Anatomy of a Scene: Naz’s Arrest
The Night Of — Episode 1, Scene 82
Following each episode of The Night Of, co-writer/director Steven Zaillian breaks down elements of a key scene.
Steven Zaillian: That’s how Scene 101–82 begins. By the time it’s over, Naz has been searched, arrested, cuffed.
Long before we shot this scene, Production Designer Patrizia Von Brandenstein and her team worked to create the “21st Precinct” inside the Farley Post Office on 8th Avenue. Using just two existing walls of the cavernous, empty building, the rest was built and dressed based on the 20th Precinct on W. 82nd Street.
We spent several days and nights on this elaborate set shooting the many precinct scenes in Episode 1 — in and around its muster room, long booking desk and warren of holding cells — but this particular scene was the most complex.
It’s one of the longest in the entire series at eight pages, and involves nine characters engaged in intersecting action and dialog. As such, it’s one of the very few scenes I felt required rehearsals, which we did in pre-production.
There are two main conversations going on at once — Det. Box telling the desk sergeant what he knows so far about the murder — while an officer takes down Naz’s “pedigree” as he’s searched by another. These two primary dialogs are intertwined and needed to be choreographed, so to speak. I thought about Robert Altman and what he could do so well with overlapping dialog.
We used three cameras. Andrew Rowlands operated the A Camera and Steadicam (i.e., the early shot when Naz gets up to leave, then retreats back into the precinct), while Director of Photography Robert Elswit shot handheld.
It was kind of like a short play with a beginning, middle and end. In all, there were 26 setups, and over 100 takes.
From creators Steven Zaillian and Richard Price, The Night Of is an eight-part limited series that delves into the intricate story of a fictitious murder case in New York City.
New episodes of The Night Of air Sundays at 9 PM on HBO and are available on HBO GO and HBO NOW.
