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Working the Crowd is the twenty-fifth chapter on the DVD of Ghostbusters. In this chapter, the Ghostbusters arrive at Spook Central and make their way up to Dana's apartment and then the roof to confront Gozer.

Cast[]

Equipment[]

Environmental[]

Locations[]

Plot[]

The police escort arrived. The Ghostbusters got out of Ecto-1 and started to suit up. Peter addressed the crowd behind the police barricades with a hearty hello. Peter shook some hands, leaned in for kisses, and gave high fives. Peter rose Ray's hand high up and asked everyone to acknowledge him. He called Ray "the heart of the Ghostbusters." Ray waved at the crowd. Peter thanked them and told Ray they loved him. Peter walked down the sidewalk. He shook more hands. He told someone he liked their shirt. A redheaded man cheered them on. Ray touched Peter's shoulder. The gurney was pulled out from the back of Ecto-1 by Winston and Egon. Egon took the first Proton Pack off and helped put it on Winston. Ray took the next pack out for Peter. Peter told the crowd he had to run and had a date with a ghost. He instructed the others to be professionals whatever happens. Ray nodded to a National Guardsmen. Agents barked into walkie-talkies.

The Ghostbusters assembled in front of the building. Peter pointed at it. They looked up as lightning struck the building. People braced themselves. The wind picked up. The darkness blotted out the Sun. Ray surmised they had to put a little overtime in on. A piece of the building fell off. The sidewalk lifted. The street ripped apart and the Ghostbusters fell into a pit that opened up below them. People screamed and fell. The front end of a police car from the 41st Precinct slid down the hole. A water line was ruptured. Then it stopped. The crowd slowly came to its feet and looked around. Ray was visible and came out of the pit first. A civilian pointed them out. The crowed wondered if they were all right then cheered them on. The other Ghostbusters climbed out of the pit. Ray stated he was in no way prepared for that. Peter assured the crowd they were fine and they could handle it. The crowd chanted, "Ghostbusters!" over and over. Peter asked the others if they wanted to play rough. They were game. Another snippet from "Savin' The Day" played. They huddled up, performed a hand-stack, and ran into the Shandor Building.

Some time later, they groaned and panted as they climbed the stairs. There were still many more flights to go. Ray was in the lead then Egon, Winston, and Peter. Peter asked where they were. Ray estimated they were in the teens somewhere. Peter requested to be told when they got to the twentieth floor so he could throw up.

Meanwhile, up on the roof, Dana Barrett and Louis Tully got up from an altar and went to their respective pedestals. What looked like lightning shot into the structure.

The Ghostbusters reached the twenty-second floor. Ray read the floor sign. Peter confirmed they were on the right floor. They stepped into the hall. Ray was relieved. Egon noticed the Art Deco influence and complimented it. Ray asked Peter where Dana's apartment was. Peter told them it was at the end of the hall.

Dana and Louis stood on their pedestals and looked up.

Dana's front door fell out its frame and landed on the floor. The hall was littered with things, even a child's Big Wheel. The Ghostbusters walked through what little of the apartment remained. Ray noticed the new set of stairs and pointed at it. He asked where they went. Peter stated the obvious, they went up. Peter was about to walk through the passage that was concealed by the wall and refrigerator but lightning went off. Peter motioned everyone to go ahead.

Dana and Louis raised their arms up. Purple lightning passed through them and out of their hands into the structure before them. The huge doors opened and a bright white light peered out. The Ghostbusters reached the roof and looked up. They came around to Dana and Louis's side. Peter called out to Dana. The Essex House loomed in the background. Dana and Louis transmogrified into Terror Dogs. Peter remarked, "Okay, so she's a dog." Zuul and Vinz Clortho ran up to the Temple of Gozer inside the structure, just like what Dana saw in her refrigerator.

Quotes[]

Peter: OK. So, she's a dog.

