i also knew that i could film at my place of employment, pr newswire in jersey city, to act as wendy's workplace. but i still had no restaurant, city apartment, or most importantly, a hospital.

the next weekend (jan. 10 & 11), we shot at pr newswire, at harborside financial center in jersey city. ken dowell was gracious enough to volunteer his office, and i kept the equipment overnight under the 24-hour watch of the operations dept. my co-worker chris lenois was nice enough to stay past his overnight shift until 2pm to record the lines for mike's phone voice. the highlight of the weekend was the dolly shot alongside wendy as she runs down the harborside hallway, with the skyline of lower manhattan in the background. thanks to chris freilich for suggesting that shot!

by then i had secured a restaurant -- pronto-cena ristorante on sussex st. in the paulus hook section of jersey city. owner charles moschini agreed to let us shoot there at midnight on sat. jan. 17. before that, though, it was back down to the jersey shore to shoot the bus scenes. i rented a school bus from coast cities bus service, to show iris getting off the bus and heading home -- the film's opening shots.

then on to the restaurant. after shooting until 03:30am, we went back at it the next afternoon, shooting at the very nice jersey city apartment of my co-worker darrin mayes and his fiancee martha. we had to time the takes in between baby cries (darrin had visitors, including a 6-month-old baby), but everything turned out okay.

"has your party arrived yet?" the restaurant hostess (elise molinelli) asks wendy (linda hetrick) at the bar.

the NYC metro area and some down by the shore in the suburbs (including the one i was born in, monmouth medical center in long branch), but they all turned me down. at least 15 different places. finally, i contacted brian grace at the newton memorial hospital in newton, NJ. newton is a small town in north western jersey that is surrounded by farmland -- a very nice place.