What precautions should a director take when he wants to film in a red light district?
In 1994, John McTiernan filmed Die Hard 3 , the third part of the adventures of John McClane. One of the film's notable sequences shows Bruce Willis as a sandwich man in a Harlem neighborhood.
The message “I hate niggers” is written on his chest at the request of a terrorist who wants revenge on him.
This apparently simple sequence to shoot was, however, very complicated to put together.
When we use a word like "nigger" in the United States, it's potentially a door open to a lot of trouble.
To avoid offending the residents of the Harlem neighborhood (overwhelmingly black) where this sequence was filmed, John McTiernan had Bruce Willis carry a blank sign, with markers to allow the "correct" text to be added in post. -production.
However, while the word “nigger” could be shown in cinema in the USA, it was not possible to do the same on television. Consequently, in order for the film to be watchable on American channels, it was also necessary to shoot this same sequence with another sign, including a boilerplate text: “I hate every body”.
Certainly, it loses a lot of its strength, but at least it allows television broadcasting.
Now there remains the question that the most perceptive will not have failed to ask themselves…
Why did you shoot the scene with a blank sign then with a sign with the message “I hate everybody”?
Why not film only the sequence with the blank sign and add the two different texts in post-production as needed?
Isn't it easier to change the text in post-production than to do the scene twice with the actors and two different signs?
Answer: in 1994, when the film was shot, the fact of inserting a simple text on a sign by computer was more expensive than redoing the scene with the actors!
Posted Sep 1, 2023, 4:26 PM UTC