originally appeared in the 'Staten Island Advance'

It's a quiet Sunday morning on a middle-class Staten Island side street, and the only indication that something out of the ordinary is going on inside Bridges, the neighborhood bar on the corner, is the black paper covering its tiny windows. The paper isn't meant to discourage curious eyes from peeking in, because no one seems to realize that a film is shooting inside -- the street is devoid of the Winnebagoes and equipment trucks that typically accompany a big Hollywood shoot. No: It may be a sunny spring day outside, but inside Bridges, the black paper contributes to the illusion that it's night.

Several nights, actually. In the shoot- it- quick- and- move- on world of low-budget independent filmmaking, director/screenwriter/star Jerry O'Donnell has no choice but to shoot scenes set over multiple evenings in the space of a single afternoon. And there are lots of them -- Sleeping in a Dream is the tale of two rather shiftless young Staten Islanders whose days are filled with watching bad television and whose nights involve boozing and picking up girls... or trying to, at least.

"It's real life," says the puckish O'Donnell, who admits that Sleeping in a Dream is "loosely based" on his own life. A native and current resident of Staten Island, O'Donnell -- who has had recurring roles on Spin City and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit -- wrote Dream, his first script, out of creative frustration. "I did it because I want to work more as an actor."

O'Donnell's Dream alter ego, Tim, fantasizes about being an actor but can't seem to work up the ambition to follow through, but O'Donnell himself isn't lacking for enterprise. The challenges of shooting his film in a place not used to such intrusions doesn't seem to have fazed O'Donnell, who steered his actors and crew around various Staten Island locations this past winter and spring.

That's not to say that problems were not encountered. "Nobody films out here," O'Donnell laughs. "Nobody's used to it. We were shooting outside and this guy runs out of his house and starts yelling at us to get off his street."

While co-director Joe DeVito says that the shoot has been "pretty discreet," he admits that a bit of holiday filming nearly landed the production in big trouble. "We weren't granted a permit to shoot at the St. Patrick's Day parade here on Staten Island," but, dodging the watchful eyes of patrolling cops, "we got the shot we needed." O'Donnell is more blunt. "We almost got arrested," he reveals with a grin. And if the location filming in O'Donnell's own apartment was marred by, according to DeVito, "the kids in Jerry's building who bounced a ball through the whole shoot," well, that's just another touch of O'Donnell's "real life."

Actress Diana Marquis, who plays Tim's girlfriend, concedes that the shoot has been "a curiosity" to uninitiated Staten Islanders. "They're happy to see a little bit of the outside world coming in," she says, "but it can get frustrating trying to explain what an 'independent' film is... and that Robert DeNiro is not going to be showing up on the set."

Still, "it all went pretty smoothly," says O'Donnell. And he's excited about bringing to movie audiences a Staten Island landscape rarely seen in film. "We got some really nice shots on the boardwalk." Actor Robert Douglas Marko -- who plays Tim's best friend, Matt -- likes what he's seen, too. A Florida native now living in Brooklyn, Marko spent time just "hanging out" on Staten Island to research his character, a city cop and divorced father. "The views you get out here are cool. This is unlike any other place in New York City."

Executive producer Sal Martorano agrees. "Staten Island's a great area to do something like this. It's a little town in a big town. The people here really try to help one another, and they want to see you succeed."

Bridges owner Jim Long is the perfect example, lending his bar for the afternoon to the Sleeping in a Dream shoot. "I had to give him a shot," Long says of O'Donnell. "I was impressed by his dream."

Unofficially, this Sunday is the last day of shooting -- there are a few reshoots to be done, and DeVito's day job with VH-1 may score the film a big-name cameo to be shot later -- but for now, the crew bustles around, preparing for one of the film's final shots. Rounding up enough extras to create the illusion of a busy weekend evening has been a problem. Says O'Donnell, "It's hard to get people to work for free," the typical pay scale for a low-budget indie, "and to get them to come out to Staten Island as well." So when O'Donnell decides that a bartender is needed for the shot, DeVito, who's chief job is behind the camera, is volunteered for on-camera work. Cast and crew alike root around for something to hide DeVito's black t-shirt.

Quarters are tight, and electrical cables and camera equipment jam the small bar, but Marko says he likes shooting here at Bridges. "It's very helpful to be in a bar and have bottles of beer around. Location gives you a real sense of place."

On the sidewalk outside, a gaggle of kids walk by, bouncing a basketball and laughing, oblivious to the dreammaking going on inside. It's just another quiet weekend afternoon on Staten Island.

--MaryAnn Johanson
07.02.00

official site (Sleeping in a Dream) | official site (Staten Island Advance)