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Authors: Susan Green, Randee Dawn
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deliver. There’s not a lot of room for error. I have to be conscientious in every detail.”
She knows chaos is lurking around every corner. “It’s sort of like asking me to control the weather,” Adlesic says. “It’s the real world, with noises, airplanes, never-ending surprises. The New York City Mayor’s Office (of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting) has a list of certain hot-spots, neighborhoods in which we can’t film. We need to be very strategic: no hot-spot, no nearby construction going on, good parking. We try to make our impact as minimal as possible. We refer to this as ‘letting it live.’ That keeps the public happy.”
And when all else fails, “we can change at a moment’s notice,” she vows. “I have a sort of sixth sense about pulling out quickly if a negotiation seems headed to a dead end. But we can’t walk around with a crystal ball and imagine every scenario.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
WHAT WASN’T THERE BEFORE
E very now and then Dean Taucher, SVU ’s production designer since early in season one, has an interesting dilemma when called upon to make the Big Apple look worm-ridden. Or, as he puts it, “a taste of the 1970s when the city was collapsing.”
Locations in today’s cleaner, more tourism-friendly metropolis may not yield the sort of mean streets a crime show requires. “We needed junk-filled empty lots,” Taucher says. “Can’t find them anymore. So we have to make it look like South Bronx of the 1980s. Sometimes we need grit and darkness and scariness to capture a mood. I come from New York. I’m familiar with urban decay, so I found that very appealing.”
His résumé indicates a propensity for crafting sets suitable for wrongdoers and the public servants who pursue them. While working as a visual consultant on Miami Vice (NBC, 1984-89), Taucher got to know that show’s then-head writer Dick Wolf. This relationship opened the door to various production designer jobs, on such programs as H.E.L.P. (ABC, 1990) and New York Undercover (Fox, 1994-98).
After a short stint with the non-Wolf series Dellaventura (CBS, 1997), several commercials, and a few TV movies, Taucher enabled mobsters on The Sopranos . Though he was only with the beloved HBO drama during its first season, his magic touch remained thereafter. “A lot of those permanent sets were my creations: the back-room of the strip club, the pork store, much of Tony’s house.”
Bada bing, bada boom. Taucher was tasked with giving SVU ’s characters a range of equally true-to-life destinations. “It all has to feel real,” he says. “If not, that takes people out of the story.”
To achieve that goal, he collaborates with the art department, the set decorators, the props people, the carpenters, the grips, the scenic team—“probably twenty-five of them each day but that number can double or more,” Taucher points out.
The hotel set from season ten’s “Lunacy,” pre-filming
The “Gots Money” set from season ten’s “Wildlife.”
The collective endeavor to lend authenticity to fiction doesn’t come cheaply. An extensive cave was essential for “Alternate,” a season nine episode with guest star and subsequent SVU Emmy-winner Cynthia Nixon. “But there are no caves in Manhattan,” Taucher says. “So we built one in our adjacent warehouse out of Styrofoam.”
Unit production manager Gail Barringer notes that this indoor cave cost $50,000, and “would have been maybe twice that if we’d used one somewhere outside.”
CHAPTER NINE
LEADING THE WAY
E arly on, while SVU’ s identity still seemed rather malleable, executive producer Ted Kotcheff was impressed by the innovative approach of a guest director: “In season one, Leslie Linka Glatter came (for ‘A Single Life’). She had been a dancer and that was the way she staged scenes. She made a big impact on how we do the show.”
Her style involved graceful circling and swooping movements of the camera, as well as choreographing everyday
She knows chaos is lurking around every corner. “It’s sort of like asking me to control the weather,” Adlesic says. “It’s the real world, with noises, airplanes, never-ending surprises. The New York City Mayor’s Office (of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting) has a list of certain hot-spots, neighborhoods in which we can’t film. We need to be very strategic: no hot-spot, no nearby construction going on, good parking. We try to make our impact as minimal as possible. We refer to this as ‘letting it live.’ That keeps the public happy.”
And when all else fails, “we can change at a moment’s notice,” she vows. “I have a sort of sixth sense about pulling out quickly if a negotiation seems headed to a dead end. But we can’t walk around with a crystal ball and imagine every scenario.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
WHAT WASN’T THERE BEFORE
E very now and then Dean Taucher, SVU ’s production designer since early in season one, has an interesting dilemma when called upon to make the Big Apple look worm-ridden. Or, as he puts it, “a taste of the 1970s when the city was collapsing.”
Locations in today’s cleaner, more tourism-friendly metropolis may not yield the sort of mean streets a crime show requires. “We needed junk-filled empty lots,” Taucher says. “Can’t find them anymore. So we have to make it look like South Bronx of the 1980s. Sometimes we need grit and darkness and scariness to capture a mood. I come from New York. I’m familiar with urban decay, so I found that very appealing.”
His résumé indicates a propensity for crafting sets suitable for wrongdoers and the public servants who pursue them. While working as a visual consultant on Miami Vice (NBC, 1984-89), Taucher got to know that show’s then-head writer Dick Wolf. This relationship opened the door to various production designer jobs, on such programs as H.E.L.P. (ABC, 1990) and New York Undercover (Fox, 1994-98).
After a short stint with the non-Wolf series Dellaventura (CBS, 1997), several commercials, and a few TV movies, Taucher enabled mobsters on The Sopranos . Though he was only with the beloved HBO drama during its first season, his magic touch remained thereafter. “A lot of those permanent sets were my creations: the back-room of the strip club, the pork store, much of Tony’s house.”
Bada bing, bada boom. Taucher was tasked with giving SVU ’s characters a range of equally true-to-life destinations. “It all has to feel real,” he says. “If not, that takes people out of the story.”
To achieve that goal, he collaborates with the art department, the set decorators, the props people, the carpenters, the grips, the scenic team—“probably twenty-five of them each day but that number can double or more,” Taucher points out.
The hotel set from season ten’s “Lunacy,” pre-filming
The “Gots Money” set from season ten’s “Wildlife.”
The collective endeavor to lend authenticity to fiction doesn’t come cheaply. An extensive cave was essential for “Alternate,” a season nine episode with guest star and subsequent SVU Emmy-winner Cynthia Nixon. “But there are no caves in Manhattan,” Taucher says. “So we built one in our adjacent warehouse out of Styrofoam.”
Unit production manager Gail Barringer notes that this indoor cave cost $50,000, and “would have been maybe twice that if we’d used one somewhere outside.”
CHAPTER NINE
LEADING THE WAY
E arly on, while SVU’ s identity still seemed rather malleable, executive producer Ted Kotcheff was impressed by the innovative approach of a guest director: “In season one, Leslie Linka Glatter came (for ‘A Single Life’). She had been a dancer and that was the way she staged scenes. She made a big impact on how we do the show.”
Her style involved graceful circling and swooping movements of the camera, as well as choreographing everyday
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