See Also[]

Trivia[]

Ghostbusters (1984) Trivia[]

  • During the New York shoot, City Hall revoked the permit allowing the film crew to film Ecto-1's escort to Central Park West out of concern about the traffic snarl it would cause. They revoke the permit on the day filming took place at City Hall. Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd disappeared for one hour and approached Mayor Koch for help. Koch had the issue fixed so they could film the drive to Central Park West.[1]
  • The filming of the Ghostbusters arrival at the Shandor building caused major traffic in Manhattan, effectively shutting down most the area.[2] Dan Aykroyd got to meet science fiction writer Isaac Asimov during this shoot, but Asimov was angry about the traffic.[3] Police had to arrest an obnoxious motorist during the shoot.[4]
  • During the New York shoot, near the crowd of extras outside 550 Central Park West, assistant director Peter Giuliano was heckled by a paparazzi named Steve Sands. An extra portraying a Hasidic Jew also got tired of Sands so he picked him up, walked across Central Park West, and threw him over the wall.[5]
  • At around the 1 hour, 23 minute mark of the Preview Cut, included first in the 2022 Ghostbusters Ultimate Edition, there is a shot of paramedics rolling a victim out of 550 Central Park West on a stretcher. After Peter introduces Ray, he tells some citizens they will have a drink after. He compliments an outfit. The deleted scene "Promotion" follows.
  • On the last day of filming in front of 55 Central Park West, the crew specifically placed Eldo Ray Estes, the extra who yells "Ghostbusters, alright!," in the spot among the crowd of background characters at the barricade when the Ghostbusters get out of Ecto-1 and Peter mingles with them.[6]
  • Eldo Ray Estes was recognized on the streets of Brooklyn for his background actor role in the movie just one day after the movie came out in theaters.[7]
  • While at the New York set, no damage could done to the street so it had to be dressed. Large jutting slabs of simulated asphalt and a chopped police car were added.[8][9]
  • The police car is from the 41st Precinct, based in the Bronx.
  • The ornamental lamps affixed to the exterior of the Shandor Building appear on the ex-Cardassian space station in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Fascination" (from Season 3). The lamps were even immortalized in the Star Trek Online video game.[10]
  • There was some debate over the costly $250,000 sinkhole effect. Ivan Reitman felt it should stay because it showed what the Ghostbusters were getting into.[11] The scene shifted between the actual Central Park West and the Columbia back lot, where John DeCuir recreated Central Park West and the first three floors. Half a police car was placed into the hole. The sequence when the streets lift up to when the Ghostbusters climb out of the hole was at the back lot in Los Angeles. The rest of the exteriors was in New York at 55 Central Park West.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
  • At around the 1 hour, 33 mark of the Preview Cut, the Ghostbusters piece together what happened after they climb out of the hole then do the hand stack.
  • In the course of the hand-stack, a snippet of "Savin' the Day" plays.
  • In the August 5, 1983 draft:
    • On page 119, Winston suggests they take a plan to Australia or Indonesia until it blows over. Peter makes a note of it. After the hole in the street, a huge gust of hot wind from the lobby blows out the glass transom above the doors and showers everyone in safety glass. The Ghostbusters fight against the wind as they walk into the building.
      • Winston's idea ends up in the Deleted Scene: Promotion but Peter's reaction is he was just considering him for a promotion.
    • On page 120, Ray pushes the button for the elevator but it crashes down in the basement. They opt to use the stairs.
  • In the September 30, 1983 draft, on pages 118-119, the arrival at the apartment is slightly tweaked from the previous draft. They don't fight a gust of hot wind as they enter the building or try to take the elevator.
  • The scene of the Ghostbusters taking the stairs were filmed at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles but there were only two flights of stairs.[19][20][21]
  • The Ghostbusters' dialogue for the stairwell sequence was improvised during filming and added in postproduction looping sessions.[22]
  • The Temple of Gozer was in part inspired by the book "Rooftops of New York".[23]
  • The roof top scenes were filmed on Stage 16 at the Burbank Studios in Los Angeles.
  • The hallway and Dana's apartment were filmed at the Stage 12 and 18 set in Burbank Studios in New York.
    • The far away shot of the Ghostbusters searching the apartment was added in post. It was filmed on a soundstage in Los Angeles. This shot was then rear-projected into the open area of the matte painting. During matte photography, the camera started with a tight shot on the building's unpainted corner and pull back to the full master shot.[24][25]
    • The initial concept of the pullback called for the final image to be a fisheye lens view of New York. Richard Edlund took a still photo of the area of New York from a helicopter which was used for discussing the shot. Matthew Yuricich did a sketch of the fisheye perspective for the final composition. Ivan Reitman approved it but which Yuricich wasn't sold on it and soon everyone agreed on a less exaggerated perspective.[26]
    • There was a disagreement about what side of the building Dana's apartment was on. Yuricich was already painting and had to switch the light and dark sides of the building.[27]
    • Yuricich and other members of the Boss crew were photographed in the company parking lot at an angle corresponding to the perspective on a balcony on a building in the scene. One crew member got carried away and did what Richard Edlund described as looking like the "St. Vitus dance." To animated the crowds, scratches were made in a black glass matte then a randomly colored board resembling a Jackson Pollack painting was placed behind the glass and lit so that bits of color showed through the scratches and moved back and forth.[28]
  • In the hall, amid the items on the floor is a Big Wheel tricycle.
  • At around the 1 hour, 35 mark of the Preview Cut, there is a bit more when Peter tells everyone to go ahead of him. Egon tells Peter to go ahead. Dana and Louis turning into Terror Dogs follows.
  • The billboard/logo text in the background is "Essex House", which can be seen to the right of Zuul. That is the name of an actual building on Central Park South. Its full name is JW Marriott Essex House.
  • Bill Murray changed Peter's line to "Okay. So she's a dog."[29]
  • Peter alludes to Dana's transformation in Chapter 27: Stay Puft Man.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trivia[]

