Behind the Scenes of 24

I promised some cool Episode 24 insight if I had a moment and the Season Ending Episode 25 is almost upon us, so let's get to it!

We open with Annie (Colleen Conroy) stepping onto on a gloomy path (thanks rain). The camera pulls back away from her, leaving her dimishing in the frame. For once, Colleen had the easy part. DP Lu Martinez was shooting out of the back of his SUV, Arlene So was driving trying not to lurch too much and our guest clapboard king Ken Sharp was hauling ass to keep out of shot once action was called. A bit of post work to stablize and remove some truck shadows, and there you have it. Guerrilla City. At least that's what I was told of how it went down - it's the only Haywire shoot ever that I wasn't at.



Then there's the Toby/Dan fight in the gazebo. That first profile 2-shot wasn't supposed to run through the punches - you really wanna cover that with an angle that they can miss by a mile and the camera won't catch it. I figured I'd cut away to another shot to sell the contact. Well you really don't have to when the punch actually lands. Twice. What's a bloody nose among friends?



Moving onto Willie and his hapless sidekick "2-Step", the garage scene was great fun to shoot. We lit the duo with some theatre par can lights to get that spotlight feel and kept the rest of the place moody to allow Guild leader Calvin (Nate Mengaziol) to lurk in the shadows. It was hotter than hell in there and at times I though Nate was actually going to choke out, but I've never had to try so hard not to ruin a take laughing as I did enduring 2-Step's "aw hell yeah!" over and over.



Caroline and Quinn's park scene looks simple, and it should have been. Should have and would have, if we didn't have to restart the scene 3 times for location problems. The first had a football game break out nearby earlier than expected and the second had some serious sun issues. Lucky for us Jenn Crane Turner and Matt McCarthy are troopers, friends, and have an ungodly amount of patience. Here's the location that was not to be.



Gonzaga Park. The creepy church. Awesome. Severed arms and fake blood, lots of candles, and hoping the batteries would last long enough to run the lights for the duration. We lingered a bit too long trying to train a millipede and lost some excellent light shards across the floor as a result, but it looked nasty enough (in a good way) to prompt me to accent the insect infestation feel and bump up the gnats/files that we tried so hard to avoid while shooting. In with the gnatty takes, out with the "clean" takes, add some "buzz" and you got a really unpleasant place. Kind of a shame - it really is quite lovely.



Last stop - back to Cassie's home and a reunion with her haywired mom. Actually it was back to my home in Teaneck, NJ courtesy of my mom. Having an entire side of a room mirrored is always interesting when picking shots. Awesome sometimes, usually not so much. Funny - it was never a problem at breakfast growing up. Oh, and in case anyone was wondering where that song that Cassie and her mom sang came from, check this out: GOOD LUCK SLEEPING



So there's a peek behind Episode 24. Hope you enjoyed it even a fraction as much as we did making it. And don't forget, our Season 3 finale is midnight this Thursday, May 1st! Be there.

-Scott