Veasey: We Try To Be Explosive

The crew of CSI: New York brings the city to life.

CSI: NY executive producer Pam Veasey said the series got rid of the darker hues used during the first season because they didn't reflect the reality of the Big Apple. "We realized that when people go to New York City, where they go are Times Square and the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty and none of those places are very dark or gritty, they're beautifully lit and bright," she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "There's color everywhere. We thought the show should reflect what New York City is to most people or what they dream it to be."

"New York should be alive and vibrant and busy and cluttered and active," Veasey continued. "We go for danger, fine, but we make sure New York is alive, that you go there and there's something about that city specifically that you didn't know. We try to tell a story with little intricate details about the city." CSI Tech Advisor Bill Haynes added, "Everybody loves a good mystery. A mystery just has a timeless appeal. And we pair that with extravagant, extraordinary visuals."

The show is filmed primarily in Los Angeles. "Most of the sets are on this lot but we do make an effort to put in as much of New York as possible," Veasey said. "We shoot in New York too sometimes but we also have really terrific visual effects guys. We just built the top of the Empire State Building at our parking garage last week. We built the Statue of Liberty on a set here. Our visual effects guy can put our people on New York monuments. They can turn an LA skyline into New York."

It takes about eight to ten weeks, and costs about two million dollars, to create each episode of New York. "An amazing amount of work goes into it during that period," Haynes explained. "There's a lot of overlap. It's this assembly line that never stops. It will make your head spin."

So how do they create the premise for each episode? "My writers printed up a T-shirt and the front of it says, 'Make it young, make it sexy, make it dangerous, make it ride.' And the back says, 'With a grounded believable motive'," Veasey shared. "That's my requirement. I ask that the writers think of a story that's grounded and believable but really fun. We try to be very explosive, we try to take the audience on a mystery ride where they don't know what to expect."

The original interview is from Inquirer.Net.

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