Re: New Better Call Saul thread...

[Banjo]

I got to thinking later that I made a lot of extra work for myself by jumping to the conclusion that the salon wouldn't be physically located at 160 Juan Tabo just because the businesses were back off the street. Of course Saul's office is a set at Albq. Studios. No doubt there is a real storage room at the back of the salon but of course they couldn't/wouldn't turn it into an office. Also, the office door as seen from the outside when Saul unlocks it is also part of the studio set. The water cooler is part of the real salon because we saw the interior in the back ground when Saul bent down to get a drink. It could belong to the salon or the prod. design dept. could have added it for that shot.

[Banjo]

sneak peek, ep 3

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m Saul – World’s Greatest Lawyer vs. World’s Greatest Landlord

Each week, members of the Better Call Saul Insiders Club get a first look at letters from the desk of Saul Goodman, Esq., penned by the writers of Better Call Saul…

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[Banjo]

The ending was "funny". First Saul goes through the back gate of the missing family's  house which is right up against the foothills east of Tramway Blvd. There are a lot of houses like that north and south along the foothills.  That particular house is further south nearer the south end of the Sandia mntns. , nearer I-40. We can tell that by the ridge seen in the background as Saul first starts walking on the trail (there are many of those up there. Because of the way the scenes were cut/edited we can't tell if where Saul was walking after going through the gate was actually right behind the house.....probably not.)

So he walks for a long time, apparently toward the top of the ridge. But then suddenly the scene changes and we see a low level shot of him walking across a dried mud-cracked area toward a stand of Cottonwood trees and immediately we know he's down in the Bosque, the Cottonwood 'forest' that grows along both banks of the Rio Grande. They only grow down in the valley because they need a lot of water. So suddenly the family is hiding 12-13 miles west of where he first started looking for them. At least he finds the million $ which they took with them....smart.

A round trip by bike from my house to the south end of the trail (south of the airport) is 62 km, I've ridden it many times and any place along it wouldn't be a good place to hide because of all the "traffic". They rousted out a homeless tent camp some years back.

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A photo journey from south to north :

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Saul was walking around somewhere up here at first:

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Also, earlier we see that the beauty salon has a big aquarium. I was too far away from the front window when I took those pics in the daytime to notice it. It almost makes me want to go down there at night and take a pic right through the window so it would show up.   Anyway...since they shot more scenes inside the parlor and probably more to come, the Vietnamese lady that rents or leases that space probably made out pretty good. One day filming there would pay her more than she would probably make in most of a week from regular customers.

And we learn that Mike used to be in the Philly PD. I wonder how long it will be before Saul hires him to be his 'muscle'.

[Rus]

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[Banjo]

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[Banjo]

They've gotten a lot of use out of the beauty parlor so far, probably more to go until Jimmy becomes Saul and he gets his own office. The little strip store where he had his office (exterior) could be used again I guess but the strip has been changed since then so don't know if they'd go there.

It's easy to see how they can use the beauty parlor for those night interior shots. It's out of direct view from the street and no one would have any reason to drive into that nearly deserted "shopping center", which it never really ever was. So by keeping the lighting low and the camera out of sight, no one would notice that anything was going in inside.

Not so last night's scenes at the billboard. The Journal published pics of the stunt double dangling off the walk way when those scenes were shot. . As luck would have it today I had to go on one of my rare trips past that billboard. I could tell from the shots on the show where it was. Of course today Jimmy's sign was long gone. I think a bank was up.....It's located on the NW corner of the intersection of Mountain Av. with the I-25 southbound frontage road. There is a big parking lot below and to the north of the bill board but because of the camera angles they used none of that was visible. Going west on Mountain from that point for ~3 miles will take you past all the museums on the north side of Old Town.

[Banjo]

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[Banjo]

So now we learn that Mike had a son who was a cop and was killed on the job. And he is on the lookout for the killer...or at least that's what I got from the preview for next week.  

But one scene that got me lol, was when Jimmy was waiting for the elderly lady to come down the stairs on her motorized chair. It was very slow, then she toddles over to the table slowly. The whole scene was just amusing to me, for some reason. Why would I laugh at a semi-invalid ?  I don't know....

Meanwhile they sure got a lot of mileage out of those night shots in the beauty parlor. We will miss it when Jimmy/Saul gets his permanent office.

Some of those scenes of the exterior of the lady's house were taken in the Ridge Crest neighborhood the first upscale neighborhood to be built outside the downtown area. It has several innovative homes built in the late 30's- early 40's. It's just south of the airport, not as desirable now, noise-wise, as it was back in the day.

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[Berry]

I thought the lady was funny because she didn't want Jimmy/Saul to get up and come to her. She said she'd be "right there"...and then it took her such a long time. Then when she offered to get up to make him tea...we all felt his panic at possible being trapped while she snail paced that!

[Banjo]

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[Berry]

This one discusses (spoilers) of the last episode...proceed with caution if you haven't seen eppy

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[Banjo]

I saw it. The opening scenes were confusing. What was Mike doing getting off the Rail Runner after it came up from its 30 mile run from Belen ? (some of you have been on that route). Then he goes in the rest room and we see that he's been shot. What the...? How/why does he get shot riding the Rail Runner to/from Belen ? But then it becomes clear later when we see that he rode AMTRACK from Philly for at least two days with a bullet in his shoulder. The west bound AMTRACK train would arrive from the north not the south as its 'stand in' the Rail Runner did.

But it was a good back story for Mike and we know more about how he became as he is.....

