MAY 10 C R Y D E R P O I N T BrainDead: Behind the Scenes By Jill Davis A location scout walks into a bar… Well, not really, but that’s sort of how Cryder Point became the setting for some scenes for “BrainDead,” a new TV series that will be airing on CBS this summer. Turns out the production company had already earmarked 160th Street to shoot a car crash scene, so while they were in the neighborhood they figured they’d see if there were any suitable locations for other filming for the show. I didn’t know about any of this until my phone rang one Monday morning and Lou Garcia said that a location scout for some TV show would be in our office in about an hour. Who? What? When? Alrighty then, never a dull day here at Cryder! Ethan, the amiable young location scout, sat down with myself, Lou, Phil Resnick and Bill Newell to explain his mission. Ethan’s job is to go around and find locations that he thinks would be appropriate settings for what the writers and producers have in mind for particular scenes in a given show. If he thinks he’s found something good, he reports to his higher-ups to come take a look. We assumed at first—at least I did—that he was interested in Cryder Point because of our water view. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Our area, in fact, was attractive because it mimics areas of suburban Washington, D.C. Who knew? And so he didn’t want the water at all. What they did want was a balcony on a midlevel floor (more about that in a minute) and an apartment that has two doors that open to a hallway; each would be used for different scenes in the show. Ethan had already seen an apartment in one building that would work for one of the scenes and thought another apartment in different building looked promising for the other scene. However, filming in two buildings seemed excessively 10 cryder point courier | MAY 2016 | WWW.QNS.COM complicated and intrusive, and those of us on our side of the table (i.e., Management and the Board) wanted to minimize disruption to the residents, and we thought it would be a lot less troublesome if everything were contained within one building. Ethan agreed that yes, one building would be better not only for us but also for production—less lugging and loading of equipment all over the place—but that meant we had to identify two units in one building that would fit all of the specs…and it was touch-and-go there for a while. First, the apartment with the balcony would be used for a scene where a woman jumps to her death. Sounded simple enough, but kind of like Goldilocks, an apartment on the fourth floor would be too high; one on the second floor would be too low; but oh, an apartment on the third floor would be just right. They also wanted this scene shot in the one of the larger apartments, but not one at the back of the building since they didn’t want shots overlooking the water. And did they mention that they also wanted the apartment to have been fairly recently renovated? Picky, picky, picky! What about the other apartment, the one with the two doors that lead into a hallway? They wanted one with this layout since the scene called for a couple to run out of one door of the apartment when someone bursts in through the other. It didn’t really matter which floor it was on, but they did want it to be newly updated as well. Finding two apartments in one building that met all of the requirements was a little like finding two very tiny needles in a pretty large haystack, but good luck was with us and two apartments in the 21 Building were chosen and all was good to go. (As previously reported, CPOC was compensated, and the monies will be put into the Reserve Fund. Any compensation received by individual shareholders from the production company was negotiated between the two parties. CPOC was not involved in any of those discussions.) Prepping and loading of equipment was done on Thursday, April 20 and Friday, April 21. Special thanks go to Assistant Location Manager Tyler Cobb and the rest of the production staff for getting it all done quickly and quietly; since we do not have separate service elevators—and our elevators are on the small side—this was not the easiest task for them. But they pulled everything off exceedingly well and with minimal disturbance. Great job! Location Manager Tyler Cobb kept things running smoothly Photo by Maxine Schiller About BrainDead – Below from the show’s website: “BrainDead” is CBS’s new comic-thriller set in the world of Washington, D.C. politics. The series, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Danny Pino, Aaron Tveit, Tony Shalhoub, Nikki M. James and Johnny Ray Gill. From Robert and Michelle King, creators and executive producers of THE GOOD WIFE. “BrainDead” follows a young, fresh-faced Hill staffer (Winstead) getting her first job in Washington, D.C. and discovering two things: The government has stopped working, and something mysterious is happening to a growing number of Congressmen and Hill staffers. “BrainDead” premieres Monday, June 13, 2016 at 10/9c on CBS. Note: We confirmed that the episodes filmed at Cryder Point will air on Monday, July 11 and Monday July 18. Set your DVR’s!
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