The Director's Chair: Adam Shankman's Hairspray Diary #16

BroadwayWorld.com has an exclusive look into the making of the movie musical HAIRSPRAY with this special Director's Diary written by Adam Shankman. Check back daily for new entries!

RUN AND HEAR THE BELLS

Two numbers that are cracking me up are "I Can Hear the Bells" and "Run and Tell That," because they're literally taking three and a half months to shoot. The reason: location, location, location. Both songs actually shot their first shots on days one and two at the first school where you see the exterior because of the sunshine; and then our ending at Hamilton on the interior of the school, but they have little portions in the center. Tracy in the gymnasium, Seaweed in the bus - that's all green screen, and then both end in the interior of the Hamilton school. Right now I will list where each shot and "I Can Hear the Bells" was shot. 

The opening of "I Can Hear the Bells" was filmed on the last days of shooting in Hamilton - the teacher's lounge, then the nurse's office and the bathroom on the last day, and finally the gymnasium. That was a nightmare. The School was called Lord Lansdown, and it was a nightmare; every time that people ran or jumped on the floors, they shook and the cameras bounced. The gym was built on the second floor. I'm going to have to actually take the shake out in post-production. The interior of the car with Joey Pizzo, the driving instructor, was a shot we never actually thought we'd get. We did it at sunset outside of our soundstages mid-production. Tracy is in the window, Hamilton; this shot makes me laugh because poor Nikki had to stand in the freezing ran inside a lighted tent, but it was practically below zero as she sang to the boys combing their hair in the bathroom. They did a very funny outtake that I didn't expect, where all the boys got outside with her, and as she was singing, they all creeped up into the window and made out with her. I think some of the boys might have little crushes on Nikki. I love that curvaceous is killin.' The ending classroom sequence was also day two of shooting. Nikki's like a pro already; she's a machine. This may be the greatest casting find I'll ever know, not to mention that I adore her. I want to hug her, squeeze her, pop her head off, kiss it over and over, eat it like an apple then stick it back on her body.

"Run and Tell That:" The same thing; exterior of the school day two, where all the detention kids burst through the doors and dance.  Then day three, little Inez at the exterior of the bus. That horrible dirt sandpile that poor Elijah has to dance in is gonna bug the hell outta me; he has to clean up his pants every time he has to do the James Brown three-quarter split. Then, the opening of the scene was shot in Hamilton on the last two days of shooting. On the last day of shooting, the interior bus was shot three quarters of the way through production - all green screen. We did a cool thing where we carved a bus up the front and the back. Both pulled away and then the sides split apart. Everything is on giant wheels, so they just can kinda wheel in and wheel out as I need them to. The camera can basically go into any part of it. Nikki, Zac, and Amanda all sit on apple boxes in the back while Elijah and all the detention dancers dance their hearts out in the bus. This is really cool. It actually happens to be one of my favorite ideas besides Nikki singing "Without Love."  Anne Fletcher shot all of the second unit shots of the moving city. Thank God - she saved me from that incredibly boring task, just driving around the city shooting from the right side and the left side.  We can just lay the different parts of the city in later and the bus will look like its moving. Then the last part of it took place outside the exterior of what we're shooting as Maybelle's house; that was halfway through production. That was really irritating because people on the streets were taking pictures of us. Somebody even was shooting us from an upstairs window and got all the kids in their costumes. I guess I'm just not going to be able to stop that sort of thing when were shooting out in public. All in all, both numbers will have taken three and a half months to shoot. How ridiculous.

More tomorrow with entry #17...