BACK TO MANHATTAN

a cineMOOK film

Written, Directed & Edited by Rob Reilly

Producers Rob Reilly, Lou Farragher & Jerard Egan

Starring: Eddie Sicoli, Paul Dunleavy, Michael MacKewice, Lora Pfieffer

Co-Starring: Justin Allen, Steve Devito, Carly Robins, Ami Colon, Marion DeMartino

and Lou Farragher

FULL Cast & Crew Credits on IMDb

TRUE Guerrilla Filmmaking…Enjoy The Ride!

The very first thing we shot on this WILD RIDE was on July 4th, 2001. The very last thing we shot would be in September of 2003. With twenty-six principal shooting days in total and a whole bunch of pick-up days, this two-plus-year journey making this $18,000 feature film is one that none of us will ever forget. Armed with only a Canon XL1, a boom mic & mixer, and a Mustang convertible, we took on the streets, highways, and bridges of Manhattan and Queens, New York. The film would need to pause to deal with the evil and heartbreaking attacks on Sept 11th, only to have us regroup in January 2002 for 3 consecutive overnight weekends to pull off the bar scene, come back together to shoot throughout the summer of 2002, and finally wrap after a 3-day weekend in Sept of 2003. “Back To Manhattan” would finally be completed and make its Big Screen debut in November of 2003 to a SOLD OUT crowd on a Saturday night in Greenwich Village. And what a night it was! So here’s the wild story of how writer, director, and editor Rob Reilly and his band of mostly first-timers took on the HUSTLE, BUSTLE, and MAYHEM of The Greatest City in the World, NYC. Enjoy The Ride!

A LABOR OF LOVE

Shooting only on the weekends, because we all had full-time jobs, “Back To Manhattan” would have to withstand many obstacles throughout its 2+ year journey.

With permits for only 5 of the 26 principle shooting days, this ultra-low-budget indie was true guerrilla filmmaking and without a doubt, a labor of love!

The best description for making this film was "controlled mayhem". You just never knew what was coming on any given day in New York City, so all we could do was rehearse, prepare and brace for what was around every corner. It was, in a word...awesome! 

having a beer in a pub when jack and Karen walked up

I was still writing “Back To Manhattan” when I met Michael MacKewice and his then-girlfriend, Lora Pfieffer, in a pub one night. We all lived in the same town about 30 mins north of Manhattan. Mike and I got to talking and I told him what I was working on. He didn’t mention he was an actor, but the next thing I know he returned from his car and dropped two headshots for both himself and Lora on the bar. They were looking to break into acting and just had their headshots made. Mike’s brother Scotty was also at the pub that night. The four of us hung out, drank beers, and had a ton of laughs. I told Mike I’d be in touch and then we parted ways.

At the time I wasn’t even looking for actors since I was still writing my first film, so I pinned their headshots to a board by my computer and kept on writing. As I was creating the character JACK (based on a friend); a Mets fan from NJ who was a nice guy and could care less about HOW COOL his girlfriend/wife KAREN thinks NYC is, I kept looking at Mike’s headshot and the expression he had. The further I continued with the script the more this character JACK seemed to fit the headshot pinned to my board. About 3 months later, when the script was in pretty good shape (still no ending yet) I gave Mike a call. He said, “That’s really strange timing bro because we were literally just sitting here talking about whatever happened to the guy at the pub we gave our headshots to. And here you call.” I laughed and said, “That’s friggin wild! Well, I have some cool news. I’m still working on the script but it’s getting close and I based one of the lead characters on you.” Mike was pretty blown away. I said, “And Lora can play your girlfriend/wife if she’s interested.” I figured even if they had no experience acting they would be very natural together on screen. They were both super excited and off we went.

People have said to me, it’s never established if KAREN was JACK’S girlfriend or wife, but it says “Reilly’s” on the mailbox. BTW, it was never about my last name, it was about O’’Reilly’s Pub that I made Jack’s last name Reilly. But the funny thing is, that’s why Mike and I stopped in O’ Reillys the very first time when location scouting or shooting in Manhattan. They spelled “Reilly” the same way as mine and not “Riley”, so I said to Mike “We need to grab a beer there.” Everything for a reason, right?

Oh, and I did FIRE them weeks later for not being rehearsed and not taking this seriously. After I was assured it would not happen again, we all jumped in Mike’s Mustang convertible and began this crazy adventure together. Mike and I would become great friends during the making of this film and I’m now Godfather to his beautiful daughter Fallon.

The Very First Scene We Shot

The very first scene we shot for the film was JACK’S Daydream he has while sitting at the bar in O’Reilly’s Pub. After the bartender tells JACK “You could be a Met!”, JACK goes into this daydream of hitting the game-winning homerun as a Mets player. His daydream is then abruptly interrupted by FRANKIE & PAULIE…” looking for these two guys.”