  • One of the clips in the video Gary Grooberson plays is of the Ghostbusters arriving at Central Park West and Peter greeting the crowd.
  • Possessed Grooberson is lying down in a pose mirroring possessed Dana in the first movie.
  • The "Gozerian clouds" were taken from the original 65 millimeter cloud tank footage from the first movie.
  • Possessed Callie and Grooberson's transformation into Terror Dogs mirrors Dana Barrett and Louis Tully's transformation in the first movie. Likewise, Phoebe Spengler's reaction to the transformation and Zuul's head turn was a nod to a similar sequence between Peter and Zuul in the first movie.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Trivia[]

IDW Comics Trivia[]

  • On page 16 of Ghostbusters Volume 1 Issue #1, Peter bemoans stairs, referencing the traumatic stairwell climb.
  • On page 1 of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #5, some of the subtitles for characters reference lines from the first movie like "Heart of the Ghostbusters."
  • On page 6 of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #11, on Tobin's Spirit Guide, there is a red Post-It note that appears to reference Dan Aykroyd's encounter with Isaac Asimov during filming outside Central Park West which caused major traffic.
  • On page 10 of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #12, the Ghostbusters have to ascend a 25 story building for a rooftop battle, in similar fashion to the first movie.
  • In Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #15:
    • On Page 2, Louis' memories when the gateway was opened for Gozer when he was possessed.
    • On page 20, possessed Louis refers to when he was turned into a Terror Dog in the first movie.
  • In Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #16:
    • On page 2, like the first movie, the Ghostbusters ascend a long flight of stairs.
    • On page 11, like in the first movie, possessed Dana and Louis transform into their Terror forms but uniquely with their human faces intact.
  • On page 11 of Ghostbusters 101 Issue #6, in panel 3, Erin Gilbert mentions there were so many stairs - the natural enemy of any Ghostbuster.
  • On page 20 of Ghostbusters 101 Issue #6, Peter alludes to Zuul, who possessed Dana Barrett then turned into a Terror Dog.
  • On page 12 of Ghostbusters Annual 2018, Ray's 'We have a date with a ghost' line is similar to Peter's line to the crowd as they prepare to go into 550 Central Park West in the first movie.
  • On page 12 of Transformers/Ghostbusters: Ghosts of Cybertron Issue #1, the Ghostbusters climb out of a sink hole similar to when they arrived at the Shandor Building.

Tertiary Canon Trivia[]

References[]

