Midway down Johnsontown Road, where the old horse stable and farm with the black walnut trees rest, a hive of activity was taking place Tuesday. As the sun started its dip below the leafless tree line and a woody chill blew in, the set locked down and cast and crew got ready to begin shooting for the day (and into the night).
The evening shoot would prove appropriately creepy, with klieg lights shining out into the woods, casting long shadows as the temperature dropped.
The set of the new NBC show “Believe” gets ready for a late shoot on Johnsontown Road for the 5th episode in the upcoming series.
The yet-to-premiere NBC show Believe was using the old unincorporated Ramapo farm as a perfect location to shoot episode five of the J.J. Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron produced sci-fi fantasy adventure. The series involves a precocious 10-year girl named Bo, played by Johnny Sequoyah, who is pursued by a shadowy group out to control her mental powers, which include levitation and telekinesis and even the ability to control nature. She also has the nifty gift of seeing people as they really are or who they may become.
If you’ve never seen a movie/tv location set, they can be enormous and are composed of mostly production and technical people milling about, getting ready, prepping for the shoot, waiting and waiting, with lots of catering trucks and way off away from everyone, the talent trailers.
The Believe location shoot, set out in the woods, fits in with the story arc of the show, where Bo and her new busted out convict protector Tate (Jake McLaughlin) set off on the run to hide from nefarious government and corporate types. The show will continue to shoot along Johnsontown Road through Wednesday.
Believe itself has the big creative chops of Cuaron and Abrams behind it. Cuaron, who just released the coolio space movie Gravity to much acclaim, wrote and co-directed the show’s pilot. Believe is scheduled to debut after the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Look for the fifth show in the series to see a bit of the hometown touch.