I was still writing, rewriting, and tweaking the script at the time when I called Mike MacKewice and said “How would like to meet up and shoot a scene that I know will make it in the film?” Mike replied, “Where am I meeting you?” So on July 4th, 2001, in a park that overlooked the Hudson River, where people would gather to watch fireworks every year, “Back To Manhattan” would officially begin. The park had a fenced-off tennis court which was empty at the time so we decided to shoot in there while everyone watched the fireworks happening over the Hudson.

Mike, now dressed as a Mets Fan, would begin swinging the bat every time the fireworks would go off. After many takes, he was no doubt getting exhausted swinging over and over. The needed fuel and funny part would come from a bunch of Yankees fans in the park who picked up on what we were doing and then gathered outside of the surrounding fence and began chanting “Let’s Go Yankees” CLAP, CLAP….CLAP CLAP CLAP. And repeat. Not only did Mike and I think this was hilarious, but it gave Mike the needed energy to keep on swinging. BTW, Mike is a die-hard Yankees Fan (not a Mets Fan) so these were his boys. Of course, I didn’t care because I wasn’t recording audio, so chant away!

Later that summer I bought me, Mike and Lora tickets to a Mets game and brought a small camera into Shea Stadium to complete the daydream scene. The awesome couple sitting in front of KAREN (Lora Pfieffer) at the game were willing to be part of the fun.

Of course, you have your Mom get Mugged in your film!

One of the first scenes we shot in Manhattan was in front and next to The Late Show with David Letterman. I knew I needed permits for this scene just based on its location, that being the Mayor’s Office for Film, Theatre & Broadcasting where you receive your permits to shoot in NYC is NEXT to the Ed Sullivan Theater. But that’s also when I learned I only needed permits if we were putting a tripod on the sidewalk. Anything handheld does not require permits in NYC. So I purchased the insurance and got permits for four days of shooting at various locations already planned in the city.

Of course, if you’re making your first film you have to put your Mom in it, which is exactly what I did. And I wanted her to fight off a mugger. My BADASS Mom, Madeleine Reilly, may be very little, but she’s one of the toughest little women from the Bronx! My direction to her was “Mom, when STEVIE (Steve Devito) tries to grab your purse just fight back the way you would if it really happened.” Well, she NAILED IT in one take! Also in the scene with my Mom is my niece/goddaughter Kristie Lynn Avato, Jerry Egan’s stepdaughter Bobbileigh Doyle and her friend Dana Delnobile.

As we were shooting the scene where JACK (Michael Mackewice) drops the twenty-dollar bill and the wind takes it down the street, we were pulling the bill by a thin fishing line as JACK chases after it. On one take a woman walking by picks up the twenty, sticks it in her pocket, and keeps walking. Mike and some of the guys said, “Excuse me, that’s part of the film we’re making.” to which the woman replied, “I found it so it’s mine.” Then I chimed in and said, “If you look at the bill you’ll see a fishing line attached to it.” When she pulled out the twenty she was all embarrassed and started apologizing. I thought it was all really funny. I said, “No worries. Plus, all I had to do was pull the fishing line and I could have gotten the twenty back.” to which she laughed.

The girls certainly had a lot of FUN spraying STEVIE with the silly string. I believe this was also the first day working with Pedi-Cab driver Richard Warner, whose role in the film kept on increasing because I liked his character. At this point, I’m still re-writing the film and still don’t know the ending yet.

Off to the village

I knew about the West Fourth Street Courts, also known as "The Cage", and its amateur basketball tournament every year in Greenwich Village. It attracts a huge crowd and I wanted JACK to catch a game during his trip to Manhattan. So after we shot a scene in Washington Square Park that never made it in the film, we moved one block over to the West 4th Street Basketball Playoffs.

Throughout the film angels (perfect strangers) would appear and offer to help us. Washington Square Park and the basketball scene is when the first angel would appear. Ironically, we only know his name as Angel. His real name. He was watching us shoot in the park and eventually said “This looks really cool. Do you guys need any help?” Sure, come join the fun. He helped us by blocking traffic for the park scene, but then he was the savior when we went down the block to shoot the West 4th Street Playoffs. The battery belt I was wearing was quickly running down and I knew I didn’t have enough juice left to pull off the basketball scene. So I told everyone to hang tight and I took a walk and made a deal with the tattoo parlor across the street from the basketball game. The plan was to run 200ft of extension chord across 6th Ave so I could shoot the scene. Of course, it was crazy, but I didn’t know how else I could get power to the camera. Then Angel said he had a regular house outlet in the back of his truck we could plug into. SAVED! And on top of that, he said we could stand on the roof of his truck to get a better angle to shoot from. I was already starting to get the feeling that there was something higher at work going on here and that would continue throughout the making of this film.

The “FIRST” time we filmed Johnny and Stevie

Here are clips from the FIRST TIME we shot JOHNNY (Justin Allen) and STEVIE (Steve Devito) meeting up after they both attempted to mug people. This was sometime in late August 2001. Less than 2 weeks later, September 11th would put the film on hold.

When we re-grouped for the O’Reilly’s Pub scene in January 2002, Justin had grown his hair back for another role. So when we started filming back on the streets that summer we reshot the “Silly-String/Flour” scene. Of course, when you get a second chance you’re certainly going to make it better than the first, which we did. Because this scene was like a cartoon to me, with STEVIE covered in silly string and JOHNNY covered in flour, I found a great location with this colorful mural to add to the cartoon feel.

