Jane Ganahl's story on the making of HOWL on SanFranMag.com

It’s springtime in New York’s West Village, where a former boutique on Hudson Street has been transformed into a replica of Six Gallery, the former hot spot on Fillmore Street where the Beat movement caught fire in 1955 when Allen Ginsberg unleashed his groundbreaking poem “Howl.” (read more)

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Jane Ganahl's story on the making of HOWL on SanFranMag.com

SF 360 : “Howl” gets animated

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman needed a mere 14 shooting days this spring to shoot Howl in Manhattan. That singular fact is both remarkable and deceptive, as preproduction and postproduction require substantially more days, weeks and months. Indeed, the Academy Award-winning documentary makers, making their narrative feature debut with this dramatic saga of Allen Ginsberg’s scintillating, scathing poem and the obscenity charges that landed City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti in a San Francisco courtroom in 1957, are happy to be back in their comfort zone. “I love the editing process,” Epstein declares. “It’s usually my favorite part. This is when you really feel it coming alive—or not, and have to find ways to make it come alive.” Read the full article here.

SF 360 : “Howl” gets animated

A celluloid "Howl"

It's springtime in New York's West Village, where a former boutique on Hudson Street has been transformed into a replica of Six Gallery, the former hot spot on Fillmore Street where the Beat movement caught fire in 1955 when Allen Ginsberg unleashed his groundbreaking poem "Howl".
Waiting quietly to go on camera is James Franco, who portrays the famed poet in Howl, the genre-bending motion picture filmed here over three weeks in March. Due for release early next year, the film will include scripted scenes, verbatim sequences from the obscenity trial that could have landed the poem's publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, in jail, and an animation sequence by Berkeley's Eric Drooker, best known for his New Yorker covers. Read the full review from San Francisco Magazine.

A celluloid "Howl"

Howling in Bangkok

A small team from San Francisco traveled to Bangkok to meet with The Monk, Juck Somsamon's crack animation team that will be animating the images created by the wild minds of Eric Drooker and other artists under the direction of John Hays.

Howling in Bangkok

Howl crew shot on location in New York City(with everyone wearing "Ginsberg" glasses!)

Howl crew shot on location in New York City(with everyone wearing "Ginsberg" glasses!)

Thursday, April 2, 2009:

It's the final day of principal photography!

We shot more moments from Ginsberg's life, including he and Kerouac fooling around with two poet girls late one night, Allen with Peter Orlovsky at home (based on actual photographs they took of him), and Allen's life in a shady 1950's New York cold water flat. Finally, we shot the scenes of Allen creating Howl in his San Francisco apartment, passionately writing late into the night in a fit of inspiration.

It's been an extraordinary shoot thanks to the remarkable cast and crew - everyone brought their own unique gifts to the table and truly contributed immeasurably to the final result! We thank everyone for their passion and commitment to Howl. Now the post-production process commences... We will keep you updated as the next phase of Howl begins,and the film continues to take shape. Thanks for reading the blog and going on this journey with us through production.

Thursday, April 2, 2009:

Tuesday, March 31, 2009:

Today we recreated more moments from Ginsberg's life. Production designer Therese DePrez was able to fashion three very different apartments from various times of Allen's life in one apartment building! So Allen's 1950 coldwater flat, his 1955 San Francisco
apartment, his 1953 Denver back porch, and his 1957 East Village apartment were all just down the hall from each other!

While shooting the movie, directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman were constantly grappling with the film's complex structure. After the first week of filming, they consulted with their editor Jake Pushinsky (editor of "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints"). Jake suggested creating additional material for Neal Cassady, so Rob and Jeffrey wrote two evocative new moments to capture Cassady's seemingly endless travels on the road and equally endless line of girlfriends. It's a much more kinetic and electric way of introducing Cassady into the film.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009:

Friday, March 27, 2009:

Yet another section of the film was shot today (and will continue next Wednesday) - Allen Ginsberg speaks to an off-screen reporter in 1957 about his life, the events that lead to the creation of Howl, and his thoughts on the trial. These interview segments will be intercut with the trial testimony, the flashbacks through Ginsberg's life, and the animated sequences of the Howl text itself.

