Hollywood comes knocking on Caroline Street

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Dan Conboy was on his way to work Wednesday morning
when he was confronted by a woman in the street who asked him, 'Would you like to
be in a movie?'

'The funny thing is, last Sunday there were people in my dining room shooting the film
'The Skeptic,' now today, this,' said Conboy, who had no idea when he pulled a tan jacket
over a blue button-down shirt Wednesday morning that he would be making his film debut
a few hours later.

A film called 'Aftermath' will have dozens of cast and crew members at work in locations throughout Saratoga County for the better part of the next four weeks.
On Wednesday morning, the lights, cameras and heavy cables were running up the hill on Caroline Street and focused on the exterior of the Saratoga City Tavern, where a man called 'Johnny Props' was dropping leaves from the tavern's second-floor window and watching them lazily fall around actor Anthony Michael Hall, who was being filmed in action on the sidewalk below.

'Scene apple 37. Take two,' announced one of the crew members.
That was followed by the repetitive mantra that carried through the daylong shoot:
'Rolling. Action. Cut. Check the gate. Rolling. Action. Cut.'

Filmmaking is a hurry up-and-wait kind of business, and a patient diligence paid to each scene.

Between shots, Hall talked about his enthusiasm for the project and his particular role since he first learned of it while filming his television series, 'The Dead Zone.'

'The heroic character is like one from the early Scorsese films, and this is being filmed in 16 mm, the way Stanley Kubrick used to make his movies,' said Hall, who was first noticed in film
when he was cast as Chevy Chase's son in the 1983 film, 'National Lampoon's Vacation.'

Hall's subsequent work included the popular 1980s' films 'Sixteen Candles'
and 'The Breakfast Club' as well as being a cast member of Saturday Night Live.
Hall's career has also included roles in 'Edward Scissorhands' and 'Six Degrees of Separation.'
In 2001, he starred as Whitey Ford in Billy Crystal's made-for-TV movie '61.' Last month,
he wrapped up the shooting season as Johnny Smith for the TV series 'The Dead Zone.'

'I'm a great fan of the 1970s films and the Tarantino films, and for this, they pulled in Chris Penn and Frank Whaley,' Hall said of his 'Aftermath' costars, who are veterans of the
Quentin Tarantino films 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction,' respectively.

Penn the brother of actor Sean and musician Michael and will play the role of the tough
and ill-tempered ex-con Tony Bricker.

The film's cast includes Elizabeth Rohm, cast in the role of Rebecca as the beautiful, strong-willed and pregnant fiancée of the boss. Rohm is best known known for her role as Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn in TV's 'Law & Order.'

Federico Castelluccio, who portrayed Furio on 'The Sopranos,' and Brooklyn-born actor and producer Tony Danza, who will be in the Spa City later this month to play his role as a gun-dealing, bad guy named King.

Hall plays the role of fictional New York state construction company boss Tom Fiorini.
Thomas Farone, a real-life local construction company boss, is the film's director.

'Tom's a film fanatic. He's a gifted guy who really takes command on the set,' Hall said.

'We have about 30 people in the cast and 35 in the crew,' said Sylvia Caminer, one of the film's producers. 'About a third of those are local people.'
Caminer was previously involved in the productions of 'The Deli,' a 1997 film featuring Ice-T, and the 2000 comedy-drama 'Blue Moon' and has worked on two television shows, 'Great Hotels' and 'Passport to Europe.'

Location manager Ray Simboli, a veteran of regionally shot movies 'Billy Bathgate' and
'The Age of Innocence,' helped scout locations for the film.

Around 125 nights in area hotel rooms have been rented in addition to the hiring of local caterers and the rental of vehicles and equipment.

'Aftermath' will continue shooting through the end of November at county locations
from Lake Desolation to Ballston Spa. The film is slated for completion in 2006.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
published in The Saratogian