LOCATION SCOUTING AGAIN BEFORE THAT TRAGIC DAY

After that tragic day

The film was put on hold after Sept 11th as we all got involved with different charity organizations to help the victim’s families. I got involved with a charity event at Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn where all retired New York Boxers, including Iran Barkly & Gerry Cooney, were going to spar to raise money for the victim’s families. I named it “Counter-Punch” which boxing analyst Steve Farhood, who was putting the event together, loved as soon as I said it. Along with the advertising company I worked for, we designed the ring-side banners, posters, and flyers. We all just needed to do something to help.

As the heart-wrenching days turned to weeks, turned to months we were all just lost. But if anything good could possibly come out of something so evil and tragic, it was the spirit of New York City and the way everyone treated each other after that day. I will never forget how amazing people were to each other.

Finally, Mayor Rudy Giuliani told us all “No matter had difficult, we all had to go back to what we were doing before this tragic event. It was the only way to move forward.”

OK, we need to get back to the film and now we have a bigger purpose. Since we had to wait for the good weather to return in the spring/summer of 2002, the one scene we could shoot was the bar scene. Enter Owen O’Reilly and O’Reilly’s Pub.

Meeting Frankie and Paulie for the first time…

Considering this was a mega-low budget feature I did have 55-60 actors submit for the roles of FRANKIE & PAULIE, but I only ever met with these two guys. When I saw their headshots and then spoke to each of them on the phone, I KNEW!

Here is a pic from the first time meeting Eddie Sicoli and Paul Dunleavy in Bayonne, NJ in mid-December 2001. I had rented a conference room in a hotel for the three of us to do a table read of the dialogue and then walk through the bar scene.

After the table read, I acted out FRANKIE with Paul Dunleavy to give Eddie a good idea of where I was coming from with his character. I didn’t want him to be a tough guy, just the impression of a tough guy when needed. At the heart of it, these guys were my Ralph and Ed from “The Honeymooners”. PAULIE would drive FRANKIE up the wall but FRANKIE still loved him. Eddie and Paul would not only take the ball and run with it but by the end of the film, spike it in the endzone!

Now with the full cast in place, we were ready to start shooting at O’Reilly’s Pub in January 2002. It was the dead of winter and a snowstorm hit the first weekend of shooting. But you’d never know it by watching the film.

We were only able to start setting up once the bar closed and we had to be gone by 11 am that next morning for them to prep to open. The first weekend I arrived at around 9:45pm. I already knew we were in trouble. There were at least 35 people who had just come from an Irish wedding and they were singing and drinking at the top of their lungs. I knew this was not ending any time soon. That night we didn’t start setting up and blocking till after 3 am and didn’t get first shots until maybe 4:15 am.

The second weekend was a little better, but again first shots weren’t until 3 am. By the third weekend, I was massivly sick with the flu and knew we had to wrap this scene or I’d die! I wish I was kidding. So I paid Owen O'Reilly $1000 to shut the bar down two hours earlier and we finally wrapped the bar scene by noon that next day. Damn, that was not easy, but again, we were always able to laugh!

“I may not be Fred Flintstone…”

I worked backward to write the horse race/dream scene. I found a horse whose name I really liked then I wrote the scene with JOHNNY’S Leprechaun Dream. So as STEVIE would say…”You’re fucked up man.” I did try to reach out to the owner of the horse but to no avail.

And can you believe with ALL of that beer and alcohol, no one drank anything? If I recall, maybe two or three tap beers were poured for consumption with a cast member or two in the entire 3 weekends. Of course, they were “regular beers”. : )

And it’s easy to remember when we were shooting the last day of the bar scene at O’Reilly Pub because it was the AFC Playoffs that Saturday night between the Patriots and Raiders, better known as the Tom Brady “Tuck Rule Game”. We were all at the bar watching the game waiting for them to close the bar at 1 am so we could finally wrap this scene in our rearview mirror. - January 19, 2002

Once the bar scene was done, we were back on hold until the nice weather arrived again in May 2002. We would then shoot throughout the summer.

Miracle on 34th street or Hells gate Bridge. Same thing

The Opening Scene of the film was shot in Astoria Park, Queens with Hells Gate Bridge as its backdrop. I now know how every location scout feels in their desperate search to find the perfect location after searching for this one. I had the vision in my head and I knew I would find it eventually. I searched 4 Boros; Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Jersey City during my 10-day location scout vacation before Sept 11th. The day I found the location that was in my head was like that moment in “Miracle on 34th Street” when the little girl (Natalie Wood) sees the house and yells “Stop, Uncle Fred. Stop!”. I guess the cane leaning against the wall, in this case, was the Hell’s Gate Bridge backdrop because I went through HELL trying to find this location!

I’m sure the people on the street and in the park that day never saw a guy abruptly pull over, JUMP out of his car and be beyond thrilled to find a brick apartment complex, with an overflowing garbage can, across the street from a park. If they only knew the crazy journey it took to find this perfect location.

