For this behind the scenes I watched the making of Season 10 of Criminal Minds, which is one of my all time favorite shows. What I thought was really interesting was that they went by episode through the season. I am not sure if they had done this sort of thing before or if they did it because it was the tenth season, as a celebration of being on for a decade. However, the way that they did it by interviewing the whole cast, but mostly about the episodes that were important for that character, made it much more entertaining to watch, and allowed even the behind the scenes to have a story.

It was cool to get the cast’s perspectives on what was going on, especially since I have watched all of these episodes before, and I think at the time this was released, it was a promotional, teaser video for Season 10. Shemar Moore, who plays FBI agent Derek Morgan on the show, talked about the struggle to work for so long without seeing family or other friends outside of work, getting home after everyone’s in bed, and getting up and leaving before any of them are awake. This part of working for a long time on a film project hadn’t actually occurred to me which is why I found it so interesting, but I think that’s why the draw is so big for young adults in their early 20’s who don’t have people to go home to, and are youthful enough that they can work those long hours.

It was definitely awesome to see how they pulled off some of the crazier stunts, such as the tub of cockroaches. I didn’t know that you had to get a handler for all of that, and had to take such care in doing those shots. Knowing what a pain just people can be, I can’t imagine trying to reshoot take after take after take while having to work with all of the bugs and other animals. The plane crash was extremely interesting to me. I don’t really know why, but I love the way that a set is created, both in the design process, and the actual construction. The way they talked about setting up the set to look as if the plane crash had just happened was super cool to me. It also reminded me of how much planning and pre-production needs to go in, even at this level, and we don’t do anything anywhere near as big scale as this.

Personally, being someone who really likes cameras, I was fascinated to see that even on what seems to be relatively standard shots, they used a crane. It seems there’s very little room for human error when it comes to the motion a shot has to create the tension that a show like Criminal Minds builds on.

I think that being on one of these sets would be a dream come true. I don’t know if I would want to work on one, and I can’t truly answer that without being on set, but I think I would. The functions and the business and the efficiency would just be fun to watch. I don’t know what job I would want the most, but I think it would be something involving both planning/organizing and the creative side of things, involving camera and directing. I think I would enjoy overseeing the hustle and bustle, but I also think I would enjoy directing and planning and then executing shots and working with the crew. I also really enjoy editing, so that’s another job set I would be okay with.