James Franco and the directors delved deeply into the material, as Allen confesses directly to camera about his struggles with love, friendship and truly finding his voice as an artist. Take after take, James embodied Ginsberg's mannerisms. Yet James was also able to make it his own and find an intimate way of telling these very personal stories from Ginsberg's life as he struggled with his unrequited love of Jack Kerouac, dealt with his mother's insanity, and finally found love with Peter Orlovsky. Director Jeffrey Friedman played the off-screen reporter who questions Allen throughout the movie, while Rob Epstein directed from behind the camera.

Friday, March 27, 2009:

Wednesday, March 25, 2009:

Today Alessandro Nivola took the stand, playing defense witness Luther Nichols, a literary critic and intellectual who was a San Francisco Examiner book editor for three years. Nichols was a contemporary of Ginsbergs, and he represented a distinctly different point-of-view from the other witnesses. He pointed out the similarities that Howl had to jazz and how it spoke of the displaced post-WWII generation. When McIntosh tried to push Nichols into assigning a sexual connotation to the words "blew" and "blown" in order to show the obscene nature of the poem, Nichols had a clever way of subverting it, by pointing out that "I think it can at one level mean that they were
vagabonds, that they were blown about by natural, literal winds". Nivola created a character that was from a distinctly different generation than all of the other witnesses who testified in the Howl trial.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009:

Tuesday, March 24, 2009:

Today Jeff Daniels began his intense and inspired performance as English professor David Kirk (we will finish filming his scenes on Thursday). As Kirk, Jeff Daniels seemed to relish every word that came out of his mouth, proclaiming in an authoritative tone that Howl had no literary merit since it did not conform to his "three bases for an objective criticism [of what makes great literature]: form, theme
and opportunity". Kirk considered Voltaire's Candide to be great literature, and he spent a great deal of time studying it. Yet Kirk admitted he made up his mind that Howl had no literary merit "after five minutes". Defense attorney Jake Ehrlich later pointed out eloquently in his closing statement that, "Voltaire's Candide was originally condemned as obscene because it dealt with sex. Words dealing with and describing sex do not destroy literary merit. Seek filth and you will find it. Seek beauty of narration and you will find that too".

Ehrlichs heated questioning of Kirk resulted in a stand off between the prosecution and defense. David Straitharn made McIntosh's struggle palpable, as he sensed that he was losing the case against the slick Ehrlich, suavely played by the great Jon Hamm. At one point, Straitharn stood up out of his seat with indignation at what the prosecution had said, yet he was unable to even utter "I object". Straitharns powerhouse performance revealed that although McIntosh bumbled through his questioning at times, he truly believed that Howl was obscene, and he genuinely wanted to protect society from filth like Ginsberg's poem.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009:

Monday, March 23, 2009:

Today we had two phenomenal actors on set playing witnesses in the Howl trial.

First, Treat Williams appeared as the defense's star witness, Mark Schorer - a renowned intellectual, one of America's leading critics, and a professor at UC Berkeley in English, as well as Chairman of Graduate Studies in English. (He published three novels, about 75 short stories, and numerous literary criticisms). Treats easy-going demeanor and laid-back intelligence created a character that had nothing to prove; he was assured in his defense of Howl and was not tripped up by McIntosh's insistence on dissecting specific words in the poem as part of his quest to find obscenity in Howl.

Treat's demeanor was a sharp contrast to the prosecution witnesses dogmatic approach as to what constituted great literature and what was mere smut. This attitude was brilliantly and fiercely embodied by Mary-Louise Parker, bedecked in a blonde wig as Gail Potter, a teacher and radio personality, who bragged in her testimony that she had
rewritten the classic dramas Faust and Everyman, which unintentionally drew chuckles from the courtroom audience. A self-satisfied smile crept onto Mary-Louise's face as she said that without a doubt, "I think [Howl] has no literary merit".

Incredibly, every word of testimony in this film was taken directly from the transcripts of this remarkable trial.

