Teen Wolf News: On Location With Teen Wolf
This article was first published on October 19, 2016 at teenwolfnews.com. Because that site is now defunct, I've republished it here so that the historical record can be preserved.
A Dark and Cold Night in LA[]
My Uber driver Elvira seems nervous as we pull up outside the old “City Market” in downtown Los Angeles, “Are you sure you want to get out here?” It’s 7:30, just after dark, on a Friday night in a not-so-nice part of town. I check the Teen Wolf call list in my email and assure her that this area, with its rundown storefronts and cracked sidewalks, is indeed the right place. Exiting the car, I catch sight of bright lights suspended high above a canvas-covered chain-link fence and hear the now-familiar British accent of Teen Wolf director Tim Andrew shouting through a bullhorn. “Here we go! Ready? Action! Grab guns!” Typically hearing the word “guns” on a dark street in a mostly deserted part of this city would be a bad thing. In this case, Andrew is one of the few people I actually know in Los Angeles, so I head toward his voice.
Tonight is my second night visiting the cast and crew of the MTV show. I spent Thursday evening at their main headquarters in the San Fernando Valley. The entire town of Beacon Hills - homes, school, hospital, sheriff’s station and various secret lairs - exists inside a nondescript corporate warehouse in a neighborhood filled with similarly nondescript corporate warehouses. After six years producing this show, they can film almost any episode of Teen Wolf entirely inside their HQ, but sometimes a script calls for something different and they end up at some place like City Market.
Filming Among the Ruins[]
I expect to meet some resistance from the security personnel stationed at the gate and have my email invitation from the production pulled up on my phone and at the ready. The uniformed men barely take notice as I walk through.
The area between San Julian and San Pedro streets in the southern part of downtown LA was once a thriving open-air produce market. Created, in part, by Chinese farmers in the early 20th century, it boomed until post-war demographic pressures killed the neighborhood in the 1950s. While the developers who now own it imagine office towers, retail stores and a hotel on the site, tonight City Market is just a vast expanse of broken pavement between two long stalls held up by battered and peeling square concrete columns. With an almost full moon hanging above, my mind conjures images of the Parthenon (had the Parthenon been built by workers from the WPA) and the feeling of wandering through some forgotten ruin sticks in my brain.
Controlled Chaos[]
Film sets are textbook examples of controlled chaos. Cables that connect generators to lights and other, unrecognizable bits of equipment snake along the ground in every direction. There are dozens of people, caterers, drivers, cast, and crew everywhere. I’ve been instructed to find a particular assistant director who knows I’m coming, but I don’t have any idea where even to begin looking for him.
I decide to look for script supervisor/director Kate Eastridge instead. Katie, as she’s known on set, was kind enough to host me the night before at the studio. I hate to impose on her again (imagine some nosy reporter showing up and talking non-stop while you’re trying to work) but I need a familiar face in all this chaos.
As I’m finding my way through the equipment and set dressing, a crew member I’d met the night before comes up and offers me ear plugs and a plastic visor. “It’s for the gunfire,” he says before moving on. I stare at the package of little yellow plugs and wonder if movie guns are really that loud?
Eastridge is very busy. They’ve just wrapped one shot, and Video Village, a collection of monitors connected to all the cameras on set, is moving further into the concrete stall to shoot the same thing again from a slightly different angle. I ask if there is anything I can do to help with the moving process. She seems surprised by the offer. “The crew does that.”
I keep forgetting how segmented the process of film making is out here. Most of the folks on this set have just one job. Some people just move things, on this night they’re moving empty munitions crates. Some people just make sure all Eastridge’s monitors show the feeds from each of the three main cameras trained on the scene. Some move lights while others pump smoke (they call it atmosphere) into the cooling night air.
Linden Ashby: All Around Great Guy[]
While the crew works to readjust for the new angle, I spot actor Linden Ashby. He’s not on the call sheet for this scene meaning he’s not working. He’s apparently come down just to hang out with the Teen Wolf family. I’ve interviewed Ashby before by phone and fumble over my words as I try to introduce myself and jog his memory. Mine was one of the dozens of interviews he did for his recent movie Beta Test. I can tell he doesn’t remember me, but he’s very polite and pretends to recall our earlier conversation.