The day we actually shot the scene with JOHNNY & STEVIE ducking from FRANKIE and the two Jersey guys (Aaron Fiore & Jerry Deal) peeing in the park was around 14 hrs. It was fun but certainly not easy. A European soccer team that clearly had a huge following in the area had just won and people were driving around yelling in celebration and honking their car horns throughout the course of the day. But the greatest thing that came out of this day was, I figured out THE ENDING to the film.

At one point this little homemade kit car drove down the street. It was super tiny and very funny looking, but it worked. When Paul Dunleavy (PAULIE) saw it, he turned and said, “Hey Rob, wouldn’t it be funny if Frankie and Paulie drove off at the end of the film in that thing?” I saw it and started laughing and then it HIT ME! - After Frankie’s mother’s car is stolen by JOHNNY & STEVIE, Frankie and Paulie needed to drive off into the sunset in a Pedi-Cab to get back home to Queens. That’s it!

When we finally wrapped this scene and packed up the cars after a very long day, Jerry Egan (1st AD & Boom Operator) and I walked over to the bodega across the street and bought a couple of beers. One COLD BEER each (wrapped in paper bags) to celebrate the day! That’s when a rookie cop decided we needed a ticket for drinking in the park. Bag or not. Even his partner who had many years on the job apologized when his overzealous rookie partner walked away. But strangely enough, getting that ticket would lead Jerry and I to one of the funniest moments when we went to court a month later to pay it.

Enter “The Urinator”!!

Jerry and I need to go to court in Queens to pay for the tickets. No clue why we couldn’t just mail them in, but if we had mailed them in he and I would have never met “The Urinator”!

So once we get there and park in the back, we are now walking across the grass on the side of the courthouse when we both spot this guy taking a leak by the bushes right next to the courthouse. Really?? Even more crazy is, he’s like 10 feet from the sidewalk with tons of people walking by. He wasn’t some homeless-looking guy, in fact, he was dressed pretty decent, he just looked like he didn’t give a crap what he was doing, where he was doing it, or who was seeing him do it. Jerry and I were already laughing as we went into the courthouse.

Now we’re sitting in a packed courtroom waiting to be called. The judge calls a name and when we look over, here comes “The Urinator” walking proudly towards the front of the courtroom. He stopped where he needed to and waited as the judge looked up his offense. The judge then announces his name, to this day I wish I wrote down, then reads the date of the offense along with the reason he is in court that day. You guessed it. He was in court for Public Urination! Jerry and I look at each other and just start cracking up. You’re just not going to STOP “The Urinator”! Some things you just can’t make up.

So we paid for our tickets and left with a smile.

It’s Back To MANHATTAN, AGAIN

Summer 2002! We’re back. With hearts heavy and American Flags waving from our tripod, it was time to finish what we started. Not only for all of us but for a city we love dearly. So off we went.

But wait, this time Rob wants 5th Avenue for the ‘Argument Scene’ where many of the characters will come together. Of course, he wants 5th Ave! Who else would need 5th Ave for an $18,000 film? So he headed over to the Mayor's Office of Film, Theater & Broadcasting again armed with insurance for ONE DAY and hoped for the very best.

“After filling out the paperwork on a typewriter I waited for my name to be called. I finally sat down with this very nice woman who then proceeded to check her computer to see what was happening on 5th Ave on the ONE weekend I had requested. She first checked for any films shooting on 5th Ave that weekend. OK, NONE. We’re good. Next was any TV show shooting that weekend. Good again. OK, are there any photo shoots happening? So far we’re 3 for 3. Then comes the BIG TEST…Parades!! Huh?? Even as a New Yorker I didn’t know about some of the parades that happen down 5th Ave that are never televised. In fact, one time when we were shooting on 5th Ave the Hasidic Parade showed up almost out of nowhere. More about that in a second. After checking for parades the woman turned to me and said “I don’t know how you did it, Mr. Reilly, but you picked the ONE WEEKEND nothing is going on down 5th Ave…SO IT’S YOUR.” Wow!! The next thing she said was “Take this paperwork and go down the hall to talk to Officer so and so.” I said “OK, what’s that for?” to which she replied, “You have police traffic control for the day.” Are you’re f@cking kidding me!! Police traffic control on 5th Ave. for 12 hrs on an $18,000 film?? Let’s get this party started. I Love New York!! And that’s how we got 5th Avenue for “Back To Manhattan.”

Let the beautiful mayhem resume!

Shooting from Mike’s Mustang convertible or the back of Laura’s truck showing driving scenes of JACK & KAREN driving in from New Jersey and FRANKIE & PAULIE driving in from Queens to Manhattan, to an almost impossible scene in front of the New York Library, to the middle of Times Square, all while jumping in and out of Pedi-Cabs all over town.

Pics from the shoot…

“Keith, I had a camera and I forgot to take a picture” - Jack

The Keith Hernandez Look-a- Like

A lifelong Mets Fan, Keith Hernandez is my All Time Favorite Mets player. Of course, being from the Bronx I’ve heard it from my family of Yankees Fans my entire life.

