Producing : Filming BASEMENT – part 3, or Location, Location, Location by Robert Rosenbaum

The film BASEMENT is an adaptation of my play of the same name. The play was written to be performed in small theaters. In the original production, the entire theater was dress as the basement, putting the audience “in the basement” with the cast. I wanted the film to be immersive also. I needed it to feel claustrophobic and I wanted to see the ceiling right above the characters heads. As such, I chose to shoot in an actual basement.

At first I looked at a brownstone basement in Brooklyn. After much planing, there ended up being too many obstacles, literally as well as figuratively, to using the space. Size and prior usage were two contributing factors, and finally, Covid-19 again reared her ugly head, employing restrictions we would have never been able to navigate in a brownstone basement.

By the time Covid had come into play, we had a production designer and art director in place and they came through with the perfect location.

They found for us a couple of storefronts on Long Island that, ironically due to Covid-19, were vacant and available for short term rental. This location gave us several advantages. The footprint was slightly bigger than your average brownstone. It was empty and clean. It had the perfect street hatch that did not open to the street, giving us control of the light. And it had two exits to the outside, giving us excellent cross ventilation. This was no small thing. Our ventilation plan had to be illustrated in our Covid Production Protocol in order to get SAG approval. I also learned from crew that some had reservations about working on a film for two weeks in a basement. But most of the crew were not in the basement. The location came with the use of two storefronts above for staging, media village, hair and makeup and dressing rooms. The alley behind the building was also employed as the perfect place to setup seating for lunch (two to a six foot table, of course.) And being out of the crowded Brooklyn population zone during the most deadly pandemic in 100 years gave us, quite literally, a little breathing room.

It still had to look like a Brooklyn brownstone basement, and that transformation was handled expertly by our design team. From the painting of the walls, floor and plumbing to give the appearance of a musty, water stained underground vault to the dressing of just enough clutter to make it feel real.

Most film productions move from location to location. Even if they shoot in one building for an extended period they are usually moving from room to room. We shot in one room, 10 hours a day, for two weeks. The location we chose not only made the production possible, it made it safe and enjoyable.

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