would have to shoot elsewhere and tie
in a different location. "It is very hard
to do a show like this in L.A. where we
have a lot of driving. That seems to be
the biggest challenge. Every episode
we get seems to have some sort of car
chase. I'll read it and just be like, 'Oh,
God…' and we can't do the car work we
do with regular ITC … we have to have
complete shut-downs," says Bernard.
"We had lots of meetings with the city's
permitting agency FilmL.A. to get them
on board and, even though we were
going to shoot it on a weekend, we re-
ally had to get them in sync to get such
a large closure," Surkin says. The team
got approved to shoot the run-up to the
explosion on both S. Main and S. Broad-
way.
"I hadn't done anything as big as the
truck sequence in television before and
I hadn't seen anything of that scale in
L.A. since we used to shoot big features
here," says Bernard. "I don't know how
Keith and Aviv were able to pull it off,
honestly." In the end, the sequence
took several weeks of planning and
the permit was 70 pages long! On the
day, they did one final tech scout and
went into full-on lockdown mode, clos-
ing down roughly 18 blocks for the car
chase. To manage the closure, they had
no less than 25 off-duty LAPD officers
and "an army of PAs to lock up pedes-
trians," says Surkin.
According to Surkin, they got the an-
nouncement that they were being
picked up for a second season just after
they'd completed the sequence. A well-
earned bit of news.
South Central LA, chop shop
L to R: Shemar Moore as Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson, Jay Harrington as David "Dea-
con" Kay, and Lina Esco as Christina "Chris" Alonso. Photo by Monty Brinton/CBS
Newhall, Molina's house
Boyle Heights, Reptile House
