Stop the Traffic

While Prisoner's has been shooting around Atlanta, this week they will be shooting in Atlanta, and will be causing a few changes in travel plans due to street closings.

Starting tomorrow  from 5AM  till around 7PM  production will cause a full street closure of Cleveland Avenue between Jewel Street and Winburn Terrace and Jefferson Terrace between Forest Avenue and Cleveland Avenue.  If you are in Atlanta you might get a chance to spot Jake.

Wednesday and Thursday they are going to be doing interior shoots in the area, but will be back on Friday starting at 6pm and shooting all night until 6am Saturday morning.

Looking back at the making of An Enemy, Villeneuve worked around the flow of Toronto shooting street scenes on the weekends and maximizing time on Sundays for exteriors in the city.  For Prisoners he has used to the surrounding suburbs and locales to their fullest potential to minimize shooting in downtown Atlanta.  It is not only an good economic choice (it costs a lot to shut everything down) but also good time management as well. 

While it seem like the production is on and off and all over the place in terms of scheduling, with such a large cast with a multilayer story not everyone is shooting everyday.  By scheduling it based around characters it can have some actors to come in and shoot their whole block of the story at one time. A week or two and they can go, and if need to get call back later for re-shoots if needed.   It can also give the major characters like Hugh's and Jake's time downtime between their scenes. And it seems like Villeneuve knew he would be having to work around award Hugh's award season schedule and Jake's well....just schedule period.

Ask any director and they will tell you filming anything is a logistical puzzle or nightmare (based on how you see it) trying to coordinate schedules and maximize locations and stretching every dollar you've got.