The filming of Noah Baumbach’s "Yeh Din Ka Kissa" created a lot of hype at Sarah Lawrence College. The cast and crew filmed at the college over the course of four days, and students on campus were intrigued. Many students walked past casually on their way to class, while others snapped as many photos as possible. I was one of the movie-crazed photo takers. As I was eating my lunch, it was a rare sight to look out at the lawn where Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller were doing a fight scene.
The school seemed to be in hiatus with students sitting outdoors to watch the movie being filmed. Some milling around just to catch a glimpse of the stars. Many students were hired as extras for the film and had to work from morning to night from Monday to Thursday. This meant no classes for the extras, but definitely some extra cash and credibility.
A few of the facilities were compromised as the cast and crew filmed. They used the visual arts building, the parking lots, and parts of the lawn area in front of the admissions building. Vans for club meetings were moved to a farther parking lot, as the supplies for the movie, along with trucks and cars, were stored. In the visual arts building, many cords, lights and lighting boards were scattered about and positioned obstructively for filming.
I walked past the background of the filming area and a crew member told me to get out of the way, and other time told me to continue walking and to be in the shot. As we were not allowed to take photos, I would quickly pretend to text and take one with my phone. The other extras walked around the set to look like college students for the movie, as others pretended to smoke or chat with others.
“I thought it was cool, but it got in the way of getting around campus. You had to be quiet in Heimbold and that was really annoying,” student Ja Bulsombut said.
Students who had classes in Heimbold (the visual arts building) had difficulty getting to class because that was where the main filming equipment was set up.
“It took me 15 minutes to get to my class this morning,” student Lea Hoang said.
The most significant difference in the school during this time was the attitudes of the students on campus. In all of my classes, classmates and teachers discussed the movie. Students were dressed up more than usual, and come to think of it, so was I. You never knew when you are going to walk past a rolling camera.
Overall, I would say that this was a positive way to start the fourth quarter of school. It brought in good revenue for Sarah Lawrence and with only a few obstacles, excited students got to goggle at Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler.
