Dearest Readers,
After my last post about leaving HEROES, my attention was drawn to the comments section of this blog. I want to thank everyone for their kind words and well wishes to me. I was truly touched. I also want to thank Otto Berkeley who writes reviews for herosite.net for his kind words. I’ve always found his reviews of the HEROES episodes to be very thoughtful and accurate. I’ve had a long relationship with Craig from kryptonsite.com and herosite.net and he’s been a great supporter as well.
Anyway – I would like to update everyone as to what I have been up to. I have, in fact, landed on my feet, as it were. Next year I will be producer-director on the new CW series MELROSE PLACE. Given the super-hero, stunts/fx background on my last two shows, this may not be the place people expected me to end up – but I will tell you it is a place I am very happy to have ended up.
The series has been created by Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, who are my friends from SMALLVILLE. Because of their involvement, I knew the show was going to be well-written and unexpected. A few weeks ago, when the idea of moving onto this show came up, I went to their office and watched a rough cut of the pilot. After it was over I turned to them and said, “You guys nailed this thing.” The pilot, which was directed by Davis Guggenheim, is intense, sexy, dark, edgy and shimmering. The cast is all-around excellent. My full expectation is that this series is going to be a breakout hit next season. I’ve been right about this on two-for-two series and I’ll be happy to go three-for-three.
I am also excited for the chance to “change up” the kind of work I’ve been doing. For whatever reason I have been lucky to have had a lengthy career. It’s had many ups and downs and I’ve gotten to work on lots of different kinds of material. Slowly, over time, I’ve come to realize, from a personal career-management standpoint, that it’s important to shift what you’ve been up to every once in a while so as not to get pinned down as the guy who just does that one thing. I am very happy to get to shift onto this new series which is well written, well cast and has the full backing of a very excited CBS/Paramount studios and the CW network.
Anyway, I’ve jumped onto this new job, which has been like jumping onto a moving train. I’ve been at work on it for the last few weeks… Putting together a crew and a rotation of directors, getting to know the cast and getting ready to start producing and directing this exciting new series. It’s all been extremely fast-paced and intense, and I haven’t had time, up until now, to post about my whereabouts. As of today we hired the last two key positions (hairdresser and costume supervisor - whew!) and I finally was able to come up for air.
Truthfully, at this time, I’m not sure if I’ll be doing the same thing with this blog I did on HEROES (i.e. posting behind the scenes photos and information on an episode by episode basis.) I might be, but that’s all still in the works.
Nevertheless, I didn’t want my last-ever post to be the rather somber farewell I wrote for the end of my run on HEROES. Take it from me, I am happy and healthy and all is well. If any of you fans of HEROES and SMALLVILLE are willing to follow me to a different kind of show, I promise you will be well rewarded with a visually exciting and emotionally compelling series.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
BEEMAN'S BLOG - SEASON THREE - EPISODE 25 - "AN INVISIBLE THREAD"
BEEMAN’S BLOG
SEASON 3 – EPISODE 25
“An Invisible Thread”
Dearest readers, this is a sad moment for me, as it will be, not only my final blog for Season 3, but also my final blog for HEROES.
You see, I will not be returning to HEROES for Season 4. Ultimately this was a financially motivated decision made by NBC. They no longer want to have a Producer/Director position on the show. But it coincides well with my own innate wanderlust, and so, while sad to leave so many friends and comrades, I am excited for the future.
Having said that, while this will be my final blog respective to HEROES, it is not necessarily my final Beeman’s Blog ever. Over the years I have been careful to keep this blog separate from NBC.com or any other entity that specifically ties it to HEROES. It certainly seems reasonable that I will continue to write on about whatever my next adventures are. It is a bit too early to say, but I have a strong feeling I will be involved in very exciting projects in the very near future. I hope that the many of you who have followed me up to now will continue to follow with me as I move forward. I have been amazed that the blog frequently gets thirty or forty thousand hits a week. If I have been able to give any enjoyment or insight to you fans then that is certainly enough to me. As I hope you know, I am well aware that our fans are everything and I am very happy to have been able to serve you. Moving forward, well… I will keep you posted.
So, having dispensed with that, it seems appropriate today, not to write a typical behind-the-scenes about what occurred on this final episode. From my point of view as director and producer it went quite smoothly. It was a Tim Kring script, which are always easy to make manifest. I am pleased with the overall results, and I hope you will be as well.
It seems more appropriate today to address a farewell to the many people I have worked with these last three years. (Take a breath – this could go on for awhile!)
I feel like starting with the actors. Of all the jobs I do on this show, working one on one and in groups with the actors is the most deeply rewarding and important job I do. I’ve mentioned, frequently what a great cast this is. That is partly because they are all very nice people. But also, they are all talented, and they each enjoy the relationship with the director, digging for the unexpected and the surprising.
I’d like to start with Zachary Quinto. Because I didn’t do the pilot I didn’t have influence over hiring the rest of the series regulars. But I was there, directing Zach at his first audition. It was an incredible, showstopping, performance. It was immediately evident that his range was phenomenal and I knew then and there we had something special. Zach is a true artist and I feel a deep affection for him. He is also a great person and a very giving actor to his fellow actors, to the crew and to the show. What’s especially amazing is that, as great as he is, I know how much he can still develop into the power of his craft. Beyond a doubt, I know that he will go on to greatness - because not only does he have the talent to achieve this he has the will, and I have immense respect for this quality within him.
To the rest, I’d like to say farewell to Hayden Panettiere. Hayden you are a savant. You do everything effortlessly and are deeply intelligent. I respect you immensely.
To Jack Coleman, you are a true professional in the very best sense of the word. Your work seems effortless and simple, and yet I know how complex the character is. Whenever I have had an opportunity to push with you into the deeper aspects of your character, the rewards were always rich.
To Ashley Crow, you were phenomenal in the pilot, presenting an odd quirky character. As the series developed, slowly, you were given the opportunity to expand this character and show a depth of character, a strength that is born in love of family. My personal opinion is that all of this resides naturally in you and reflects your own values. (In fact, whenever I had the opportunity to direct “The Bennets” Hayden, Ashley and Jack together, it was a delightful experience. “First Line on the Ice” I called them - using a hockey expression. Those scenes were always so fun and easy and fast to bring to fruition.)
To Milo Ventimiglia, you are a person of great integrity and a filmmaker in your own right. You have always been deeply respectful of the crew and the process and I respect that in you. I have really, truly enjoyed working with you.
To Adrian Pasdar, you are a true leader, and a funny nice guy who cares immensely about the details of his performance. You challenged me and forced me to direct with more depth. It is an honor to have directed you.
To Ali Larter, we had a very special and bonding experience on the sixth episode of the first season, as we both worked through a complex performance. You are characterized by great enthusiasm and desire to strive for the highest performance you can achieve and I very much admire you for this.
To Sendhil Ramamurthy, you are one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Your enthusiasm for being on the show has never waned. And you have always gone the extra mile whenever I asked you to do something above and beyond the expected. I am very grateful to you for this.
To Greg Grunberg, you are as funny and as naturally likable in person as you are on-screen. I have also been very impressed by your eagerness to push into darker areas of your character whenever the opportunity presented itself. Tonight’s episode is a good example of this. It has been a joy to work with you.
Masi Oka, you are one of the smartest actors I have ever worked with. It was incredibly fun learning the minute amount of Japanese I did from you. Your positive attitude was never in doubt throughout. You have been a great ambassador for the show, in so many ways, Thank you.
James Kyson Lee, sometimes I wonder if the work you do is fully appreciated. Straight-man comedy is not easy to pull off, but you make it all look so easy. As a film-maker I know that you are always 100% reliable to deliver whatever is asked of you. I have gotten to know you personally a bit and you are a delight to hand with. Thanks for everything.
To Cristine Rose, I have to say I have never had more fun directing an actor than I have you. I feel we have done excellent work together. I know the scene we did recently where you were eating oysters in the restraunt was a truly fun collaboration. Similarly the one in tonight’s episode where you discover Nathan’s body was, for me, perfectly emblematic of the collaboration between director and actor. You love to take chances and I love that you have trusted me. Thank you.
To the other cast, who have left the show (at least temporarily???) Santiago Cabrera, Tawny Cypress, Noah Gray-Cabey, Leonard Roberts, Dania Ramirez, Brea Grant and Kristen Bell… It was truly special to collaborate with you all. I am so filled with warm feelings at having worked with every member of this cast that words can’t describe it.
But there are also so many people I have worked with behind the scenes on this show. If you’ve followed my blog at all then you know that this is, on SO many levels and incredibly complex and challenging show – and also a deeply rewarding one. I have had the incredible fortune of being involved intimately with every department.
Firstly, to Ruth Ammon, HEROES Production designer. You are among the most talented individuals I have ever worked with. The sets you build have been uniformly marvelous. Your taste is impeccable. Your sense of color and design flawless. You have taught me the concept of building history and character into sets. You have been more challenged than perhaps any other member of the crew… You have built huge, incredible sets in so little time – and when I walk on them, they are perfectly designed to be shot, both artistically and technically. I thank you and your whole crew. I don’t have time to name them individually, but they have done world class work faster and better than I have ever seen.
To Nate Goodman, our Director of Photography, I have had perhaps the closest collaboration with you. Your intuitiveness, your endless enthusiasm and willingness to take real and significant chances is a marvel. You are starting your career as a D.P. at such a high level of talent that I know the future will be quite bright for you.
To Charlie Lieberman, our other D.P. What can I say? Your lightening is sumptuously gorgeous. The way you make the light caress the face is so beautiful. You entered an already running machine and stepped aboard effortlessly. The work we did on tonight’s episode and on the last one we did together, episode #19, is some of the most beautiful photography I’ve been involved with. (And I really care about photography.)
I think it’s also important to mention John Aronson, the Director of Photography who shot the whole of season one. John set the look and established our standards. His influence continues to be felt.
I’d like to thank the entirety of the camera, grip and electric crews. We have a core group that does the bulk of the episodes and a huge, vastly rotating group that does our second units. That the show has a cohesive look despite the myriad crews that work on it is a testament to everyone’s hard work and to the integrity of vision of our DPs and producers. I would like to single out just a few names of those I’ve worked most closely with…. Peter Mercurio, our camera operator, Chuck Crivier our key grip. Carlos Gallardo our dolly grip and Jeff Levy our gaffer… And to all of the many many rest who create the images the fans enjoy week in and week out... Thank you all for your hard work and good attitude. It has been a pleasure to work with you.
I would like to thank Gary D’Amico and his special effects crew. Gary you blows stuff up real good, and does every other kind of mechanical effect imaginable. The range of special effects you have done on this show is all encompassing. As far as I can remember, nothing you and your crew has done has ever not worked. Great job!
Also, Tim Gilbert, our stunt coordinator. In TV time is short to do very elaborate stunts. Tim you have had a great attitude through all types of conditions. And again, congrats on your SAG award this year!
I would like to thank Lori Madrigal and Wendi Allison our makeup artists. I have mentioned them a few times before on the blog. You guys have the greatest attitude and keep every member of our large cast continuously happy in your trailer which is the rockenest on the planet.
The same enthusiastic thanks goes to LeeAnn Brittenham and Angie Gurule our hair people!
To our Prop department, especially prop master Ross Anderson, and his key crew James Clark, Reba Rosenthal, Scott Henry and the rest of the crew that have worked all of our numerous units. All of your work has never been anything but top notch. Every prop was right or was quickly made right if there was ever a problem. I would also like to single out James (who twitters as @jamesprops) James your dedication to the show and it’s numerous details has not gone unnoticed by me. Thank you all for your enthusiasm.
To Stargate Visual Effects and our team Eric Grenaudier, Mark Spatny, and also to our Season One VFX producer Mark Kolpack – This show has been a great and fun challenge… So many things get written into the scripts that we have to figure out how to do in just a few weeks. It has been fun collaborating with you guys creatively even when we have to creatively figure out how to do something huge without a huge amount of money. One of the most effective VFX-based scenes I’ve done remains the Season one episode 3 scene in which Hiro first froze time in Tokyo Japan. Since then we have exploded New york, Exploded Tokyo, Frozen and shattered Ali Larter as well as (tonight) made Ali Larter materialize out of water. We have recently Morphed Sylar into virtually every cast member we have, shattered a plane and then digitally re-created it on the ground, we have flown Peter, flown Nathan and so much more. Thank you guys for your hard work and diligence!
To our prosthetic guys from Optic Nerve - Glen Hetrick & Mark Viniello, you guys did amazing work. My favorite was the open brain cap you made for Hayden in season three's opener. I stood six inches from that appliance and I still couldn't figure it out. Glen, you as the mutated man Suresh worked on was also a hoot from episode 9-11 this year. Guys, thank you!
To Cathy Gibson, our UPM, it has been great getting to know you as we worked in the trenches together this year. Figuring out the pure mechanics and manpower of this show is a beast and you tamed the beast with elegance. As director Jeannot Szwarc dubbed you, "You are a snub nosed 35 inside a velvet purse!"
To Brenda Pulos and to Alex Reid, and who left earlier in the year, thanks for everything. To Pearl Lucero and our entire amazing Office Production Staff, thanks guys!
To Valerie Norman and Merry Donner, our two amazingly talented script supervisors. Thank you. Val, you and I have been especially close and we have shared a lot emotionally and metaphysically. I thank you for your freindship.
And to our AD Department - Sam Mahony, Robert Scott and Anne Berger and Diane Calhoun, as well as to our numerous simul-unit ADs and also those who have left, my friend Pat Duffy and Milos Milicevic . Due to SO many reasons this show is THE hardest show to A.D. I have ever seen. All of you did it with class in your own inimatable way.
To Ken Fuller and the sound crew - thank you for excellent work done quickly and quietly. In general there is cleaner sound with less ADR on this show than on any I've been on.
Our Casting Guys RULE - Jason La Padura, Natalie Hart & Keri Owens!!! This team found this amazing original cast and continues to find the actors that fit seemlessly into our high standards week after week!
To our costumes team, for making our cast look awesome - Debra McGuire, Nancy Gould and your entire team of people.. Thanks!