I did reach out to the REAL Keith Hernandez to make a cameo. I knew it was a long shot, but why not ask? And I did get a first response. But when I followed up that it was an $18,000 budget I never heard another peep. Can’t blame him.

Now what? I need someone who looks like Keith and I mean really looks like him so JACK would think it’s him. Well, it was easier than I thought it would be. When I told best friend/first AD, Jerry Egan we needed a Keith look-a-like he responded with “My car insurance guy looks just like Keith Hernandez.” Really?? “Yep. In fact, he gets mistaken for him all of the time.” said Jerry. OK, I need to meet him.

So Jerry set it up where I would go to meet Ken McGlone at his insurance office. Now I’m sitting in the lobby waiting and I see someone coming down the stairs. As soon as he turned the corner, not only was it Ken, but it might as well have been Keith. Before I even said hello, I said, “Yep! You’re the guy. Please do this film!” He laughed and said, “Why not, I hear it every day anyway.”

We had our Keith Hernandez look-a-like.

When we were shooting the “Mustard Scene” with my cousin, “Big Lou” Lou Farragher, things didn’t go so smoothly. We were shooting across from Radio City on 6th Ave and if you know that area you know how CRAZY BUSY it is there.

The first thing that happened was, one of the actors didn’t show. OK, we need JACK to have two friends in this scene. Being a friendly, talkative person I made friends with this guy Kevin who was sitting on the wall having a bite with his Grandmother. We got to talking and I asked him if he wanted to do the scene with us. Hey said sure why not. He hung out and did the scene for almost 3hrs. There’s another ANGEL! In fact, the paper he wrote his name down got lost so he is credited in the film as “Jack’s Flashback Friend 2 - Kevin The Angel”.

Now come two mistakes. The first was, out of HABIT I bought spicy mustard instead of regular mustard. Not a good move if you’re throwing it on someone’s face. While filming Lou with the mustard on his face he said, “Did you happen to buy spicey mustard?” I said, “Yes, I did.” He responded with “It’s burning my face.“ Oh shit! So sorry, Lou.

The next mistake was, when we threw the mustard to hit Lou, half of it hit him exactly where we wanted and the other half flew over his head and hit the fruit stand guy next to the hotdog guy. The mustard hit him from the top of his pants and went right down to his sandals. He was NOT HAPPY! We didn’t have permits for this scene and the last thing we needed was for the cops to walk over and shut this down, especially because we were so close to finished at this point. But after apologizing many times, along with a whole bunch of $20 dollar bills, he calmed down and all was cool! He knew it was an accident.

Here’s when we finally wrapped that scene and me apologizing and shaking the fruit stand guy’s hand one last time.

The best advice I can give is…always be nice!

MORE OUTTAKES AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEOS

Starting Top Left - L to R

• Video 1: Rob directs Eddie and Paul on how to do the walk-by and return on 34th St..

• Video 2: Al Burgo finds Paulie and his new date inside the limo.

• Video 3: Nothing but traffic!

• Video 4: Al hits PLAY too soon. Love Will Keep us Together

• Video 5: Frankie and Paulie’s reaction to “It’s the cream she uses for her ass.”

• Video 6: Mic Mac at rehearsal.

• Video 7: Laura (Karen) on 5th ave.

• Video 8: Rob shooting Paulie and Al’s reaction to Frankie singing from inside the car.

• Video 9: Rob and Paul Dunleavy crack up during the gas station scene.

Here is the FULL performance of Frankie singing “Love Will Keep Us Together” performed by CHristopher Hoffee and Lisa Sanders. I thought Eddie Silcoli was BRILLIANT doing this scene! And once again, another “Happy Accident”. Eddie was staying at a hotel in the city for the 3-day weekend we were shooting additional Frankie and Paulie scenes for the film. He couldn’t control the room temperature and because it was SO COLD he lost his voice, which was absolutely PERFECT for this scene. It made it seem like he couldn’t sing. In reality Eddie is a musician and can sing, but the Film Gods were once again looking out for us!

More pics…

Thankfully The PEDICAB brOKE!

Everything happens for a reason! When we were preparing to shoot the final shot of the film where Frankie and Paulie ride off into the sunset, or in this case…Queens, the Pedicab snapped in half. Here’s footage of driver Eyzar Derrick, who is an actual Pedicab driver, trying to fix it. We ended up bailing on Eyzar and moving onto another street to shoot a different scene. The “Happy Accident” here, and there were many, was when I got home and saw the footage before the Pedicab snapped, I realized I couldn’t end this film shooting on a side street. If Frankie and Paulie were to ride off into the sunset from Manhattan to Queens we needed to shoot this on 5th Ave. Of course, we were out of permits, but what choice do we have? So we planned for the following weekend and hoped for the best.

