The Shield gets down and dirty: shot on Super 16 and edited on Media Composers, this cable show blows audiences away

Post, August, 2003 by Daniel Restuccio

LOS ANGELES -- How do you turn a corrupt and violent LA cop into a sympathetic character that people tune in to see week after week? It's not easy, but the makers of FX's hit series The Shield have done just that. And they've done it with talented actors, quality scripts and a distinctive look that is accomplished thanks to street-style, down and dirty shooting and editing that supports that directorial approach.

The show's creator Shawn Ryan, who is currently gearing up for season three, says he wasn't so sure his pilot would ever get made. "It was not polished and rounded off. It was raw and without a care in the world. I didn't worry about the elements, the things you think you need to make a good show."

Ryan, a former Angel and Nash Bridges writer/producer, had never made a pilot. So he quickly enlisted veteran producer/director Scott Brazil (Hill Street Blues, Gideon's Crossing) to co-executive produce the show.

"From the studio's perspective," says Dean Barnes, Fox TV Pictures VP of post production (FX is owned by Fox), "we were trying to do a series for cable that was lean and mean and still have it be a quality show."

Some say that the guerrilla filmmaking style was born out of economic necessity. Cable shows are budgeted considerably less than a comparable broadcast show. "In this case," says Shield co-producer Dean White, "that just happens to be a happy accident. If we had more money we'd have more time to shoot scenes, but at the end of the day it would still look the same because that's Shawn's vision."

During The Shield's first two seasons numerous directors have helmed episodes, including Felix AIcala, Brad Anderson, John Badham, Paris Barclay, Scott Brazil, D.J. Caruso, Guy Ferland, Gary Fleder, Nick Gomez, Davis Guggenheim, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Peter Horton, Leslie Libman, Terrence O'Hara and Scott Winant.

However, the show's signature look was established by pilot director Clark Johnson, probably better known for his on-screen role as Det. Meldrick Lewis in the Barry Levinson TV series Homicide:.

"My agent shows me this script, I read the first page and I'm hooked," he says. Johnson, who recently directed the feature S.W.A.T. for Sony Pictures, has logged considerable time behind the lens directing episodes of The Wire, Soul Food, The West Wing, Law and Order: SVU and six episodes of Homicide.

"I want the audience to feel like they're in a police ride along," says Ryan. "More like Cops than NYPD Blue. Clark got what I was after."

"We just clicked," echoes Johnson. On the pilot he was going non-stop the entire 11-day shoot, sometimes doing over 50 set-ups with one camera. "My approach is a street style, pavement level, a run with em' kinda style."

Johnson's direction makes you feel like you are in the moment, not watching something that already occurred. "I want the camera to be reactive as opposed to anticipatory," Clark says deliberately. "Catching up to the action that is happening."

With that creative mandate, Shield directors set out sans shot lists, roll camera during rehearsals, they block scenes without the cameramen and then yell, "Action!" and have them find the actors.

THE SHOOT

One of the most challenging aspects of production is the actual shooting. Forget your giant 35mm Panavision cameras, or even cutting edge Sony CineAlta HDC-F950s. Think Vietnam-era war cameramen in an urban jungle. Two small, light (15.4 lbs) constantly roving Super 16mm Arriflex SRIIIs are the mainstay of this production.

"This is a scary job," says Ryan "It's hard to tell a DP, 'Don't make it look pretty.' The feel we're after is down and dirty. Light it so it doesn't look lit."

"We considered HD, but the cameras are too bulky," says DP Rohn Schmidt (Prey, Lord of Illusions). "MiniDV is more appealing because of that blown out look, but that was too extreme. The Super 16mm Arri is a good choice to create credibility with that 'classic' documentary look."

The Shield's shooting rule of thumb is if you have a scene where you'd traditionally use a dolly, use the Steadicam; if you have a scene where you'd use a Steadicam, go hand-held. Camera operator Bill Gierhart does the Steadicam work and Richard Cantu runs the hand-held.

At LA's Prospect Studios, The Shield police house set is a meticulous re-creation of the actual downtown LA abandoned church they used for the pilot. To paint the sunlight through the windows, says Schmidt, they use 150 "workhorse" 1000w Par 64 Can lights. "It's what they use on rock and roll shows," he says amused. Inside, they selectively use Source Four Leikos and took all the interior classic florescent fixtures and rewired them with Kino FIo ballasts and tubes.

On location, he says, they were lucky to be shooting in Los Angles in the fall when the light is kinder. The joke is that Schmidt has this 40-foot lighting truck at his disposal and he throws up a two-foot white card or nothing at all. "The producers don't want that glamour puss," Schmidt says wryly.

As per usual with episodic television, many episodes are shot and posted at the same time. Every show gets seven days prep and seven days shooting, often with overlapping schedules. "We easily have four to five shows going at once," says White.