Monday, March 23, 2009:

Friday, March 20, 2009:

Today we began shooting the courtroom battle over Howl's literary merit. The publisher of Howl, Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights Book Shop, was brought to trial for publishing obscene material. Bob Balaban played Judge Clayton Horn, who presided over the 1957 trial; David Straitharn played Ralph McIntosh, the prosecuting attorney who was in a bit over his head; and Jon Hamm was legendary defense attorney Jake "The Master" Ehrlich. Though we were shooting at a courtroom in the Bronx, the period set dressing and vibrant lighting created the feeling that we were in a sun-soaked 1957 courtroom in San Francisco. Forty extras in period clothes filled the courtroom; they were all positioned based on actual photographs from the trials that showed a courtroom full of attentive spectators. The courtroom scenes were being shot in a classical style, reminiscent of courtroom dramas from "To Kill a Mockingbird" to "The Verdict", in contrast with the looser style of the rest of the film.

As with most feature films, we had to shoot the scenes out of sequence because of actor availability, and so we began with the end - Judge Horn (Bob Balaban) delivering the verdict. As performed by Bob Balaban, the verdict became an eloquent monologue that beautifully summed up the importance of free speech. Judge Horn asked, "Would there be any freedom of press or speech if one must reduce his vocabulary to vapid innocuous euphemism? An author should be real in treating his subject and be allowed to express his thoughts and ideas in his own words." (Right before the Howl trial, Horn had been critiqued by local press for sentencing four lady shoplifters to
attend Cecil B. DeMilles "The Ten Commandments" and write essays on the epic's moral lessons. It seems that the criticism he received for that verdict must have weighed heavily on his decision in the Howl case).

After shooting the verdict scene, we then went to the very beginning of the trial and shot prosecutor Ralph McIntosh's opening statement. His befuddlement was evident as he began, "I want to show on the first page inside of Howl it says 'The Pocket Poets Series, Number Four, City Lights Book Shop, San Francisco'. However, on the following
page, way down at the bottom, is 'All these books are published in heaven'. And I dont quite understand that, but let the record show anyway, your Honor, it's published by the City Lights Pocketbook Shop". McIntosh objected to specific words in Howl as being obscene, yet he didnt understand the poem as a whole, as he openly admitted later in the trial, and he did not even seem to care about Ginsberg's intentions. McIntosh had tried many smut cases in the past against pornographic movies, nudist magazines, and Jane Russells appearance in Howard Hughes' "The Outlaw".

Friday, March 20, 2009:

Six Gallery Set:

"Six Gallery Set"



















Neal Cassady (Jon Prescott) in the Six Gallery.




























Peter Orlovsky (Aaron Tveit) in the Six Gallery



















Jack Kerouac (Todd Rotondi) on a fire escape (recreating a photograph of the real Kerouac).

Six Gallery Set:

More photos from the set of Howl:

James Franco, with directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, on the set of Howl.













Director Jeffrey Friedman watches a scene play out in the courtroom















Director of Photography Ed Lachman



























Director Rob Epstein in the courtroom set.

















Script supervisor Tony Pettine discusses a scene with directors Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein in the courtroom.










Assistant Director Tom Fatone and 2nd 2nd Assistant Director Kim Thompson in the courtroom set.

More photos from the set of Howl:

Howl composer Carter Burwell makes a cameo in the Six Gallery playing the bongos.

From a scene in Howl- a Cezanne painting that partly inspired Ginsberg's style.

Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman filming in the streets of the East Village. They go over a shot while director of photography Ed Lachman checks his light meter.

Thursday, March 19, 2009:

Yesterday and today we recreated the Six Gallery in a vacant West Village storefront. The Six Gallery is where Allen Ginsberg read Howl publicly for the first time. Our ingenious production designer Therese DePrez (High Fidelity, American Splendor, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) created an extraordinary space - a funky gallery, complete with artwork wherever you looked, low-hanging lights, mismatched tables and chairs, a piano, a hookah, and all of the odds and ends you would expect to find in this place where a group of poets gathered in 1955 to hear Ginsberg's revolutionary new kind of poetry. Theatrical smoke was pumped through the room as a final touch to add more atmosphere.

