Homicide: Life on the
Best Damn Set on Television
Set Visit - November 12, 1998
Part 2
by Susan M. Garrett
"Bones of Contention" aired
January 15th, NBC, 10:00 PM (EST)
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INT STAIRWAY/ POLICE HEADQUARTERS - DAY
Sounds pretty innocent, doesn't it? Little did we know what we were in for.
Xan pulled us aside and told us that we were going to be witnesses to a crime who were coming to the station to report it. He introduced us to Ed, an extra who was playing a police detective (and who's been with HLotS for almost as long as it's been on the air, graduating to a semi-regular extra role of detective). Ed and Xan gave us the drill. Xan took away my bag (we hadn't had it out in the street, so he didn't want it in the scene--Holy Continuity, Batman!) and had me take out my keys. He positioned me behind the metal detector stationed in the front foyer, just in front of the steps. Ed got my keys. The set-up was for me to sign in at the desk (Sharon was already through the metal detector), pass through the metal detector, get my keys from Ed, pause and talk to him for a minute, then go with him up the steps.
As we're standing there, Sharon looked up and laughed--the metal detector was a GARRETT. I called to Xan and pointed upward--"That's my name."
Okay, so you can't shake destiny.
If you check out photo 2, you can see the staircase from the top. Callie Thorne and Jon Seda were positioned three or four steps up from the floor and we were on the ground floor behind them. The bicycle cops were beside us and extras were positioned at all points, coming up and down the steps or at the reception desk at the top.
I stared down at the piece of paper and pen in my hand and waited for "background." I signed, I passed through, I got my keys from Ed (and held them tightly--I'd been warned not to let them rattle), we paused, and then we went upstairs.
It wasn't the shot from hell--I'm sure these people go through much worse on a daily basis--but it WAS a learning experience. The main actors have to be shot from behind, from the front, from the side, then with individual close-ups from a variety of angles--all while you're going UP the steps. The extras have to do what they're supposed to do in every shot, whether it's running down or walking up or walking by.
We must have gone up and down those steps thirteen times.
There are a LOT of steps.
We learned a trick from Ed--only do as much as you have to as long as the camera is on you. In later shots, when Jon and Callie were being followed around the corner and down the hallway, Ed would stop us--we were out of frame so why expend the energy? Also, it turns out we were clumping up the stairs--Xan asked Ed to tell us to walk softer. Oops.
As I mentioned, HLotS is filmed with a portable camera. Alex had the camera. To do the close-ups, he had to walk backwards up the steps in front of Jon and Callie. He fell the first time, but he was all right--someone caught him and someone else caught the camera. After that Alex was very, very careful about getting up those steps, which meant he moved like a guy who was trying to drag his foot out of three feet of sticky mud. Thick of it as a backwards duck march.
It was funny enough to kept cracking up Jon Seda. He'd be doing his lines and then suddenly start laughing, "It's not my fault--Alex looks funny!" Then Jon did an imitation of Alex that was almost as funny as Alex. And we did the scene again.
And again.
And again.
Up and down those stairs.
Finally, we got the shot, then Callie lost it up at the top of the steps and started laughing--Alex was just too funny.
I noticed extras that had been running down the stairs during the first take progressed to a quick walk, then eventually a casual stroll. It takes a lot of energy to film again and again and you have to give these people a lot of credit for it.
The scene at the end of the steps continued through the hallway and into the precinct. We did that twice and then we seemed to be done for a moment while they set up the next shot--the entrance into the bullpen.
Jon Seda and Callie Thorne stood in front of us, an extra dressed as a cop stood in front of them, another cop stood across from them (he was going to pass by the door). Behind us were the two bicycle cops, sans bicycles, and one or two others. We were in a tiny hallway at the top of the stairs and they were going to film the parade of all of us into the room, Xan being the ringmaster and giving each extra their cue. "Go--Go--Go--"
Remember I said how great Jon Seda was? He laughed and joked with us and the other extras the entire time we were in the hallway--which was quite a while. His joke of the day was, "How does Elvis scare people on Halloween? H'boo!"
There's a definite pecking order on every set--this person can talk to that person, this person can answer that person's question but can't ask a question of this other person, etc. It's sort of like military organization. Actors pretty much don't mess with extras and that was the case for us in the afternoon. Clark had introduced us in the morning as his guests and Richard Belzer was very nice to us, but after Clark left we became 'extras' instead of guests. I think it made a difference as to how the actors treated us--technically, we didn't exist. To be honest, neither Sharon nor I made an effort to approach anyone because these people are doing their job, you really don't want to interrupt them, it's just not polite. Jon Seda, however, was very kind to us and I noticed that he laughed and joked with the extras as well.