  1. Peter Giuliano (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:28:56-1:29:35). Bueno Productions. Peter Giuliano says: "We had this massive location on Central Park West between, I think was 66th and 67th Street. So it's also where the traffic not only goes north and south in the city, but also east and west. The city, when they finally realized what we wanted to do, panicked and revoked the permit. When they did it, it was the day we were shooting at City Hall. And all of a sudden, we couldn't find Bill or Danny. And for an hour, we couldn't find them. And then they reappeared. And they said, we just talked with Mayor Koch, because we were at City Hall. So they went to see the real mayor. And he's gonna fix it, and we're gonna be able to shoot."
  2. Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:18:44-1:19:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "So this is 65th and Central Park West so what happens there's the East-West crossing through the park on 65th and 66th. Columbus Circle is just off the street so when we were shooting this scene for three days, we stopped traffic here which shut down Columbus, 8th, Broadway, 7th, and 59th Street. Shot the East-West pass through the park, traffic started backing up to Times Square then Herald Square, Eastside, all the way to the river and they told us at one point we shut down 60% of Manhattan. "
  3. Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:19:24-1:19:50). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Ah right, so we're taking a break one day, Danny and I are standing on 65th and Central Park West, Danny sees Isaac Asimov, who lives in the neighborhood. Danny was so excited, he was one of the great science fiction writers of our age, 'Mr. Asimov, Dan Aykroyd, we're shooting the Ghostbusters movie'... he says 'Are you the ones responsible for this?'... and he walks away. He couldn't get home. "
  4. Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:05-1:20:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember there was a guy trying to get through, a really obnoxious guy in a car in the area and he started giving the policemen who were working on the film some real grief so they just pulled him out of the car and arrested him. "
  5. Peter Giuliano (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 2:03:30-2:03:58). Bueno Productions. Peter Giuliano says: "Paparazzi guy, this guy Steve Sands, he's famous in New York. You confront him, he knows karate, and he doesn't really -- So he was really giving me a hard time on Central Park West. There was an extra fairly large man dressed as a Hasidic Jew. He just got fed up with Steve, grabbed him, carried him across Central Park West and then threw him over the wall. And then he came back and said, "that man was very irritating." I said, "Yes, that man was very irritating.""
  6. TCU Collectibles facebook "Eldo Ray Estes (Redheaded Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 3:14-4:03 2/18/2021 Eldo Ray Estes says: "The baffling thing about it--because we didn't really know what was happening. We didn't know there was gonna be a marshmallow man coming down the street. They just told us to run up and down the street and act crazy and yell and scream and all that stuff. But at one point, it must have been the last day they physically--they placed me there in front of Dana's building. I guess they liked the way I looked or whatever so I was actually placed in that spot and as soon as that scene was done, they immediately sent me home because I was guaranteed to be in the movie. They didn't want me to be seen more than once cuz I was so noticeable. So once they got that scene, they sent me home."
  7. TCU Collectibles facebook "Eldo Ray Estes (Redheaded Man, Ghostbusters) Interview" 5:36-6:23 2/18/2021 Eldo Ray Estes says: "The movie came out. I guess it was like the spring of '84 and movies open on Fridays, I think they're still open on Friday's and my roommate at the time she and I both had to work on the Friday that it opened so we made plans to go and see it, the first showing on that Saturday and it didn't you know it only placed one day and we were-I swear to God, I'm not making this up-we walked out of our apartment and we're walking like three blocks to the subway and someone on he other side of the street yelled "Ghostbusters!" at me and I turned to my friend and said, "Well, uh wow something's up." I mean that was the second day that it was open."
  8. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 163 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Since no permanent damage could be done to the streets in New York, the area around the actual apartment house location was dressed with large jutting slabs of simulated asphalt. A police car, cut in half and upended, helped further suggest the presence of chasms in the roadway."
  9. Joe Medjuck (1999). Ghostbusters- Commentary (1999) (DVD ts. 01:20:52-01:20:58). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "And they had the fake sidewalk on top of the real pavement."
  10. Spook Central Facebook Page - Image Comparison
  11. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "There was a lot of debate over whether or not the sinkhole effect was worth doing. It was, after all, a very expensive stunt - about $250,000. The studio didn't want me to do it, and my associate producers both felt it was something we could give up. But I thought it was really important because up to then, nothing really bad had happened to these guys. They'd had their hair tousled and blown around, but there was no real sense of the threat. It seemed to me that prior to the final battle we had to demonstrate - immediately and simply - just what they were going up against. The sinkhole effect showed how though and violent things would get. I was convinced it was a great sequence, so I stuck with it."
  12. Joe Medjuck (1999). Ghostbusters- Commentary (1999) (DVD ts. 55:26-55:29). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "It's now the Warner Ranch. We did it so we could do the earthquake there."
  13. Harold Ramis (1999). Ghostbusters- Commentary (1999) (DVD ts. 55:31-55:33). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "The street opening up."
  14. Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:20-1:20:25). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Here's a great switch from the real Central Park West to the back lot. This is all the back lot now. "
