportunity to go into the community, meet with the kids, give them cameras and have them learn about filmmaking and the arts, for them to see a positive thing happening in their community."

A non-profit organization has been set up called Fuqua Film Program, which will allow this same opportunity to four students each year.

Producer John Thompson says, "You hear all kind of stories about how dangerous The Projects are going to be, how dangerous Brownsville is going to be, and at the end of the day they were totally receptive and hospitable.

"I think the making of the film was a big event in their neighborhood and that’s how they looked at it. We hired local kids from The Projects in every department and ended up with five or six actors with dialogue which we upgraded to SAG status, so they actually had key roles in the movie."

Ethan Hawke recalls that the director pushed for the same degree of authenticity on Training Day. "People were telling Antoine it was stupid to be filming in South Central but he had this very strong instinct that if the place was real we would tell the story correctly, and he’s done the same thing on this film. It has a huge impact on the actors and on the film itself."

Richard Gere agrees that working in The Projects had an impact on the filmmaking. "Antoine can exist in many worlds. He’s very hip-hop when he’s in The Projects. The way he and his crew interfaced with the locals makes it much more authentic; in particular, casting the locals in the film and bringing in people who knew the subtleties of that world."

Fuqua mainly collaborated with a new filmmaking team on the making of Brooklyn’s Finest, to put his vision on the screen. Oliver Stone recommended Patrick Murguia, a young cinematographer from Mexico City to photograph the film.

With only 41 days to make the movie there wasn’t much room for error, Thompson notes, "Together, Antoine and Patrick created every shot to be a visual narrative".

Fuqua had always admired David Mamet’s style, and brought in his editor, Barbara Tulliver, to cut the film. Brazilian pianist and composer, Marcelo Zarvos was brought in to score the film. With a classical background, he studied at the Berklee College of Music and film scores include Kissing Jessica Stein, The Door in the Floor and Boynton Beach Club.

On reuniting with Fuqua, Hawke says, "The experience of working with Antoine and picking up where we left off is invaluable for me. His enthusiasm and passion is contagious. Antoine is an even better director today than he was on Training Day.

As part of Hawke’s research for his role he spent a lot of time with the Patterson Police Force in New Jersey. ""It’s a very hot precinct and I spent a lot of time with guys who do that job and work that beat.

"I saw the pressures they are under, how they work and how little money they make, so you really get a sense of that world and what they are up against."

"We were given access to an awful lot," he continues, "including a lot of arrests, and you realise time and time again that the enemy is poverty and that people who are desperate do desperate things."

Hawke appreciated his time working in The Projects and telling a story that doesn’t often get told about some places in America. "There’s a lot of poverty in this country and a lot of people who are struggling to find an opportunity and be part of that dream; that’s who these people represent."

On working with Fuqua, Richard Gere says, "Filming is always a voyage of discovery. You can’t know exactly what it’s going to be when you walk in. Other possibilities present themselves and emotions are mercurial, and they come in unforeseen ways. You just take advantage of what happens in the moment."

Gere prefers to work with a director who doesn’t have everything mapped out and leaves room for such possibilities. "Antoine is very open to that and I like to work that way, so we had a lot of fun".

Cheadle agrees, adding "Antoine is definitely not afraid to be collaborative, which means you don’t have to force yourself into someone else’s vision without having some latitude and bringing something of yourself to the film and the ability to flesh out your character.

During the six-week shoot, none of the three leads actually worked together, apart from one scene where they walked past each other in a single shot. Each of the characters lives separate lives on separate tracks and only converge at the end of the film.

Each of the stories was shot separately in their own blocks of time, which meant the cast were only on set for five to seven days at a time. This enabled Fuqua to spend periods of time focused on each actor’s character and story.