Site work is usually not considered one of the “creative” departments on a film. Of course, they work with the director and the production designer to find spaces that will work for specific scenes that cannot or should not be postponed on a set, but theirs is the Unsexy work of negotiating contracts with the owners, ensuring all necessary permits and managing the crew on the sites. Still, director Celine song credits a great deal of push-pull longing after her second function, ”Materialists“To that place works.
New York City is not the easiest place to shoot, but it was important to the song for the film to reflect reality in what it is like to live in New York. The apartments and streets where the characters fight and make up are characters in themselves. “Location management in this movie is a creative position. We talked quite creatively – my DP, my line producer, my production designer and my site manager – we all try to solve problems together,” Song told IndieWire on a section of filmmaker Toolit Podcast.
Location Manager Joe Mullaney and his team even helped lets realize something about the characters who were embedded in the script, but no one had completely formulated. “Joe was the first to notice – because he has to allow every time a character smokes – that Lucy (Dakota Johnson) never smokes with Harry (Pedro Pascal). She only smokes with John (Chris Evans). And of course eventually the actors also counted it, but Joe was the first,” said Song. “It’s a very specific perspective.”
The perspective was extremely important for “materialists”, which is so specific to New York and yet contains a much broader historical extent. It starts with and later checks in on a very early, prehistoric marriage, after all, and Song and Mullaney were happy to find a corner of Central Park where a bridge could recall the feeling of a cave and visually merge the two stories at the end. “It requires Joe’s lifetime, his entire career, to build confidence in New York City. He must have a good reputation for being someone who can trust to give you his space. So I trust his work so much before my movies, do you know?” Said song.
But something that permeates both song’s films, “materialists” and “past lives” is how to live in New York forces the characters to move through echoes from millions of other people’s lives. Visually, that feeling was something that no amount of B-role or establishing drone images could create. The characters must be in and in the city. It is part of the romance song wanted to create.
“Public spaces in New York are the most romantic places, because you know you are not the first couple who have an argument there. As, (on) every corner in New York City, someone has pee there, someone has slept there, someone has had a big argument there, and someone has kissed there,” said Song. “We shoot in New York City, which is expensive and difficult – just like living in New York City. But (it is) romantic and rewarding – just like New York City. We admitted a little, yes, if you do, you might as well do it.”
This meant going out on the streets and bend, especially in relation to John. His apartment is not exactly favorable for cordial conversations, but Lucy’s is not much better either. And the fact that they cannot be completely comfortable or private in the spaces they live changes how the characters move through the world and want each other.
“‘Materialists’ is about how cynics and romantics are in conversation, and in a bit of a tussle,” Song said. “New York City is exactly that. To live in New York City, you have to be a romantic because the quality of life is not high enough for anyone who is not romantic in any way … But on the other hand, part of surviving in New York City is that you must have a healthy dose of cynicism, too.
“Materialists” now play in theaters. To hear Celine Song’s Full interview, subscribe to Filmmaker tolkit podcast on AppleThe SpotifyOr your favorite podcast platform.