For finding us places to shoot, week in and week out thanks also goes to our Locations Department -- Steve Hasson, Dianne Friedgen and Jason Savage. This is another department that has to jump through hoops every week just to get us on the air.
To Brian Stegall and our transportation team that keeps our company moving thanks for everything. You do a great job in a seamless way!
I'd like to give a special thanks to our stand in team... Otto Krausse who is without question my oldest friend and my brother-from-another-mother, Mitch Blaylock, Elizabeth Obrien and Heather Stunkle as well as the numerous stand in's on simul-unit... You guys work hard witha great attitude. (Stand-in is something I should have done a blog about - basically they "stand-in" for the actors during the long lighting set-ups between takes. It's basically super-important but tedious work that requires paying a lot of attention for very little thanks - and this is a great and happy team!)
To Foz , who I brought over from SMALLVILLE and ended up being Jim Chory’s assistant – thanks for being a great guy! Thank you for your kind words towards me. You are a great guy!
To Lori Motyer, our post production producer and to our editors Scott Boyd, Jon Koslowsky, Don Aron to Lois Blumenthal, and to all of our assistant editors and post production assistants…. You guys are the best. The show is so well crafted in post production it’s not funny. Lois, I feel especially proud of you, because we worked together on your first episode after you moved up from assistant! Great job everyone. I will miss my time down in the dungeon with all of you.
To Wendy and Lisa our composers, I would like to extend a special thanks. The music that you create for the show is haunting and magical, and you are truly the shows greatest fans! Allan and I would always know how a show was because when we showed it to you guys you had the most authentic reaction ever. Also, the speed with which you turn over your amazing scores blows my mind. Thanks.
To all of our writers, Thank you. Adam Armus, Kay Foster, you're character work is unsurpassed. I still feel “HOMECOMING” was one of my best episodes. To Joe Pokaski, and Aron Coleite, your level of talent at your youthful ages is intimidating. To Bryan Fuller, you know I think you are a genius. To Rob Fresco and Mark Verheiden – I have greatly enjoyed our time together. To our younger writers, Chuck Kim, Chris Zatta and Oliver Griigsby, thank you. To all of you - The work you all did singly and collectively was so complex and dense that it’s awe inspiring! I am very glad for the time I had with each of you.
I'd also like to say a special thanks to my friends Jeph Loeb and Jessie Alexander, who have also left the show. Thanks for all you contributed and much success in your continued endeavors... This is a given, but I say it anyway.
To Jim Chory, our line producer, thanks for being a great instructor. I have tried to learn from your mind which is able to juggle such complexities that it’s amazing, You have been a great teacher. Thanks.
To Dennis Hammer, thank you for your friendship and your support. You have been the rudder in the ocean that is HEROES.
To Allan Arkush. Thank you for the dignity and kindness that you showed me. I was the new kid on the Kring block when I came aboard and I greatly appreciate the open-heartedness you showed me upon my arrival.
To Tim Kring, thanks for hiring me. It was great to finally really get together and work after all those years ago at USC film school. You created a truly inspired work. Congratulations and continued success.
Finally to my assistant Erin who has helped me in every endeavor with the greatest, happiest attitude ever – thank you!
I’m sure I’ve forgotten many, please accept my apologies. There’s a lot of you!
I hope that wasn't too lengthy or too sappy for you, my faithful readers... HEROES has for me been a very all-encompassing experience… It required so much of me on so many levels. I know there will never be another experience quite like this one again! One of the best experiences that specified what was amazing, especially, about season one, was sitting in a movie theater a few minutes before the show started (I think I was there to see MICHAEL CLAYTON?) and I began eavesdropping on two random strangers behind me. As I listened it became clear they were talking about HEROES and the Season One DVD set that had just come out. They started to go on and on about how awesome the show was. This was heady for me because it was completely authentic and unsolicited… They went into great depth about every aspect of the show, expressing not just fan-enthusiasm but also a deep intelligence and understanding about stuff we were up to that I thought was very subtle. That was an exciting experience for me but also one that taught me clearly how intelligent and perceptive our fans are.
Thank you all! Goodbye everyone!
OH YEAH... AND DON’T FOREGT THE PICTURES!!!!!!:
ZACH MEDITATES WHILE THE CAST LOOKS ON AND ADRIAN PREPARES TO LIGHT HIM ON FIRE!
HAYDEN'S GOT A GUN!
TWO GENERATIONS OF STAR TREK
PRODUCTION DESIGNER RUTH AMMON AND I WATCH THE MONITOR
MASI SNEAKS UP ON ME
OUR STAND-INS - UNSUNG HEROES OF THE SET, OTTO, MITCH, ELIZABETH & HEATHER
ME AND ADRIAN - HAPPY DAYS ON SET
MASI AND SENDHIL - I WILL MISS YOU!
REHEARSAL ON SET
HEH HEH HEH - WHEN I YELL "ACTION" JAB HIM WITH THAT BIG ASS NEEDLE
HAYDEN ON SET
ZELJIKO SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
JKL SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
HAYDEN SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
ZACH SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
DANG! THAT'S A BIG NEEDLE
CRIS ROSE AND MR. COOL
ADRIAN AND MILO BETWEEN TAKES
VIEW FROM THE MONITOR
ZACH USUALLY LOOKS PRETTY COOL ANYWAY, BUT THEN PUT HIM BEHIND SOME FIRE AND WHOO-WEE!
A NICER GROUP OF ACTORS YOU COULD NEVER HOPE TO FIND
CRISTINE AND HAYDEN ON LOCATION AT L.A. CITY HALL
WHAT?!??!?!
MASI, OUR JAPANESE TRANSLATOR SACHIKO AND I
A BRUTAL PAPER CUT
DID I DO THAT?
SEASON 3 – EPISODE 25
“An Invisible Thread”
Dearest readers, this is a sad moment for me, as it will be, not only my final blog for Season 3, but also my final blog for HEROES.
You see, I will not be returning to HEROES for Season 4. Ultimately this was a financially motivated decision made by NBC. They no longer want to have a Producer/Director position on the show. But it coincides well with my own innate wanderlust, and so, while sad to leave so many friends and comrades, I am excited for the future.
Having said that, while this will be my final blog respective to HEROES, it is not necessarily my final Beeman’s Blog ever. Over the years I have been careful to keep this blog separate from NBC.com or any other entity that specifically ties it to HEROES. It certainly seems reasonable that I will continue to write on about whatever my next adventures are. It is a bit too early to say, but I have a strong feeling I will be involved in very exciting projects in the very near future. I hope that the many of you who have followed me up to now will continue to follow with me as I move forward. I have been amazed that the blog frequently gets thirty or forty thousand hits a week. If I have been able to give any enjoyment or insight to you fans then that is certainly enough to me. As I hope you know, I am well aware that our fans are everything and I am very happy to have been able to serve you. Moving forward, well… I will keep you posted.
So, having dispensed with that, it seems appropriate today, not to write a typical behind-the-scenes about what occurred on this final episode. From my point of view as director and producer it went quite smoothly. It was a Tim Kring script, which are always easy to make manifest. I am pleased with the overall results, and I hope you will be as well.
It seems more appropriate today to address a farewell to the many people I have worked with these last three years. (Take a breath – this could go on for awhile!)
I feel like starting with the actors. Of all the jobs I do on this show, working one on one and in groups with the actors is the most deeply rewarding and important job I do. I’ve mentioned, frequently what a great cast this is. That is partly because they are all very nice people. But also, they are all talented, and they each enjoy the relationship with the director, digging for the unexpected and the surprising.
I’d like to start with Zachary Quinto. Because I didn’t do the pilot I didn’t have influence over hiring the rest of the series regulars. But I was there, directing Zach at his first audition. It was an incredible, showstopping, performance. It was immediately evident that his range was phenomenal and I knew then and there we had something special. Zach is a true artist and I feel a deep affection for him. He is also a great person and a very giving actor to his fellow actors, to the crew and to the show. What’s especially amazing is that, as great as he is, I know how much he can still develop into the power of his craft. Beyond a doubt, I know that he will go on to greatness - because not only does he have the talent to achieve this he has the will, and I have immense respect for this quality within him.
To the rest, I’d like to say farewell to Hayden Panettiere. Hayden you are a savant. You do everything effortlessly and are deeply intelligent. I respect you immensely.
To Jack Coleman, you are a true professional in the very best sense of the word. Your work seems effortless and simple, and yet I know how complex the character is. Whenever I have had an opportunity to push with you into the deeper aspects of your character, the rewards were always rich.
To Ashley Crow, you were phenomenal in the pilot, presenting an odd quirky character. As the series developed, slowly, you were given the opportunity to expand this character and show a depth of character, a strength that is born in love of family. My personal opinion is that all of this resides naturally in you and reflects your own values. (In fact, whenever I had the opportunity to direct “The Bennets” Hayden, Ashley and Jack together, it was a delightful experience. “First Line on the Ice” I called them - using a hockey expression. Those scenes were always so fun and easy and fast to bring to fruition.)
To Milo Ventimiglia, you are a person of great integrity and a filmmaker in your own right. You have always been deeply respectful of the crew and the process and I respect that in you. I have really, truly enjoyed working with you.
To Adrian Pasdar, you are a true leader, and a funny nice guy who cares immensely about the details of his performance. You challenged me and forced me to direct with more depth. It is an honor to have directed you.
To Ali Larter, we had a very special and bonding experience on the sixth episode of the first season, as we both worked through a complex performance. You are characterized by great enthusiasm and desire to strive for the highest performance you can achieve and I very much admire you for this.
To Sendhil Ramamurthy, you are one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. Your enthusiasm for being on the show has never waned. And you have always gone the extra mile whenever I asked you to do something above and beyond the expected. I am very grateful to you for this.
To Greg Grunberg, you are as funny and as naturally likable in person as you are on-screen. I have also been very impressed by your eagerness to push into darker areas of your character whenever the opportunity presented itself. Tonight’s episode is a good example of this. It has been a joy to work with you.
Masi Oka, you are one of the smartest actors I have ever worked with. It was incredibly fun learning the minute amount of Japanese I did from you. Your positive attitude was never in doubt throughout. You have been a great ambassador for the show, in so many ways, Thank you.
James Kyson Lee, sometimes I wonder if the work you do is fully appreciated. Straight-man comedy is not easy to pull off, but you make it all look so easy. As a film-maker I know that you are always 100% reliable to deliver whatever is asked of you. I have gotten to know you personally a bit and you are a delight to hand with. Thanks for everything.
To Cristine Rose, I have to say I have never had more fun directing an actor than I have you. I feel we have done excellent work together. I know the scene we did recently where you were eating oysters in the restraunt was a truly fun collaboration. Similarly the one in tonight’s episode where you discover Nathan’s body was, for me, perfectly emblematic of the collaboration between director and actor. You love to take chances and I love that you have trusted me. Thank you.
To the other cast, who have left the show (at least temporarily???) Santiago Cabrera, Tawny Cypress, Noah Gray-Cabey, Leonard Roberts, Dania Ramirez, Brea Grant and Kristen Bell… It was truly special to collaborate with you all. I am so filled with warm feelings at having worked with every member of this cast that words can’t describe it.
But there are also so many people I have worked with behind the scenes on this show. If you’ve followed my blog at all then you know that this is, on SO many levels and incredibly complex and challenging show – and also a deeply rewarding one. I have had the incredible fortune of being involved intimately with every department.
Firstly, to Ruth Ammon, HEROES Production designer. You are among the most talented individuals I have ever worked with. The sets you build have been uniformly marvelous. Your taste is impeccable. Your sense of color and design flawless. You have taught me the concept of building history and character into sets. You have been more challenged than perhaps any other member of the crew… You have built huge, incredible sets in so little time – and when I walk on them, they are perfectly designed to be shot, both artistically and technically. I thank you and your whole crew. I don’t have time to name them individually, but they have done world class work faster and better than I have ever seen.
To Nate Goodman, our Director of Photography, I have had perhaps the closest collaboration with you. Your intuitiveness, your endless enthusiasm and willingness to take real and significant chances is a marvel. You are starting your career as a D.P. at such a high level of talent that I know the future will be quite bright for you.
To Charlie Lieberman, our other D.P. What can I say? Your lightening is sumptuously gorgeous. The way you make the light caress the face is so beautiful. You entered an already running machine and stepped aboard effortlessly. The work we did on tonight’s episode and on the last one we did together, episode #19, is some of the most beautiful photography I’ve been involved with. (And I really care about photography.)
I think it’s also important to mention John Aronson, the Director of Photography who shot the whole of season one. John set the look and established our standards. His influence continues to be felt.
I’d like to thank the entirety of the camera, grip and electric crews. We have a core group that does the bulk of the episodes and a huge, vastly rotating group that does our second units. That the show has a cohesive look despite the myriad crews that work on it is a testament to everyone’s hard work and to the integrity of vision of our DPs and producers. I would like to single out just a few names of those I’ve worked most closely with…. Peter Mercurio, our camera operator, Chuck Crivier our key grip. Carlos Gallardo our dolly grip and Jeff Levy our gaffer… And to all of the many many rest who create the images the fans enjoy week in and week out... Thank you all for your hard work and good attitude. It has been a pleasure to work with you.
I would like to thank Gary D’Amico and his special effects crew. Gary you blows stuff up real good, and does every other kind of mechanical effect imaginable. The range of special effects you have done on this show is all encompassing. As far as I can remember, nothing you and your crew has done has ever not worked. Great job!
Also, Tim Gilbert, our stunt coordinator. In TV time is short to do very elaborate stunts. Tim you have had a great attitude through all types of conditions. And again, congrats on your SAG award this year!
I would like to thank Lori Madrigal and Wendi Allison our makeup artists. I have mentioned them a few times before on the blog. You guys have the greatest attitude and keep every member of our large cast continuously happy in your trailer which is the rockenest on the planet.
The same enthusiastic thanks goes to LeeAnn Brittenham and Angie Gurule our hair people!
