Read Online Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: The Unofficial Companion by Susan Green, Randee Dawn - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Susan Green, Randee Dawn
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“bits of business,” as actors call it, that frame the primary activity on screen. These ideas were enshrined by the time Peter Leto began taking the helm in season six. He had gone through quite a learning curve over the years, in fact, from key assistant director to first assistant director to production manager/co-producer.
“I was asked if I had any interest in directing,” Leto says. “But I was quite happy producing. I was helping novice directors who came in.”
Peter Leto
He wanted one more year as a producer before his directorial debut and apparent epiphany on “Goliath” (season six). “As clichéd as this sounds, a light went on in my head, in a dormant creative part of my brain,” Leto says. “I never knew I had such an ability to visualize what’s on the page. I got on-the-job training. My mentor is Ted Kotcheff—he’s the greatest film school I could ever have applied to.”
Showrunner Neal Baer also points out that “we have a movie director who makes actors very comfortable and it’s one reason the big stars like to come on. They feel, ‘Omigod, Ted Kotcheff!’”
Recently, Leto has been one of the people whose job mushroomed as SVU began to winnow down its freelance stable to provide more creative continuity. Although there are a few newbies each year, Leto remains among the few go-to guys. “When we started, I had maybe fifteen different directors a season,” Kotcheff explains. “Now, Peter does eight episodes, David Platt does eight, and we bring in only about six others.”
Baer is happy about the new arrangement: “It’s very smooth, with Peter Leto and David Platt directing most of the episodes. We found that bringing in itinerant directors made it difficult to always get the fluid style of camera movement I love.”
Platt went from boom operator to sound mixer on the original Law & Order , before he began periodically directing episodes during the Mother Ship’s sixth season. His contribution to SVU was kept at a minimum until season five.
Three years later, Platt began to seem indispensable. In season nine, he was promoted to the rank of producer and continued to fashion a variety of episodes. “I can do anything they throw at me,” he says. “There are certain writers I like to work with or maybe it has to do with a particular actor. Sometimes it’s just luck of the draw.”
Co-executive producer Arthur W. Forney, another in-demand director, says “Neal Baer and Ted Kotcheff decide who directs and in what order. They tell us a month before, while the script is still being written. In a TV series, you get what comes your way.”
The same can probably be said of Forney’s long history with Dick Wolf, having survived New York Undercover (Fox, 1994-98), The Wright Verdicts (CBS, 1995), Feds (CBS, 1997), and Players (NBC, 1997), among many others.
Forney started out as an editor and now supervises all Wolf Films post-production, editing, dubbing, and music “with the right part of my brain,” he says. “With the left part, I direct episodes. Of course, once I look at my own work in the editing stage I want to shoot myself. What was I thinking?”
Perhaps the answer is an urge to yell “Action!” and “Cut!” His first directing assignment on the Mother Ship came in 1994, after which he did ten to fifteen episodes for the next three seasons. On SVU , Forney has been at the helm periodically since 2001.
“There’s a great benefit coming from a Law & Order background,” he says. “You know what style Dick wants.”
Despite that foreknowledge, there’s a routine he must follow. “I spend seven or eight days being with the script, to get it into my system,” Forney says. “We have ‘tone meetings’ with the writers in New York. We do the casting. We scout locations. I block out the scenes. When do they walk over there and get coffee? When do they look at a computer? By the time we start shooting, I have a shot list. But we can always make changes
“I was asked if I had any interest in directing,” Leto says. “But I was quite happy producing. I was helping novice directors who came in.”
Peter Leto
He wanted one more year as a producer before his directorial debut and apparent epiphany on “Goliath” (season six). “As clichéd as this sounds, a light went on in my head, in a dormant creative part of my brain,” Leto says. “I never knew I had such an ability to visualize what’s on the page. I got on-the-job training. My mentor is Ted Kotcheff—he’s the greatest film school I could ever have applied to.”
Showrunner Neal Baer also points out that “we have a movie director who makes actors very comfortable and it’s one reason the big stars like to come on. They feel, ‘Omigod, Ted Kotcheff!’”
Recently, Leto has been one of the people whose job mushroomed as SVU began to winnow down its freelance stable to provide more creative continuity. Although there are a few newbies each year, Leto remains among the few go-to guys. “When we started, I had maybe fifteen different directors a season,” Kotcheff explains. “Now, Peter does eight episodes, David Platt does eight, and we bring in only about six others.”
Baer is happy about the new arrangement: “It’s very smooth, with Peter Leto and David Platt directing most of the episodes. We found that bringing in itinerant directors made it difficult to always get the fluid style of camera movement I love.”
Platt went from boom operator to sound mixer on the original Law & Order , before he began periodically directing episodes during the Mother Ship’s sixth season. His contribution to SVU was kept at a minimum until season five.
Three years later, Platt began to seem indispensable. In season nine, he was promoted to the rank of producer and continued to fashion a variety of episodes. “I can do anything they throw at me,” he says. “There are certain writers I like to work with or maybe it has to do with a particular actor. Sometimes it’s just luck of the draw.”
Co-executive producer Arthur W. Forney, another in-demand director, says “Neal Baer and Ted Kotcheff decide who directs and in what order. They tell us a month before, while the script is still being written. In a TV series, you get what comes your way.”
The same can probably be said of Forney’s long history with Dick Wolf, having survived New York Undercover (Fox, 1994-98), The Wright Verdicts (CBS, 1995), Feds (CBS, 1997), and Players (NBC, 1997), among many others.
Forney started out as an editor and now supervises all Wolf Films post-production, editing, dubbing, and music “with the right part of my brain,” he says. “With the left part, I direct episodes. Of course, once I look at my own work in the editing stage I want to shoot myself. What was I thinking?”
Perhaps the answer is an urge to yell “Action!” and “Cut!” His first directing assignment on the Mother Ship came in 1994, after which he did ten to fifteen episodes for the next three seasons. On SVU , Forney has been at the helm periodically since 2001.
“There’s a great benefit coming from a Law & Order background,” he says. “You know what style Dick wants.”
Despite that foreknowledge, there’s a routine he must follow. “I spend seven or eight days being with the script, to get it into my system,” Forney says. “We have ‘tone meetings’ with the writers in New York. We do the casting. We scout locations. I block out the scenes. When do they walk over there and get coffee? When do they look at a computer? By the time we start shooting, I have a shot list. But we can always make changes
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