Below you can read our interview with Robert Golba and Alex Stern - the president of the company producing the film in Poland about how film producers try to minimise and recompense inconveniences related to the shooting of ‘Wroclaw’ scenes for Steven Spielberg’s film "St. James Place" to inhabitants of buildings located in the direct neighbourhood of the film set.
www.wroclaw.pl: Before the shooting for Steven Spielberg's new film began, you had to examine and prepare the ground that is, after all, inhabited mainly by private persons. How did you get in touch with them?
Robert Golba: - At the beginning, I'd like to point out that what makes us different from other film productions and what we tried to ensure in the first place, was to establish co-operation with local inhabitants so as to respond to their remarks and needs on a running basis. When Steven Spielberg made a decision to shoot the film in this part of Wroclaw, we decided to put 'dedicated' persons responsible only for contact with inhabitants in two locations where the shooting is performed – at ul. Ptasia and at ul. Kurkowa. Łukasz Stępień and Łukasz Zięba – their only task is to keep in touch with inhabitants. Two months before the first board in the film set, they visited every inhabitant of tenement houses neighbouring on the film set and told them what we were going to do, gave their mobile phone numbers and posted messages for inhabitants. We tried to update them every week. I think that we had a very reliable and responsible approach to the inhabitants, who could express their doubts related to the presence of filmmakers via both contact persons, and they can do it not only now, but also when the foreign filmmakers leave Wroclaw. I think that we exercised maximum care and showed much humility to meet the requirements of the city authorities and the expectations of inhabitants, to whom we are also very grateful for their understanding.
You signed agreements with the inhabitants whose windows face the film set, which contain both your wishes and financial commitments. What does this mean in practice?
- If we paint windows in someone's flat, we recompense the owner for this with the amount X, if we remove an antenna, we pay the amount X, and when we ‘put’ an 'extra' into a flat, we do it for the amount X – and so on.
It is not surprising that a production such as Spielberg's film may involve some metamorphoses and damages. How are you prepared for this?
- Yes, this is very important. In our budget we have set aside some money for ‘restorations’. This means that we leave the location in the same – or even better – condition as at the beginning of work.
Can you give us any examples?
- For example, one of the tenement houses whose facade was refurbished and painted three years ago. Now we had to contaminate it with the so-called paint dust, because this house looked simply too nice for our needs (laughs). But when the shooting ends, the same company that restored this building three years ago will repaint it. This means that inhabitants will have a brand new house again – and under a new guarantee.
How soon will this renovation take place?
- According to the contract, the team can start work immediately after the end of the shooting - even on the 25th of November, of course if the weather is good enough and the temperature does not fall below zero. We make every effort not to spoil our work, but when the weather is bad, this risk is substantially higher. After all, it's not a big deal to repaint something and have such works accepted, when the paint starts to come off after one year because it was used during frosts.
What complaints have you already received?
- When painting a staircase, we forgot to post a notice about it for inhabitants and, unfortunately, one lady’s jacket was contaminated with wet paint. We immediately took the clothes to the laundry, stressing that if contaminations are impossible to remove, we will simply buy a new jacket for that lady. We also took one car to a car wash after the paint dust had fallen down on it during the 'contamination' of the tenement house at ul. Ptasia. As you can see, we respond to various 'accidents' on a running basis, even if they are minor. What’s more, we - the Polish producers - stay here after the shooting, and you don’t have to be afraid that the foreign filmmakers with Mr Spielberg suddenly leave Wroclaw with a feeling of satisfaction and the inhabitants are left alone with some problem.
Are you afraid that some people may abuse the situation and, for example, take an opportunity to have their flat repainted for free?
- We are afraid a little bit, but we rely on good intentions of the inhabitants. I assure that we get on really well with them and I hope that this will never change.
And have you already experienced any serious damage around your plan?
- Well, that happened just a ‘moment ago’. One of the tanks standing at ul. Miernicza entered the pavement and destroyed it while taking a turn. We certainly have to repair this. When the Americans move away, we'll do a round-up of all places, which I’ve already arranged with the local decoration construction manager for Sunday the 23rd of November. We'll draw up a list and cost-estimate of all damages and repair them.
You told us about good neighbour relations with inhabitants of local houses, but we've heard that some flowerpots were thrown out of the windows straight onto the film set?
- Indeed, this happened during the preparatory period. Fortunately, there was no such accident during the shooting and we hope that this will never repeat. We'd like to survive till the end without obstacles and without prolonging work unnecessarily - after all, this is also in the interest of inhabitants, who hope that the filmmakers will 'evacuate' as quickly as possible.
Merchants from the market at ul. Ptasia also seem to be waiting for this moment impatiently, because we’ve heard that you disturb their work very much. What does this look like from your perspective?
‘Here I’d like to explain that when Spielberg made the decision to locate the film set in Wroclaw, the construction works that are being performed near the market at Ptasia had not started yet. The film managers watched that place and found out that merchants could trade freely on the other side of the street. However, this other side does no longer 'exist' because it was taken over by the construction of a building that started shortly before our works. But we signed a relevant agreement, which is also a shooting permission. Please note, however, that we haven't closed anything near the market yet. There is only one day when we restrict the very broad access to the street. And, apart from that, you can arrive, drive off, go in or do the shopping. Even though we obtained permission to close ul. Ptasia right near Pomorska, we did not do this, as we thought this problem might be too big for merchants and buyers.
Let's suppose that someone got into their car parked in front of the house and drove off to work, and in the afternoon they couldn’t return to the same place because the street had been closed for the needs of filmmakers. Did that happen?
- No, there is no such possibility. According to the law, a prohibition sign has to be posted five days earlier. Besides, we planned to close the streets in eight phases and maps with relevant pictures are posted for the attention of inhabitants.
Some people may think that we came to the city office with a huge foreign production, announced that we expected streets to be closed for this reason and immediately got all approvals, but that’s not true. Actually, the first thing we heard from the city authorities was the question how inhabitants were supposed to live in such circumstances and how this could make their life more difficult. Nobody promised us anything without verification, although we could predict that the city would bear the brunt of the inhabitants’ annoyance because of their time-related discomfort, anyway. In our opinion, the city tries to respond optimally to expectations of both parties: filmmakers and inhabitants.
Thank you.
photo: Tomasz Walków, Janusz Krzeszowski