Having mentioned that, I should mention the extras--we met a number of extras on the set that day who'd been with HLotS for a while and every single one of them was nice to us. They really made an effort to make us feel welcome, helped us out with tips on how to do this or that, etc. We were a little hesitant at first, because here we were horning in on a job that somebody usually got paid for, but they were very kind and wanted to know about the charity and the auction and where we'd come from.
Back to the 'parade' of people waiting to go into the station.
We did a run through and it seemed to work, so then background was called and we started moving. There's a step up into the station from the hallway and you have to be careful or you'll trip--I tripped once, I know Ed tripped once, and I saw Jon Seda trip once. We all came into the station and moved toward our assigned places.
The bicycle cops had initially left their bikes downstairs. We did a run-through without the bikes, at which point it was decided to have them go back down and get the bikes (Jon Seda suggested they be filmed riding up the stairs). The next time we paraded in, the director saw the bikes and his reaction was "Where did they come from?" so the order was given to lose the bikes.
Another entrance, this time the director deciding that he liked the bikes. Bring back the bikes.
One of the bicycle cop extras was actually a Baltimore SWAT team member--she was a real cop. The extras told me that they usually have at least one real cop on the set at any given time.
While we were filming exits and entrances, we were also approaching the lunch hour. 'Lunch' is very specific in union terms--in fact EVERYTHING is specific in union terms as far as how long anyone can work and what you have to pay them if you go overtime. One of the lighting crew thought they'd called 'lunch' and some of the lights went off. By the time the mistake was discovered, several of the crew had already left, so the director decided to call lunch and pick up where we'd left off.
Lunch is catered at a building less than five minute's walk away from the set. Ed informed us that the crew gets to eat first (it's buffet style) and then the extras and the cast, if any show. Peter Gerety (Stu Gharty) was the only cast member who went to lunch with the crew.
We swapped stories around the table and got to talk to the extras about other films they'd worked on. One gentleman spoke about being an extra on the Civil War epic, "Glory." He said they had 75 men who had to run up a 100 foot steep incline under heavy 'canon fire'--some of the extras were supposed to fall down and 'die' during the scene. During the first take maybe 12 men dropped, but he after multiple takes the casualties mounted--nobody wanted to go up that 100 foot incline one more time.
Ed told us about going up to Martha's Vineyard and working on "Beloved." He said there were thousands of extras for a street scene that day. His makeup and costume were perfect . . . despite the fact that he never got closer than two blocks to the camera. Some of the extras worked on other Barry Levinson projects filming around the city as well. We heard shop-talk, back-stage gossip . . . and then it was time to go back to work and start filming again. As we headed back, the extras talked about the various 'parts' they've assumed on Homicide--one uniformed officer mentioned that he liked being in uniform because it might cut him some slack with the BPD in case he was caught speeding.
After lunch we were back in place--in the hallway, lined up for the parade again. Callie Thorne had seemed very tired that morning but perked up a bit after lunch. Jon Seda continued to joke and laugh with us.
Once the scene was in the can from multiple take angles, Sharon and I were ushered into the 'break room,' where we could watch the rehearsal of the next scene. As I said, the major actors rehearsed the scene, then a camera rehearsal for final blocking, then they shoot with extras.
It was nice to sit down for a while, so we watched the continuity person (I think it was Lee Bigelow) working with the video city unit. She watched the video tape, making corrections on the copy of the sides, so that an accurate 'as produced' script could be created and filed when the episode was in the can. She always double checked on the continuity of the scene.
We discovered quite rapidly that crews and cast live or die by the goodies that are set out for them on the cart in the rest areas. Today, someone had brought in fresh avocado dip and chips and the locusts descended. Callie Thorne and Toni Lewis ended up having to grab a final chip and scrape what they could out of the bowl because it was gone so fast.
Also, lighting people went up into the false ceiling and began fixing cameras. The entire set is very flow-through--you can walk a camera from room to room and, if the right doors are shut, it looks like a real building interior. There were orange ladders everywhere. A crew member would set up a ladder, scramble up it, stick his head in a hole in the ceiling, and then a light would come down which he'd fix and adjust. The crew were like a group of demented songbirds, calling to one another.
"Baby?" "Baby 2." "Baby, Baby." "Baby three left?" "Baby."
It was impressive.
We stayed out of the way during rehearsal because we didn't want to bother anyone, so we didn't really see them rehearse. In fact, we didn't see much of filming that afternoon because we were in so much of it--like I'd said previously, you heard "background" and "cut," anything else is white-noise.
