NOTE: I will not include any info which I believe gives away key events in the movie. Any new reports will be added on the back of previous ones...
Filming was mainly in Vegas (where the climactic heist takes place) with additional scenes in Atlantic City , Florida (St. Petersburg), Palm Springs, New Jersey, and Chicago...
According to the Associated Press "More than 400 people will be hired locally for work as extras and minor characters in scenes shot at Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino and the White House Sub Shop......The filming will take place around Feb. 11. Clooney will be the only star shooting scenes in Atlantic City......Extras get $75 for the first 10 hours and overtime pay after that......The reason so many extras are needed is because some of the scenes take place on the casino floor, and the film's producers want it to be crowded......Soderbergh decided to add a scene at the White House Sub Shop after eating lunch there while scouting potential shooting locations......In it, Clooney will carry on a conversation with someone he just met at Caesars......"We're going to close all day for them," said sub-maker Phil LaRocca, the White House's unofficial spokesman. "We welcome it. It will be inconvenient, of course, but we know it helps the city." For those that care for precise info, the Sub Shop is being compensated by Warners as it "typically sells 6,000 subs a day, at about $5 per sub".
Here's a shooting report from Atlantic City as posted in my guestbook by Don Anthony..."I was an extra at Trump Plaza Feb 13. 900 people tried out and they picked only 180.I was in 6 scenes the last one was a definite. I was paired up with a SAG female member(very nice and good looking) and we did about 12 retakes when the camera was panning out for backrount scenes.The a.e.d. said we were great. We started 5:30 am and went throught make-up,what to wear,etc.About 9am my first scene was to sit at an slot machine and when told to fake playing.About 15 takes. George Clooney was in the scene where he got off the escalstor. The next scene George walked down the casino isle going to meet his friend.12 retakes.The next scene George was playing blackjack and met his dealer friend. George Clooney is one of the nicest guys I have met in a long time.He was very friendly to everybody no matter who you were. He shook my hand and asked me how I was.I was very fortunate to be a small part of this picture and it was one of the best experiences in my life. If anybody has a chance to be an extra,do it no matter how long you have to wait. It is well worth it."
Darkhorizons.com have reported the following regarding shooting in Florida..."The St. Petersburg Times reports that shooting will take place for two days next month (February) at the town's local dog track named 'Derby Lane'. Clooney and another co-star will shoot scenes in late February around the three-quarters of a century old facility with 2,800 locals appearing as extras. The scenes to be shot "involve Clooney's character visiting a former crony to persuade him to join their scheme".
Also, more recently and widely publicised was the audition for the above on the 10th of February...."No speaking parts will be cast Saturday, just several hundred people to populate scenes set at a greyhound race and a circus. The latter setting will be accomplished with a big-top tent erected in the race track's parking lot...
Extras will be paid $75 per each 10-hour work day, with up to three days of work available. St. Petersburg/Clearwater film commissioner Jennifer Parramore said Monday that filming is expected to begin locally during the third week of February...
All ages are invited to apply, but Ocean's Eleven filmmakers are especially interested in hiring seniors..."
Many thanks due to Daniel Delgado for e-mailing with this info.
And here's a first-hand report from "Hollywood Hopeful" on the audition for the above...
"Just wanted to let you know that I tried to get into the extras casting call in St. Petersburg, Fla and it was a joke!
It was held in the mall and by ten o'clock there was a line wrapped around the upper and lower levels and thensome. Must have been five or six thousand people for apparently 1500 positions (so I heard). No one knew anything about how many they were looking for, what type, whether kids were needed, if it was a period piece, etc.
The casting director sorely underestimated the turnout and the people standing in line had to bear the brunt of it. Are they that shortsighted that they only expected such a small crowd as to be able to handle them in this small room in the mall? Oh, brother. Someone didn't do their homework. We've had other movies filmed here with similar large turnouts. A gal in line told me that they advertised all over central and west Fla coast and even South to Sarasota. Jeez, what did they expect?"
The Florida local press reported the following about the circus and track filming on the 20th...
"Three days of filming Warner Bros.' Ocean's 11 commenced
Tuesday at Derby Lane greyhound track, although movie-stargazers were mostly
out of luck. Director Steven Soderbergh and actors George Clooney and Brad Pitt were out
of sight most of the day, working inside a circus tent erected in the parking
lot. Filming began just after 8 a.m. and continued until the director of Erin
Brockovich and Traffic called a halt at 3:15 p.m. Production continues at
Derby Lane today and Thursday. Tuesday's pace slowed only slightly when two members of the Peking Acrobat Co., Li Dian Feng, 17, and Yang Chun Lei, 18, both from California, fell
nearly 10 feet while performing for the cameras. They were part of an
eight-man troupe working on parallel poles when Feng and Lei collided and
fell. Paramedics were summoned and the acrobats were taken to Bayfront Medical
Center where they were treated and then released, a hospital spokeswoman
said. Lei suffered a minor cut on his head and Feng injured his knee. Clooney and Pitt were present when the accident occurred but were not
involved with the scene.
Although only Soderbergh's crew and nearly 500 local residents hired as
background extras were allowed access to the set, that didn't stop reporters
and television crews from waiting for a glimpse of celebrity. Derby Lane
officials kept them nearly 75 yards away from the tent. Sightseers visited, leaving soon after realizing the stars weren't coming out
into the daylight. "I just want to see Brad Pitt," said Eva Brandstaetter, 22, a vacationing
student from Frankfurt, Germany. "If he's in the same city that I am, I'll
try to see him." Brandstaetter may get her chance today. Matinee racing will be held as
planned during today's filming, with post time at 12:30 p.m. Clooney, Alan Arkin and possibly Pitt will be involved with the shoot, along
with approximately 800 more extras. "There will be some areas roped off, so I don't know how close people can get," said Derby Lane marketing director Vera Filipelli. "We'll have a crowd, I'm sure. If we happen to reach track capacity -- about 15,000 -- we'll cut
(admissions) off."
Tuesday's schedule began at 6:15 a.m. when the first wave of extras arrived.
These were people hired not only as bodies, but also for their vehicles that
could be parked outside the tent for exterior authenticity.
Casting agents specifically inquired about the make and model of extras'
vehicles during an open casting call Feb. 10 that attracted more than 6,000
hopefuls to ParkSide mall in Pinellas Park. Nearly 1,300 applicants were chosen. Tuesday's temperature reached the upper 70s, causing minor discomfort among
some extras, who had been instructed to wear warm clothes to suit the winter
setting of the circus scene. "It has to be at least 15 degrees hotter in there," said Lisa Roskowski, 36, of St. Petersburg after finishing lunch. "They have fans going, but it
doesn't do much good." Bit players were checked in Tuesday by 8 a.m. Less than an hour later Clooney and Pitt filmed a brief exchange outside the tent before going in for the
rest of the day's shooting schedule. The stars were friendly on the set,
signing autographs and speaking with children hired for the circus scenes,
several extras said later. Other bit players refused to comment after signing confidentiality agreements -- to guard against negative comments from extras who may have grown impatient with the day's pacing. "A lot of times (extras) don't understand what's going on," said Ocean's 11 publicist Spooky Stevens. "It can take hours to get something done and they can make everything sound foolish when it's just the way it is."
After Palm Springs filming finished the local press had this to say..."The trucks and trailers are on their way to Las Vegas and the stars have
checked out of Merv Griffin's Resort & Givenchy Spa.
On-location filming in Palm Springs of the remake of the 1960 Frank Sinatra
classic, "Ocean's Eleven," wrapped Saturday morning after an all-night shoot
at a house in the Las Palmas district of Palm Springs.
All but Roberts and Garcia participated in the shoots Thursday and Friday
nights. The crew began setting up the shoot last weekend and started filming
scenes on Wednesday.
But few people ever saw the stars. Security was extremely tight around the
house at Via Lola and Patencio. Even crew members had to meet at a base
station off North Palm Canyon Drive and take a shuttle to the house.
A unit publicist said a few more people than usual were seen taking walks in
the area, but people generally respected producer Jerry Weintraub's request
for privacy.
Crew members stayed at the Palm Springs Hilton Resort and the cast stayed at
the Merv Griffin Resort & Givenchy Spa. But General Manager Heidi Geier also
said few people saw the actors.
"They kept to themselves," she said. "They were really polite to the
employees but they were working and they really didn't have time to spend in
the hotel."
The production company occupied 33 rooms at the Merv Griffin Resort and
Geier said Clooney and Gould worked out in the spa gym. She said she was
just sorry she couldn't have seen more of them. It was the first production
company to stay at her hotel since she assumed her job just before Robert
Downey Jr. was arrested on drug charges there."
Another report by an un-named local reporter in Palm Springs gave an interesting close-up look at filming..."...arguably the most famous scene in the movie, in which the robbers agree to Danny Ocean’s plan by putting their hands one on top of the other on a pool table in the financier’s Las Vegas home, was restaged Thursday without the pool table by the man who created the original scene, Sid Avery. The house at Via Lola and Patencio was selected, said Weintraub, because they wanted a place that resembled a Las Vegas home that had been lived in since the ’60s. Jack Liberman, who works for the owners of the house, private art dealers Gordon Locksley and George T. Shea, said the location scouts found it in the book of unique local architecture, Palm Springs Modern. Liberman said the 7,000-square-foot home was built on 1.1 acres of land in 1957 by Quincy Jones.
The estate is surrounded by oleander bushes with dozens of palm trees towering over them. The driveway inside a black iron gate leads to a post-modern overhang with rectangular holes, or perhaps portals, to see the sky. Trees and plant life adorn both sides of the stone walkway to the house. Weintraub said his crew completely redecorated the interior and pool area to get the look Soderbergh wanted. Paintings of naked women were hung on the stone walls of the compartmentalized living area, and statues were placed around the pool. The scene shot Friday night was the one in which Ocean was explaining the caper to his cohorts at the Las Vegas home of the financier, Reuben Tishkoff, played by Gould.
It was a scene that had to be reshot dozens of times, no matter how good the performances, so Soderbergh could get his master shot and then relight the scene each time for the individual shots of all 11 robbers.
A lot of the action centred around a boxing match held at the MGM Grand Hotel Garden Arena in Vegas (6th and 7th of April). This was staged by the 2 fighters with the help of 10,000 drafted extras. Nobody's saying that the boxers provided any dialogue but instead that the fight is more of a focal event that will possibly provide a distraction from the gang's other activities (instead of the New Year celebrations in the 1960 version). I initially reported this in December with Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson as the boxers. A confirmed update has been placed on the Cast update page...
The main hotel/casino scenes took place in and around the Bellagio Hotel with additional scenes being shot within the MGM hotel and casino itself. The main stars stayed at the Bellagio with a couple reportedly at the Mirage. There was apparently also a large bank/casino vault set built for what could be a setpiece sequence (this might be the Bellagio cashiers cage set or an interior of it, as mentioned in the confirmed shooting locations page)...
Here's a update on the Bellagio shooting. Thanks to Jason R.Good for this.."...when i
checked in to the Bellagio last
saturday(before last), they had what looked like an
ordinary bar being constructed
directly between the sportsbook and "sam's snacks" . I
was there for a week so I got to
see them working on the set. I was informed later
that this wasn't a "bar" but was going
to be the cashier's cage,...It looks exactly like a
combination of the main cashier's cage
and the slot club counter. the marble and tile is fake
of course, but it looks EXACT
complete with bellagio ashtrays on each side. While I
was there, I saw George Clooney
taking a late night walk through the casino at about
4am on wed or thur. I was informed
that they would be shooting the cage scene on monday
(19th) which unfortunately was the
day i left, so i didn't get to see any of the actual
filming. The night/early morning before i
left a crew was moving all the regular slots located
around the set and they brought in
about 50 or so older slots that each had a piece of
paper on them that said,.."Slot #....
Oceans Eleven set" and had the date....etc. (I was
going to snag one of those for a
souvenir but I didn't,.. oh well) Anyway,...I know
this is really unorganized and clumped
together but I was excited when i saw u're site and
saw that you didn't really have alot of
info on the Bellagio set:) So i wanted to email you as
soon as possible and yes,. the stars
were staying there,..or at least Julia, Brad, Matt and
George where. Also Ben Afleck
was playing in the high roller room next to the
baccarat bar on tuesday night. I don't
know if he's in the film or not? I saw Casey on a cast
list but not Ben." (Ben Affleck is in Vegas a lot apparently, normally losing a lot of money at the Hard Rock Hotel, he was seen there with Matt Damon a few days ago at the blackjack tables)
The Las Vegas Review Journal reported on the 26th of March that..."...filming moves to the Barbary Coast today for a flashback scene. The crew was to begin setting up in the main casino before sunrise for a half-day shoot. "The scene has late a 1960s feel to it," said general manager Michael Gaughan. "A lot of my players won't have to change their dress at all." ...
The LVRJ also has significant news regarding specific location shooting on the 29th of March...
"Ocean's Eleven plans to feature another manhole cover -- this one outside Bellagio, where the all-star caper's shooting inside the casino this week.
That is, except for Thursday, when a crew is scheduled to be on the Strip -- literally -- from 6 to 11 a.m.
That's when one of the title character's henchmen is expected to emerge from a manhole cover and enter the hotel for a rendezvous with his fellow heistmeisters, who are plotting to rob Bellagio, The Mirage and Treasure Island during a heavyweight title fight....
During the shoot, about 50 vehicles featured in the production will drive past the camera.
And that camera will be positioned in the street, according to Lt. Curt Williams of the Metropolitan Police Department's special events unit.
That means the two right lanes of the southbound Strip in front of Bellagio will be closed to traffic on and off while the sequence is completed, Williams reports. Pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk in front of Bellagio also will be blocked while the camera's rolling."
The following report was submitted by Debra Hewlett regards the Bellagio shooting over a few days... "My family and I were in Las Vegas. On Tue, 3-27 approx. 5p.m., Brad Pitt
was filming around the bar/cage area you described.
On Wed, 3-28 approx. 9 a.m. Andy Garcia was filming between the "O" store
and the "O" ticket booth. They had constructed an elevator in this area and
Garcia had several takes of walking out of the elevator to a banister area.
In the p.m. Brad Pitt was back over at the bar/cage area...(edited for possible spoiler)
On Thurs, 3-29 7 a.m. the crew was in front of Bellegio and a guy came
across the street and told us when the man jumped into the manhole we could
not be standing across the street. We could stay but we had to continue
walking so that when the camera panned, it would not see us standing in
front of the Eiffel Tower. We left for breakfast.
We they went at 12:00 noon to the Monte Carlo. They were taping on the 5th
floor of the parking deck. Julia Roberts and several others were walking up
the red carpeted steps and someone pushed the dynamite box to blow-up New
York New York. We say several takes of this. When Julia was not shooting,
she sat behind the stage area in the shade and George Clooney and boyfriend
Ben stood and talked to her.
We left @ 9 a.m. Friday morning so we did not see anything else." Many thanks to Debra for this info. See photos of this shooting on the "Filming Photos" page...
As far as the boxing match is concerned, filming started on the 5th and will make good use of the Hamed-barrera match as predicted. The Las Vegas Sun has reported the following..."Siegfried & Roy were just two of the local celebrities making cameos in the phony fight scene. The illusionists will appear on camera entering the arena and taking seats right next to Julia Roberts and Andy Garcia, with whom they exchange polite ringside hellos. Wayne Newton will also be spotted in the crowd, along with Danny Gans.
Concerned casting directors lost a little sleep when they couldn't wrangle the 10,000 or so extras needed to make the fight look like the real deal, but that won't be a problem now. Thanks to some Hollywood magic, whatever filler needed in the audience participation department will come from the Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Prince Naseem Hamed bout scheduled for Saturday night. Camera operators will shoot that crowd and the editing room will take care of rest."
Filming moved away from Vegas after the 18th of April and towards the University Of California's Irvine campus for 2 days, from where this anonymous report comes..."They are filming here at UCI tonight (Friday, April 20th). We have seen a
copy of the filming schedule. There have been sightings all around the
College of Medicine. They have transformed one of our research buildings
(Guillespe) into "Barker Laboratory, Particle Physics" and our parking
lots into the "California Institute of Advanced Science, East
Entrance". As I haven't seen the script (deliberately), I'm not 100% sure where this fits into the plot although at a guess it would be something specific to the methods used for the casino heists
After the Irvine and Santa Monica filming, it moved to a closed set for most of May and has now wrapped up with a few short-term location shoots. The following was reported in the June 1st edition of Florida's St. Petersburg Times. Credit is due to Shelby for finding it..."Director Steven Soderbergh and his Ocean's 11 crew
returned to Derby Lane greyhound racing track Thursday, collecting
footage he missed during a two-day filming visit in February.
Just a second take for an Oscar-winning filmmaker, and a sequel of
sorts for nearly 400 people hired as background extras. Same dawn
arrival, same $75 payday, and another chance to glimpse actors George
Clooney and Brad Pitt on the set. A return to St. Petersburg was necessary after an on-set accident in
February prevented Soderbergh from filming circus acts performing while
Clooney and Pitt's characters plot a Las Vegas casino heist.
