Heroes - New Season

[KenP]

Originally Posted by DRTYFN

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Episode 12 was directed by Paul Shapiro. Paul also directed episode 5 (Frankly, I can never remember the titles of the episodes? I have to think about them in numerical sequence, because, from my point of view, what number they air in dictates many decisions we make.) Paul did another great job. It?s funny, he?s gotten both of the Hiro-Nathan scenes we have had. Which are always hilarious. Masi brings out comedy in Adrian. In fact, the whole ?billan-villlian? thing in this episode was ad-libbed by those two. On set Jeph Loeb and I were dubious and thought the boys were going too broad with the comedy ? we made sure a straighter alternative was shot. But Tim Kring loved this version, and, in fact it was the piece that they showed when Masi went on Jay Leno.

The main thing I remember about episode 12 is that it took FOREVER to get done filming. It had lots of small scenes in specific locations which couldn?t be scheduled with other work. There were also numerous conflicts with actor schedules between other episodes that were shooting at the same time. Also, we had to get several of our cast to New York for the Macy?s Parade, Regis and Kelly and the Carson Daley show, etc. There was also a situation where many scenes in this episode also appear partially in other episodes. The bomb sequence that concluded episode 11 recurs here but re-visualized and with new elements ? including the dialogue with Nathan and the introduction of Christopher Eccleston ? but Chris Eccleston, who?s from England, had issues with getting a work visa in time which delayed shooting his shots? The final scene where Peter walks away from the hospital on the NYC Street also plays in episode 13 ? not enough work for two nights, but too much for one?. There are two scenes of Claire and the Haitian at the oil derrick in this episode and one in episode 13 - which is a distant location ? we had to shoot all three in one day, in the eight hours of available November daylight (i.e. that?s FAST!!!)... The museum scene with Hiro and Ando was shot at the L.A. Natural History Museum ? which was only available from 6 PM to 6 AM... The crew shot until dawn and then many (including the director) had to go directly up to the PrimaTech paper company to film scenes from this episode and episode 11. There was one brief scene of Hiro and Ando running out of the museum in day NYC which didn?t schedule with anything. We started filming the padded cell with Ali Larter ? but there were problems with the set that caused us to have to stop and re-work it. Hayden Panettiere got sick, etc. etc. ? All of this resulted in the episode shooting many partial days and having many ?hold? days -- we were actually finished with most of episode 14 before we had12 completely finished.

To make matters worse, from a post-production point of view, we wanted to lock picture, score and mix episode 12 before we broke for vacation. We knew that episodes 16 and 17 would have very tight post schedules ? so if we could get ahead it would greatly benefit us down the road. Tim Kring and the writers got us the scripts in plenty of time, but we couldn?t get it done.

The late shooting and the complex visual effects (Peter exploding, Ted?s nuclear hands, invisibility - as well as many other subtle VFX, made this impossible. We were able to lock picture before the break, but that was all.

Ah well, The best laid plans of mice and men?

There were a lot of cool things done in post, though. I love the way editor, Scott Boyd, treated Peter?s dream with many little flashes. And we went bold with the color of the show again ? as we had in the very early episodes. Separating NYC as blue, Texas as gold, and draining color and adding grain to Nevada.

Heehee.....