To our Prop department, especially prop master Ross Anderson, and his key crew James Clark, Reba Rosenthal, Scott Henry and the rest of the crew that have worked all of our numerous units. All of your work has never been anything but top notch. Every prop was right or was quickly made right if there was ever a problem. I would also like to single out James (who twitters as @jamesprops) James your dedication to the show and it’s numerous details has not gone unnoticed by me. Thank you all for your enthusiasm.
To Stargate Visual Effects and our team Eric Grenaudier, Mark Spatny, and also to our Season One VFX producer Mark Kolpack – This show has been a great and fun challenge… So many things get written into the scripts that we have to figure out how to do in just a few weeks. It has been fun collaborating with you guys creatively even when we have to creatively figure out how to do something huge without a huge amount of money. One of the most effective VFX-based scenes I’ve done remains the Season one episode 3 scene in which Hiro first froze time in Tokyo Japan. Since then we have exploded New york, Exploded Tokyo, Frozen and shattered Ali Larter as well as (tonight) made Ali Larter materialize out of water. We have recently Morphed Sylar into virtually every cast member we have, shattered a plane and then digitally re-created it on the ground, we have flown Peter, flown Nathan and so much more. Thank you guys for your hard work and diligence!
To our prosthetic guys from Optic Nerve - Glen Hetrick & Mark Viniello, you guys did amazing work. My favorite was the open brain cap you made for Hayden in season three's opener. I stood six inches from that appliance and I still couldn't figure it out. Glen, you as the mutated man Suresh worked on was also a hoot from episode 9-11 this year. Guys, thank you!
To Cathy Gibson, our UPM, it has been great getting to know you as we worked in the trenches together this year. Figuring out the pure mechanics and manpower of this show is a beast and you tamed the beast with elegance. As director Jeannot Szwarc dubbed you, "You are a snub nosed 35 inside a velvet purse!"
To Brenda Pulos and to Alex Reid, and who left earlier in the year, thanks for everything. To Pearl Lucero and our entire amazing Office Production Staff, thanks guys!
To Valerie Norman and Merry Donner, our two amazingly talented script supervisors. Thank you. Val, you and I have been especially close and we have shared a lot emotionally and metaphysically. I thank you for your freindship.
And to our AD Department - Sam Mahony, Robert Scott and Anne Berger and Diane Calhoun, as well as to our numerous simul-unit ADs and also those who have left, my friend Pat Duffy and Milos Milicevic . Due to SO many reasons this show is THE hardest show to A.D. I have ever seen. All of you did it with class in your own inimatable way.
To Ken Fuller and the sound crew - thank you for excellent work done quickly and quietly. In general there is cleaner sound with less ADR on this show than on any I've been on.
Our Casting Guys RULE - Jason La Padura, Natalie Hart & Keri Owens!!! This team found this amazing original cast and continues to find the actors that fit seemlessly into our high standards week after week!
To our costumes team, for making our cast look awesome - Debra McGuire, Nancy Gould and your entire team of people.. Thanks!
For finding us places to shoot, week in and week out thanks also goes to our Locations Department -- Steve Hasson, Dianne Friedgen and Jason Savage. This is another department that has to jump through hoops every week just to get us on the air.
To Brian Stegall and our transportation team that keeps our company moving thanks for everything. You do a great job in a seamless way!
I'd like to give a special thanks to our stand in team... Otto Krausse who is without question my oldest friend and my brother-from-another-mother, Mitch Blaylock, Elizabeth Obrien and Heather Stunkle as well as the numerous stand in's on simul-unit... You guys work hard witha great attitude. (Stand-in is something I should have done a blog about - basically they "stand-in" for the actors during the long lighting set-ups between takes. It's basically super-important but tedious work that requires paying a lot of attention for very little thanks - and this is a great and happy team!)
To Foz , who I brought over from SMALLVILLE and ended up being Jim Chory’s assistant – thanks for being a great guy! Thank you for your kind words towards me. You are a great guy!
To Lori Motyer, our post production producer and to our editors Scott Boyd, Jon Koslowsky, Don Aron to Lois Blumenthal, and to all of our assistant editors and post production assistants…. You guys are the best. The show is so well crafted in post production it’s not funny. Lois, I feel especially proud of you, because we worked together on your first episode after you moved up from assistant! Great job everyone. I will miss my time down in the dungeon with all of you.
To Wendy and Lisa our composers, I would like to extend a special thanks. The music that you create for the show is haunting and magical, and you are truly the shows greatest fans! Allan and I would always know how a show was because when we showed it to you guys you had the most authentic reaction ever. Also, the speed with which you turn over your amazing scores blows my mind. Thanks.
To all of our writers, Thank you. Adam Armus, Kay Foster, you're character work is unsurpassed. I still feel “HOMECOMING” was one of my best episodes. To Joe Pokaski, and Aron Coleite, your level of talent at your youthful ages is intimidating. To Bryan Fuller, you know I think you are a genius. To Rob Fresco and Mark Verheiden – I have greatly enjoyed our time together. To our younger writers, Chuck Kim, Chris Zatta and Oliver Griigsby, thank you. To all of you - The work you all did singly and collectively was so complex and dense that it’s awe inspiring! I am very glad for the time I had with each of you.
I'd also like to say a special thanks to my friends Jeph Loeb and Jessie Alexander, who have also left the show. Thanks for all you contributed and much success in your continued endeavors... This is a given, but I say it anyway.
To Jim Chory, our line producer, thanks for being a great instructor. I have tried to learn from your mind which is able to juggle such complexities that it’s amazing, You have been a great teacher. Thanks.
To Dennis Hammer, thank you for your friendship and your support. You have been the rudder in the ocean that is HEROES.
To Allan Arkush. Thank you for the dignity and kindness that you showed me. I was the new kid on the Kring block when I came aboard and I greatly appreciate the open-heartedness you showed me upon my arrival.
To Tim Kring, thanks for hiring me. It was great to finally really get together and work after all those years ago at USC film school. You created a truly inspired work. Congratulations and continued success.
Finally to my assistant Erin who has helped me in every endeavor with the greatest, happiest attitude ever – thank you!
I’m sure I’ve forgotten many, please accept my apologies. There’s a lot of you!
I hope that wasn't too lengthy or too sappy for you, my faithful readers... HEROES has for me been a very all-encompassing experience… It required so much of me on so many levels. I know there will never be another experience quite like this one again! One of the best experiences that specified what was amazing, especially, about season one, was sitting in a movie theater a few minutes before the show started (I think I was there to see MICHAEL CLAYTON?) and I began eavesdropping on two random strangers behind me. As I listened it became clear they were talking about HEROES and the Season One DVD set that had just come out. They started to go on and on about how awesome the show was. This was heady for me because it was completely authentic and unsolicited… They went into great depth about every aspect of the show, expressing not just fan-enthusiasm but also a deep intelligence and understanding about stuff we were up to that I thought was very subtle. That was an exciting experience for me but also one that taught me clearly how intelligent and perceptive our fans are.
Thank you all! Goodbye everyone!
OH YEAH... AND DON’T FOREGT THE PICTURES!!!!!!:
ZACH MEDITATES WHILE THE CAST LOOKS ON AND ADRIAN PREPARES TO LIGHT HIM ON FIRE!
HAYDEN'S GOT A GUN!
TWO GENERATIONS OF STAR TREK
PRODUCTION DESIGNER RUTH AMMON AND I WATCH THE MONITOR
MASI SNEAKS UP ON ME
OUR STAND-INS - UNSUNG HEROES OF THE SET, OTTO, MITCH, ELIZABETH & HEATHER
ME AND ADRIAN - HAPPY DAYS ON SET
MASI AND SENDHIL - I WILL MISS YOU!
REHEARSAL ON SET
HEH HEH HEH - WHEN I YELL "ACTION" JAB HIM WITH THAT BIG ASS NEEDLE
HAYDEN ON SET
ZELJIKO SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
JKL SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
HAYDEN SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
ZACH SAYS "WHAT'RE YOU LOOKING AT?"
DANG! THAT'S A BIG NEEDLE
CRIS ROSE AND MR. COOL
ADRIAN AND MILO BETWEEN TAKES
VIEW FROM THE MONITOR
ZACH USUALLY LOOKS PRETTY COOL ANYWAY, BUT THEN PUT HIM BEHIND SOME FIRE AND WHOO-WEE!
A NICER GROUP OF ACTORS YOU COULD NEVER HOPE TO FIND
CRISTINE AND HAYDEN ON LOCATION AT L.A. CITY HALL
WHAT?!??!?!
MASI, OUR JAPANESE TRANSLATOR SACHIKO AND I
A BRUTAL PAPER CUT
DID I DO THAT?
Monday, April 20, 2009
BEEMAN’S BLOG – SEASON 3 – EPISODE 24
“I AM SYLAR”
I AM SERIOUS – SPOILERS CONTAINED HERIN – YOU WERE WARNED!
A short blog tonight – sorry. But a reasonable number of pictures – so, hey, that should satisfy!
Tonight’s episode was written Adam Armus and Kay Foster and was directed by Allan Arkush. It features another tour de’ force performance by Zach Quinto and the return of Ellen Greene. Ellen is great. The best. She and Zach really enjoy working together. It also features Sylar interacting with Micah for the first time – another intriguing interconnection.
Anyway – I hope you like the episode. Season three comes to a close next week. I directed next week's episode. A longer blog is promised.
PIXTURES:
ALLAN ARKUSH AND GOOD BUDDY MASI OKA
ALLAN ARKUSH DISPLAYS HIS "ABS OF STEELE" TO EQUALLY STEELY-ABBED JKL
ŽELJKO - ONE BADASS MO'FO'
BEHIND THE MONITOR
A STRANGE REVERSAL
A.D. ANNE BURGER - CODE NAME: "THE DAYMAKER!"
D.P. NATE GOODMAN TENDS TO FROZEN JKL
DEATH BECOMES CLINT HOWARD
ELLEN GREENE PATIENTLY WAITS TO MORPH
+family+portarit.jpg)
FROM LAST WEEK - A (DYSFUNCTIONAL) FAMILY PORTRAIT
JKL - FROZEN AGAIN!
SHOT IN THE BACK AND YOU'RE TO BLAME - BABY YOU GIVE MORPHIN A BAD NAME!
C'MON YOU CAN'T GET COOLER THAN THESE TWO DUDES OF FILM
EXCEPT FOR MAYBE THESE TWO!!!
ZACH WATCHES FROM OFF STAGE
CRISTINE AND ŽELJKO - THEY'VE KNOWN EACH OTHER SINCE THEY WERE TEENAGERS - REALLY!
A PREVIEW IMAGE FROM NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE - WHAT CAN IT MEAN?!?
“I AM SYLAR”
I AM SERIOUS – SPOILERS CONTAINED HERIN – YOU WERE WARNED!
A short blog tonight – sorry. But a reasonable number of pictures – so, hey, that should satisfy!
Tonight’s episode was written Adam Armus and Kay Foster and was directed by Allan Arkush. It features another tour de’ force performance by Zach Quinto and the return of Ellen Greene. Ellen is great. The best. She and Zach really enjoy working together. It also features Sylar interacting with Micah for the first time – another intriguing interconnection.
Anyway – I hope you like the episode. Season three comes to a close next week. I directed next week's episode. A longer blog is promised.
PIXTURES:
ALLAN ARKUSH AND GOOD BUDDY MASI OKA
ALLAN ARKUSH DISPLAYS HIS "ABS OF STEELE" TO EQUALLY STEELY-ABBED JKL
ŽELJKO - ONE BADASS MO'FO'
BEHIND THE MONITOR
A STRANGE REVERSAL
A.D. ANNE BURGER - CODE NAME: "THE DAYMAKER!"
D.P. NATE GOODMAN TENDS TO FROZEN JKL
DEATH BECOMES CLINT HOWARD
ELLEN GREENE PATIENTLY WAITS TO MORPH
+family+portarit.jpg)
FROM LAST WEEK - A (DYSFUNCTIONAL) FAMILY PORTRAIT
JKL - FROZEN AGAIN!
SHOT IN THE BACK AND YOU'RE TO BLAME - BABY YOU GIVE MORPHIN A BAD NAME!
C'MON YOU CAN'T GET COOLER THAN THESE TWO DUDES OF FILM
EXCEPT FOR MAYBE THESE TWO!!!
ZACH WATCHES FROM OFF STAGE
CRISTINE AND ŽELJKO - THEY'VE KNOWN EACH OTHER SINCE THEY WERE TEENAGERS - REALLY!
A PREVIEW IMAGE FROM NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE - WHAT CAN IT MEAN?!?
Saturday, April 11, 2009
BEEMAN'S BLOG - SEASON THREE - EPISODE 23 - "1961"
BEEMAN’S BLOG
SEASON 3 EPISODE 23
“1961”
WARNING: IT’LL BE ON THOUSAND NINE-HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE YEARS BEFORE YOU CAN FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR READING SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN THIS BLOG THAT YOU ARE EMOTIONALLY UNPREPARED FOR!
Aron Coleite wrote tonight’s episode.
It was directed by Adam Kane.
As you may remember, Adam Kane was the director of photography on the HEROES pilot. This is the fourth episode he’s directed for us. He left in the middle of season two to be the director-producer on PUSHING DASIES and has since done several other projects. We missed him and are glad he’s back.
I want to focus today on two things… First, I want to focus on the enormous job accomplished by the art department on this episode, under the direction of Ruth Ammon. And, secondly, the good fortune we had in obtaining our young cast for this episode.
But before I can illuminate those two points, I must, for a moment, discuss the script. Aron Coleite’s, script was in some ways, very simple. It is actually a very contained story delving into the happenings in one location in two separate time periods. It is a quite compelling story and, I’m quite certain, long time fans will be quite compelled to learn about Angela’s history and of the formation of the Company.
Of course, from another point of view, it is one of the most complex projects we’ve done. The whole story takes place, almost completely in the internment camp called Coyote Sands. That internment camp is seen in the past of 1961, when it is brand new. It is also seen in the present day, when it is old and dilapidated. It also presented us with the very challenging task of giving over about a third of our episode to an all new teenage cast, which is tough enough, but to make it harder they would be playing characters that are already very well established.
