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I was driving through Center City Philadelphia when I saw a sign for "New Askew", and immediately knew I was close. They
were shooting some shots inside the Hard Rock Cafe for the movie. Naturally, all signs that this was Philadelphia (such as
SEPTA, which is the transit line) were cleverly covered by fake newsstands and such. We were able to stand by the final
set of windows, which were kept uncovered for lighting purposes, and see both Ben and Jason Biggs sitting at a table with a
blue tablecloth shooting a scene. Ben was wearing a leather jacket and Biggs a suit (it made him look kind of dorky, but
it seems like most formal outfits do, judging by his other movies). They hug at one point in the scene, and were shooting
it and other scenes inside the restaurant for quite awhile.
Later on that evening, Kevin came out through the back while I was still in the front. I was told by others who had been there awhile that he was really nice to them. I got a number of tips on a nighttime shoot from the crew, and one turned out to be true, as they were shooting a scene in a parking garage at 11th and Filbert. (If any of you Philly-askewers would like to check it out, it has a HUGE red neon sign for parking; strangely I'd never noticed it before, and it made me wonder if it had been put up just for the shot. Either way, it was perfect for the movie). This time, the shots were outdoors on the second deck. Ben came to the railing to look out on the small crowd (about 10 people) from time to time; prior to my arriving I was told him and Jason asked some of the crowd where the hot places were in Phila to go out. A number of times we heard the traditional "rolling, quiet on the set" as the scene took place on the second floor. There may have been some shots in an apartment above Jefferson hospital across the street as well. After the shoot wrapped, Kevin came down wearing a baseball jersey with "21" on the back, and he and Ben left in seperate vans. Kev gave a nice wave to us there on the corner. While I was disappointed to have missed out on the few actual interactions with the cast that appeared to have taken place, I was still left very excited that I got to witness a work in progress of a really great director and guy in general. There were enough other distractions (a stripper was giving out flyers to people, and she was getting really disappointed when people wouldn't take them-maybe not the right profession for her) to keep me interested during the wait time. If any of you have a chance to check out the production and don't might waiting a little, I think you should.
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