I've been making
films down in Asbury Park, New Jersey since I stepped
foot in film school. My first film was called
"The Last One" about a guy chasing his last
beer can. Believe it or not, it was
"inspired" by a Maya Deren film called "At
Land." She's a classic avant-garde filmmaker
that everyone attending film school has been exposed
to.  Anyway, from that film (in
1988) on I've always shot down there. It used to be
this great seaside resort town. Loads of wealthy
people would flock there to summer away from New York
City. But sometime in the, I guess, 70's the city
fell on hard times. The whole place became like
something of a ghost town. Few people go to the
beach there. All the rides that used to line the
boardwalk are long gown. It's depressing.
That's what lead me to decide to make a film about how it
is now compared to how it used to be. Little did I
know this adventure would take nearly 11 years to
complete. Mostly due to my laziness. As I
write this, I've actually just finished the film
today. Around 8pm to be precise. I think it
came out pretty good. I'm just glad to be
done. I always felt bad that I left it
incomplete. So, I've decided to kinda outline how
it took me so long to finish the film...enjoy. |
OCTOBER 24, 1991 - DECEMBER 16, 1991 What I originally planned to shoot for my film project this year at the School of Visual Arts was a short goofy little film called "Day Start." It was about a guy waking up late and rushing to get to work only to find the store is closed. It was just your typical cold water, no clean clothes, outta milk kinda thing. I really wasn't prepared to shoot it the weekend I came home with mounds of equipment I had taken out from school. On top of that - I had no crew. I was gonna shoot it all myself. Naive. I decided not too waste my time and took the 16mm camera I had down to Asbury to shoot some random footage. I had an idea about changing my film to a documentary on how Asbury has become a eyesore on the Jersey Coast. I shot 300 feet of film had it developed and printed at Duart. I sat down, went through my footage and realized this might work. In December I shot another 200 feet of film. |
JANUARY 28, 1992 - DECEMBER 1, 1992 After Xmas break
I got back to work. I scouted out the whole beach
front area. When I shot last year I just wandered
around and filmed whatever caught my eye. I was
planning on shooting a bunch more footage during Spring
Break so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't miss
anything. I needed to be organized. Various
people had swooped into Asbury in the past claiming that
they had the plan to turn the city around. The
latest entry was a group called Ocean Mile, Inc.
There big plan was to build a giant condo complex right
on Ocean Ave. Not a bad idea. But it didn't
pan out. Legal troubles like usual. But I
contacted them anyway and a guy there named Bill Poyton
agreed to let me inside the Convention Hall to
shoot. He basically gave me free reign - opened the
door and said, "lemme know when you're
done." It was cool, and kinda scary, being in
this giant building alone. Climbing the wooden
stairs backstage - I totally expected a ghost to jump
out. None did. So that week I shot all
around the Asbury coast. Shot 1400 feet of
film. Three minutes per 100 feet - you can do the
math. I didn't expect the film to be longer than 10
minutes or so. But there's so much to shoot down
there, it's hard not to go crazy... |
Amy (my girlfriend at the
time) - her dad grew up in Asbury. He even knew
Danny DeVito who's from there, too. He said his
brothers and him never liked DeVito much and used to
throw rocks at him. Anyway, he agreed to narrate
the film. Originally, I was gonna have a few
different people talk about the "old"
Asbury. But when I realized I was gonna have a 10
minute film it just seemed to make more sense to stick
with one voice that could become familiar threw the film
and maybe people could connect with. We sat down
one night and went through the whole area. Her
dad's a funny guy, very outgoing, etc. so he was the
perfect one to do it. It was cool just hearing him
talk about how great the place was back when he was a
kid. Made me feel a little cheated I never got to
enjoy it...