Return to Shondaland

After a two day break, I started back up in prep. This time, returning to ShondaLand, the domain of Ms. Shonda Rhimes. If you recall, five readers, I was here in December directing Scandal on Sunset Gower Studios lot. How to Get Away With Murder shoots on the same lot, their offices in the same building. My computer automatically connected to the same wireless network when I stepped into the production office.

From December at Sunset Gower Studios directing Scandal. One major change: the child has way more hair now. (Photo by Mitchell Haddad)

It’s like going to visit your aunt and uncle in a neighboring town- they’re sorta like your parents. Your cousins have the same grandparents and basically behave in similar ways with some differences.

Okay that’s an imperfect metaphor, but it did feel like coming home – running into people I worked with on Scandal on the lot, working with some of the same crew people, parking in just about the same spot.

More dispatches to come from Shondaland.

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Criminal Minds Shoot Day 8

Another slightly blurred image of a slate with my name on it. I should really start a series like this.

Final day, shooting on the stage on the same set. The main heart of the episode, though, so it was an important day of work. Like always – bittersweet to leave such a great crew and cast. More details to come when it airs.

 

But now – I take a couple days off and return to Shondaland for How to Get Away With Murder.

Criminal Minds Shoot Day 7

Back on the stages to shoot in our standing sets. Had a quick day – managed to finish by lunch which made everyone happy. Back at it on Monday for a final day of production at the studio.

Criminal Minds Shoot Day 6

Final day on location. Lots of fun flashback scenes that gave us a chance to try some different things, including a lot of aerial diffusion (smoke) and handheld photography. Also had dogs, pigs and children on set so that was fun. Wrapped up after midnight.

Criminal Minds Shoot Day 6

Finished up our crime and running in the woods series of shots, which included working with dogs which was fun. Moved over to a nearby town to do some scenes in an alley including at night. Started the day slowly and behind but caught up and finished on time. Final day in our ranch location tomorrow before finishing the last two days on the stage.

Criminal Minds Shoot Day 4

On location in the woods all day. Not a lot of pages but some fun stuff, mostly handheld and that sort of thing. Some more of that today and then we go into nights for the rest of our time on location.

Criminal Minds Shoot Day 3

Stage work day. Got to work on some of the show’s standard sets – the round table conference room, the bullpen, the tech center/computer desk. Ten script pages in eight (!) hours or so. That’s a very very very fast day. These are the kinds of scenes that this show has down to a science so it went by quickly. We’ll make up for that speed, comfort and efficiency by going out on location tomorrow. We hit the woods for the next few days. It’ll be more than 100 degrees so … wish us luck, five readers!

Criminal Minds Shoot Day 2

Same location shoot all day, mostly exteriors. Very reasonable day, which is good to have on a Friday – nothing too complicated. But we did have the usual crime scene investigation units and the like. Back to the studio for stage work and interiors on Monday.

Criminal Minds Shoot Day 1

Shot out in the hills outside Los Angeles. Good first day, lots of evidence gathering and talking about the crime. Can’t say much more because, you know, hush hush and all that. Back out there tomorrow.

Criminal Minds Prep

More than halfway through prep on Criminal Minds and we’ve been doing the usual – scouting, casting, shaping the story, planning the schedule, collaborating with key personnel, etc.

The crew and producers are incredibly fun to work with and it’s been a blast. The subject matter of the show is sort of the opposite – dark and sometimes really depressing. My episode takes places in the wilderness for quite a bit of it. And that’s probably all I can say about that.

Monday we have our tech scout so there’s a lot of work for me this weekend to prepare for that. Then three more days of prep and we start shooting on Thursday here in Los Angeles. I’ll try to have daily haiku-like updates that I’ve done in the past.