Luckily we had an early heads up about this project. The writer’s room warned us it was coming – and Dennis Hammer sent out an alerting email in December, when we were still shooting episode #19. The locations department and the art department were instructed to at least think about the project and propose ideas, and our casting directors were instructed to begin thinking about who could play Young Angela, Angela’s sister, Linderman, Charles Deveaux, etc.
The script originally set the camp in White Sands New Mexico. Of course that was unfeasible on our scale, and Aron understood that. But we took that as an instruction to find a beautiful remote location with a unique look. Initially, we had the location department scout desert locations – but anything that looked good enough was an overnight stay away, and that was also untenable.
We also knew that once we had our spot, we’d have to go and actually construct the majority of the buildings. Any building that our cast interacted with or passed in front of we built. Any building that was purely in the background, would be created by our CGI team at Stargate,
Even though Coyote Sands plays a much larger part of episode 23 than it did in episode 22, we had to scout and select the location right at the very beginning of the prep of episode 22 (with director Jeannot Swzarc.) Adam Kane was in New York directing an episode of KINGS. We called him and briefed him on the script and told him, that, unfortunately, we would be selecting and moving forward on his key location before he got back from New York. He understood. I tried to have his back, as it were. The most important element for a large exterior project like this is the light. For both beauty and speed of shooting I tried to select a spot that faced southward, where the sun would backlight the set the majority of the day. We picked a location called Polsa Rosa, which is in the Antelope Valley about 50 miles North of Los Angeles. This is a large property, which is well kept up and is used frequently for filming. We’ve shot there for Mexico before. The location is not as remote as it seems on film. But the spot we selected was about three miles off the main highway, and a couple of, miles down a single-lane dirt road.
We brought photographs of the spot back to the team, and everyone agreed it was beautiful and that it would be our “Coyote Sands” camp.
Ruth studied Manzanar, and other Japanese Internment camps, from the World War II era. Fortunately, military architecture, by its nature, tends to be simple and designed to be easily replicated. She took a topographical map and laid out her design for the camp. She also used blueprints and foam models to lay out the design of the individual cabins.
Her original plan was to build about 8 full exterior cabins on location, and a larger building to be “Building 26” (where young Chandra Suresh runs experiments on the specials.) Because there were scenes where the cast traveled from interior to exterior one of the cabins was to have a partially finished interior.
The cabins also had to be seen in the past, newly constructed, and in the present dilapidated. We knew we’d have to build a turnaround time for this within the body of the episode. (i.e. we would have to shoot the cabins dilapidated first, then leave back to stages for a few days while the art department turned the cabins back around. Ruth’s original plan was also to build two full interior cabins. One old and dilapidated, and one new.
But of course, each piece of construction also carries a price - as it would for you if you were, say, remodeling your kitchen. Every wall, floor, surface and stairway has to be designed, cut, hammered together, assembled, surfaced and then decorated. On stage these costs are high enough – but on a remote location the price really soars. Each section of the cabin’s was going to have to be pre-cut and pre-fabricated by our carpenters in Hollywood, and then transported to the remote location an hour away. On location, Ruth laid out the plot of the camp with string. Postholes were dug and support beams were dropped into the ground. Once the pre-fabbed lumber was delivered there it had to be, re-assembled. Then it would have to be painted and surfaced on location and, despite our lead-time– from the time Ruth got the financial go-ahead – to the time we were shooting was just a matter of about two weeks.
But then budget realities kicked in… HEROES and all NBC shows are under super-tight financial constraints right now. This much construction was off the charts financially. So meetings and meetings and meetings took place with re-designs and re-designs and re-designs…. Ultimately, the size of the cabins became scaled back by 30%...eight cabins became 5. Building 26 became a same-sized cabin, and it even came to pass that Adam Kane had to be very specific about what angles he would shoot on location. We made it so that – if we weren’t going to see the back or side of a cabin we didn’t build it. On stage - Two cabins on stage became one, which had to be re-dressed both ways. (Similar restrictions and cuts were made in action and visual effects by the way – originally there was much more use of powers.) But anyway – we finally had an acceptable construction budget.
Then came the rain, the snow and the mud:
Of course Los Angeles is famous for it’s good weather – but the poor construction crew, which was already working seven days a week to get this project up fell under a deluge of rain – the likes of which we hadn’t seen in Los Angeles in years. They were working ten-hour days in sleeting rain, and the ground under their feet became a swamp of mud. The rain went on for days and days, and then the weather shifted in the high desert, and the rain became snow!
After it was all over, I overheard one of our lead carpenters saying to one of his men, “After season three, Hell holds no fear for the HEROES construction crew!”
I also need to mention the work done by Alexa Nikolas who plays Young Angela and Laura Marano, who plays her sister, Alice.
As I mentioned before, the idea of double casting a large portion of our cast, while fun on the page, struck me as potentially very dangerous. When casting the pilot, there were weeks and weeks available to toss ideas around, audition and re-audition actors and have “chemistry reads.” Here, even though our casting department had a lot of lead-time to think about it - we only had a week or two of actual auditions. (Remember we were still making episode 20 and 21 and 22 during this time frame – which were not small episodes.)
Anyway, our casting directors, Natalie Hart, Jason La Padura and Keri Owens did a great job finding kids for us. To my surprise, there were actually multiple choices available for most roles.
But I think we especially lucked out with Alexa Nikolas
I was somewhat familiar with her work because my kids used to watch the show she was on ZOEY 101. She is just a bright, intelligent and energetic young woman. Her audition was complex and also emotionally deep. There are a number of traps available to the unwary actor in this role. Angela, at that age, was not as firm or resolved as she is today (in fact that journey is one that Alexa had to make throughout the episode.) Angela is, at the very least – complex. Many actors played her either, too tough, or too emotional or they just read the words without a real sense of character. Anyway, Alexa navigated these treacherous waters quite well.
Cristine Rose wasn’t involved in the casting. But she was quite interested in supporting Alexa. There were two rehearsals, which Cristine came to and observed. Alexa and Adam and Joe and Cristine and I all had a nice conversation before and after these rehearsals about the character and about the scenes. I know Cristine and Alexa spent some time together and Cristine was on set observing quite a bit. There may have been a little nudge here or a little nudge there from some of us – but truthfully Alexa seemed to have the role firmly grasped and she made the work look easy. My experience with her is similar to my experience with many actors I’ve worked with who began acting at very early ages… Even very complex and emotional work seems to come to them very naturally and easily and seemingly with little effort. I’m always amazed by this (rare) phenomenon. Hayden Panettiere is certainly like this, and so was Allison Mack, who I worked with as Chloe on SMALLVILLE.
Okay enough about all that – why are you really here? We all know… THE PICTURES:
ADAM KANE (WITH D.P. CHARLIE LIEBERMAN) LINES UP A SHOT
ADAM KANE LINES UP ANOTHER SHOT
RUTH AMMON AND A MODEL OF THE SET
THE PRODUCTION MEETING (ADAM KANE, EXEC PRODUCER DENNIS HAMMER AND MYSELF)ALL WONDER "HOW COULD THIS BE HAPPENING????
.JPG)
TWO SISTERS
TAKING PHOTOS IN THE HIGH DESERT
ANOTHER DAY ON SET
MILO AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
ME AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
ME AND MILO AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
HAYDEN AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
EVERYBODY (BUT ME) CHILLIN' AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
HAYDEN AND ADRIAN TOSS A PIGSKIN BETWEEN TAKES
MILO VENTIMIGLIA BETWEEN TAKES
ADRIAN PASDAR ON SET
CRISTINE ROSE WAITS TO GO ON
VFX WHIZ ERIC GRENADIERE TAKES PHOTOS OF "THE SILVER BALL" (THIS OBJECT IS PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE VFX TEAM TO KNOW WHAT REFLECTIONS SHOULD OCCU R IN DIGITALLY CREATED OBJECTS!)
SEASON 3 EPISODE 23
“1961”
WARNING: IT’LL BE ON THOUSAND NINE-HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE YEARS BEFORE YOU CAN FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR READING SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN THIS BLOG THAT YOU ARE EMOTIONALLY UNPREPARED FOR!
Aron Coleite wrote tonight’s episode.
It was directed by Adam Kane.
As you may remember, Adam Kane was the director of photography on the HEROES pilot. This is the fourth episode he’s directed for us. He left in the middle of season two to be the director-producer on PUSHING DASIES and has since done several other projects. We missed him and are glad he’s back.
I want to focus today on two things… First, I want to focus on the enormous job accomplished by the art department on this episode, under the direction of Ruth Ammon. And, secondly, the good fortune we had in obtaining our young cast for this episode.
But before I can illuminate those two points, I must, for a moment, discuss the script. Aron Coleite’s, script was in some ways, very simple. It is actually a very contained story delving into the happenings in one location in two separate time periods. It is a quite compelling story and, I’m quite certain, long time fans will be quite compelled to learn about Angela’s history and of the formation of the Company.
Of course, from another point of view, it is one of the most complex projects we’ve done. The whole story takes place, almost completely in the internment camp called Coyote Sands. That internment camp is seen in the past of 1961, when it is brand new. It is also seen in the present day, when it is old and dilapidated. It also presented us with the very challenging task of giving over about a third of our episode to an all new teenage cast, which is tough enough, but to make it harder they would be playing characters that are already very well established.
Luckily we had an early heads up about this project. The writer’s room warned us it was coming – and Dennis Hammer sent out an alerting email in December, when we were still shooting episode #19. The locations department and the art department were instructed to at least think about the project and propose ideas, and our casting directors were instructed to begin thinking about who could play Young Angela, Angela’s sister, Linderman, Charles Deveaux, etc.
The script originally set the camp in White Sands New Mexico. Of course that was unfeasible on our scale, and Aron understood that. But we took that as an instruction to find a beautiful remote location with a unique look. Initially, we had the location department scout desert locations – but anything that looked good enough was an overnight stay away, and that was also untenable.
We also knew that once we had our spot, we’d have to go and actually construct the majority of the buildings. Any building that our cast interacted with or passed in front of we built. Any building that was purely in the background, would be created by our CGI team at Stargate,
Even though Coyote Sands plays a much larger part of episode 23 than it did in episode 22, we had to scout and select the location right at the very beginning of the prep of episode 22 (with director Jeannot Swzarc.) Adam Kane was in New York directing an episode of KINGS. We called him and briefed him on the script and told him, that, unfortunately, we would be selecting and moving forward on his key location before he got back from New York. He understood. I tried to have his back, as it were. The most important element for a large exterior project like this is the light. For both beauty and speed of shooting I tried to select a spot that faced southward, where the sun would backlight the set the majority of the day. We picked a location called Polsa Rosa, which is in the Antelope Valley about 50 miles North of Los Angeles. This is a large property, which is well kept up and is used frequently for filming. We’ve shot there for Mexico before. The location is not as remote as it seems on film. But the spot we selected was about three miles off the main highway, and a couple of, miles down a single-lane dirt road.
We brought photographs of the spot back to the team, and everyone agreed it was beautiful and that it would be our “Coyote Sands” camp.
Ruth studied Manzanar, and other Japanese Internment camps, from the World War II era. Fortunately, military architecture, by its nature, tends to be simple and designed to be easily replicated. She took a topographical map and laid out her design for the camp. She also used blueprints and foam models to lay out the design of the individual cabins.
Her original plan was to build about 8 full exterior cabins on location, and a larger building to be “Building 26” (where young Chandra Suresh runs experiments on the specials.) Because there were scenes where the cast traveled from interior to exterior one of the cabins was to have a partially finished interior.
The cabins also had to be seen in the past, newly constructed, and in the present dilapidated. We knew we’d have to build a turnaround time for this within the body of the episode. (i.e. we would have to shoot the cabins dilapidated first, then leave back to stages for a few days while the art department turned the cabins back around. Ruth’s original plan was also to build two full interior cabins. One old and dilapidated, and one new.
But of course, each piece of construction also carries a price - as it would for you if you were, say, remodeling your kitchen. Every wall, floor, surface and stairway has to be designed, cut, hammered together, assembled, surfaced and then decorated. On stage these costs are high enough – but on a remote location the price really soars. Each section of the cabin’s was going to have to be pre-cut and pre-fabricated by our carpenters in Hollywood, and then transported to the remote location an hour away. On location, Ruth laid out the plot of the camp with string. Postholes were dug and support beams were dropped into the ground. Once the pre-fabbed lumber was delivered there it had to be, re-assembled. Then it would have to be painted and surfaced on location and, despite our lead-time– from the time Ruth got the financial go-ahead – to the time we were shooting was just a matter of about two weeks.
But then budget realities kicked in… HEROES and all NBC shows are under super-tight financial constraints right now. This much construction was off the charts financially. So meetings and meetings and meetings took place with re-designs and re-designs and re-designs…. Ultimately, the size of the cabins became scaled back by 30%...eight cabins became 5. Building 26 became a same-sized cabin, and it even came to pass that Adam Kane had to be very specific about what angles he would shoot on location. We made it so that – if we weren’t going to see the back or side of a cabin we didn’t build it. On stage - Two cabins on stage became one, which had to be re-dressed both ways. (Similar restrictions and cuts were made in action and visual effects by the way – originally there was much more use of powers.) But anyway – we finally had an acceptable construction budget.
Then came the rain, the snow and the mud:
Of course Los Angeles is famous for it’s good weather – but the poor construction crew, which was already working seven days a week to get this project up fell under a deluge of rain – the likes of which we hadn’t seen in Los Angeles in years. They were working ten-hour days in sleeting rain, and the ground under their feet became a swamp of mud. The rain went on for days and days, and then the weather shifted in the high desert, and the rain became snow!
After it was all over, I overheard one of our lead carpenters saying to one of his men, “After season three, Hell holds no fear for the HEROES construction crew!”
I also need to mention the work done by Alexa Nikolas who plays Young Angela and Laura Marano, who plays her sister, Alice.
