A man stood in center of the church, pews lying askew at one side, burn marks on the wall and floor indicating the church had been torched.
Detectives had come to St. Gerard’s Church to confront the man – who apparently had torched seven churches in the New York City area. This was the scene in which detectives and the TV-viewing audience found out why.
The scene opens with the camera focused on a burn hole in the floor then slowly rises to catch people entering the sanctuary from the far doors.
This is the concluding scene to an upcoming episode of “Law & Order Criminal Intent” called “On Fire” filmed on April 13 in Bayonne.
“We had planned to use a real church in Harlem that had had a fire, but there was some concern about the structure,” said Associate Producer Michael Smith. “We decided to build a set instead.”
Smith, a native of Springfield, New Jersey, said they decided to build the set in Bayonne. “While shooting on location has its advantages such as having a character look out a window at a real street, you can control things better in a sound stage.”
Smith, who has an impressive industry resume that includes work as second unit director in feature films such as “Mickey Blue Eyes,” “The Simian Line” and “Curtain Call” and first assistant director work in TV programs such as “Now and Again,” “Falcone,” “The Education of Max Bickford,” “Hack” and most recently “The Sopranos.”
“We filmed all over New Jersey with ‘The Sopranos’,” he said, “and one of the three ‘Law & Order’ units films in New Jersey, so we know this state, although this is our first time in Bayonne.”
“Criminal Intent” follows a division of New York City police called the ‘Major Case Squad’,” which is assigned to high profile cases, usually murders involving VIPs, local government officials, prominent people in the financial or art worlds.
The “Criminal Intent” unit films four days in the studio and four days out on the scene with studios based in Chelsea. But for this special church set the unit came to Bayonne to make use of studio space that has most recently been used for some of the indoor shooting of Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds.”
“Criminal Intent,” which stars Chris Noth as Mike Logan, Annabella Sciorra as Carolyn Barek, Vincent D’Onofrio as Det. Robert Goren and Kathryn Erbe as Det. Alexandra Eames, attempts to take viewers into the minds of the criminals while following the psychological approaches the squad uses to solve the crimes.
The program is designed to be a kind of modern Sherlock Holmes with Det. Goren as a gifted detective with remarkable instincts and Det. Eames as a stylish and intelligent partner.
Like Sherlock Holmes and to some degree the Perry Mason television show of the 1950s, the three units of “Law & Order” present situations that do not always get resolved.
One teacher in Brooklyn, commenting on the show, said it often reflects a very real “New York sensibility.”
Smith attributed this to Dick Wolf, the show’s creator and one of the executive producers. “One of the reasons is that Dick Wolf hires a New York cast, production is done in New York and the writers are from New York, and the crew is from New York,” Smith said. In the scene filmed in Bayonne, D’Onofrio and Ebre play the principle roles in the final confrontation.
“The story is about a string of church fires – seven churches all in one night. This is the big scene where the detectives find the man in the church where he grew up. This is the final scene where they get the bad guy.”
Everything old is new again
The whole military terminal building served as a warehouse prior to the closing to the base in 1996. Since then, this and other buildings have served for the making of movies, TV and commercials with such films as “A Beautiful Mind” and “War of the Worlds” shot here.
The interior of the building was abuzz this day as people scrambled to shoot the concluding scene in this episode. The air smelled of cut wood and the ozone-like scent from bright lights and mountains of electronics.
Many of the operations for “Law & Order Criminal Intent” were similar to those of “War of the Worlds” with part of the studio space dedicated to various uses such as wardrobe and props. Staff scurry from place to place getting ready for the next sequence, often with the actors coming out to take a seat for a breather or to go over the script for the next shot.
As with “War of the Worlds,” the set in which the action takes place looks largely like a box from the outside with lamps casting light through spaces that serve as the church windows. Monitors allow some of the staff to watch the scenes inside, although workers said days tended to be very long – with frequent rehearsals or run-throughs prior to an actual take.
Even during rehearsals, someone shouts “quiet all around” as the camera comes to life. This scene is shot using what is called “a steady cam,” a camera strapped to the front of the operator rather than one placed over the shoulder allowing for some unique angles, yet a shot that seems more fixed than an over-the-shoulder camera – which is used often outside to display action, Smith said.
This episode is scheduled to air mid-May, although shooting can be done weeks or months before the actual airing since film gets shipped to Los Angeles for final edit.
Jasmine Hammond, a member of the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority, said the staff told her that they were delighted with the set.
“They told us how easy it was to get in here, and how parking was no problem,” Hammond said. “They liked it so much they said they would likely come back here in the future.”
Smith said the location was easy to get in and out of, and that the crew had come in early to sketch out the design of the set.
“We may be back, but not for anything this season,” he said, noting that this was among the last of the shows for the year.
One of the upcoming shows that will be filmed at the Chelsea studios will include a guest appearance by Whoopie Goldberg.