Movie Shoot

So, one night I met some friends for dinner near Children's Memorial Hospital (that's where I use to work!!!). Afterwards I was driving down Fullerton and at the intersection of Fullerton/Lincoln/Halsted there was extra crazy traffic and confusion and Lincoln was blocked off. My friend told me it was because they were filming for the Dillinger movie with Johnny Depp. I remembered coming upon an internet article that talked about the filming of this movie on Lincoln Ave. and how they had changed many of the store fronts and store windows to reflect the time period of the movie. I had thought it was interesting when I read the article, but now even more interested since it was right near where I use to work - I knew that block well! The other interesting thing about the filming of the movie was that part of it was also filmed at the old Court House in Crown Point, IN - that's about 10 min. from where I grew up. I dropped my friend off at the Red Line and then I was debating on whether or not to try and get a closer look at the action and what they had done on the street. I turned onto Sheffield still wondering if it was worth the time since I have to constantly consider the fact that homework always is waiting for me! As I was driving I passed by a horse and buggy taxi thing, definately not one that is usually around Chicago . . . my curiosity got the best of me and I found a place to park and walked down to the block. As I was walking this is what I see . . . there was a huge line of these old cars! This was as close as I could get from this end, so no fun store fronts here.

I walked around to the other end of the block - this being closest to the hospital, and it looked so neat! The cobblestone in the middle of the road is for the trolley - just a rubber sheet of cobblestone that got rolled out! The stores all had new signs and awnings hanging over the existing ones. Johnny wasn't here at the time, but it was fun to see actors arriving in period dress and the drivers of the cars as well!

These first two pictures were actually taken with my phone. Remeber, I wasn't planning on being here so I didn't have my camera. Although I was quite impressed with my camera phone! But what I really wanted was to see these storefronts that they re-did for the movie. There was no way anybody could get close enough while the filming was going on. So, I decided that a quick trip down the next day would be worthwhile! And that's what I did! I actually met a friend working at Children's for lunch while she was on her lunch break then took some photos on the block where they were filming the night before. They weren't filming that next day, although there were crew people everywhere - it actually looked like they might have been starting to take down some signs and stuff.

This is a complete false front. If you look closely at the second story windows you can see brick through them =)

This is right outside the CVS . . . perfect for a pharmacy! Some of the others were hat stores, bakeries, clothing stores and a barber shop . . .

And of course the movie theater . . . I heard it's a big part of the story - so you might see this if you see the movie!
And then as I was leaving I saw this taxi . . . definitely not the going rate for a taxi in Chicago!

What would have been ideal is to get a photo of the storefronts with the old cars and people in time period dress, however that was impossible . . . guess i'll just have to wait and see the movie to have it all put together! Regardless it was a lot of fun to stumble upon this. Actually the night of the filming it was fun to wander around - people were so friendly and chatty since everybody was just standing around waiting for something - maybe to see johnny??? There were families, people with their dogs, people just walking by who stopped by and had to find out what was going on.