Shooting schedule?

[Patcat]

Does anyone know how far ahead the episodes are shot? I get a sense that an episode is filmed at least three to four weeks ahead of when it's first aired, which I would think would be the bare minimum to allow for reshoots, editing, etc.

Pat

[Patcat]

The June 25, 2004, edition of BACK STAGE reports that the LOCI shooting schedule for next season began on April 30, 2004, and will continue through April 28, 2005.

Patcat

[Metella]

Does it give any details as to where/when or just the general season? Any details as to scheduled breaks in that large span of time?

[Patcat]

No, the blurb just mentioned those dates and gave the contact information for the casting company. If LOCI is like other shows, I would imagine it takes a long break in November or December.

Patcat

[Patcat]

From the May 5, 2005, BACK STAGE:

TV SERIES SHOOTS:

LAW AND ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT: Season four of the NBC series wraps May 6--with season five gering up a week later.


SVU wrapped up season 6 in April and is currently shooting season 7

The current season of the original LAW AND ORDER wrapped on April 25 and will start the next season July 19.

LOCI and SVU schedules seem a bit brutal.

Patcat

[Observer2]

According to someone on the vincentdonofriofans.com discussion board, D’Onofrio and Erbe appeared in a brief clip on the Today show on April 20. My impression is that it was filmed live that day, and Criminal Intent was filming My Good Name – only about 3 weeks before its scheduled air date.

Does anyone know anything about that segment on Today, and/or whether anyone else has it on tape?

In any case, about the shooting schedule, I think Criminal Intent does usually have a hiatus after they film the first few episodes of the next season. I think they usually take a break in filming between sometime in June/early July and late August/early September.

[Patcat]

Observer;

I believe you're right, and I also think that LOCI takes a bit longer break at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Patcat

[KellyO]

A couple of years ago (maybe when Erbe was pregnant) I read somewhere that they film three or four episodes of the next season in late spring immediately after the current season. In other words, they should be shooting three or four episodes from Season 5 about now.

Then I think they're on hiatus until the fall - late August or September, somewhere in there. So they get about two months or so in the summer and then about a month over the holidays.

That was as of whenever I read that - like I said a couple of years ago. It would make sense though - to have a few episodes in the can before hiatus. It would give them a cushion in the event something unexpected happens (shades of November??).

But, I think it's obvious that they don't necessarily air the episodes in the order in which they're shot. NBC seems to shuffle them around and seems to change the schedule everytime we blink - maybe to keep us on our toes. So, I'm not sure what the average time span is between shooting an episode and airing it.

[Techguy]

This brings up a subject I mentioned elsewhere, about the role of Logan's partner being cast already and why we haven't heard anything about who this person is? If CI Season 5 shooting has already commenced (?) how long will it take until we find out who the lucky person is to win the Logan partner sweepstakes?

[trisha]

The "Logan partner sweepstakes," Lol, Techguy ;D

I recall way back when, when Eames' replacement was still under wraps, there was some speculation that Kyra Sedgwick would get the part.

Now I keep seeing promo's for her new show, The Closer, and I'm intrigued. It seem's she's found a job, not as a Goren-side kick, but as another Goren (well, Goren type character.)

I like the line she says in one of the promos, "If I enjoyed being called a B***h to my face, I'd still be married."

I LOVE a strong female character, and I'm very much counting on RB & co to give us one to blast back any shadow that Logan would have her stand in. If she's anything like KS's character seems to be, I think I may spend more time obsessing over the Gorenless episodes.

[KellyO]

When did we get the word that Samantha Buck was the temporary replacement for KE in Season 3? I'm thinking it was just before the season started - or was it before? I figure that's about how it will be with Logan's partner. They'll keep us guessing until just before the season starts - or maybe right until the first Logan episode!

I'd like to see a strong female type, too. I wonder if they'll be switching the partners around at all - having Eames and Logan team up while Goren and the mystery partner also teaming up? I think Eames could give Logan a run for his money too!

[Techguy]

Katrish, the problem with switching partners as you described it is, that would leave two profilers (Det. Goren and Madame X) on one team, and two non-profilers (Eames and Logan) on the other.