Ed explained that Sharon and I would be seated back to back at a desk just behind Lewis' desk. Ed would introduce Sharon to another extra detective, Bill, and then we would pretend to give our statements. Sometimes we wouldn't say anything aloud, sometimes we'd talk in hushed whispers, sometimes we'd use hand gestures.
The scene we were shooting the in the squad room involved most of the cast at various points, so there were a lot of close-ups and angle shots and it took most of the afternoon. Yaphet Kotto had one line--he had to call Sheppard into his office. I guess he got bored in there by himself because between takes he walked over to his door and in his best Gee tone called, "Stivers!" and then disappear into the office. Toni Lewis would then get up and go in there, asking "What? What?" and then she hit would him on the shoulder. He did this a couple of times--it seemed to be a running gag on the set.
As we filmed, Ed would tell us about what he'd seen on the set--he'd been there the day they demolished part of the set during the previous season. He said they smashed one window a number of times before they got a shot they liked. The new set design allows for a lot more flow-though, but it can be a lighting headache--they tack these gray and silver pieces of cardboard up in spots to redirect lights and there are windows and blinds in the break room, so you have to have extras walking back and forth and doing things inside the room when you film outside.
Watch an episode some time--you'll be amazed at all of the stuff that goes on in the background just to give the place atmosphere. In fact, somebody's cell-phone went off while they were filming and they left it in--it would blend into the background sounds they added later.
Ed would warn me when we were on camera; most of the time we weren't, so we'd just sit there and listen as things went on around us. When the camera was anywhere near, Ed would start to ask questions again, or write on a piece of paper. In fact, between takes Bill feel asleep at his detective's desk! Ed woke him up in time to film.
People get antsy between takes. Toni Lewis was reading a book and others would just chat back and forth. Finally, we got that section of the scene and the rest of us got a break while they rehearsed a scene between Gee and Sheppard in Gee's office.
We chatted with the extras during the break and got to speak to the sound mixer Bruce Litecky. He said that a lot of HLotS sound is done on set and on the fly (he's worked on Oz as well). He told us that in NYC they're used to doing a lot of studio work because the facilities are there, but in Baltimore they'd had to make do and they've gotten good at it--being able to do what they need by themselves means they can get a job done faster.
Smokers seemed to gravitate toward the 'roof' area of the set, where the basketball courts and the fencing stands, beside the water. We went out there for a moment to take a look around. Walking onto the set for the first time had been an experience--it was like deja-vu, but that you'd only been someplace in a dream and now you were really there. The roof area really brought that home, as we'd watched an episode just before we'd headed down and then there we were, right where Bayliss had tried to talk Sheppard into a date.
The wardrobe photos were taken of the extras, to make sure they had a record of what we were wearing and several of the extras retired to a corner for their regular game of cards. Yaphet Kotto came out to the goodie cart and looked at us over the railing. We said "Hello," he said, "Hello," and he went back inside--I think he knew that we weren't extras, but couldn't figure out if we were related to somebody or something.
Finally, the scene was ready to film. We walked back in and took up our positions. Xan came over and told us that they'd be shooting in Gee's office, so we might appear through the window. We'd be escorted out of the room by Ed and Bill, our 'detectives.'
Ed indicated where we were supposed to walk and we headed out on command--I had to watch where I was walking because Xan was on the floor and I was worried that I'd step on him. Ed and Bill escorted us out into the hall, waited a beat, then turned around and went back to their desks.
We spoke to another crew member while we waited in the hallway--he wanted to know about the charity and the auction and if we were having a good time. The extras and the crew were always asking us if we were having a good time--it seemed to matter to them that we were. He also asked if we were going to the location shoot that evening. As far as I knew, we hadn't been invited, so I told him probably not.
There is a row of certificates in the hallway--Meghan's promotion is up there, as well as a commendation for bravery for Meldrick Lewis, dated 1991. There were also a bunch of semi-circular pipes hanging beside the stair railing. The crew member told us those were the tracks for the camera and that we'd see that used later.
After a few takes, we were ready for the next scene, which takes place in the interim. The day was wearing on and everyone was getting antsy. We sat down in our seats again and Ed called Xan over--would there be a continuity problem if we were in the shot? Xan ran into the video room to watch the tape to see how much of us had been seen and he returned to say that we could stay where we were. Ed told me, "Continuity is for sissies," which is just short of heresy to me, but after seeing how much work and attention is paid to major detail, minor detail was NOT that much of a concern.
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