donnajosh:Aaron Sorkin: We were shooting in an active hotel so we had to shoot between 10pm and 4am.
donnajosh:Aaron Sorkin: We were shooting in an active hotel so we had to shoot between 10pm and 4am. It’s a hard shot to do, and we were all at what’s called Video Village. It’s where I watch the show from, and where the director watches the show from on monitors and listening to it. The shot went so deep into the basement into a kitchen covered in cinderblocks that there was this radio blackout period during the shot. We just lost contact with the actors and with the image on the screen. We had no idea what was going on until they reemerged up on the sidewalk outside. We got word from a second AD that it all worked. I don’t remember how many takes it ended up being.Richard Schiff: Tommy says it was 11. I remember all day. Aaron Sorkin: The fifth take was printable. Then Martin starts jumping up and down, “Yeah! Let’s do it again!” We had something. The actors are having fun. Bradley Whitford: Am I imagining this, or did we catch that hotel on fire?Tommy Schlamme: Yes, we did.Aaron Sorkin: A couple of times.Tommy Schlamme: By the way, that’s why I know there were 11 takes. They were not going to give us a take 12. Aaron Sorkin: It was very important to Tommy that- (laughing) that when Rob walked past the stove, a grease fire shot up. -- source link