Ptah (film)

The film was shot based on the eponymous best-selling novel by William Wharton about the friendship of two dissimilar young men - the vulnerable, impressionable Ptah and the cocky jolly Al. They are opposites, but there is a common between them. The meat grinder of Vietnam will make them other people (in the book we are talking about the Second World War).

El can no longer be such a carefree merry fellow, and Ptah will completely go inside himself, “move” with his mind, imagining himself a bird. For the sake of their former friendship, El should reach out to his friend, restore his sanity, pull the person out of the bird cage in which he voluntarily imprisoned himself, hiding from the horrors of war.

Preparation

After the publication of William Worthon's “The Birdie” in 1978, Alan Parker received books from his agent. After reading the novel, Parker discussed it with his colleague, producer Alan Marshall, before abandoning the possibility of filming his film adaptation ^[2] . Parker explained: “Most of the plot took place in the boy’s head, and the poetry of the book was literary. In order to make it cinematic - I did not know if I could make such a leap ” ^[3] . In September 1979, Orion Pictures bought the novel for $ 150,000 ^[4] .

In October 1982, A&M Films, the newly created subsidiary of A&M Records , acquired the rights to the film and authorized screenwriters Sandy Krupf and Jack Baer to write the script ^{[2] [3] [4]} . Krupf and Baer made various changes from the novel, deciding to focus primarily on the friendship between Ptah and Al Columbato. “In the mid-1960s, we went to high school,” Baer explained, “so growing up was then our experience.” ^[3] Krupf and Baer spent a year trying to sell their script to various movie studios, but to no avail ^[3] . In 1983, A&M Films sent the script to Parker, who, after reading the script, signed a contract for the filming of the film adaptation ^[5] . Parker discussed the project with TriStar Pictures executives.

Casting

Parker and casting director Juliet Taylor conducted open trials in Los Angeles , San Francisco , San Jose , New York and Philadelphia ^{[2] [5]} . Matthew Modin initially auditioned for the role of Al Columbato, but Parker decided to choose him as Ptahi, believing that the actor had an “introverted honest quality” that was best for the character ^[2] . Modine said: “I was stunned because I did not audition for the role of Ptah. I never thought that I would play the part of Ptah. So, I had to really carry out an extraordinary transformation in my mind, trying to bring this wonderful character to life. It was an incredible movie making experience. ” ^[6]

Nicolas Cage played Al Columbato. Cage reflected: “I was terrified of the role of Al, because it was not like what I had ever done before, and I did not know how to get to the places where this role asked me to go emotionally” ^[3] . “I wanted to look like a bomb hit me,” he said. “It gave me the feeling of something that I lost. I felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime part, and she deserved so much ” ^[3] .

Filming

Filming was scheduled to begin in December 1983, but was delayed for six months to accommodate the filming schedule of Modina in the drama Mrs. Soffel (1984) ^[2] . The main filming of the film began in Philadelphia on May 15, 1984 ^{[2] [5]} , with a budget of $ 12 million. The trainer Gary Gero used 80 different canaries for various scenes in the film, as well as pigeons, rhinoceros birds, cats, 18 dogs and seagulls ^{[ 2]} .

Ptah was the first feature film to be partially shot with Skycam, a computer-controlled pendant camera system created by Garrett Brown, inventor of Steadicam . Skycam had racks 30 meters high with four hanging wires controlled by a computer, and a lightweight Panavision camera with a 200-foot film hung in the center of the wires ^{[2] [5]} . The filmmakers intended to use Skycam to fully portray Ptahi's point of view during fantasy episodes in which he imagines himself flying ^[2] .

After four weeks of filming in Philadelphia, the cast and crew moved to Wildwood, New Jersey, which were duplicated for scenes taking place on the Atlantic City Boardwalk ^{[2] [5]} . Filming was then moved to San Francisco . The scene where Ptah and Al climb the refinery building was shot on the roof of an abandoned gas plant in Hercules, California. The scene demanded that Modine and Cage hang on the edge of the roof, protected by safety wires, while the scene in which Ptaha falls from the roof was performed by an understudy ^[2] .

Movie Music

The soundtrack for the film was created, produced and performed by English author-performer Peter Gabriel . This was his first work on a feature film, as well as his first collaboration with music producer Daniel Lanua ^{[2] [7]} . Parker first met Gabriel during the film’s post-production, as he had previously experimented with his music by incorporating percussion rhythms from the musician’s solo albums ^[2] . Parker contacted Gabriel's manager, producer David Geffen , who said that creating a soundtrack would be a slow process, since Gabriel was known for working at his own pace ^[2] . Working on his fifth studio album, So , Gabriel agreed to create Birdy after watching a working version of the film ^{[2] [8]} .

The recording took place from October to December 1984 at Gabriel's home studio at Ashcombe House in Somerset ^{[9] [10]} . Gabriel used fragments from previously recorded material over the past four years, which he and Lanois remixed for individual scenes in the film ^[2] . The composition “Close Up” arose from the song “Family Snapshot” (from Gabriel's third album), which was created on the Yamaha CP-70 electric piano ^[9] .

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