For the first day of shooting at the Six Gallery, over thirty extras filled the space, as well as the actors playing Kerouac, Cassady and Orlovsky - they each reacted to Howl in their own personal ways, as different stanzas meant different things to each of them. Kerouac passed around a bottle of wine and shouted, "Go! Go!" just as he was reported to have done that night in 1955.

James Franco recited the poem as Ginsberg did, only James had to do it take after take for two days (the first day with extras, the second day by himself). He tirelessly recited it with as much conviction on the evening of the second day as he had the morning of the first day. Even when he was off camera, James read the poem full out in order to get the best reaction shots from the crowd. James commitment was extraordinary and his passion evident in every take. He made his way through the lengthy and gut-wrenching poem, finding both the humor and heartbreak in each verse of Howl the cadences of James voice brought to life the spirit of Ginsberg. James' months and months of research on Ginsberg for this movie was evident even in how he carried his body when performing as young Ginsberg - the way he raised his hand in the air for emphasis was just like Ginsberg's gesticulations in various photographs.

We also filmed a small moment between Ginsberg and his longtime lover Peter Orlovsky, sitting back-to-back on two opposite park benches (based on an actual photo taken of them in Paris). Though they weren't even facing each other, the intimacy between them was palpable. Peter is played by Aaron Tveit, who will be seen in the forthcoming Broadway musical Next to Normal. (Also, he will play the Leonardo DiCaprio role in a musical version of Catch Me If You Can on Broadway next season).

Thursday, March 19, 2009:

Tuesday, March 17, 2009:

We shot in Allens old neighborhood today - the East Village. Our filming locations were literally blocks away from where Allen lived. The day began with recreating the aftermath of a car accident when Allen got a ride in a car that turned out to be stolen and was full of stolen goods. (This is what lead to Allen checking into the
Psychiatric Institute on 168th Street, where he met Carl Solomon, to whom Howl is dedicated). Our prop master, Jeff Butcher, had a busy day, as all of the stolen goods from the car that were showered onto the street after the accident, the smoke coming from the car, and the 1950s car itself are all considered "props" and all within Jeff's
domain. He had to make sure that all of the "stolen items" were in position for each take and that the right amount of smoke was coming out of the car at all times.

Next we moved to Tompkins Square Park to film a moment of Ginsberg and Kerouac sitting on a bench together and struggling with their early writings. And then the entire crew hauled their equipment a few blocks away to recreate a San Francisco storefront where Allen jealously took a picture of his friend Neal Cassady and one of Neal's many girlfriends.

Today we also recreated two classic photographs: Jack Kerouac smoking on the fire escape and Ginsberg laying outside on museum steps and smoking a joint.

While we were walking up to the third floor apartment to film on the fire escape, our director of photography, Ed Lachman, noticed how beautiful and in period the staircase was, and we decided this would be a perfect way to end the sequence we shot yesterday of Allen walking through the "negro streets at dawn". Allen would finally walk up a flight of stairs at his apartment building and stare up blankly to what lay ahead.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009:

Monday, March 16, 2009:

Today was the first day of principal photography! We shot a series of moments in Ginsberg's life that inspired him to write Howl. We began with a sequence of Allen walking through a number of alleyways, disheveled after a long night, dragging himself through the "negro street at dawn," as he would later write in Howl. He sees various street characters - hustlers, junkies, etc. We were able to use three parts of one alleyway in Queens to make it look like he was walking through three different sections in New York.

We then shot a sequence of Ginsberg walking through images that influenced the style of Howl - a Cezanne that Allen saw at the Museum of Modern Art. (As Allen says in the film, "Part of Howl was really an homage to Cezanne's method. In a sense I adapted what I could to writing. Cezanne is reconstituting by means of triangles, cubes, and colors. I have to reconstitute by means of words, rhythms and phrasings.") We also shot a sequence of a drugged out Allen literally walking through an image of William Blake that was being projected onto his face and the room around him. Another scene we filmed was Allen's day job working as a copyboy, frustrated as he tried to come up with a toothpaste ad, and leading a more or less "normal" existence before deciding to take a very different path in life, which ultimately lead to the creation of Howl.

Day One was a success - now only thirteen more shooting days to go!

Monday, March 16, 2009: