Shots In The Dark: Denzel Comes to Harvard

Friday, July 13, 2007

Denzel Comes to Harvard

The university has granted Denzel Washington permission to film part of his new movie inside Sanders Theater.

According to the Boston Globe,

The director/star of "The Great Debaters" -- about a debate team from a tiny, all-black college that ate Harvard's lunch back in 1935 -- will be allowed to film the debate scene at Sanders next week .

Actually, sounds like wonderful movie material.

So why do you think the university allowed Washington to film when it routinely says no to other productions?*

1) What Joe Wrinn says is true: "Sanders is regularly rented out as a music venue, so it's outside the rules that forbid filming on campus," said Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn.

2) Big Denzel fans.

3) Jealous of Yale, where scenes from the next Raiders of the Lost Ark movie have been filmed this summer.

4) Reluctant to say no to a movie about a black debate team coming to Harvard. ("Harvard Evicts Film about Black Heroes," etc.) Instead, hoping to get some good publicity out of the whole thing.

5) Under Drew Faust, glasnost.

* Here's a hint: Who do you think called the Boston Globe?

¶ 6:43 AM

Comments:

Nah, you're off the mark. Harvard doesn't allow much commercial filming on campus, which is a shame. But it is way ahead of its peers in letting Hollywood movies and the like use its name -- or at least not stepping in the way when they do. Somewhat famously, "Stealing Harvard" was originally slated to be "Stealing Stanford," but the latter demanded changes to the ending that the director refused to make. Harvard didn't stand in the way of "Legally Blonde" or "How High," either, and both of those films didn't exactly cast the school in the best light. Most other universities make dubious but scary copyright claims to their names that keep Hollywood away. The Indiana Jones movie, for instance, is only filming at Yale; it's not set there.

# posted by Mass Ave : July 13, 2007 9:54 AM

Sorry, you're wrong. For one thing, Harvard didn't let Legally Blonde film on campus, and if memory serves, Legally Blonde was filmed at USC.

(Yes, memory serves: http://www.seeing-stars.com/Locations/LegallyBlonde.shtml )

Nor did Harvard let Good Will Hunting film on campus. The University of Toronto substituted for Harvard.

And I don't know about the Stanford connection, though that sounds apocryphal. "Stealing Stanford"? A number of Internet references say that was an early title, but they are all vague, and I can think of lots of reasons why Stealing Harvard might have better suited the filmmakers other than legal ones.

Terrible movie, though.

You suggest that Harvard could stand in the way of the content of films rather than standing in the way of letting them film on campus, and of course it can't do that. I suspect that Harvard would be on very shaky legal ground if it tried to stop a movie from using the word "Harvard" in its title, not to mention the reams of embarrassing publicity it would generate for doing so.

Yale, incidentally, supported the creation of a Yale set so that the Gilmore Girls could film in Burbank.

# posted by Richard Bradley : July 13, 2007 10:47 AM

USC regularly serves as a setting for any number of college campuses in feature films (the school's industry connections sure don't hurt), and from what I understand, it takes in a fair amount of money for use of the grounds, properties, and affiliated environs.

# posted by Anonymous : July 13, 2007 11:55 AM

I didn't say anything about filming on campus, except that "Harvard doesn't allow much" of it. My post was completely about Harvard "letting Hollywood movies and the like use its name." Other schools make "dubious but scary copyright claims to their names that keep Hollywood away." Harvard doesn't. That's all I said!

# posted by Mas : July 13, 2007 12:47 PM

I'm pretty sure that Harvard pays a significant amount of attention, and maybe an FTE and a half all told, to issues having to do with protecting its brand.

Even a student group, the "H-Bomb" sex mag, wasn't allowed to use the word "Harvard." To be sure, they have a smaller legal budget than MGM Studies or whatever, but still -- I know that OGC is vigilant and will use the tools at its disposal if it wants something stopped. And the name is not in the public domain....

SE

# posted by Standing Eagle : July 13, 2007 1:25 PM

And this was an interesting example of the institution's backing off from its usual instincts when it clearly got worried about seeming to oppress its own students:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=514493

# posted by Richard Thomas : July 13, 2007 3:22 PM

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