Wire Filming at WaPo This Weekend
David Simon, creator of critical darling and CP staff fave The Wire, has gone on record saying the HBO series’ fifth season would be dealing with the mass media. So the fact that Simon & Co. are filming over the weekend in the Washington Post newsroom is not really a surprise, but does this mean the Sun (Simon’s former employer) refused to cooperate?
Of course, supporting a show that’s probably going to be highly critical of absentee corporate-owned media might not be the smartest move for the Tribune Co.
Here’s the Post memo:
Subject: The Wire at The Post
To All Newsroom Staff:
The HBO series The Wire will be filming a short sequence in our 4th floor newsroom this Sunday morning, June 3, beginning at 6 a.m. The majority of the filming will take place in the area around Deb Heard’s office in Style, although there will be a scene in which the characters walk through the middle of the 4th floor newsroom toward 15th Street. In addition to the actors and crew, there will be several dozen extras on site, sitting at desks visible in the background shots. We don’t know for sure yet which desks will be needed so if you are on 4, please remove any valuables or sensitive material from your desktop before you leave for the weekend. You don’t need to “clean up,” however; they want it to look like a real newsroom. No papers or other items on your desk will be disturbed, but the extras will have to look like they’re working so they may handle the desk phone and act like they’re using the computer. The camera and crew will be cleared out of the newsroom by noon at the latest, so this should have no impact on our daily operations. Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks for your cooperation.
6 Responses to “Wire Filming at WaPo This Weekend”
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June 1st, 2007 at 2:48 pm
They left out the following sentence: “Please do not puff blunts with Method Man, no matter how ingratiating he might be.”
June 1st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
It would be awesome if the new season has Cheese inside a newsroom, but more likely Method’s stuck at the dogfights, where Michael Vick will be making a special guest appreance.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Mike,
As a Sun employee, a friend sent me a link to your blog. You raised a question that we could answer.
The Baltimore Sun and the producers of The Wire agreed that the show could film interiors and exteriors of the newspaper’s Calvert Street headquarters building and at the Sun Park printing plant for several months. This time period expired.
The Baltimore Sun has also licensed its marks and logos and provided multiple props to the producers. The newsroom still allows producers and a roundtable of directors to sit in on the daily news budget meetings.
We have cooperated with the producers of The Wire, precisely because we realize that The Baltimore Sun is merely a setting for a fictional story, one that attempts to examine the very real challenges that the newspaper industry and all traditional media now face.
June 1st, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Thank you, Sun Employee! Proving once again: Throwing your questions into the ether is more fun than actual reporting.
June 5th, 2007 at 6:15 am
I can’t wait for the final season of the wire. It’s going to be real interesting.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:39 am
[...] give you an impression of how thought provoking and outrageously insightful The Wire is, the Washington Post is allowing David Simon & Co. to film from their offices. Even All The Presidents Men had to film [...]