‘Splosions! On the Potomac! By Key Bridge!
Posted by: Molly Redden in Leisure, News, Vox Populi, tags: Explosions!, Jack's Boathouse, Key Bridge, Washington Field
This is exactly what it’s going to look like
What do you get when cross “elite Washington field office of the FBI and a team of agents with exceptional and diverse skills who are called together for only the most critical cases” in a TV show?
Exploding boats! Visible from the Key Bridge!
That’s right—in the coming weeks, CBS Paramount will be filming the pilot for their new show, “Washington Field,” and the first shot of the pilot will involve an exploding sculling boat near Jack’s Boathouse, according to an email from a District Department of Transportation employee:
In the scene, there will be six sculling boats on the Potomac River and one of them blows up. The special effect simulating the explosion will occur on Wednesday March 25th between 9:30am and 12:00p.
NOTE: It will NOT blow the boat into a million little pieces. Instead there will be a 20′ to 30′ high fire ball that will last approximately two seconds. All material will be vaporized and there may be a small plume of smoke. The sound will be a low thud; not a loud bang.
Cool! Georgetown Metropolitan thinks that the show itself sounds totally lame. But who cares! There’s gonna be a “plume”! Explosions!
Full text of the email! After the jump!
Update: Josh Friedman of the D.C. Film Office reiterates the whole “seriously guys, this is not a big deal” line on the Post’s D.C. Wire:
“That word is misleading,” [Friedman] said, trying to calm any concern. “It will be a self-contained pyrotechnic special effect. ….. It’s actually out on the water. Nothing is being blown up.
There’s no impact or force of any kind. I think there was some indication that a boat was going to be blown up, and that’s not the case.”
Okay? Don’t worry.“It will last for two seconds, not two minutes. It’s really just going to be a flash of light and a puff of smoke, and it will be vaporized into the air in seconds. Really. I mean, if you blink, you’ll miss it. It’s really a nonevent.”
Wet blankets!
Good afternoon,
Because it is never boring in Georgetown…
Please be advised CBS Paramount will be filming for a television pilot titled “Washington Field” in the District for one day on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. This is a new television series about the elite Washington field office of the FBI and a team of agents with exceptional and diverse skills who are called together for only the most critical cases.
The first shot they will be shooting in the District takes place on the Potomac River just north of the Key Bridge and Jack’s Boathouse (K / Water Street, NW under the Whitehurst Freeway). In the scene, there will be six (6) sculling boats on the Potomac River and one of them blows up. The special effect simulating the explosion will occur on Wednesday March 25th between 9:30am and 12:00pm (noon).
NOTE: It will NOT blow the boat into a million little pieces. Instead there will be a 20′ to 30′ high fire ball that will last approximately two (2) seconds. All material will be vaporized and there may be a small plume of smoke. The sound will be a low thud; not a loud bang.
Would you please pass this on to your constituents so they are prepared for the “plume.”
Thank you,
-Karyn
Karyn G. Le Blanc | Director of Communications | District Department of Transportation
Photo taken from Flickr user Pieter Pieterse under a Creative Commons license.
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Isn’t this going to scare people?
The point of the email is that it won’t. Hopefully it gets around to enough people—but I’ll bet drivers on the bridge won’t even hear the explosion. Explosion!
My question is that if they’re so elite, why isn’t this group of FBI agents, like, always called together? Do they just hang out waiting for “critical cases” like an exploded crew team before they show up for work? Maybe in the meantime they could hunt for Bin Laden or something.
The tv pilot sounds like 24 but with smaller, more controlled explosions. Jack Bower wouldn’t settle for a 2 second fireball that makes a soft thud.
I will be one of the rowing extras for this. I am completely fired up about this – pun intended. I thought we were just going to be background as the crew filmed a scene. This is so much better. Better in this case meaning ridiculous and over the top.
@GM That’s a good point. Maybe they’re a crack but really lazy team?
[...] Washington Post captured this video of the much-hyped sculling explosion that CBS Paramount executed this morning for a pilot episode of “Washington [...]