Nice House… For a Criminal

January 23, 2018

On Sunday, we had an unexpected knock on the door from a young guy who was a location scout for the TV show “Chicago PD.”

Apparently, they were in the area and looking for a house to do an exterior and interior shot. The director had not been happy with any of the location choices to date, and they were still looking (and hoping to get a location settled in the next few days).

We eventually invited the guy in, and he started taking photos of the interior. Our first floor is still pretty rough, but he didn’t seem to think that was a problem.

For the episode, the home would belong to the criminal – someone whose family had “fallen on hard times.” On hearing this, Liz and I were chuckling to ourselves.

Our house doesn’t look like the home of a millionaire, but rather resembles the kind of home that would be occupied by a criminal who’s “fallen on hard times.” Fantastic.

The interior scene would include the main cops bursting in, and discovering some back room (where numerous newspaper clippings would be hanging from the walls).

It was interesting to hear about the logistics of how all this worked. Crews would come in and remove things, and replace them after the shoot. They would bring in their own power/generators, and apparently could get a lot of things done via money or manpower (example: creating custom things if necessary).

If a home is used as part of an exterior shot, I think that usually goes somewhere around $1,000 – $2,000. The moment a camera crosses the threshold, that amount goes up to maybe $4,000 or so? The guy who spoke with was ballparking mostly, and said he felt he often underestimated what they pay people to use their homes for part of an episode.

I eventually got a call back from the scout, late in the day on Monday, saying that they had decided to go with another house. But that he had our info on file, should they ever find themselves in the area again. He was super nice, and a follow-up call was not something I necessarily expected.

Bummed that this didn’t work out. I was really hoping to get some kind of cameo, too, seing as how I’ve had extensive experience working in television.