Fast forward to the following weekend and here we are on 5th Ave. trying to get the final shot of the film. Well, at this point we’re working it out. We didn’t have permits and traffic could care less what we were up to. In fact, the cars driving by would wail on their horns and curse us out because not only did we take up one lane for the pedicab, we were also shooting them from a moving convertible riding alongside the Pedicab with a boom mic over their heads. It took us 3 TRIPS going 20+ blocks each trip to finally get clean dialogue and no sun blowing out the camera from the side streets. But of course, we pulled it off!

POST-PRODUCTION

“Back To Manhattan” wrapped filming at the end of the summer of 2002 and post-production began. While I dove into to editing the film, the sound engineer and one of my brothers-from-another, Chris Reed, ROCKED the audio mix! The work he did deserves an Oscar or at least an Independent Spirit Award for sound design.

Because we were dealing with massive background noise in Manhattan many of the actors came to New Jersey after shooting the film at Chris’s home studio and we did lots of ADR (additional dialogue recording) for their scenes. Chris and I also did sound effects and foley together. A couple of examples of some ADR or foley work were the SQUISH when the mustard hits Big Lou, which is Chris recording me squeezing liquid hand soap in my hands or the scene with Frankie and Paulie driving after they were chased by the dog and Frankie has a hole in his sock. All of their dialogue is re-recorded in the studio. I also recorded several minutes of the traffic while we drove in the car with FRANKIE & PAULIE so we could use that under the new dialogue. And finally, one of Christopher Hoffee’s songs is playing on the car radio. Then there was Mike MacKewice (JACK) running up and down Chris’s driveway yelling “It wasn’t my fault” while we recorded him with a boom.

Chris was truly my post-production partner-in-crime to pull off this film and there isn’t a film school out there that could teach you what I/we learned by making this film.

The First Cut of “Back To Manhattan”

HOBOKEN FILM FESTIVAL (April 2003)

After spending more than 6 months in post-production, we submitted to our first film festival. If I recall, we submitted a rough cut to meet the deadline, but we were accepted.

Come April 2003, a whole bunch of us from the film headed down to Hoboken, NJ to attend the 3-4 Day HOBOKEN FILM FESTIVAL. It was an awesome time! Actor Stephen Baldwin came to our screening, which was very cool, and what made it extra special for me was my Grandmother Ethel Grace and Aunt Cathy, both no longer with us, were also in attendance.

The Hoboken Film Festival had some great parties and many of the cast and crew attended. We also met some great new friends. Our group was a lot of fun and we had those parties filled with laughter!

During one of the parties, the directors of the festival introduced me to actor Federico Castelluccio (Furio from the Sopranos). The cool thing was, he would remember me because he and I had met the previous year at an HBO party. When I ran into Federico again on the night of the awards ceremony, I asked if he would come over to say hello to our cast and crew, which he did. We were all fans of the Sopranos and the cast and crew had a great time meeting him.

The Hoboken Film Festival Awards Ceremony was held inside the lobby of Hoboken Train Station which was closed to the public for that night. Along with several open bars, about 25 local restaurants had tables set up with their amazing food.

It was our first festival and we all had a blast!

“Back To Manhattan” WINS The “BUZZ AWARD” for most talked about film!

From RR - I had stepped outside and was talking to actor Dave Brown who I had just met. He was doing Jackie Gleason/Ralph Kramden impressions and telling jokes so I was totally entertained. That’s when Paul Dunleavy stepped outside and said, “They are announcing awards, Rob. You have to come in.” I wasn’t thinking we had a chance for an award with our little $18,000 film, but ok. The place was packed and a bunch of us were standing in the crowd during the awards. Paul Dunleavy was several feet in front of me and I was next to Mike Mackewice when they announced the category for the “Buzz Award”. I remember turning away and thinking if we had a chance at ANY award it would be this. And then they announced it. “The winner for this year’s Buzz Award for Most Talked About Film is “Back To Manhattan”. I’ll never forget the feeling or the look on Mike MacKewice’s face and the smile on Paul's face coming through the crowd toward me. It was a very cool moment!

Photo - Rob accepting the “BUZZ AWARD” for Most Talked About FIlm from actor Alex Corrado at the Hoboken Film Festival.

Long Island International Film Expo (July 2003)

In mid-August 2003, the first cut of “Back To Manhattan” was accepted and played at its second festival. The Long Island International Film Expo (LIIFE). We screened to another packed crowd and once again had a great response to the film. Rob was also chosen to be part of the Director’s Panel for the festival.

"Back To Manhattan" would receive HONORABLE MENTION in the “Best Feature” category and considering that the award went to a million-dollar budget film, it was certainly a huge honor. This festival would also start a great friendship between Rob and Debbie Markowitz who was the Director and Creator of the Festival. Along with being the Film Commissioner of Long Island, as well as a writer, Debbie would eventually jump into the director’s chair herself, writing and directing six short films. In 2021 Debbie asked Rob to be the editor and post-supervisor of her first feature film, the low-budget indie, “The Only Woman in the World”. Talk about full circle! The film is now available on streaming channels including Amazon Prime.

