Little Falls, NJ Scout
01At a glance
One municipal building and one residential neighborhood ~1.4 miles apart, scouted on Fri, July 3, 2026 in the morning. Drag the 360s to look around, play the walkthrough clips, and use the satellite maps to place each location.
Camera
ARRI Alexa Mini LF · FD or Signature Primes. Large format for the tighter interiors. Possible Sony FX6 for low light (12800 base) on the neighborhood exteriors.
Scouted
Courtroom, police bullpen, cell block, detective offices, corridors, stairwells — plus the studio parking lot and 3 walk-and-talk street stops.
02360° tour — drag to look around
57 spheres, grouped by set. Drag to pan and tilt, scroll to zoom, and use the thumbnail strip to jump between the courtroom, bullpen, cells, offices, corridors, and the neighborhood.
03Where we scouted
The building holds all the interiors; the walk-and-talk streets sit ~1.4 miles southeast in residential neighborhoods.
04Scouted locations — exteriors, by stop
Every exterior 360 and walkthrough clip, grouped by where it was shot with GPS location.
05Interior stills
06Interior walkthrough clips
Framing and movement tests inside the building. Muted; tap to play.
07Craft notes
The walk-and-talk "final twist"
The move: host walks a straight line, talks to camera, but doesn't drift toward the camera. Then a slight push in at the end or a slight rotation around the host, and the host walks out of frame.
- Host keeps a moderate, consistent speed and walks straight or parallel to the curb (their track) so they don't drift toward camera. Drifting breaks the geometry.
- Camera starts wide or ends wide in cowboy; camera op can slow the feet or change speed to widen and reveal more body during the walk.
- Crew: avoid squeaky shoes or baggy pants. Footstep noise was an issue last season.
Camera & lens
- Body: ARRI Alexa Mini LF. Large format helps the tighter interiors and gives soft fall-off and less distortion on the wider lenses.
- Glass: Signature Primes (18 / 25 / 35 / 47 / 75 / 125mm; used last season for exteriors). FD used last season on the studio locations. We'll test both options, including the Impression rear filters for the Signatures, on the tech scout day for Christina.
- Character: Impression rear-diopter detune pushes the Signatures toward a K35 vintage feel. Compared side by side to the FD look for the director to make the final decision.
- Action: shoot camera-test clips per lens on the tech scout day; both lens options will be available.
Lighting & look (Season 2)
- Reference: David Fincher for lighting. Controlled, motivated, low-key; let the shadows go dark, keep it clean and underexposed. Full references in Christina's slide deck.
- Exteriors (walk-and-talks): S1 leaned Rembrandt (45° key up high, kissing the far cheek), but the reference frames used a larger side source. S2: same look, a touch brighter ("twice" the light going in), bigger side source.
- Fix from S1: the key crept too close and spotlit one side of the face, blew the skin and killed the wrap. Hold key distance and protect the wrap. Avoid black blobs.
- Time of day & mood: after hours, moving toward evening and night. Daylight cut down, still present but weak and diffused. Light atmosphere, easy on the fog. Dark, moody, gritty throughout; camera underexposed (FX6 at 12800 a possible base).
- Interiors: chief and detective offices lean into timeless elegance and the building's Art Deco; refined dressing (leather-bound books, period furniture) if a room becomes the library. After-hours drama: everyone's gone home but a light's still on in the detectives' rooms, motivated single sources for texture. Possibly play a sodium-light look through the windows for the grand bullpen shot.
- Host key (interviews): source the interior key more from the side, large source with a big wrap. Keep the host off the background so he pops and holds that fall-off (separation).
Director's reference deck (interiors)
Look-and-feel references from Christina for the interior studio shoot. Drag through the slides below, or open the full deck in Google Slides.
Open the deck in Google Slides →
Episodes
Episode edits on Frame.io. Each opens in a new tab.
EPS 2
EPS 3
EPS 4
EPS 5
08Logistics, G&E & open items
- Power: building has single-phase 220; the studio recommends a generator if the lighting package is extensive.
- Simultaneous sets: the plan may run two sets at once, shooting A while pre-lighting B, which drives crew size.
- Strike & reset: the space is rented by use, so full load-in and load-out each visit across roughly four or five scattered days a month.
- Window blackout: may be needed depending on day-versus-night calls and host hours. Options: a 2pm to 2am schedule to skip blacking out for a night look, or heavy ND on the glass-tile windows in the larger space for end of day.
- Movement: Steadicam is the current preference for both interior studio and exterior neighborhood shots.
- Drone & airspace: airspace is busy; flight days need authorization. LAANC drone requests can take up to 30 days.
- Tech scout: return at night with the gaffer for the exterior locations, and scout the studio with the gaffer.