On the other hand, teaming profiler Goren with Mr. Big, I mean Logan, would maintain the profiler/non-profiler team, as would the Eames/Madame X team.

I'm trying to imagine Goren and Logan together. Do I see the CI equivalent of elk bugling in autumn?

[Patcat]

Well, the scenes from GROW suggested that Logan and Goren could work together.

And I thought (and I may be alone in this) that the final scenes of STRESS showed that Logan and Goren recognized each other's strengths and used them quite well.

Patcat

[Observer2]

I think it’s certainly true that Logan developed a whole new level of respect for Goren. They were dead meat, and Logan knew it – and Goren turned the situation around. Logan may never want to read the kind of book he found on Goren’s desk, but he may react a bit differently from now on to people who do. That may help him adapt to his new partner if she really is something of a profiler and/or expert in psychology (and if they’re using the Gia interrogation scene from One for the audition, that suggests that she may well be).

At the end, when they were bringing the culprits out of the prison, it seemed to me that Logan really wanted to connect with Goren – a combination, perhaps, of that new-found respect with the instant feeling of camaraderie that can come from facing danger together, and the emotional need to connect with someone after coming so close to being killed. And, not to be a cynic, but there might have been just a touch of ambition there, as well – the desire to solidify any connection he might have with a respected Major Case detective...

Goren, on the other hand, seemed to be more indulging Logan’s need to connect – what Goren really wanted was to get over to where Eames and Carver were. That’s who *he* wanted to connect with – not Logan.

I expect Goren would have noted that Logan had a certain amount of skill with a basic, instinctive kind of street psychology (a skill he demonstrated in the confrontation with the guards in the prison hallway). And I doubt Goren would underestimate Logan’s perceptiveness again, as he, Eames and Deakins did at first. In fact, I think that throughout that investigation Goren learned quite a bit about Logan’s strengths and weaknesses. He could probably work with Logan effectively enough, for a while, if necessary. But I don’t think he would particularly want to, or enjoy it, whereas Logan might see it as a good opportunity, on several levels.

Of course, the real question is, whether there would be a reason for the writers to put them together that way. I think the bit we see in the script fragment from Grow makes a lot of sense, if it’s part of introducing Logan into the series (especially since not all viewers read discussion boards, so they’ll need to be brought up to speed on the situation). I have more trouble imagining what the purpose would be of pairing Goren and Logan for an entire investigation.

As for Eames and Det. X – or, to indicate gender, perhaps that should be Det. XX – again, it’s hard to image why they would pair them for an entire episode... but who knows? Eames is certainly used to working with someone who has a strong background in psychology and uses it in investigations. It might be interesting to see how Eames would react... whether she would start out with some assumptions, from having worked with Goren, that might not apply to another profiler type. For instance, pretty much anyone who works at it can learn to read people’s affect more accurately than average... and presumably someone interested in applying psychology to detective work will have done so. But unless she has some significant trauma in her background, she’s not likely to be nearly as incredibly observant and accurate as Goren is in reading people (that aspect of his character is only realistically explained by hypervigilance). If Eames relied on her to catch everything that Goren would catch, or relied on her to be as consistently accurate as Goren in her assessment of people, it might cause problems.

I’m presuming that Det. XX will *not* be someone who functions on Goren’s level, for two reasons. One is that Goren’s level of abilities can only be made realistic in a character by a fairly extreme combination of intelligence and backstory. On intelligence alone you’ve narrowed it to less than 2% of the population, and not many from that group go into police work. But intelligence alone wouldn’t produce the combination of abilities Goren has. Adding a second character to the series with a backstory of the type to produce Gorenesque abilities would really stretch credibility.

The second reason is that it seems to me that a partner with Goren’s level of abilities would tend to overshadow Logan... and I don’t think that’s the intent. If it were any other group of writers, I’d be worried that they weren’t even going to let her hold her own. Fortunately, this seems to be one of those rare teams of writers who are not only comfortable with strong female characters, but actually know how to write for them. Poor Logan...