Ashby is a genuinely nice guy, and soon we’re just talking about random stuff. He says his wife,Susan Walters, took up bike riding. He notices my University of Georgia fleece jacket and says "UGA!" His wife is an Atlanta native and rabid Georgia Bulldogs fan. Tim Andrew joins us, and we talk about Teen Wolf Executive Producer Jeff Davis’ potential new project for MTV. He’s helping to develop H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds into a TV series, and Ashby says he’d like a part in it. Andrew returns to work as the conversation turns to politics and the American Presidential election. It’s a stressful topic for Ashby and Eastridge, and we’re blessedly interrupted by Andrew’s call for “last looks” which means the makeup folks will check the actor’s one last time before they’re ready to resume filming.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close[]
I can’t tell you much about the actual scene because it won’t air for a few months. It includes actors JR Bourne, Tyler Posey, and Shelley Hennig. It involves several guns and several performers we’ve not seen on Teen Wolf before. They’re shooting about three minutes’ worth of dialogue and action. It will take them all night to do it because they have to record the scene from several different angles including close-ups on each of the key actors and on each element of the action sequences. The current set up includes a camera atop a high ladder and another stationed between two black SUVs parked nearby.
Someone shouts, “There will be gunfire! Protect your ears!” Other voices repeat the warning on both sides of the scene. I reach into my pocket to retrieve the ear plugs. They’re in a little plastic pouch, but the plastic doesn’t tear easily. I finally get it open, squeeze and twist the yellow foam, and push it into my ear. I can feel the foam beginning to expand, blocking out almost all sound on my left side. I’m just starting to twist the other plug between my fingers when Andrew shouts, “Ready and action!”
The sound of several automatic weapons firing at once is deafening. There are no bullets in the guns; they’re shooting blanks, but the sound ricochets and echoes off the concrete structure. I feel it deep in my chest and manage to jab my finger in my abused right ear deadening the report but not the vibrations. After a moment of stunned confusion, I find the weapons fire exhilarating. Muzzles flash, and a steady stream of spent shells fly off and clink, clink, clink to the pavement. My heart is racing and blood pounds in my still-plugged ears.
The firing stops. “And cut it!” Andrew shouts adding, “Okay great.” He returns to Video Village and watches the playback from each camera in turn. The scene plays out again soundlessly and in slow motion. Andrew checks his shot list as Eastridge makes notes on her tablet.
Teen Wolf News Season 6B Behind the Scenes Location Shoot
As script supervisor, Eastridge has one of the most important jobs on set. She monitors each take of each shot and makes notes on what each camera records. When the night is through, she’ll have a complete diary of every single thing they recorded. When it comes time to edit the episode together, it’s Eastridge’s notes that will guide the editors. She also keeps up with the dialogue. If an actor forgets a line, as JR Bourne did at one point, they simply shout, “Katie!” and she supplies them with what they’re supposed to say.
Eastridge tells me she came to Los Angeles from Arizona and got into script supervising because she wanted to direct. She ultimately directed her first episode of Teen Wolf (The Sword and the Spirit) during Season 5 and her second effort, Episode 607, will air during the first half of Season 6.
Teen Wolf News Interview with Director Kate Eastridge
Satisfied with the shot, Andrew says we’re moving on to the next setup and the process of shifting everything starts again.
Shelley Hennig Gets Me Water[]
After two hours on location, I go in search of something to drink. A film set is somewhat like a cruise ship in that there is a never-ending buffet called “craft service” available for cast and crew at all times. I see a couple of coolers off to the side and absentmindedly ask a young woman if they contain bottled water. As she turns, I realize it’s Shelley Hennig.
I try once again to introduce myself smoothly, but in one breath I also try to explain why I’m here, what I do for Teen Wolf News and what exactly Teen Wolf News and Teen Wolf Wikia aspire to be. I’d like to blame my social failure and lack of grace on a combination of surprise, embarrassment, and jet lag, but I’m beginning to understand I’m just bad at this. I’m bad at initiating conversations with people whom I feel I already know from television.
I manage to tell her that she is very popular with our readers who appreciate her humor and bluntness (although I think I said ‘realness’). Hennig says some nice things I forget immediately and hands me a bottled water. She then returns to her conversation with a producer from MTV digital who’s on set filming cast interviews. I stand there awkwardly for another second or two until I hear Andrew shouting again through his bullhorn. It’s an excuse to beat a path away from the scene of my latest social fumble and back to the safe confines of my chair in Video Village.