  15. Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:26-1:20:45). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "All these effects John De Cuir recreated the street and [first two floors] actually three so I could get wide enough for the shot and these are all on hydraulics underneath so we could redo it over and over and there's... "
  16. Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:45-1:20:55). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Then in New York, the police car slid into the street. They took a police car and just literally cut the front half off the car and laid it in the hole in the street, the fake hole in the street. "
  17. Harold Ramis (1999). Ghostbusters- Commentary (1999) (DVD ts. 01:21:21-01:21:22). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Climbing out is New York."
  18. Joe Medjuck (1999). Ghostbusters- Commentary (1999) (DVD ts. 01:21:25-01:21:29). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Just the actual break up was in LA, and then all this was New York again."
  19. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685.
  20. Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:22:02-1:22:07). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is one or two stairs then everything up is a matte painting. "
  21. Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:22:08-1:22:16). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I think this was shot at the Biltmore. "
  22. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph says: "Missing from the script is the dialogue between the men as they trudge up the stairs - some of which was improvised on the spot and some of which was added later in looping."
  23. Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 24:04-24:38). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Let me say about the rooftop. We were thinking about where, what would be the center of the disturbance. And different kinds of buildings and places all over the city and we...I don't know if this this is how it occurred to everyone but I remembered a rooftop in St. Louis which was a replica of a temple and we started looking at the rooftops of New York and someone produced a coffee table book called 'Rooftops of New York' and we saw all these interesting temples on rooftops of buildings and all these strange Gothic structures and they went with that as a design concept."
  24. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 164 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "During matte photography, the camera began in tight on the building's unpainted foreground corner and then pulled back slowly to a full master."
  25. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 164 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "On an identical, but separate, photographic pass, live-action footage of the Ghostbusters peering out through the blown-away wall in Dana's ravaged apartment was rear-projected into the open area in the painting."
  26. American Cinematographer June 1984 Line reads: "The script called for a long pull-back to the New York skyline after the explosion in Dana's apartment. A set was constructed for the apartment so that the actors could be photographed through the hole in the side of the building and then a matte painting was to be used to permit the pull-back. The initial concept called for the final image to be a fisheye lens view of New York. Edlund took a still photo of the area of New York from a helicopter which was used for discussing the shot and Yuricich did a sketch of the fisheye perspective for the final composition which Reitman approved, but which Yuricich himself was not sold on. He did another sketch in which he matched the perspective of the still photo and everyone agreed that the less exaggerated perspective was more appropriate."
  27. American Cinematographer June 1984 Line reads: "Unfortunately, there was some disagreement about which side of the building Dana's apartment was located on, which resulted in the problem with the direction of the light in the scene. Yuricich was initially told to match the direction of the light in the still photo and the set on which the live-action was staged was lit to match the direction of the light in the photo as well. Subsequently, it was concluded that the apartment had to be on the other side of the building with the result that the light needed to be coming from the opposite direction. Yuricich had begun work on the painting using the enlargement and now found himself having to reverse the direction of the light as he painted over the photo. What had been the dark side of a building now had to be the light side and vice versa. He also had to paint all the areas of the image that had originally been designed to be the exterior part of the set."
  28. American Cinematographer June 1984 Line reads: "In order to justify the lack of traffic on the streets in front of the building, Yuricich added police barricades, but he felt it was necessary to add some kind of movement in other areas of the frame. Several members of the crew including Yuricich himself were photographed in the parking lot at an angle corresponding to the perspective on a balcony on a building in the scene. One member of the group got carried away with his big chance and the result was a degree of movement that Edlund described as looking like St. Vitus dance. There were usable pieces though and the footage was combined with the painting. Lights on the police cars were made to flash with another pass through the camera and movement was introduced in the crowds with a variation on the technique used to animate crowds in Ben-Hur. Instead of drilling holes in the actual painting, scratches were made in a black glass matte. A randomly colored board resembling a Jackson Pollack painting was placed behind the glass, lit so that bits of color showed through the scratches and moved back and forth. It was possible to composite all of these elements using separations of the live-action footage on the matte camera directly as well as sending separate elements to the optical printing department, and given the pressures on the optical printing department towards the end of the production, this seemed the preferable route."
  29. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 169 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph says: "Truer to his ultra-droll style, Bill Murray changed Venkman's line to: "Okay. So she's a dog.""
  30. Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 227). Winston Zeddemore says: "At Dana's apartment the night she turned into a dog."

Gallery[]

Selected Screengrabs[]

Behind the Scenes[]

 
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