I just got email that “24” is going to be filming outside of my office building on Sunday. Apparently, there will be “Exterior Automatic Full Load Gunfire” and “Weapons brandished” for the shooting.
As it happens, I’ll be at work all day on Sunday. I think I’m going to meander over to the set and try to get some pictures. More importantly, I’ll try to ask Mr. Bauer if any harm will come to the citizens of Los Angeles if I choose not to watch this season. 
Seriously, though, as much as I’ve bitched about it, I’m pretty sure I’ll at least watch the first episode. I am curious about the season, if nothing else.
Wait…isn’t 24 supposed to be set in D.C. this season? And here I was hoping to get to go into D.C. and see Jack Bauer killing somebody. 
Well…you know, maybe he has to kill his way across the country? That could be entertaining…
Whatever happened to the movie?
Geez, I’d forgotten there was supposed to be a movie. Good question.
Bring your own guns! Join in!
Hah!
I went down this morning to check it out. My God, does it ever take ages just to film a single shot! Sadly, Mr. Bauer is not on the set for today. I can’t tell you much about the scene except that a car had been sideswiped by a mysterious black van (somehow, in the 24verse, I don’t think that counts as a spoiler).
It was interesting watching the rig they’d set up. They’d mounted the damaged car on what amounts to a four-wheeled remote-controlled jack. The car was able to spin freely on top of the rig, so the workers set the car spinning, the filming started, and the spinning car was remoted from the middle of the street of onto the curb as if it had just been hit and spun out. In the 35 minutes or so I stood there, they filmed that twice.
It’ll be fun to watch the finished scene with what I presume will be the added sound effects of screeching tires and such. I’ll drop by later this afternoon to see if they’ve moved on to something else.
You know, as blase as we get about filming in downtown LA, there are always a few moments of sheer excitement. Oh, sure, when they were filming Crossing Jordan in the Biltmore and had the bar shut down (best Greyhounds in downtown), we were annoyed. And last summer, they were filming something that required repeated explosions. Even though I knew another explosion was coming, it still scared the hell out of me every time.
And then there was the time I saw a helicopter flying around downtown with men dressed basically in riot gear hanging off the side of it. It freaked me out enough that I called a cop I know just to make sure there wasn’t something going on I should know about. Just filming again.
Yep.
I think I recall hearing that Stanley Kubrick was rather despised on-set because he demanded as many retakes as he felt it took–which takes a long time each. It’s also why you don’t see a lot of single-take long scenes.
So, did Chloe get to kill anyone?
In cold blood, perhaps?
Oh God…I didn’t even think to look for her! I need to go back!!!
Oh dear God, yes, shots take a long time.
I’ve worked a few sets and study to be a film-maker and I think there’s one thing that needs to be bluntly beaten into the brain of young people who want to become film-makers; the sheer, mindless, bloody repetition and time it takes on set.
(I’m specializing in production and I have to admit, actually being on the set is probably on the top 5 list of the most boring things in making a movie. Sure, there are intense and emotional scenes that are very gratifying as one of the “makers” of a movie, but after my second set I ceased wondering how people on the sets in behind the scenes movies appear to be so utterly blasé about it all. These days, I mostly just supervise it with a cup of coffee in one hand and the other hand on my laptop keyboard. I’m looking forward to the day when I can start shooting bigger-budget films where more exciting and crucial things can go wrong, so that a shot will not be subject to endless, anal-retentive repetitions by paranoid directors and sound-director incertanities. I’m also still waiting for my pony.)