But something else VERY COOL happened when the cast and crew left the theater that day in Long Island. Read On…

Meeting Abe Vigoda, Steve Guttenburg and Chuck Zitto at the LIIFE Awards Ceremony.

WAIT!! What do you mean we’re NOT DONE FILMING??

Of course, I loved the first two festivals, some of the best memories, but I also looked at them as SCREEN TESTS. I would watch the audience to see what was working during those screenings. Even though the film had won awards and honors, I knew the story needed more balance between Jack and Frankie & Paulie. I had already started writing the scenes for FRANKIE & PAULIE between the Hoboken Festival and LIIFE, I just didn’t tell anyone. So when we all walked out of the screening in Long Island in mid-Aug 2003, standing on the sidewalk in front of the theater, I announced we had 5 more scenes still to shoot for the film. All with the characters FRANKIE & PAULIE. Then the film would be complete. No one was expecting that one. Haha

So we planned to get together for a 3-day weekend in September 2003, right after Labor Day. That would give me almost a month to work out the scenes, location scout, and figure out the BIGGEST PROBLEM of all; I need another identical LIGHT BLUE 1989 BUICK CENTURY to finish the film! FRANKIE’S mother’s car, which was MY Mother’s car, was now in South Carolina. My Mom and stepdad Terry had just moved to SC and there was no way that 13-year-old Buick would ever be able to make the journey back up.

I believe at this point we were already accepted to the 2003 New York Film & Video Festival in November so we would have just enough time to shoot and get the film done in post by the time we played the festival. So, here we go!

Miracles happen…if you believe!

You’re gonna LOVE this story!

I totally believed we would find the exact replacement for the first car. Everything about this film had angels watching over it so I just felt in my heart this would happen. The search was on! Everyone involved was on the lookout.

With just under a week to go, I was talking to Paul Dunleavy (PAULIE). He said “Dude, we’re shooting in less than a week. What do we do if we don’t find the car?” My reply was, “Worse case, we’ll delay the shoot, but I still believe it’s going to happen before the weekend.“

My sister Jeannie and bro-in-law, Steve, were living upstate in Pine Bush, NY. Jeannie told me that she thought she had seen the car two towns over. Then she came up with a brilliant idea. She told me to make a flyer with a picture of the car and all of its details (year, make, model) and go to any of the body shop garages in that town. I jumped right on it! I printed several color flyers and headed to the town.

The first garage I saw I walked into with flyer in hand. I asked one of the mechanics who was walking by if he had seen this car in town. I told him what we needed it for and that my sister had mentioned that she thought she saw this car in town. He said he hadn't seen it. But another mechanic walking by took a look at the flyer and said " I could swear this car is parked about two miles right up this road with a for sale sign on it." My eyes popped! "Really?" I said. He replied "Yeah, just go 2 miles up this road and you'll see a hot dog stand. There are a whole bunch of cars for sale in the grass behind the hot dog stand. The girl who runs the hot dog stand has the numbers to all of the owners and she gets a piece of the deal."

I immediately called Paul Dunleavy and filled him in. I said, "Stay on the phone with me in case this really happens." I saw the hot dog girl and her stand on the right-hand side of the road and then I started to see all of the cars parked in the grass behind her.

And then, THERE IT WAS!!! A 1989 light blue Buick Century. The EXACT same car as my Moms. I said to Paul, “You’re not going to believe this shit!” I pulled into the dirt area and hit the brakes a bit too hard in excitement, kicking up a bunch of dirt. The hotdog looked over like “What the hell!” I threw it into park, jumped out of the car, quickly apologized and headed to the car. I couldn’t believe my eyes. As I walked around the car checking for any dents I was saying to Paul “It’s the exact same car bro. Unbelievable!“ We were both blown away.

And the fact that it was For Sale meant that the worst-case scenario was, I’ll buy for the $750 they were asking, finish the film and then sell it. That’s when the hot dog girl said “Are you interested in that car? I have Joe Rotondo’s number, I’ll give him a call.” Yes, please do!

So I hang up with Paul and 10 mins later Joe Rotondo arrives. He was in his late 60s and seemed like a quiet, cool guy. Of course, at the moment he thinks I want to buy the car, and why wouldn’t he? But I have paid for this entire film so far and the money is getting very tight.

So Joe says to me “Are you interested in buying the car?” and I replied, “What I really want to do is borrow it for a 3-day weekend, finish my film in Manhattan and then give it back to you.” The look on his face was PRICELESS! I then started to tell Joe the story. I was certainly entertaining him with this crazy tale, but he wasn’t sure he believed me until I said “Hold On!! I have a flyer.” That’s when I ran to my car and retrieved the flyer I had made about the film and about his/this SPECIFIC CAR! He just shook his head, laughed and said, “I’ll be damn.” He was as shocked as I was.

So we made a deal. I would pay him $200 to rent the car for the upcoming 3-day weekend and I would also put the car in my name and insure it. Then after the weekend, we would transfer ownership back to Joe and he could sell it like before. And that is exactly what happened! I went and FINISHED “Back To Manhattan” that weekend and then I returned the car to Joe who sold it 2 days for the price he was asking for. Unfortunately for the guy who bought it, the engine seized on him a week later, but I got my film done and Joe ended up with $950 instead of $750 and his car in an independent film.

