Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152740
8 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 9 from her book about The Five, but we needed to plot several additional beats throughout Harlem and into the park while cross referencing with historical images of Harlem in 1989. Maya and I would end our days on the phone talking through every aspect of the "what, when and where." Once on the ground, I teamed up with Maya and the location manager, Charlynne Hopson. Charlynne had come up through Spike Lee. Many of the people of color in the union had similarly begun in the industry through Spike. Diversity is disturbingly lacking in the New York union system, and those who have made it to positions of leadership despite that bring an unparalleled knowledge, skill and depth of understanding to the industry. Charlynne and I walked the halls of the 24th precinct, where these children had spent some of their last moments of freedom before the years of tumult that were to come. We saw the desks where the interrogators once worked, along with the details embedded and scratched into them—much of which remained unchanged since the 1980s. The precinct was on the eve of a facelift, as their tanker desks would be thrown into locked dumpsters and replaced by particle board furniture. But for now, it was still adorned with metal trashcans on castors, pink subway tile, taupe hallways, blue lockers. An old New York, well worn with the persistent water stains and bent blinds. Photographs were not permitted, so I took notes of the details that spoke to me—one of them being a makeshift cubicle made up of clipped together bulletin boards. I was able to flip through a photographic history book of the precinct and found a labeled floor plan, which I sketched out. I saw where the kids were processed and photographed, and the halls that they would've walked. I saw where the press gathered while the boys were led in handcuffs through the flashing cameras, as the media lapped it up. All this would be tapped into as the precinct was built. I went to the courthouse and walked its halls, heard anecdotes from clerks, and met a hardened, old, white city worker who would only refer to the exonerated men as "the rapists." I photographed the etched-in tags on the back of the courtroom benches, the scuffs, the wear, the vents, the human moments in the holding cells, the taped- A A. THE PRECINCT BUILT OUT ON LOCATION, AN ADMINISTRATIVE WING OF A FORMER PRISON. WHERE THE PRODUCTION WAS GIVEN FULL CONTROL. DRAWN BY STEPHEN COWLES. B. THE COMMUNITY AFFAIRS ROOM. A MULTI- PURPOSE MORE PUBLIC FACING ENVIRONMENT IN THE PRECINCT. PRODUCTION STILL. C. KEVIN'S INTERROGATION ROOM. KEVIN'S SPACE IS WINDOWLESS, HE IS THE SMALLEST OF THE CHILDREN AND VISUALLY TRAPPED. D. YUSEF'S INTERROGATION ROOM. EACH INTERROGATION ROOM HAS DIFFERENT COLORING TO ACCENT, OR HEIGHTEN THE MOMENT. HERE SICKLY MUTED GREEN IS USED. C D B