Stars on Castro

I finally got to see some of the shooting of Milk tonight. They were shooting a scene in which a riot breaks out when the police try to clear the sidewalk in front of a gay bar. Milk's boyfriend, played by James Franco, runs across the street from the Castro Theatre and joins in the brawl. Then Milk (Sean Penn) goes over to help him.

We saw four takes, with at least a five-minute break between each one. The riot escalated so quickly that it felt very dynamic. Each time, the actors pretending to brawl were so involved in it and so noisy that a crewmember (the assistant director?) had to barrel in there and yell "Cut!" several times on a bullhorn. One take ended before the main characters even sprung into action. I think someone missed a mark on that one because a cop character was going back and forth between two cars like he didn't know where he was supposed to be.

Ironically, before each shot they had to clear the sidewalk of real-life pedestrians so they could film a scene of police clearing the sidewalk. While the event was apparently meant to represent an incident that occurred more than 30 years ago on that very sidewalk.

Meanwhile, the bar stayed open for regular business, as did the Thai restaurant upstairs, which has hosted its own movie royalty.

So we saw Sean Penn and James Franco, Penn looking like a young Bruce Springsteen in his scraggly beard and ponytail, and saw Gus Van Sant close up. But if Emile Hirsch was in there, I couldn't find him. Maybe next time.