What’s funny was, after I picked up the car from Joe to take it to Manhattan to shoot, his friends said to him “You did what? You fell for the oldest trick in the book. That guy stole your car.” which Joe replied, “You think that guy went through all of that trouble, including driving here and making that flyer, all to steal my $750 dollar car?” I’m so happy Joe told me that story when I returned the car.

And when the 1000 DVDs I had designed, arrived in early 2005, including a full director’s commentary which included the story with Joe Rotondo, I got in my car, drove back to his house, and delivered 3 of them in person. I said, “Now you can invite your friends over that said you fell for the oldest trick in the book and show them this.” He just LOVED IT and so did I!

Here are pics of the 1989 light blue Buick Century. The top two pictures are of my Mom’s car. The bottom two are Joe’s car.

The 5 scenes we shot with FRANKIE & PAULIE that 3-day weekend included…

1. Frankie and Paulie with Julio and the gang chasing them with the dog.

2. The FLASHBACK of Frankie getting hit in the head with the burrito.

3. Frankie and Paulie’s drive into Manhattan with the shoe out the window and Paulie talking to the dead.

4. “The Captain” - The Gas Station with Frankie singing” “Love Will Keep Us Together” and getting busted by Big Al.

5. The “Toy Scene”
   And now you know why I needed those scenes

   “Back To Manhattan” had FINALLY wrapped!

The “MAKING OF THE TOY SCENe”

The “Toy Scene” was the very last scene we shot in the film. We’re fighting daylight and all pretty exhausted as we cross the finish line, but we could still laugh!!

New York Film & Video Festival - Nov 2003.

a night to remember!

"Back To Manhattan" was finally completed just in time for the  New York Film & Video Festival in November 2003. A week-long film festival and they gave us the DREAM TIME SLOT, Sat. night 8pm, Greenwich Village at Cinema Village on 2nd Ave and 12th. The film SOLD OUT 5 days in advance and come that Saturday night the place was PACKED with family, friends and lots of cool strangers. A great surprise was when musician Christopher Hoffee and his wife flew in from San Diego for the film! 

About 55 of us all went out to dinner at “Johns” of East 12th Street before the 8pm screening and afterward, we all partied into the night! At around 3am someone came up to me and said “How does it feel?” I turned, pointed, and said “That’s my Mom dancing at 3am in Manhattan with my Aunts. That’s how it feels. Just awesome!”

The film was a HIT! It was certainly a night to remember.

And when the Awards were announced “Back To Manhattan” would WIN Best Feature Tri-State (NY, NJ, CT)

The theater we played in at Cinema Village held 180 people. They squeezed in almost 220 people that night, letting them sit on the stairs and bringing in some folding chairs. Here is the ONE PICTURE we have from INSIDE the theater to show just how packed it was. You can see Rob being introduced down below.

Christopher Hoffee PLAYING “HAPPY ACCIDENTS” at MSG…

When Chris and his girl flew in from San Diego we hung out the day before the Big Premiere. Chris asked me “What do you want to do?” I said “Let’s record you singing a few songs in front of MSG.” He said ok because he’s awesome. Here’s Christopher Hoffee performing “Happy Accidents” in front of Madison Square Garden.

Rob was also invited to speak on several panel discussions...

There was also a two page article in PC Magazine written by Tom Dugan.

"It took 2 1/2 years to shoot the film, 8 more months in post-production, including designing the DVD and creating the Special Features, but it only took ONE NIGHT in a Greenwich Village movie theater to forget about all the blood, sweat and craziness it took to pull it off!"

Bleed On What You Love! - R. Reilly

At one of the “Back To Manhattan” promotional parties for the film, Rob joined Michael Mackewice (guitar), Michael Marino (bass) and Greg Alan (drums) for a couple of Christopher Hoffee/Atom Orr songs from the film’s soundtrack.

DVD Artwork & Design by RR

It was filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s book “Rebel Without a Crew” that Rob Reilly used as his bible while making “Back To Manhattan”. Inside the DVD is a ‘Special Thank You’ to Robert Rodriguez using a line from his book that reads...“Work hard and be scary.” Thanks RR, From RR.

Here’s Rob filming his dog Mookie (aka Mr. Wilson) for the closing title shot of the film. That’s why we call it cineMOOK.

Among the new york (Tri-State) Awards…

WINNER "Buzz Award" (Most Talked About Film), Back East Picture Show, Hoboken, NJ (2003)

WINNER "Best Feature" (Tri-State), New York Film/Video Festival, NY (2003)

WINNER "Best Cinematography", Greasefire Film Festival, Weehawken, NJ (2003)

HONORABLE MENTION “Best Feature", Long Island Int. Film Expo, NY (2003)

WINNER "Best Feature" Nyack, NY (2004)

WINNER "Spirit Award" (Emerging Filmmaker/Rob Reilly) Queens Film Festival, ASTORIA, Queens (2004)