As I mentioned before, the idea of double casting a large portion of our cast, while fun on the page, struck me as potentially very dangerous. When casting the pilot, there were weeks and weeks available to toss ideas around, audition and re-audition actors and have “chemistry reads.” Here, even though our casting department had a lot of lead-time to think about it - we only had a week or two of actual auditions. (Remember we were still making episode 20 and 21 and 22 during this time frame – which were not small episodes.)
Anyway, our casting directors, Natalie Hart, Jason La Padura and Keri Owens did a great job finding kids for us. To my surprise, there were actually multiple choices available for most roles.
But I think we especially lucked out with Alexa Nikolas
I was somewhat familiar with her work because my kids used to watch the show she was on ZOEY 101. She is just a bright, intelligent and energetic young woman. Her audition was complex and also emotionally deep. There are a number of traps available to the unwary actor in this role. Angela, at that age, was not as firm or resolved as she is today (in fact that journey is one that Alexa had to make throughout the episode.) Angela is, at the very least – complex. Many actors played her either, too tough, or too emotional or they just read the words without a real sense of character. Anyway, Alexa navigated these treacherous waters quite well.
Cristine Rose wasn’t involved in the casting. But she was quite interested in supporting Alexa. There were two rehearsals, which Cristine came to and observed. Alexa and Adam and Joe and Cristine and I all had a nice conversation before and after these rehearsals about the character and about the scenes. I know Cristine and Alexa spent some time together and Cristine was on set observing quite a bit. There may have been a little nudge here or a little nudge there from some of us – but truthfully Alexa seemed to have the role firmly grasped and she made the work look easy. My experience with her is similar to my experience with many actors I’ve worked with who began acting at very early ages… Even very complex and emotional work seems to come to them very naturally and easily and seemingly with little effort. I’m always amazed by this (rare) phenomenon. Hayden Panettiere is certainly like this, and so was Allison Mack, who I worked with as Chloe on SMALLVILLE.
Okay enough about all that – why are you really here? We all know… THE PICTURES:
ADAM KANE (WITH D.P. CHARLIE LIEBERMAN) LINES UP A SHOT
ADAM KANE LINES UP ANOTHER SHOT
RUTH AMMON AND A MODEL OF THE SET
THE PRODUCTION MEETING (ADAM KANE, EXEC PRODUCER DENNIS HAMMER AND MYSELF)ALL WONDER "HOW COULD THIS BE HAPPENING????
.JPG)
TWO SISTERS
TAKING PHOTOS IN THE HIGH DESERT
ANOTHER DAY ON SET
MILO AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
ME AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
ME AND MILO AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
HAYDEN AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
EVERYBODY (BUT ME) CHILLIN' AT THE DINER IN THE DESERT
HAYDEN AND ADRIAN TOSS A PIGSKIN BETWEEN TAKES
MILO VENTIMIGLIA BETWEEN TAKES
ADRIAN PASDAR ON SET
CRISTINE ROSE WAITS TO GO ON
VFX WHIZ ERIC GRENADIERE TAKES PHOTOS OF "THE SILVER BALL" (THIS OBJECT IS PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE VFX TEAM TO KNOW WHAT REFLECTIONS SHOULD OCCU R IN DIGITALLY CREATED OBJECTS!)
Saturday, April 04, 2009
BEEMAN'S BLOG -SEASON 3 - EPISODE 22 - "TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE"
BEEMAN’S BLOG
SEASON 3 – EPISODE 22
“TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE”
WARNING: TURN AROUND NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO FACE ANY STRANGE SPOILERS
Tonight’s episode was co-written by Rob Fresco and Mark Verheiden
Jeannot Szwarc directed the episode
I don’t know if it was an experiment of the writer’s room or just a way to get a script out twice as fast, but Rob Fresco and Mark Verhieden – who aren’t normally a team – were paired up on this one. As a casually observer the experiment seemed to turn out well… Their working relationship was casual and cordial and they had fun. For me it was interesting, because, in prep, some days we would have one and some days we would have the other. Each of them divided up the work by storyline… I might get the details wrong here – I’m working purely from memory, but I believe… Mark wrote the Suresh story, the Matt story and the Sylar/Danko scenes and the final scene Coyote Sands. Rob wrote the Hero/Ando story, the HRG/Sandra story, and the story of Danko’s girlfriend.
Jeannot, I know, is very proud of this episode. It’s his seventh or eighth episode for us… But I think it’s his favorite. I know he’s particularly pleased with the emotional dynamics in the story of HRG, Sylar and Sandra.
From my point of view, the post-production process was very simple on this one. The only real problem that the first cut was about eight minutes long. Key reductions were made in Suresh scenes – there was a second scene with Suresh and the landlord that was lifted out – and there was also considerably more dialogue between Matt and Danko’s girlfriend, where we learned a lot about her life story. Both of these scenes were lifted for time and to enhance the overall pace. There were a few other simple trims and re-cuts – but largely the internal strucure of this show remained intact from the first cut that Jeannot and editor Lois Blumenthal delivered.
Which reminds me - I think our cast did a stellar job, as always, but I think Greg Grundberg really stepped up on this one. His story was a hard one to play, because he is, essentially out for revenge – which tends to be unsympathetic. Greg’s stock in trade is his accessible “nice guy” quality. And here, in my opinion, he really dug down for some more tortured qualities, without losing his inherent sympathy. This is a tough assignment.
I also think that the Hiro and Ando story is hilarious. When I first watched the directors cut, in the editing room with editor Lois Blumenthal, it came to the scene where Hiro and Ando were making faces at Baby Matt to cheer him up – I busted a gut laughing… I couldn’t stop. The way the boys had played it and the way Lois had jump-cut their expressions made me laugh and laugh in a way that hurt my tummy a little. On set this moment was very free-form – Jeannot was behind the monitors calling out for the boys to switch up their faces every few moments – as this went on they started making goofier and goofier faces. Finally, James Kyson Lee made a certain face and Jeannot leaped out of his chair “that’s it!” I think, at this point, life imitated art a little – as James realized he was now stuck repeating this ridiculous expression over and over – and he began to regret it. It’s still pretty funny though.
Oh – and once more a tip of the hat to the twins that play Baby Matt – Brendon and Quinn Reed. These are the best film babies I’ve ever seen. They are only 9 months old and they cry on cue, laugh on cue, look where they’re supposed to and are extremely expressive in every way. The whole crew couldn’t get over how the really seemed to “act.” The babies got extremely attached to Masi, by the way. They seemed fascinated with him and would watch him wherever he went. At the end of the episode, when Greg Grundberg came in and Matt discovered he had a son – there was a small problem, because the babies weren’t as bonded with Greg. In one shot, Greg was holding Baby Matt and talking to him, and the baby was looking all around the set for Masi. Finally Jeanott asked Masi to stand, off-camera, directly behind Greg. So, in the last scenes when the baby appears to be staring lovingly at Matt, it’s really staring lovingly at Masi who’s just off-stage.
There’s a new phenomenon at play on set – which is that, because of Sylmar’s new morphing ability, lots of different actors are getting to play Sylar – and it’s fun to see their interpretation of it. One of my favorites is Željko Ivanek.
Željko is a very interesting actor who I’ve only started to figure out. He’s very quiet and serious, and at first I took him to be shy. At times we can have a very goofy, crazy set – particularly when myself, Milo, Adrian or Grundberg are around. Željko stood a little outside of the group on his first few episodes, which I guess is natural. But then two things started to happen. One, the character began to be written with more depth. At first he was just a very mono-directed “bad guy.” Beginning with episode #20 we began to understand him more and, I’m assuming, Željko did too. So I began to see the depth of his acting ability and his facility for nuance. Also, I assume, he began to get comfortable with our group. In the shaving scene with Greg Yaitanes I saw him begin to joke and kid around. Anyway, back to the point – when Željko played Sylar – I think he captured the quality of humor and enjoyment that Zach Quinto always brings to the part. See, Slyar LOVES messing with people and living an inch from being caught. The scene in the bathroom where Danko meets Sylar/Danko is a lot of fun. It is also admirable in that much of the first part of the scene is done in one shot. The camera pans Danko in and reveals the other Danko – then moves in as Danko approaches himself. This was obviously tricky because each half of the scene has to be shot separately. Also we don’t have time or money for “motion control” rigs – in which computerized gear-head can match camera pans and tilts and even push in’s between separate takes. So Željko had to do it himself and act to himself that wasn’t there and look to a spot in the air that isn’t there. It’s hard to do all that. And I think he really provides us with two separate characters and performances.
Ashley Crow also got to play Sylar, but her part was a little easier – because in the scene with HRG- Sylar is trying to act like Sandra. The fun transition comes outside as Ashley walks into the alley then pauses and shape-shifts into Sylar. Both Zach and Ashley were on set together that day and they helped each other through that scene.
Another fun scene is the one where Jack Coleman as HRG “pretends” to be Sylar to Danko. If the editing room we laughed about this because we decided that Jack was channeling Bryan Fuller for that part of the scene. I’m not sure if he did or not, and I hope Bryan doesn’t take offense – but that’s what we decided was happening in the cutting room – and it made me smile.
For some reason, more than other directors – the crazy HEROES scheduling process seems to bone poor Jeannot. Partly it’s his fault, because he is a very popular TV director and he’s very booked up on shows like GREYS ANATOMY, BONES, COLD CASE, SMALLVILLE, WITHOUT A TRACE, etc. etc… So his schedule is tight and our schedule is, at best, loose. In the case of this episode – one of the scenes Jeannot didn’t get to direct was the one where Matt is first re-introduced to his son, in the playground. Because this scene took place on a one-time-only location – it became kind of an orphan. We found the space at a school a few blocks away (I’d shot a scene there once before when Matt came to pick up Molly after school in season 2). The scene was to take about 4 hours to shoot and was scheduled, originally, to shoot side-by-side with the bus station scenes in episode #20… But rain delayed those scenes and they got re-distributed. Allan Arkush ended up directing this scene – it actually was on one of our last days of filming along with a bunch of inserts that were needed to wrap up the final episodes. We dropped the scene into the show at the very last second.
The two final scenes of the episode, which are really a prelude to episode #23 (where Angela gathers the family and HRG at a mysterious place), had to be delayed in order to be shot in tandem with episode #23. I’m sure I’ll talk about this extensively next week – but this episode takes place almost entirely at this concentration camp of sorts, called Coyote Sands. It is set partly in the past and partly in the present, and in that episode we will learn a lot about Angela and what drives her to be the way she is…. It was a massive construction project for Production designer Ruth Ammon and the art department, done on location about 40 miles outside of L.A. Anyway – because those scene had to be delayed for weeks until that episode was ready to shoot, I took on the chore of directing them.
Jeannot had given me one key instruction for the first scene – he had a shot in mind where we would be on a very, very long lens camera, and dust would reveal mysterious shapes – we would rack focus slowly and slowly reveal Angela and Peter arriving. I did that, and followed his basic plan for the scene (I might have added more "push-ins" than Jeannot would have - I just love push-ins and I can't help myself.) We got lucky with the light that day. It had just rained and snowed and there was a quality of light that is very uncommon in Los Angeles – crisp but soft. It felt more like a scene one would shoot in Montana or New Mexico than in L.A. I worked hard to chase the backlight and staged the scene to the late afternoon sun. There is a two-shot of Hayden and Milo, done late in the day just as the sun was about to drop behind the mountains. They are both front-lit by a very soft amber sunlight, as are the snow-covered hills behind them I had the special effects guys blow dust in the distance... Oh man, I think that is a beautiful shot.
I also did the night scene where they dig up skeletons. Jeannot had described to me a way of shooting the scene all in one shot. Now I love oner's... And I had been to the location several times when we first found it - but then hadn't been up there again since construction was complete. When I got there, I was trying to imagine the shot Jeannot was describing and I couldn't... Normally, when directing scenes for others, I try to be really loyal to their vision - but this time I just didn't see it. I had the tool of the techno-crane there and I knew the scene had to be mysterious and eerie and foreboding. Other than that I just winged it getting the shots that felt right to me at the time. Because I didn't really prep this episode, I might have missed the proper emotion between Claire and HRG as she sees him arrive. I was going with the mystery of it all and trying to create a foreboding vibe. In my memory, these two characters hadn't seen each other since episode #19, and there was still tension and unresolved feelings. Later, though, other producers felt that Claire should have been happier to see her father. I'm not sure - you decide.
Enough! Lots of pictures today:
PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES:
EVER-POPULAR MAKEUP GAL, WENDI ALISON (MANY OF THESE PIX ARE HERS) AND DIRECTOR JEANNOT SZCWARC
DIRECTOR JEANNOT SZCWARC, WRITER MARK VERHEIDEN AND D.P. NATE GOODMAN WATCH A REHEARSAL
ON SET REHEARSAL
BETWEEN TAKES ON SET
ON-SET OPERATOR PETER MERCURIO HAND-HOLDS THE CAMERA DURING A TAKE
JEANNOT DIRECTS THE CAST
ŽELJKO AND ZACH GET READY TO RUMBLE!
CHINESE MEDICINE INDICATES A CLEAR TONGUE EQUALS GOOD HEALTH - SENDHIL PASSES THE TEST!
POOR DEAD SYLAR
ASHLEY CROW CELEBRATES CRISTINE'S BIRTHDAY
SENDHIL FEELS JAUNTY IN HIS NEW CAP!
PARKMAN - THE BIG AND LITTLE VERSIONS
COMPOSERS WENDY AND LISA RUSH TO A MUSIC SPOTTING!
JACK COLEMAN AND ZACH QUINTO - THERE'S A LOT AT "STAKE" IN THIS SCENE
JACK 'N ASHLEY BETWEEN TAKES
HAYDEN AND MILO ON SET (A STILL THAT MATCHES ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOTS FROM THE EPISODE!)
