Chase You Down Until You Love Me

Ten years ago I had a daily walk from a Hell's Kitchen apartment, to an Upper West Side bartending job.  By the time I hit 80th Street, I swear to God, I always ended up behind a quarreling Basinger and Alec Baldwin.  Their walking arguments were epic.  And yeah I was star struck.  And yeah I lowered the volume on my CD Walkman (represent) so I could eavesdrop.

But I never approached them.  Partly because I suspected the enraged Mr. Baldwin would punch me in the FACE.  And partly because I had learned the "code" - the understanding among New Yorkers that you don't go mental when you see a celebrity.  You give them room, you exhibit some discretion.  It's one of the reasons recognizable people choose to live, work and recreate in New York.  People don't go mental.

Based on our apparent interest in continuing to attract film-industry dollars to Grand Rapids, I think we might want to consider emulating this sort of discretion.  The Alec Baldwin example was sort of ridiculous, so let me be more specific: after working with several major film productions at Wealthy Theatre, I can attest to the frustrations expressed by the producers, and their anxieties about whether Grand Rapids can indeed cope with the understandable expectations of ongoing productions.

Film producers who work here - and the companies that green light and bankroll the productions - are expressing concerns about the frantic leaks regarding times and locations, and the resulting interference with shoots.  In many instances, the public has shown up onsite, at various shoot locations, in high numbers - after reading "scoops" about otherwise confidential details pertaining to the shoot.

Film producers have gotten heat from bosses in Los Angeles and New York.  Bad word of mouth seems inevitable.  It may be worth our time to consider: this pattern could inadvertently jeopardize future consideration of Grand Rapids as a location for major productions.

At the same time it is of course understandable that we get a bit mental, when we see famous people.  We are attracted to light.  Certainly, my first experience with the "code" of discretion... was a tough pill to swallow.  It was the 1990s.  I'd just moved to New York.  I was at a Tribeca pub with a new friend, and I noticed that Harvey Weinstein was seated two tables down from us.

I got up to... I don't know, introduce myself.  Say hello.

My friend grabbed my arm and said, "We don't do that." 

By "we" he meant New Yorkers.  Which made me... "they." 

A most damning reference.  I had no intention of remaining "they." 

In that moment, I sat down and reluctantly relinquished my ambitions of meeting Mr. Weinstein.  I accepted the code.  The Prime Directive.  I cozied up to the fact I'd never be able to initiate contact with the famous people I'd run into - for instance, the Sopranos cast members I would come to serve drinks to on a weekly basis, or Uma Thurman (long sigh) or Keith Richards.  All of these people were to become regular, to me.  Sure, it was contrived, and unnatural, to pretend they were just regular people.  But I had chosen to be "we."

Years later, in 2001, I departed NYC and moved to Grand Rapids.  On so many levels, this was the best decision we ever made.  A decade later, Grand Rapids has managed to become an emergent metro area and arts destination.  Honestly, I've found it more exciting to be part of this phase of emergence, rather than a cog in the wheel in an already-established metro area.  What is happening here is a rare moment in time.  Speaking from the viewpoint of an ad-hoc community of artists, it's like being on the frontier, defining your own destiny, with the opportunity to help shape something big.  It's the artist's version of the American dream: we're in on the ground floor of an expanding paradigm.  In this context, Grand Rapids is truly the land of opportunity.

At this moment, it's perhaps especially important to realize: we can learn a lot from the more established arts and culture destinations.  We have the advantage of seeing what works, and emulating those things.

The "code" might be the first opportunity to emulate something that works: Grand Rapids has a lot to gain on this point of "etiquette."  I'm not advocating for a code of discretion exclusively to enable egomaniacal actors to have epic arguments on city sidewalks.  And I'm certainly not one to claim there's anything inherently good about celebrities, nor would I argue that any able-bodied person deserves special treatment.  But this is about what we want.  We seem to want this new industry and - in the absence of competing options (i.e. manufacturing) - it's probably in our best interest to embrace what attracts and retains it. 

We all have something at stake here. 

At Wealthy Theatre, we've worked discreetly with several major film productions, primarily as a venue for screening dailies (in The Koning Micro-Cinema.)  I can tell you that our community's "zeal" with regard to stargazing... is a liability for us, and it's on their radar.  The time is now if we're going to choose to make the leap to a more evolved, more mature way of dealing with the productions.   We need to become more nonchalant, more relaxed, and less of what Lady Gaga parodied in the song "Paparazzi."

And again, you can hardly blame us for being excited.  When the state announced the film incentives, and the city smartly jumped on this opportunity... nobody gave us a template for "how to act."  But what we can say for sure, based on the legitimate expectations of any industry, is that we have to give them room to move.  If we do not acquire some sense of etiquette, I fear we risk being blacklisted as a prospective destination for future film productions.

When I served a Heineken to Keith Richards in the late 1990s, at an East Village bar, I hadn't ever listened to the Stones classic, "Star Star," but I should have.  Resisting the temptation to chat with Mr. Richards was a challenge.  You naturally want to thank an artist like that, for their body of work - and of course to ask about the full blood transfusion in Canada.  But... it comes back to the code.  Because I adhered to it, he drank another Heineken after that.  Smoked a cigarette.  He felt comfortable, and I got a phenomenal tip.  Win-win.

Based on my conversations with the producers who've done shoots or screened dailies at Wealthy Theatre, the issue (as they perceive it) comes in two parts: media and public.  In that order.  They have been surprised by (their words) the extraordinary amount of persistence exhibited by our local media personalities, and the subsequent interference during shoots. 

It's worth pointing out: it's difficult these days to say "who is media," because social networking has changed the landscape in ways we're only beginning to come to terms with.  The rules that journalists always adhered to… have been loosened, or even abandoned.  We're perhaps now rediscovering how valuable those rules were. 

So when one refers to "media," and "distribution," this now includes individuals outlets that have no conventions.  Ironically, by writing and publishing this article, I am part of the same dilated category that I profess puzzles me.  I mean, look, I'm ending sentences with prepositions as if it kept my teeth white.  There are no rules anymore.

So maybe that's a part of the problem.  Film productions in Grand Rapids are the ongoing focus of unsourced rumors dispensed like fact, issued without regard for consequence.  And the public becomes the unwitting "second wave" of leaked information, responding by appearing in high numbers at the leaked locations, and potentially hazarding our prospects with an otherwise promising new industry.

It's important to consider the extra-local side of this: many hired crew are Grand Rapids film and video professionals whose livelihood partly depends on these production opportunities.  And of course, we all benefit, as a community, from the fees paid to the city.  We also benefit from the taxable income, and the ancillary revenues that flow through restaurants, hotels, stores and other retail/service industries that serve the productions as a whole. 

I think we all might agree there is are benefits (to this emerging industry.)  And if we are to capitalize on it, perhaps we might consider a conversation about discretion.  Perhaps the next thing we might emulate, in modeling best practices of more established metro areas, is a sense of composure - the "code" that enables the lucrative and beneficial film industry to work efficiently and productively.  An agreed "etiquette" that might contribute to the same effect here, in the city we love so well. 

For anyone working in any industry, it's the least you'd expect.