Two members of the Peking Acrobat Co. were injured when they collided
in mid-air during a routine. Paramedics took them to Bayfront Medical
Center where they were treated and released. The incident forced Soderbergh to film segments around their absence. Last week, the circus tent was installed again for Thursday's scenes
featuring other acrobats. No accidents were reported Thursday. "A few slips here and there, but all in all they're doing pretty good,"
said background extra Eve Kilgannon, 27, of Brandon during lunch break.
"Nothing like the last time, that's for sure."
Unlike the first trip, Thursday's action was confined to the circus
tent. No other footage inside the race track was filmed. The
production's closed-set policy prevented media coverage inside the
tent. Since Soderbergh was merely filling in some cinematic gaps -- "pick-up
shots" in studio jargon -- his stars didn't have much to do. Pitt quickly finished his work and departed nearly 30 minutes after
cameras started rolling at 11 a.m. Clooney stayed around for a few
hours joking with crew members and signing autographs for fans. "It seems like he's just sitting around watching the movie get made,"
said Kilgannon. "He's just hanging out, just being his typical guy self," said Jillian
Handrahan, 22, of North Port. Extras like Kilgannon and Handrahan began arriving at Derby Lane as
early as 6 a.m. to fill out payroll forms and prepare makeup and
wardrobe. Their duties were finished by 5 p.m. Many were part of the February shoot, so they weren't surprised by the
time-consuming process of crew members setting up for a few minutes of
filming."
Another notable location where Soderbergh returned to tidy things up was Vegas, as reported thus in the Las Vegas Review Journal. Many thanks again to Lynne for finding this..."It's deja vu all over again as "Ocean's Eleven" floats back into view this
week for pick-up shots in -- and around -- Bellagio.
The Rat Pack remake spent from mid-March to mid-April on location in Las
Vegas. But a specific shot -- of actor Don Cheadle departing Bellagio by
disappearing down a manhole cover on the Strip -- apparent didn't pass
muster with Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh. So the scene will be restaged from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to
Lt. Curt Williams of the Metropolitan Police Department's special events
unit.
Actor George Clooney -- who, in addition to playing the title role of
heistmeister Danny Ocean, serves as one of "Ocean's Eleven's" producers --
also is expected to reshoot scenes inside Bellagio Tuesday. And a camera-equipped taxicab will cruise the Strip between Sahara Avenue
and Russell Road, Williams reports, to capture additional atmospheric
footage. Part of that footage might include a shot of the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous
Las Vegas" sign. Initially, "Ocean's Eleven" officials had wanted to shoot another "Welcome
to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign: the one at McCarran International Airport's D
gates. There was just one problem, notes Hilarie Grey, McCarran's public affairs
manager. Seems "Ocean's Eleven" wanted to shoot their airport footage -- which would
have required closure of the escalators and detaining passengers -- over
Memorial Day weekend, one of the terminal's peak travel periods. McCarran officials suggested alternate dates and "mapped out what we could
do," she explains, but production officials "thought it over and said, `No
thanks.' " "
Generally the focus seems to be slightly less on Las Vegas this time. Early drafts of the film had some shooting in Monte Carlo and Seattle although these locations will not be in the final movie. There were rumours in February that shooting had already begun in Vegas, this may have been confused with "Rush Hour 2" which was then filming at the (closed) Desert Inn and also the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace with Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. A lot of the Ocean's 11 shooting in the early stages involves the recruitment of the various gang members, hence the multiple locations...
After the terrorist attacks on Sept 11th the Las Vegas Review Journal reported "An 11th-hour re-editing for "Ocean's Eleven" won't scuttle the film's world premiere here on Dec. 7. A Warner Bros. spokesman, speaking for director Steven Soderbergh, confirmed the New York-New York implosion scene is being removed. "Due to the recent terrorist attacks in New York City and out of respect for any uneasiness this scene may cause, Steven Soderbergh decided to reshoot that scene to replace New York-New York with a fictional casino," the spokesman said. The computer-generated implosion was part of a demolition, not a bombing, he noted"...(Thanks to Felicity for finding this). As mentioned elsewhere on this site the premiere location has now been moved to LA...
Click here for confirmed recent filming locations and dates