DENTAL HYGINE IN THE HIGH DESERT
CRISTINE ROSE - QUEEN OF ALL SHE SURVEYS
A.D. ROBERT SCOTT ENCOURAGES ME TO QUIT TAKING PICTURES AND GET BACK TO WORK
SEASON 3 – EPISODE 22
“TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE”
WARNING: TURN AROUND NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO FACE ANY STRANGE SPOILERS
Tonight’s episode was co-written by Rob Fresco and Mark Verheiden
Jeannot Szwarc directed the episode
I don’t know if it was an experiment of the writer’s room or just a way to get a script out twice as fast, but Rob Fresco and Mark Verhieden – who aren’t normally a team – were paired up on this one. As a casually observer the experiment seemed to turn out well… Their working relationship was casual and cordial and they had fun. For me it was interesting, because, in prep, some days we would have one and some days we would have the other. Each of them divided up the work by storyline… I might get the details wrong here – I’m working purely from memory, but I believe… Mark wrote the Suresh story, the Matt story and the Sylar/Danko scenes and the final scene Coyote Sands. Rob wrote the Hero/Ando story, the HRG/Sandra story, and the story of Danko’s girlfriend.
Jeannot, I know, is very proud of this episode. It’s his seventh or eighth episode for us… But I think it’s his favorite. I know he’s particularly pleased with the emotional dynamics in the story of HRG, Sylar and Sandra.
From my point of view, the post-production process was very simple on this one. The only real problem that the first cut was about eight minutes long. Key reductions were made in Suresh scenes – there was a second scene with Suresh and the landlord that was lifted out – and there was also considerably more dialogue between Matt and Danko’s girlfriend, where we learned a lot about her life story. Both of these scenes were lifted for time and to enhance the overall pace. There were a few other simple trims and re-cuts – but largely the internal strucure of this show remained intact from the first cut that Jeannot and editor Lois Blumenthal delivered.
Which reminds me - I think our cast did a stellar job, as always, but I think Greg Grundberg really stepped up on this one. His story was a hard one to play, because he is, essentially out for revenge – which tends to be unsympathetic. Greg’s stock in trade is his accessible “nice guy” quality. And here, in my opinion, he really dug down for some more tortured qualities, without losing his inherent sympathy. This is a tough assignment.
I also think that the Hiro and Ando story is hilarious. When I first watched the directors cut, in the editing room with editor Lois Blumenthal, it came to the scene where Hiro and Ando were making faces at Baby Matt to cheer him up – I busted a gut laughing… I couldn’t stop. The way the boys had played it and the way Lois had jump-cut their expressions made me laugh and laugh in a way that hurt my tummy a little. On set this moment was very free-form – Jeannot was behind the monitors calling out for the boys to switch up their faces every few moments – as this went on they started making goofier and goofier faces. Finally, James Kyson Lee made a certain face and Jeannot leaped out of his chair “that’s it!” I think, at this point, life imitated art a little – as James realized he was now stuck repeating this ridiculous expression over and over – and he began to regret it. It’s still pretty funny though.
Oh – and once more a tip of the hat to the twins that play Baby Matt – Brendon and Quinn Reed. These are the best film babies I’ve ever seen. They are only 9 months old and they cry on cue, laugh on cue, look where they’re supposed to and are extremely expressive in every way. The whole crew couldn’t get over how the really seemed to “act.” The babies got extremely attached to Masi, by the way. They seemed fascinated with him and would watch him wherever he went. At the end of the episode, when Greg Grundberg came in and Matt discovered he had a son – there was a small problem, because the babies weren’t as bonded with Greg. In one shot, Greg was holding Baby Matt and talking to him, and the baby was looking all around the set for Masi. Finally Jeanott asked Masi to stand, off-camera, directly behind Greg. So, in the last scenes when the baby appears to be staring lovingly at Matt, it’s really staring lovingly at Masi who’s just off-stage.
There’s a new phenomenon at play on set – which is that, because of Sylmar’s new morphing ability, lots of different actors are getting to play Sylar – and it’s fun to see their interpretation of it. One of my favorites is Željko Ivanek.
Željko is a very interesting actor who I’ve only started to figure out. He’s very quiet and serious, and at first I took him to be shy. At times we can have a very goofy, crazy set – particularly when myself, Milo, Adrian or Grundberg are around. Željko stood a little outside of the group on his first few episodes, which I guess is natural. But then two things started to happen. One, the character began to be written with more depth. At first he was just a very mono-directed “bad guy.” Beginning with episode #20 we began to understand him more and, I’m assuming, Željko did too. So I began to see the depth of his acting ability and his facility for nuance. Also, I assume, he began to get comfortable with our group. In the shaving scene with Greg Yaitanes I saw him begin to joke and kid around. Anyway, back to the point – when Željko played Sylar – I think he captured the quality of humor and enjoyment that Zach Quinto always brings to the part. See, Slyar LOVES messing with people and living an inch from being caught. The scene in the bathroom where Danko meets Sylar/Danko is a lot of fun. It is also admirable in that much of the first part of the scene is done in one shot. The camera pans Danko in and reveals the other Danko – then moves in as Danko approaches himself. This was obviously tricky because each half of the scene has to be shot separately. Also we don’t have time or money for “motion control” rigs – in which computerized gear-head can match camera pans and tilts and even push in’s between separate takes. So Željko had to do it himself and act to himself that wasn’t there and look to a spot in the air that isn’t there. It’s hard to do all that. And I think he really provides us with two separate characters and performances.
Ashley Crow also got to play Sylar, but her part was a little easier – because in the scene with HRG- Sylar is trying to act like Sandra. The fun transition comes outside as Ashley walks into the alley then pauses and shape-shifts into Sylar. Both Zach and Ashley were on set together that day and they helped each other through that scene.
Another fun scene is the one where Jack Coleman as HRG “pretends” to be Sylar to Danko. If the editing room we laughed about this because we decided that Jack was channeling Bryan Fuller for that part of the scene. I’m not sure if he did or not, and I hope Bryan doesn’t take offense – but that’s what we decided was happening in the cutting room – and it made me smile.
For some reason, more than other directors – the crazy HEROES scheduling process seems to bone poor Jeannot. Partly it’s his fault, because he is a very popular TV director and he’s very booked up on shows like GREYS ANATOMY, BONES, COLD CASE, SMALLVILLE, WITHOUT A TRACE, etc. etc… So his schedule is tight and our schedule is, at best, loose. In the case of this episode – one of the scenes Jeannot didn’t get to direct was the one where Matt is first re-introduced to his son, in the playground. Because this scene took place on a one-time-only location – it became kind of an orphan. We found the space at a school a few blocks away (I’d shot a scene there once before when Matt came to pick up Molly after school in season 2). The scene was to take about 4 hours to shoot and was scheduled, originally, to shoot side-by-side with the bus station scenes in episode #20… But rain delayed those scenes and they got re-distributed. Allan Arkush ended up directing this scene – it actually was on one of our last days of filming along with a bunch of inserts that were needed to wrap up the final episodes. We dropped the scene into the show at the very last second.
The two final scenes of the episode, which are really a prelude to episode #23 (where Angela gathers the family and HRG at a mysterious place), had to be delayed in order to be shot in tandem with episode #23. I’m sure I’ll talk about this extensively next week – but this episode takes place almost entirely at this concentration camp of sorts, called Coyote Sands. It is set partly in the past and partly in the present, and in that episode we will learn a lot about Angela and what drives her to be the way she is…. It was a massive construction project for Production designer Ruth Ammon and the art department, done on location about 40 miles outside of L.A. Anyway – because those scene had to be delayed for weeks until that episode was ready to shoot, I took on the chore of directing them.
Jeannot had given me one key instruction for the first scene – he had a shot in mind where we would be on a very, very long lens camera, and dust would reveal mysterious shapes – we would rack focus slowly and slowly reveal Angela and Peter arriving. I did that, and followed his basic plan for the scene (I might have added more "push-ins" than Jeannot would have - I just love push-ins and I can't help myself.) We got lucky with the light that day. It had just rained and snowed and there was a quality of light that is very uncommon in Los Angeles – crisp but soft. It felt more like a scene one would shoot in Montana or New Mexico than in L.A. I worked hard to chase the backlight and staged the scene to the late afternoon sun. There is a two-shot of Hayden and Milo, done late in the day just as the sun was about to drop behind the mountains. They are both front-lit by a very soft amber sunlight, as are the snow-covered hills behind them I had the special effects guys blow dust in the distance... Oh man, I think that is a beautiful shot.
I also did the night scene where they dig up skeletons. Jeannot had described to me a way of shooting the scene all in one shot. Now I love oner's... And I had been to the location several times when we first found it - but then hadn't been up there again since construction was complete. When I got there, I was trying to imagine the shot Jeannot was describing and I couldn't... Normally, when directing scenes for others, I try to be really loyal to their vision - but this time I just didn't see it. I had the tool of the techno-crane there and I knew the scene had to be mysterious and eerie and foreboding. Other than that I just winged it getting the shots that felt right to me at the time. Because I didn't really prep this episode, I might have missed the proper emotion between Claire and HRG as she sees him arrive. I was going with the mystery of it all and trying to create a foreboding vibe. In my memory, these two characters hadn't seen each other since episode #19, and there was still tension and unresolved feelings. Later, though, other producers felt that Claire should have been happier to see her father. I'm not sure - you decide.
Enough! Lots of pictures today:
PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES:
EVER-POPULAR MAKEUP GAL, WENDI ALISON (MANY OF THESE PIX ARE HERS) AND DIRECTOR JEANNOT SZCWARC
DIRECTOR JEANNOT SZCWARC, WRITER MARK VERHEIDEN AND D.P. NATE GOODMAN WATCH A REHEARSAL
ON SET REHEARSAL
BETWEEN TAKES ON SET
ON-SET OPERATOR PETER MERCURIO HAND-HOLDS THE CAMERA DURING A TAKE
JEANNOT DIRECTS THE CAST
ŽELJKO AND ZACH GET READY TO RUMBLE!
CHINESE MEDICINE INDICATES A CLEAR TONGUE EQUALS GOOD HEALTH - SENDHIL PASSES THE TEST!
POOR DEAD SYLAR
ASHLEY CROW CELEBRATES CRISTINE'S BIRTHDAY
SENDHIL FEELS JAUNTY IN HIS NEW CAP!
PARKMAN - THE BIG AND LITTLE VERSIONS
COMPOSERS WENDY AND LISA RUSH TO A MUSIC SPOTTING!
JACK COLEMAN AND ZACH QUINTO - THERE'S A LOT AT "STAKE" IN THIS SCENE
JACK 'N ASHLEY BETWEEN TAKES
HAYDEN AND MILO ON SET (A STILL THAT MATCHES ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHOTS FROM THE EPISODE!)
DENTAL HYGINE IN THE HIGH DESERT
CRISTINE ROSE - QUEEN OF ALL SHE SURVEYS
A.D. ROBERT SCOTT ENCOURAGES ME TO QUIT TAKING PICTURES AND GET BACK TO WORK
Sunday, March 29, 2009
BEEMAN'S BLOG -SEASON 3 - EPISODE 21 - "INTO ASYLUM"
BEEMAN’S BLOG
SEASON 3- EPISODE 21
“INTO ASYLUM”
WARNING: YOU COULD END UP IN AN ASYLUM IF YOU AREN’T PREPARED FOR THE SPOILESR CONTAINED HERIN!!!
Tonight’s episode was written by Joe Pokaski. It was directed by our long-time line producer, first time HEROES director, Jim Chory.
As I mentioned last week, production of this episode underwent a unique and somewhat stressful situation. Because Bryan Fuller’s script for last week’s episode #20 was, initially, too complex and expensive – it was determined by the powers that be that episode #20 would be delayed and that this episode - #21 – which was leaner and more easily produce-able - would be moved up.
This type of switch-up is not unprecedented, but like all TV shows, we have a very tight and very specific prep period on HEROES… About eight days total to find all the locations, set all the new cast, and decide how all the special effects, action and other aspects of the scenes are going to be produced. Now Episode #20 had already been being prepping for two days when this decision was made… This posed a problem for Joe Pokaski, because at the time this decision was made, there was a strong outline for this episode, but there was no script. So prep began on this episode with an outline only… Joe started to write as fast as he can, but if I remember correctly – they prepped on a Thursday and Friday with the outline only and Joe trying to pound out the script between meetings… Joe had to write the whole script over the first weekend, and we producers got it at about 1AM on Sunday night. Monday was day 5 of 8 days of prep.
I must commend Joe, because given these conditions; the first draft was in excellent shape. Everyone was pretty nervous behind the scenes, because, even though the outline was strong, there is not always a one-to-one correlation between outline and script. If the first draft didn’t sing – there would be almost no time to correct it.
I was struck by the emotional strength of the scenes. The structure has a greater simplicity than most of our stories. Essentially it is three two-character stories – Angela/Peter, Nathan/Claire and Sylar/Danko (with a little HRG thrown in) there were many more two-character pure-dialogue based scenes than we ever usually get. This can either work – if the writing is strong – or can fall flat and get boring if it’s not. Obviously, you will be your own judge of whether the episode works or not – but it worked for me.
Given the crazy-short prep, it was lucky Jim Chory was at the helm. Jim has been the line producer since the beginning of HEROES. I never mention him on the blog because he’s paranoid or something and always threatens to sue me if I even mention him…. But I told him, that since my blog is primarily about direction, that when he directs I can’t help but mention him…. Anyway, Jim is an organizational mastermind. He is the force behind the scenes figuring out how to put together the crazy schedules, balancing manpower and cast and even cast requests for time off and publicity, etc. etc…. So if ever there was someone to figure how to prep an episode in only three days – it was he.
Jim is not new to directing. He has directed episodes of AMERICAN DREAMS and THE DISTRICT, two shows he worked on before…. And he has an immense amount of experience prepping EVERY director on this show and those. But he hadn’t done a HEROES before. I think he thought the rest of us producers were nervous, but we really weren’t. We assumed he’d do a great job. Maybe he was nervous, wanting to do great, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I think Jim did a great job. He’s a maniac on set. He is completely organized and knows every shot and every angle he wants. He pushes like crazy and was getting an incredible number of setups a day. A setup is what we call every distinct shot. If you use two cameras at a time you can get two setups. If you use three you can get three. For myself, I tend to do longer shots and get less coverage (i.e. setups) in a day. A lot of days, using two cameras only a few times, I’ll get twenty-two to thirty setups a day. Allan Arkush likes having more choices of sizes and shots in the cutting room so he gets closer to forty. That’s a lot…. (Now remember on a typical day we will be doing three or four scenes that add up to six, or so, pages – so twenty to forty shots is all you get to tell all those stories) Anyway – Jim was getting some crazy number of setups a day – like seventy!!! It was insane. It was good, because when we got into the cutting room – if I ever said, something like, “Oh man, I wish we had a closeup of Nathan once he walks over to this side of the room” the editor (Scott Boyd) would say, “We got it!” No matter what angle I could think of Scott would say “We got it.”
