Once Upon a Time Again

Went straight from Criminal Minds to Once Upon a Time so I didn’t really have a chance to update. We’re now about half way through prep with a few more days to go before we start shooting later this week.

It’s been a lot of fun coming back – but it is like coming to a brand new show. Almost the entire cast is new and much of the crew has changed. Hard to believe I was just here in February. Anyway, it’s a fun new challenge and really great to be part of this rebirth of the show.

Cryptic updates to come!

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 8

Final day of episode 1304, my second Criminal Minds episode. All day on the same new set we shot in on Friday. Bittersweet once again leaving this great cast and crew. But I had only a few hours to reflect because of a 4am pickup in the morning for a flight to Vancouver and day one of prep on Once Upon A Time. More detailed update in prep to come.

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 7

Short day on the stages on a newly built set. Got a chance to race to the airport for a weekend wedding but back at it for the final day on Monday.

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 6

Back on the stages to being three straight days of stage work to finish the episode. Today featured some of the show’s main sets so it was a fairly straightforward day of shooting. Tomorrow and Monday will be on a newly built set.

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 5

Final location day. Late call time and a short day – filmed in two different houses in the West Adams area of Los Angeles. Finished up at night and back at the stages for the final three days of work.

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 4

Shot all day at a house in Altadena. Mostly day work but some really fun scenes and a little stunt as well. Final location day tomorrow.

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 3

Shot on stage all day today. Some really creepy stuff. Can’t divulge much more than that. More cryptic updates to come – heading out on location tomorrow.

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 2

Filmed all night work at a remote location outside of Los Angeles. Got to do some fun night exteriors and special effects work. Not a long day of shooting but we wrapped around 3:30am. Weekend to recover and back on the studio lot in the morning.

Criminal Minds 1304 Shoot Day 1

Sorry for the lack of updates during prep, but rest assured, this story in this episode of Criminal Minds is definitely unnerving.

Haiku-like updates to come, as usual.

It was a unique start of a show for me. I had a sudden and shocking death in the family that forced me to quickly leave town and quickly return after the funeral in Chicago. The funeral coincided with my first day of shooting, so producing-director Glenn Kershaw directed the first few scenes and I continued on into our night shoot.

I’ll write more about this later perhaps after we wrap and I have a bit more time. But the production day went as usual into the night at an abandoned house near downtown Los Angeles. Back tomorrow for more night shooting on a remote location. Good to be back working with this crew after doing so this time last year.