 The first scene in New York , which features Giselle emerging from a manhole in the middle of Times Square , was filmed on location in the center of the square . Because of the difficulties in controlling the crowd while filming in Times Square , general pedestrians were featured in the scene with hired extras placed in the immediate foreground . Similarly , a crowd gathered to watch as James Marsden and Timothy Spall filmed their scenes in Times Square . However , the scene Lima found the most challenging to shoot was the musical number , " That 's How You Know " , in Central Park . The five @-@ minute scene took 17 days to finish due to the changing weather , which allowed only seven sunny days for the scene to be filmed . The filming was also hampered at times by Patrick Dempsey 's fans . The scene was choreographed by John O 'Connell , who had worked on Moulin Rouge ! beforehand , and included 300 extras and 150 dancers . 