Besides getting a bazillion and a half shots per day, Jim also really concentrated on performance and made a point of intensively directing the actors. This was a good idea and, in my opinion, resulted in some excellent scenes. My overall favorite storyline is between Sylar and Danko – there are a lot of really meaty scenes in that story and a lot of great twists and turns.
Interestingly, Tijuana, Mexico was filmed in Venice California – on many of the same streets used by Orson Wells when he filmed Venice for Tijuana in TOUCH OF EVIL. If you’ve never seen this movie do so – it is, for me, a seminal movie. In film school I studied and copied this movie’s style – and the long takes, the low angle wide-angle masters in which actors recompose themselves in shots are still techniques I frequently go to when staging scenes. Allan Arkush recently gave me as a present a new director's cut of this film recently released from Criterion. It is based on a 58 page memo Wells wrote upon seeing the studio re-cut of his film, the film has been restored to his original vision and has been released posthumously You should see it.
Now, while on the one hand, moving the production of this episode up a week resulted in stress during production – it also resulted in less stress in postproduction. Because last week’s episode had been delayed in shooting – it had to be rushed through post production… As I remember, we had only 9 days to lock the picture and the visual effects of Ali Larter Freezing, etc. had to be turned over very quickly. Here the opposite was the case, especially since there were substantially less visual effects than in most episodes. There was a nice long time to edit this one, and every producer who wanted to, really got to have their turn with the film.
There were also a number of scenes omitted or drastically reduced. There was a subplot in which Noah Bennet took Micah under his wing (I’ve included a couple of photos of these scenes)… There was a follow up fight in Tijuana, where Claire and Nathan got assaulted by the college students they’d been drinking with. This was funny, because, in order to defeat them, drunken Nathan flew. There was also substantially more to the church scenes with Angela and Peter, including a scene where Peter flew to avoid the agents. These were all great, but the first editors cut was over ten minutes too long and so – in the end – they had to go.
OKAY ONTO “LOS PICTUROS”:
ADRIAN GIVES HAYDEN WHAT'S WHAT IN MEXICO
ALI LARTER IN “HOT HOT HEAT”
CHURCH
FLIGHT
HAYDEN AND ADRIAN IN “MEXICO”
.JPG)
HIRO AND BABY MATT (from last week but TOO cute!!!)
HIRO AND BABY MATT 2
HRG AND MICAH IN AN OMITTED SCENE
.JPG)
CREW WORKS ON OMITTED MICAH SCENE (they didn't know it was omitted at the time or they might have objected)
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY NATE GOOODMAN A PICTURE OF DIGNITY
HRG CONFESSES TO LIKING THIS EPISODE
JIM CHORY DIRECTS THE CAST
MOTHER ANGELA
MAS CACAHUATE’S POR FAVOR
SEASON 3- EPISODE 21
“INTO ASYLUM”
WARNING: YOU COULD END UP IN AN ASYLUM IF YOU AREN’T PREPARED FOR THE SPOILESR CONTAINED HERIN!!!
Tonight’s episode was written by Joe Pokaski. It was directed by our long-time line producer, first time HEROES director, Jim Chory.
As I mentioned last week, production of this episode underwent a unique and somewhat stressful situation. Because Bryan Fuller’s script for last week’s episode #20 was, initially, too complex and expensive – it was determined by the powers that be that episode #20 would be delayed and that this episode - #21 – which was leaner and more easily produce-able - would be moved up.
This type of switch-up is not unprecedented, but like all TV shows, we have a very tight and very specific prep period on HEROES… About eight days total to find all the locations, set all the new cast, and decide how all the special effects, action and other aspects of the scenes are going to be produced. Now Episode #20 had already been being prepping for two days when this decision was made… This posed a problem for Joe Pokaski, because at the time this decision was made, there was a strong outline for this episode, but there was no script. So prep began on this episode with an outline only… Joe started to write as fast as he can, but if I remember correctly – they prepped on a Thursday and Friday with the outline only and Joe trying to pound out the script between meetings… Joe had to write the whole script over the first weekend, and we producers got it at about 1AM on Sunday night. Monday was day 5 of 8 days of prep.
I must commend Joe, because given these conditions; the first draft was in excellent shape. Everyone was pretty nervous behind the scenes, because, even though the outline was strong, there is not always a one-to-one correlation between outline and script. If the first draft didn’t sing – there would be almost no time to correct it.
I was struck by the emotional strength of the scenes. The structure has a greater simplicity than most of our stories. Essentially it is three two-character stories – Angela/Peter, Nathan/Claire and Sylar/Danko (with a little HRG thrown in) there were many more two-character pure-dialogue based scenes than we ever usually get. This can either work – if the writing is strong – or can fall flat and get boring if it’s not. Obviously, you will be your own judge of whether the episode works or not – but it worked for me.
Given the crazy-short prep, it was lucky Jim Chory was at the helm. Jim has been the line producer since the beginning of HEROES. I never mention him on the blog because he’s paranoid or something and always threatens to sue me if I even mention him…. But I told him, that since my blog is primarily about direction, that when he directs I can’t help but mention him…. Anyway, Jim is an organizational mastermind. He is the force behind the scenes figuring out how to put together the crazy schedules, balancing manpower and cast and even cast requests for time off and publicity, etc. etc…. So if ever there was someone to figure how to prep an episode in only three days – it was he.
Jim is not new to directing. He has directed episodes of AMERICAN DREAMS and THE DISTRICT, two shows he worked on before…. And he has an immense amount of experience prepping EVERY director on this show and those. But he hadn’t done a HEROES before. I think he thought the rest of us producers were nervous, but we really weren’t. We assumed he’d do a great job. Maybe he was nervous, wanting to do great, but I’m not sure. Anyway, I think Jim did a great job. He’s a maniac on set. He is completely organized and knows every shot and every angle he wants. He pushes like crazy and was getting an incredible number of setups a day. A setup is what we call every distinct shot. If you use two cameras at a time you can get two setups. If you use three you can get three. For myself, I tend to do longer shots and get less coverage (i.e. setups) in a day. A lot of days, using two cameras only a few times, I’ll get twenty-two to thirty setups a day. Allan Arkush likes having more choices of sizes and shots in the cutting room so he gets closer to forty. That’s a lot…. (Now remember on a typical day we will be doing three or four scenes that add up to six, or so, pages – so twenty to forty shots is all you get to tell all those stories) Anyway – Jim was getting some crazy number of setups a day – like seventy!!! It was insane. It was good, because when we got into the cutting room – if I ever said, something like, “Oh man, I wish we had a closeup of Nathan once he walks over to this side of the room” the editor (Scott Boyd) would say, “We got it!” No matter what angle I could think of Scott would say “We got it.”
Besides getting a bazillion and a half shots per day, Jim also really concentrated on performance and made a point of intensively directing the actors. This was a good idea and, in my opinion, resulted in some excellent scenes. My overall favorite storyline is between Sylar and Danko – there are a lot of really meaty scenes in that story and a lot of great twists and turns.
Interestingly, Tijuana, Mexico was filmed in Venice California – on many of the same streets used by Orson Wells when he filmed Venice for Tijuana in TOUCH OF EVIL. If you’ve never seen this movie do so – it is, for me, a seminal movie. In film school I studied and copied this movie’s style – and the long takes, the low angle wide-angle masters in which actors recompose themselves in shots are still techniques I frequently go to when staging scenes. Allan Arkush recently gave me as a present a new director's cut of this film recently released from Criterion. It is based on a 58 page memo Wells wrote upon seeing the studio re-cut of his film, the film has been restored to his original vision and has been released posthumously You should see it.
Now, while on the one hand, moving the production of this episode up a week resulted in stress during production – it also resulted in less stress in postproduction. Because last week’s episode had been delayed in shooting – it had to be rushed through post production… As I remember, we had only 9 days to lock the picture and the visual effects of Ali Larter Freezing, etc. had to be turned over very quickly. Here the opposite was the case, especially since there were substantially less visual effects than in most episodes. There was a nice long time to edit this one, and every producer who wanted to, really got to have their turn with the film.
There were also a number of scenes omitted or drastically reduced. There was a subplot in which Noah Bennet took Micah under his wing (I’ve included a couple of photos of these scenes)… There was a follow up fight in Tijuana, where Claire and Nathan got assaulted by the college students they’d been drinking with. This was funny, because, in order to defeat them, drunken Nathan flew. There was also substantially more to the church scenes with Angela and Peter, including a scene where Peter flew to avoid the agents. These were all great, but the first editors cut was over ten minutes too long and so – in the end – they had to go.
OKAY ONTO “LOS PICTUROS”:
ADRIAN GIVES HAYDEN WHAT'S WHAT IN MEXICO
ALI LARTER IN “HOT HOT HEAT”
CHURCH
FLIGHT
HAYDEN AND ADRIAN IN “MEXICO”
.JPG)
HIRO AND BABY MATT (from last week but TOO cute!!!)
HIRO AND BABY MATT 2
HRG AND MICAH IN AN OMITTED SCENE
.JPG)
CREW WORKS ON OMITTED MICAH SCENE (they didn't know it was omitted at the time or they might have objected)
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY NATE GOOODMAN A PICTURE OF DIGNITY
HRG CONFESSES TO LIKING THIS EPISODE
JIM CHORY DIRECTS THE CAST
MOTHER ANGELA
MAS CACAHUATE’S POR FAVOR
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
BEEMAN'S BLOG: SEASON 3, EPISODE 20 - "COLD SNAP"
SEASON 3 - EPISODE 20
"COLD SNAP"
WARNING SEVERE SPOILER CONDITIONS EXIST HERIN - PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Tonight’s episode was written by Bryan Fuller, and marks his return to HEROES for the first time since season one. Greg Yaitanes directed it. It is the third episode this season he directed.
This episode was an unusual one experientially for me. It appears as episode #3.20 in our ongoing storyline – but it was actually shot in the twenty-first slot. Let me explain. At first this episode was going to be shot, on schedule, right after episode #19. I, of course, was in the middle of directing episode #19 – which was filmed right until our Christmas hiatus in mid-December. This one (as you can probably imagine from seeing it) was expensive and complex and hard to wrangle down… And so, because of these things, it was decided, mid-stream, to move up the shooting order of the more-manageable episode #21 and to move back this one. Therefore this episode was shot in the 21st episode slot – which bought it more time to be financially reconceived. This also meant, happily for me, that I got to be more involved in it. Whenever I am directing it is very hard to have too much to do with the episode that directly follows me. (That’s why we tend to schedule Allan Arkush into the slots that follow mine.)
Anyway – the prep of this episode was delayed until the New Year, and I was glad – because, I thought it was a very beautiful and well-realized script, and I wanted to be part of it. Tracy’s story and particularly the titular “cold snap” scene were, obviously, very exciting – and I knew right away that it was the kind of scene that Mr. Yaitanes always rips it up on… But the storyline that really jumped off the page for me, on first reading, was the one between Matt and Daphne, which culminates in Daphne’s realization off her death - in Paris. There was something so sad and haunting about that sequence. It also was a very unique and clever way to kill a character off. The other story I was quite fond of was Angela's. I like seeing her shown at her wits end and out of lifelines.
These icy parking garage and the flight through Paris are clearly very big scenes (and I think the audience will want for nothing, scope-wise, on this one)... but the art-versus commerce process on this one was particularly tough. There were other scenes of large scope that had to be scaled down.
Specifically, the Hiro-Ando frozen-time scene was more elaborate. It originally took place in an interior and an exterior of Janice's house, then travelled through LA and ended up in a book store/coffee shop. In the end, the scenes at Janice Parkman’s house were confined to interiors only and the action as scaled back a bit. The coffee shop/book story journey became a bus station we built in our back lot. Nevertheless, these scenes, I think, are very satisfying and funny. Ando in the wheelbarrow – to my mind – is hilarious and the twins playing Baby Matt Parkman are genius! More on that later…
I think the action with Peter and Angela and the agents was originally more complex too – but the details of this escape me now.
We had to scale back the action that was filmed as well. Besides the visual effects, the sequence in the parking garage was expensive, because the products used and the manpower needed by our FX-Meister Gary Damico to realize this scene, were very expensive. The products used were a vacuum-formed plastic that had to be designed and molded to the cars and the walls of the parking garage – a flocking product (the same thing that is used on your Christmas Trees) was then added everywhere. Finally, Ice was laid on the ground wherever actors walked. I went into the garage the day before filming began - there were ten guys in that parking garage using heat guns and glue guns for a full day – molding ice into cars and the garage and the walls.
The scene was additionally complex because it had to be divided into two distinct parts – first the water part, when Micah lets loose the sprinklers. Then our crew had to stop filming – allowing a full day to build in the ice and then we returned two days later to the garage to complete the icy half of the sequence.
It was a complicated sequence conceptually, but this is exactly the kind of thing Greg Yaitanes is good at. He laid out and thoroughly storyboarded the entire scene and we walked the set with FX crew art department and producers numerous times – literally laying out exactly what would and wouldn’t be seen – and building ice only exactly where it was needed.
Greg had the whole scene well in mind and particularly the shot that appears to move continuously around the garage ramping from slo-mo to sped-up motion. In my mind, it all turned out quite well.
PUSHING DASIES fans may suspect that Bryan Fuller’s relationship with Swoosie Kurtz got her into this role – and we’re glad it did. She was a true delight to work with. There was one day of rehearsal between she and Christine Rose. The two actors really seemed to enjoy working together. The dialogue in this scene is so simple and so wonderful that it really facilitated the performers relationship, on and off camera, to evolve quickly. It was fun for me to get a glimpse into Angela’s “real” life before The Company took it over. And her dignity in desperation in was great to see.