Tyler Posey Glares at Me[]
The scene resumes once again. Guns are loaded and fired. Tyler Posey and Hennig enter the scene with JR Bourne. There is a joke at which I can’t help but laugh. Eastridge shoots me a look. I was caught up in the scene and forgot I’m supposed to stay silent when they’re rolling. I’m certain I’ll never be invited back to a film set ever again.
I dip my head to my phone. I’ve been tweeting out some of my experiences on set and take some time to respond to fan questions. When I look up again, Tyler Posey and JR Bourne are in front of the monitors watching the playback of their scene. When they finish watching, they take up a position just behind my chair. I want to reintroduce myself (I interviewed Posey in San Diego once) but given my last two botched introduction attempts with Ashby and Hennig; I decide to remain quiet.
Instead of just saying “Hi,” I do that thing where you’re on the outside of a conversation but still react to what’s being said. In this case, I laugh when Posey says something funny. He glares at me. That single look silently says, “Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are you laughing?” I feel like I’m back in high school. I quickly turn back to my phone, and when I look up a few minutes later, the actors are back in front of the cameras.
A Lot of Work for One Joke[]
As hard to believe as it might seem, the repetition of filming a single scene several times over several hours becomes almost tedious. I lost count of how many times I heard the same words and watched the same stunts. With midnight fast approaching, Andrew prepares to do the scene one more time before breaking for ‘lunch.’ Technically they were supposed to break at 11:30 pm according to union rules but apparently Andrew decided to pay the union penalty in order to get all the shots from this angle before breaking.
As the cameras are set up, Andrew consults his shot list and the script with Eastridge. He decides to give one of Posey’s lines to Hennig which in turn will change Bourne’s line slightly. “It seems like an awful lot of work for one joke,” he says. “Is it that funny?” Eastridge hooks her thumb over her shoulder at me, “He laughs every time.” “Well that’s settled then,” Andrew says, laughing. The scene plays out again with the script changes and it’s even funnier with Hennig’s Malia character delivering the line.
Lunch is Served[]
Lunch is a catered affair served buffet style in the nearby parking lot alongside trailers for the cast, makeup department, and wardrobe. I’m hesitant to join the line until all the crew is served since they’ve been working all night while I’ve just been hopping around with my foot in my mouth. I jump in as the line thins. I skip the several different kinds of salad and most of the other vegetarian fare. I decide to sample the Portobello mushroom ravioli. As I’m waiting for the line to move toward the carnivorous dishes, I sense someone standing directly behind me. I glance around to find Tyler Posey filing up a Styrofoam to-go plate.
This is my shot. I’ve mentally replayed my missteps with Ashby and Hennig over and over. I’m confident that I can introduce myself without looking a fool this time. This is as causal an opening as I’m likely to get tonight. I can talk about the food as an opener since we’re both getting food at the same time. Just as I’m about to speak to him, he turns away from me, and I glimpse Bella Thorne behind him. Thorne is Posey’s new girlfriend, but seeing her here is completely unexpected. My mind goes blank. I’m suddenly in high school again, and the popular kids are just right there, and I have no idea what to say.
I turn away from the beautiful couple and focus instead on the nice man carving what looks to be a deliciously rare roast beef. He gingerly lays a slice on top of my ravioli and smiles. “Thanks,” I manage and then escape into the large dining room trailer with the crew.
Dinner was delicious! Katie Eastridge sees me sitting alone and joins me. We chat about the industry a bit until one of the actors I didn’t recognize spills soup down her back. She left to change jackets, and I decided it was probably time for me to head home. I’d already taken every picture of the scene from every possible angle. I’d been warned the night before not to stay too late because all these very nice people on the crew apparently become a little less indulgent of visitors as the morning wears on toward dawn and exhaustion sets in.
Final Thoughts[]
I’ve often compared reporting on Teen Wolf from afar to Plato’s Cave. In that allegory, the philosopher describes people chained to a wall from birth with no ability to look in any direction but forward. They see shadows dancing on the cave wall and believe this is an accurate view of the world. One day, one of these people slips his chains and turns around and realizes what he’s been seeing is only a shadow pf something much larger. He immediately turns back to the wall and the familiar shadows of his personal reality because the full world is confusing and painful.
I’ve been reporting on the shadows of Teen Wolf that we can see on this side of the television screen. All the episodes, nearly 100 now, are just a small part of a much larger reality filled with incredibly talented people all working together just to entertain us.
While I bumbled my way through the social bit of my Teen Wolf visit, I learned so much that I’ve still not assimilated it all, and I have a newfound respect for all those people who live day to day creating a show we all love.