Kidnapped TV show - set pics

Recently, a friend of mine had his studio overrun with a film production crew for the TV show kidnapped (premiers on NBC this fall).They offered him a large sum of money to film in it, so he took it (simple enough). Below details the basic story as it was told to me by my friend Eric, illustrated by some wonderful pictures taken with my friend Ben's camera, who also has a studio on our floor just down the hall.





The story goes, Eric was sitting in his studio quietly working, when this guy walked in and asked him if the studio was his. Then, the guy proceeded to offer my friend money to inconvenience him for a full 2 days of shooting. The only catch being that my friend did need to find a place for his stuff - they needed the room pretty much empty, so it would look like a room in an abandoned warehouse. So, he packed it all up the next morning and asked some of the people on the floor if he could store his stuff in their studios for the time being. Then, the production crew, who was apparently infighting because they were made up of two separate unions, boarded up the rest of the room that contained Eric's less mobile things, like his full sized refridgerator, videogame cabinet, and vinyl records. In the shot above, you can see the particle board which is covering up that stuff. You can also see my studio!





But, the reason they were so interested in his studio was that you can see the 7 train perfectly from his window - he's pretty much level with it as it passes by our building. And, they liked the cigarette butts on the floor and the general disarray his studio was in (note: Eric's studio looks pretty clean, almost always. I guess this was one of those days).
They even went so far as to tell him not to sweep up or clean up! They also used all of his fans - good ones and broken ones - and random junk like a mop head that had been sitting behind a fridge for the better part of a year. The only things that aren't his in the main shot are the bed, rug, and the orange chair. Everything else - even those nasty gloves (which I guess they'll be using in the scene) - is his.

As for what will happen in the room - this is where they will be holding the kidnapped victim. My friend told me that the kidnappie will be tied to the radiator just below the windows. That detail may have changed in the process of shooting, but this will be where the shit goes down. See below for an interpretation shot orchestrated by me with Ben as the scary gloved hand, late at night after the production crew had long since gone.




So, when the show arrives on televisions across this great nation this Sept, be sure to look for my friend's studio. It'll be interesting to see just how it looks on film. I guess with the right lighting anything can look good.