Back to those babies - Using babies on set is always a highly problematic thing in the first place. By law, their hours are very limited. I think a baby of that age can only be on set for a total of four hours – and can only work in front of the camera for one hour total. This is why productions always want to use twins. We saw three sets of twins for this project. We chose the little guys we did, partly because they were small for their age – but also because they had actually done a fair bit of work already. Believe it or not, these 10-month-old kids have already done recurring work on a soap opera and a number of commercials… Well, we really lucked out! First of all, both of them had the best temperaments. They never cried. They never looked at the camera – and, miraculously, they did all kinds of behavioral things exactly as scripted! This never happens! Usually, when filming babies – one can count on nothing except for the need to get a lot of gooey-cute close ups whenever the kids happen to be in a good mood.
Watch the scene where Hiro rolls Ando into the bus station. There’s a long continuous shot when Hiro takes a bottle from a frozen woman, he hands it to the baby who takes it from him and immediately drinks it… ON CUE! It’s a small thing – and probably goes unnoticed because it seems so-obviously what’s supposed to happen – but behind the monitors a cheer went up when Greg Y yelled, “cut!” OMG WHAT A BABY!!!
Last thing – Production Designer Ruth Ammon and the art department deserve special commendations this week for two complex projects that were done quickly and quite well. Turning sets into new sets. The first is that they took our old Deveaux rooftop set and transformed it into Daphne’s dreamy Parisian rooftop. First of all, the old set had been taken down and hadbeen “folded and held,” as we say. Secondly, we had to find the space on stage to even fit it. The space the rooftop set had formerly occupied was now taken up with Building 26. One of the more mundane, but very important jobs, Ruth and her crew have to do is to figure out the geometric math of how to put sets up in our large, but limited stage space. This involves a math skills. Ruth uses a big blueprint of the stage and overlays 2-D models of the sets to make sure they fit. Often she will have to make changes to the edges and shapes of a set to make sure they work in the space.
Artistically, there were a number of conversions that Ruth made, to hide the façade of the old rooftop. But the most impressive was the steel structure and light arrangement that we first find Daphne sitting on.
This art department conversion was good, but it’s not completely undetectable. The more impressive job was taking the Bennet house and converting into Janice Parkman’s apartment. Bottom line – we were out of stage space and the writers knew, by now, that we would not be returning to the Bennet house for the rest of the season. Tim came up with the idea of converting the space. But Ruth and Bryan both strongly wanted the design of Janice’s to be a mid-century modern. I’m not sure how Ruth did it, because I know she had not-much money and no time. I am sure no-one would look at Janice Parkman’s and say – “Oh yeah…. That’s just the Bennet house turned over.”
A last note: All eyes were dewy as we said goodbye to Brea Grant. She has been great – and is a favorite of the cast and crew. I think she brought a lot to her role of speedster, both in terms of humor, pathos and raw spunky energy. I will miss her and I’m sure I’m not alone.
OK – I’ve got a lot of pictures this week fans…. SO HERE WE GO!
BEGIND-THE-SCENES (OR EVEN IN-THE-SCENES) PICTURES COMMENCE NOW:
BRYAN FULLER AND GREG YAITANES PRESENT DAVID H. LAWRENCE
BRYAN FULLER MONKEYS AROUND WITH THE SCRIPT
YAITANES PREPARES TO OPERATE ON THE SCENE
ICY ALI #1
ICY ALI #2
BEEMAN SAYS "I SHOULDA BROUGHT MY SNUGGY"
BEHIND THE SCENES #1
BEHIND THE SCENES #2
BREA IN PARIS (I.E. A REDRESS OF OUR DEVEAUX ROOFTOP SET
BRYAN FULLER WELCOMES THE RETURN OF LISA LACKEY
BRYAN FULLER, ALI LARTER AND GREG YAITANES - HANGIN' IN THE ICE CAVE
DP CHARLIE LEIBERMAN LEST US KNOW WHAT'S WHAT
FLY MOM FLY UP UP TO THE SKY
GREG G AND BREA IN PARIS
GREG Y SUPPORTS HIS ACTORS
GREG YAITANES PLAYS "PINCH SOME HEADS" WHILE ALI AND THE CREW LOOK ON
OUR CAMERA OPERATOR PETER MERCURIO - OPERATOR IS THE SEXIEST JOB ON SET!
I SPY GREG YAITANES AND FX MASTER GARY DAMICO
MASI AND ME
JAMES KYSON LEE STRIKES A POSE
MASI PLAYS WITH THE WILDLIFE
PUPPET MASTER UNDER A HEAT LAMP
SENDHIL AND SHOT-UP-BREA
TIM KRIING LED THE APPLAUSE ON BREA GRANT'S LAST DAY
ARKUSH AND I BID OUR 'LIL SPEEDSTER TO GO NOT GENTLY INTO THAT DARK NIGHT!
ACTRESS MARA LaFONTAINE AND I AND THE CREEPY RUBBER "STAND IN" BABY
"COLD SNAP"
WARNING SEVERE SPOILER CONDITIONS EXIST HERIN - PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Tonight’s episode was written by Bryan Fuller, and marks his return to HEROES for the first time since season one. Greg Yaitanes directed it. It is the third episode this season he directed.
This episode was an unusual one experientially for me. It appears as episode #3.20 in our ongoing storyline – but it was actually shot in the twenty-first slot. Let me explain. At first this episode was going to be shot, on schedule, right after episode #19. I, of course, was in the middle of directing episode #19 – which was filmed right until our Christmas hiatus in mid-December. This one (as you can probably imagine from seeing it) was expensive and complex and hard to wrangle down… And so, because of these things, it was decided, mid-stream, to move up the shooting order of the more-manageable episode #21 and to move back this one. Therefore this episode was shot in the 21st episode slot – which bought it more time to be financially reconceived. This also meant, happily for me, that I got to be more involved in it. Whenever I am directing it is very hard to have too much to do with the episode that directly follows me. (That’s why we tend to schedule Allan Arkush into the slots that follow mine.)
Anyway – the prep of this episode was delayed until the New Year, and I was glad – because, I thought it was a very beautiful and well-realized script, and I wanted to be part of it. Tracy’s story and particularly the titular “cold snap” scene were, obviously, very exciting – and I knew right away that it was the kind of scene that Mr. Yaitanes always rips it up on… But the storyline that really jumped off the page for me, on first reading, was the one between Matt and Daphne, which culminates in Daphne’s realization off her death - in Paris. There was something so sad and haunting about that sequence. It also was a very unique and clever way to kill a character off. The other story I was quite fond of was Angela's. I like seeing her shown at her wits end and out of lifelines.
These icy parking garage and the flight through Paris are clearly very big scenes (and I think the audience will want for nothing, scope-wise, on this one)... but the art-versus commerce process on this one was particularly tough. There were other scenes of large scope that had to be scaled down.
Specifically, the Hiro-Ando frozen-time scene was more elaborate. It originally took place in an interior and an exterior of Janice's house, then travelled through LA and ended up in a book store/coffee shop. In the end, the scenes at Janice Parkman’s house were confined to interiors only and the action as scaled back a bit. The coffee shop/book story journey became a bus station we built in our back lot. Nevertheless, these scenes, I think, are very satisfying and funny. Ando in the wheelbarrow – to my mind – is hilarious and the twins playing Baby Matt Parkman are genius! More on that later…
I think the action with Peter and Angela and the agents was originally more complex too – but the details of this escape me now.
We had to scale back the action that was filmed as well. Besides the visual effects, the sequence in the parking garage was expensive, because the products used and the manpower needed by our FX-Meister Gary Damico to realize this scene, were very expensive. The products used were a vacuum-formed plastic that had to be designed and molded to the cars and the walls of the parking garage – a flocking product (the same thing that is used on your Christmas Trees) was then added everywhere. Finally, Ice was laid on the ground wherever actors walked. I went into the garage the day before filming began - there were ten guys in that parking garage using heat guns and glue guns for a full day – molding ice into cars and the garage and the walls.
The scene was additionally complex because it had to be divided into two distinct parts – first the water part, when Micah lets loose the sprinklers. Then our crew had to stop filming – allowing a full day to build in the ice and then we returned two days later to the garage to complete the icy half of the sequence.
It was a complicated sequence conceptually, but this is exactly the kind of thing Greg Yaitanes is good at. He laid out and thoroughly storyboarded the entire scene and we walked the set with FX crew art department and producers numerous times – literally laying out exactly what would and wouldn’t be seen – and building ice only exactly where it was needed.
Greg had the whole scene well in mind and particularly the shot that appears to move continuously around the garage ramping from slo-mo to sped-up motion. In my mind, it all turned out quite well.
PUSHING DASIES fans may suspect that Bryan Fuller’s relationship with Swoosie Kurtz got her into this role – and we’re glad it did. She was a true delight to work with. There was one day of rehearsal between she and Christine Rose. The two actors really seemed to enjoy working together. The dialogue in this scene is so simple and so wonderful that it really facilitated the performers relationship, on and off camera, to evolve quickly. It was fun for me to get a glimpse into Angela’s “real” life before The Company took it over. And her dignity in desperation in was great to see.
Back to those babies - Using babies on set is always a highly problematic thing in the first place. By law, their hours are very limited. I think a baby of that age can only be on set for a total of four hours – and can only work in front of the camera for one hour total. This is why productions always want to use twins. We saw three sets of twins for this project. We chose the little guys we did, partly because they were small for their age – but also because they had actually done a fair bit of work already. Believe it or not, these 10-month-old kids have already done recurring work on a soap opera and a number of commercials… Well, we really lucked out! First of all, both of them had the best temperaments. They never cried. They never looked at the camera – and, miraculously, they did all kinds of behavioral things exactly as scripted! This never happens! Usually, when filming babies – one can count on nothing except for the need to get a lot of gooey-cute close ups whenever the kids happen to be in a good mood.
Watch the scene where Hiro rolls Ando into the bus station. There’s a long continuous shot when Hiro takes a bottle from a frozen woman, he hands it to the baby who takes it from him and immediately drinks it… ON CUE! It’s a small thing – and probably goes unnoticed because it seems so-obviously what’s supposed to happen – but behind the monitors a cheer went up when Greg Y yelled, “cut!” OMG WHAT A BABY!!!
Last thing – Production Designer Ruth Ammon and the art department deserve special commendations this week for two complex projects that were done quickly and quite well. Turning sets into new sets. The first is that they took our old Deveaux rooftop set and transformed it into Daphne’s dreamy Parisian rooftop. First of all, the old set had been taken down and hadbeen “folded and held,” as we say. Secondly, we had to find the space on stage to even fit it. The space the rooftop set had formerly occupied was now taken up with Building 26. One of the more mundane, but very important jobs, Ruth and her crew have to do is to figure out the geometric math of how to put sets up in our large, but limited stage space. This involves a math skills. Ruth uses a big blueprint of the stage and overlays 2-D models of the sets to make sure they fit. Often she will have to make changes to the edges and shapes of a set to make sure they work in the space.
Artistically, there were a number of conversions that Ruth made, to hide the façade of the old rooftop. But the most impressive was the steel structure and light arrangement that we first find Daphne sitting on.
This art department conversion was good, but it’s not completely undetectable. The more impressive job was taking the Bennet house and converting into Janice Parkman’s apartment. Bottom line – we were out of stage space and the writers knew, by now, that we would not be returning to the Bennet house for the rest of the season. Tim came up with the idea of converting the space. But Ruth and Bryan both strongly wanted the design of Janice’s to be a mid-century modern. I’m not sure how Ruth did it, because I know she had not-much money and no time. I am sure no-one would look at Janice Parkman’s and say – “Oh yeah…. That’s just the Bennet house turned over.”
A last note: All eyes were dewy as we said goodbye to Brea Grant. She has been great – and is a favorite of the cast and crew. I think she brought a lot to her role of speedster, both in terms of humor, pathos and raw spunky energy. I will miss her and I’m sure I’m not alone.
OK – I’ve got a lot of pictures this week fans…. SO HERE WE GO!
BEGIND-THE-SCENES (OR EVEN IN-THE-SCENES) PICTURES COMMENCE NOW:
BRYAN FULLER AND GREG YAITANES PRESENT DAVID H. LAWRENCE
BRYAN FULLER MONKEYS AROUND WITH THE SCRIPT
YAITANES PREPARES TO OPERATE ON THE SCENE
ICY ALI #1
ICY ALI #2
BEEMAN SAYS "I SHOULDA BROUGHT MY SNUGGY"
BEHIND THE SCENES #1
BEHIND THE SCENES #2
BREA IN PARIS (I.E. A REDRESS OF OUR DEVEAUX ROOFTOP SET
BRYAN FULLER WELCOMES THE RETURN OF LISA LACKEY
BRYAN FULLER, ALI LARTER AND GREG YAITANES - HANGIN' IN THE ICE CAVE
DP CHARLIE LEIBERMAN LEST US KNOW WHAT'S WHAT
FLY MOM FLY UP UP TO THE SKY
GREG G AND BREA IN PARIS
GREG Y SUPPORTS HIS ACTORS
GREG YAITANES PLAYS "PINCH SOME HEADS" WHILE ALI AND THE CREW LOOK ON
OUR CAMERA OPERATOR PETER MERCURIO - OPERATOR IS THE SEXIEST JOB ON SET!
I SPY GREG YAITANES AND FX MASTER GARY DAMICO
MASI AND ME
JAMES KYSON LEE STRIKES A POSE
MASI PLAYS WITH THE WILDLIFE
PUPPET MASTER UNDER A HEAT LAMP
SENDHIL AND SHOT-UP-BREA
TIM KRIING LED THE APPLAUSE ON BREA GRANT'S LAST DAY
ARKUSH AND I BID OUR 'LIL SPEEDSTER TO GO NOT GENTLY INTO THAT DARK NIGHT!
ACTRESS MARA LaFONTAINE AND I AND THE CREEPY RUBBER "STAND IN" BABY
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
