Filming In Brooklyn

Sometimes we arrive on film sets with permission, and are given great access (as with Brooklyn’s Finest). Sometimes, we hang around one production for so long that eventually key crew members start to like and trust us and give us access (as with I Hate Valentine’s Day). And sometimes we’re there for such a short amount of time, just part of the crowd, that it doesn’t much matter: we get a few pictures and leave, without being noticed at all.

Tonight, however, we felt very much like we were crashing someone’s party.

We returned to the location shoot of Fringe, the new J.J. Abrams-produced series, at about 1am, and things were in full swing. The first thing we noticed was the snow.

Quincy, Mass. picture cars were on the scene (Fringe is set in Boston).

Almost immediately, we found ourselves standing near series star Joshua Jackson. When he crossed the street, we followed, gave him a business card, and asked if we could take his picture. He couldn’t have been nicer while turning us down. He said that he’s on the set working, and couldn’t give permission. He was very polite, and so were we, telling him that we could respect that and wouldn’t take a picture.

Damn. Afterwards, we remembered what our grandmother had always told us: better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

For the next half hour or so, Joshua Jackson was just a few feet away from us, sitting in a chair, watching the shoot (he wasn’t in any scenes while we were there). We could have gotten a few fantastic pictures and left quickly, but the goal of this blog is to promote productions that film in Brooklyn, not piss them off. Besides, we’ve been working to arrange an official visit to the set, and we didn’t want to burn any bridges by getting the star angry with us.

Eventually we decided that if we couldn’t get a picture, perhaps we could ask him a few questions, and we approached him again. His cell phone went to his ear, and he got up and walked away. Whether he was actually on a call or just politely trying to avoid us, we have no idea. But that was that. He was out of reach for the rest of the time we were there. Yes, we here at Filming In Brooklyn are pussys. We let a great photo op slip through our fingers. But our fervent hope is that we gave those pictures up in exchange for better ones down the road, and perhaps even an interview.

We also had an opportunity to get some close-up pictures of Anna Torv rolling and then smoking a cigarette, but by that point we were feeling incredibly conspicuous. That’s the problem with middle-of-the-night shoots: there’s no crowd that you can blend into. We were very obviously not with the production.

The scene that was shot repeatedly while we were there - first from across the street, then close up - involved a car driving fast into the hospital’s driveway, a man getting out of the car and helping a pregnant woman out, and then basically dumping her in the snow and driving away, as she moans and collapses.

The man and pregnant woman are in the top left of this picture:

By 2:30am, we felt like people were starting to notice the camera, and we left. We were not going to get any good pictures without risking future access.

Originally posted on Filming In Brooklyn