By: Amrie Cunningham [My Take on TV]
“He was like really a bad singer, and he was a luna(tic)” – find out who Valerie Schields, Locations Manager from BURN NOTICE, is talking about and why she loves shooting in Miami.
Valerie: Our job is when we get a script, then we take a look at what the locations are supposed to be, then we present options to the director and the production designer. And then they make the final choice. But it’s a really creative job. The most fun part of the job is the scouting because that is, it’s adding, we’re adding, we’re contributing. Even though the final choice is the director’s, we’re contributing to the look of the show. Then it moves onto the business. Once they‘ve picked everything then all the logistics start and we have to sign the contracts and organize the police and the fire department and the parking and the catering and the everything. Actually, the location manager, once the locations are found is the liaison between the community, the real world, as we call it, and the crew. Because the crew actually is a very efficient machine that’s run. Everybody knows their job, but what we need to do is to facilitate the crew to do what they need to do to get their job done and yet interface with the community and make it happen so that everybody’s happy. When we film in private properties or office buildings or restaurants, then also what we do is we have to get the crew to abide by what we promised. So we’re the liaison also for the location and representative of the crew.
I’ve been curious ever since I’ve seen it, the house that Michael and his family squat in. How much does it cost to rent it?
Which house was it?
The one in the finale….Yeah, Nate was squatting and he brought Madeline and Michael into it. He said it was a foreclosure on the show. It looks like it’s on Star Island, well I thought it was, but it might be Palm Island….I think it was episode 10 last year.
I don’t remember. I really don’t remember where it was. It probably was on Star. Was it a mansion?
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By: Amrie Cunningham
“We spend 3 days in a van with a writer for 12 hours a day” and other fun stories about Production Design – an interview with BURN NOTICE production designer Craig Siebels:
My name is Craig Siebels, I’m the Production Designer. Anything I say, I mean we because there’s another person that I work with Mark Harrington.
So, what’s it like to be so tall [Craig has to be 6’6” at least]:
Craig Siebels: [laughs] You come out with the tough question right away.
Have you been with the show since the beginning?
Yes, I’ve known Matt Nix for 9 years and we started talking about this show at least a 1 ½ before there was a pilot. I didn’t design the pilot; I started with the 2nd episode. But I was advising Matt when he was here shooting the pilot.
How did you create the unique look of the show?
It’s not an easy question. When we first talked about the show we wanted the world to teach the audience to look at things differently. When we walk around scouting locations it’s ludicrous that we all think like spies now. Whenever we walk into a restaurant we check out all of the exits and how to get to the roof first. All of the sets, we know at least ten episodes down that we’ll have a place where people can hide. We had a mandate from the network to shoot in Miami. We’re the only show that’s set in Miami that shoots in Miami.
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Amrie Cunningham on the set of BURN NOTICE
It’s only the middle of June and already I’ve got a wicked “What I did on my summer vacation” story to share with you all. A little over a week ago, I had the great pleasure of spending some time on the set of a little show we all know (and should absolutely love). USA was great enough to invite a few members of the online media word (read: bloggerati) to visit Miami and the set of BURN NOTICE!
I arrived on a Thursday afternoon, just a few hours before our scheduled dinner at The Chart House with the mastermind behind the whole show, the absolutely hilarious and incredibly personable Matt Nix. We had a great time at dinner, talking about the show. In the only conversation of the two days that we didn’t get a chance to record (I think we all had our recorders in our bags, but no one wanted to break that ice), Matt told us stories about how the show came to be, about why he ended up in Miami, and what might happen to various characters if he suddenly stops getting along with their portrayer! He offered great insight into the world of BURN NOTICE and why he likes filming in Miami. He wasn’t just putting us on, either. You can tell just by the way he tells a story, that he truly loves his job and couldn’t ask for anything better.
One of my favorite stories of the night was him telling us about shooting last year’s finale, when they blew up a car with a missile and created a giant mushroom cloud in the middle of downtown Miami. He recalled watching the dailies and thinking how cool it was that they had gotten all these extras to drive through Miami as they caused this damage on the bridge. When he realized that they weren’t extras, that it was actually Miami traffic, his thoughts immediately went to the crazy fact that no one stopped. Not a single person on the bridge stopped to check out the mushroom cloud. It’s a hilarious commentary on where our minds are. Mushroom cloud = normal, naturally.
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Recently, theTVaddict.com Senior Editor Amrie Cunningham was given the fantastic opportunity to attend the USA UpFronts. Enjoy the second in her series of interviews with the stars of the USA Network. [The first being Amrie's interview with MONK star Tony Shaloub]
By: Amrie Cunningham [My Take on TV]
Last interview of the evening was with the beautiful Gabrielle Anwar, Fiona on USA’s hit show BURN NOTICE. She was fun, and sassy, and so much more than just another one of your average breathtaking women in Hollywood (though breathtaking is the word I’ve used to describe her, for sure). Everything she had to say, she had a sense of joy in her words, she was so happy to be talking about the show, promoting it, and being able to spent time with press and fans who wanted to hear her stories.
One of my favorite movies of all times is WILD HEARTS CAN’T BE BROKEN, and it was just on TV like a week ago, so I figured that was a good sign!
Gabrielle: I like signs! It’s totally a good sign. I think that was the most fun I ever had on a movie.
Of course we’re not here to talk about that haha! BURN NOTICE was one of my favorite shows last year – how did the role of Fiona come to be?
Same old, same old. I was sent the script and it was actually damn good. I actually finished it and I begged my manager to get me in the room, which is pretty much the story of my career in the last 7-10 years.
It seems to have worked.
I’ve been very blessed.
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