CSI: New York

August 22, 2005
Episode: Corporate Warriors
Location - CBS Studios

Sometimes you just hit the jackpot for bookings. While I did not end up as a dead body on CSI: NY, I did get to be a band member. The actual call was for background that had their own instruments, and no, you did not need to know how to play them. I have a trombone and was thus told to show up in proper band attire, and was given a white hat and suspenders. For this episode, there was one trombone, two trumpets, one cornet, two clarinets, and three saxophones. Only two of us actually played the instrument we brought with us. Myself and one of the saxophones. He and I had the chance to jam as we did a little impromptu swing and Dixie. Though not to loud, so as not to annoy the director.

We were taken from base to New York street, perhaps better known as the Seinfield street. This is where many of the street scenes were shot for that show, and today we were shooting an Italian Festival where some poor guy gets the bloody hell kicked out of him. Now the good thing about all of this is that this Italian Festival is a food thing. Lots of food, and it is all freshly cooked on set and edible and background were told to go ahead and eat what they wanted, but please try to eat some of it during the camera roll. I'm sure I saw one or two people being rolled off the set by overworked crew. This ended up being a ten hour day for me (starting at 5:45 am) but I never felt the least bit hungry.

New York street has awnings that bridge the gap between buildings on both sides of the street, thus allowing some control of light and preventing direct sun light on the cast and crew. The street itself is not overly long, so to give it that feeling of greater length, the cameras shot the street going first one way then the other. There were quite a few background on the set, so it really was as crowded as it looked, though it did help that most of the background stayed off the sidewalks.

In the scene I suspect is the opening scene to this story arc, some guy larches into a statue of a saint and appears to be grabbing handfuls of cash, only just put there by obliging background actors. Five Italian looking guys grab him and beat and kick him in a violent display that surprised most of the background players who, because they were not told that the fight was going to happen during that take, were sure that some of the folks on set had gotten into a non-verbal dispute. The beat upon actor got quite the applause after regaining his feet and demonstrating that he could still walk.

Alas, some people have all the perks. I noted with some envy that the guy that played the dead body (after being so artfully beaten) had a stand in, just like the leads of the show. Any time you could not see the body, but one of the stars was looking at or photographing it, the actor got to go back to the shade and a dummy was put in his place. I wonder what they pay the dummy?