I found out today that one of our club members was approached by the producers to use his house as Saul's house after he becomes more affluent. That house is in 4 Hills and is really nice. But his wife put the brakes on it. It will be interesting to see what they finally got for Saul's house.

[Banjo]

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[Banjo]

All the people in tonight's scene in the retirement home were actual residents. Can't find the article....

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[Banjo]

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So I guess that Saul's big, new office in the high rise office building (couldn't quite place which one it is but it overlooks I-25 on the east) will have to be given up since he can't afford it now, which makes sense because on Breaking Bad his office was in a little strip mall up on Menaul Blvd.

[Banjo]

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[Banjo]

That was more of a 'low key' ep, but an interesting look at legal shenanigans. It's interesting to see Gilligan's trade mark of filming scenes of the actors from a long distance, as in the house when they were reconstituting the shredded paper and the last scene where Chuck realizes he's outside without 'electronic trauma'.

It's interesting that they would use the name of a real apt. complex here, although it doesn't have "Crossing" in the name and isn't a retirement home, and is only two stories high.  I lived next door to it in another complex in the late 70's.

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Better Call Saul Q&A – Rhea Seehorn (Kim Wexler)

better-call-saul-season-1-character-portrait-kim-seehorn-325Rhea Seehorn, who plays Kim Wexler on AMC’s Better Call Saul, talks about Kim’s relationships with Jimmy and Howard and getting a pedicure from Bob Odenkirk.

Q: You’ve mentioned being a huge fan of Bob Odenkirk since his days on Mr. Show. How did you react when you found out you were going to have the opportunity to work with him?

A: I auditioned with him with the scene in Episode 103 where he wakes me up in the middle of the night. It was exciting. I was certainly nervous at first, but everybody in the room had an energy of “we can’t wait for you to be great.” I was overjoyed to get to work with him. I’ve been a huge fan of his, and I just think he’s one of the funniest, smartest writers and, at that time, sketch performers. I started to see more and more of the depth and breadth of his work. That guy is amazing!

Q: How did you and Bob approach developing the rapport between Jimmy and Kim? There’s obviously chemistry and a shared history between them, but that history is being revealed very slowly — does that make portraying their relationship harder?

A: It’s a joy to play, because all of our amazing writers and directors are writing this relationship with deep intimacy, love and history. They’re not making it this thing that you can label. It’s not black and white, and I don’t think the most interesting relationships are. I find that great. It’s not hard to play what’s there. Kim is very much a character where what she doesn’t say is also what she says. I’m given space, and Bob is so great to rehearse with. We do the scenes a ton of different ways to find that organic roller coaster ride to take to all the places the scene will go.

Q: Kim also has an unusual relationship with her boss, Howard. He seems to view her as a protégée, but is also quick to give her the cold shoulder when she loses the Kettlemans as a client in Episode 107. How would you describe their relationship?

A: I was very surprised when I got that script. That was one of the moments I was excited to explore. Howard quickly just throws me under the bus and dismisses me to, as Jimmy calls it, the cornfield.(That's a really 'down in the weeds', inside joke based on an old Twilight Zone episode). I know Howard lost a client, but I absolutely believe what he later tells Jimmy, which is, she worked her ass off. The Kettlemans are crazy and guilty, there’s no way around it, and getting them any kind of deal is something she was proud of doing for them. I think it’s a seed of information that Kim has to take in about the sure ground she thought she was on — she’s not.

Q: During your chat on Twitter, you revealed that blue is Kim’s signature color, much like purple was Marie‘s signature color on Breaking Bad. Did you have any input into choosing Kim’s color, or was that solely a decision by costume designer Jennifer Bryan? Do you have a signature color in real life?

A: It’s a pleasure to be in the space with the person that Jennifer is. She’s creative, amazing and brilliant. There was no sitting down with me, but I do remember being in a lot of blues — how they are used in respect to the character symbolically I’m not sure yet, but Jennifer is so in tune with helping to tell a story. It’s all about the storytelling for her. I personally wear a lot of earth tones — does that make me boring? I don’t know. [Laughs] I do like a pop of color, like red shoes or a bright orange jacket.

Q: Who would you want to represent you in court, Jimmy or Kim? Why?

A: It depends on what I got in trouble for! It would definitely depend on the case. If I can choose whomever I want, then I pick both of them. They would fill in each other’s holes.

Q: When fans recognize you in public, how often do they speak to you in Jimmy’s “sex robot” voice from Episode 103?

A: [Laughs] I do get a lot of tweets about it. People on the street like Kim’s character, and they’ve been incredibly gracious and complimentary of the whole show.

Q: In Episode 104, Jimmy and Kim have a conversation at the nail salon while Jimmy paints Kim’s toes. Were there enough takes for you to end up with a full pedicure? How did it come out?

A: After so many takes, our lovely makeup artist had to try to remove all this paint that was being built up. It was getting pretty sloppy. He did pretty well, though! But he should keep his day job.

[Berry]

I like Kim's character a lot too. We are really getting a very interesting look at what builds up to "Saul" . I'm glad we have this series.

[Banjo]

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[Banjo]

I noticed something interesting in last night's ep.  Here's a scene when they were on the next-to-the -top level of the Convention Center parking structure.

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Here's a pic I took last Saturday coming back from the cat show to the east parking structure. That's the Alvarado Station where Mike arrived after being shot, also where some of you boarded the Rail Runner.

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Another shot I took, and seen in the background in several scenes from "Pimento".

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I'm still trying to figure out where Chuck's house is. I'm beginning to think it's in the Country Club area, rather than in Ridgecrest. That would be near Jessie's house off of 15th St. but a little further south around the golf course. There aren't many areas in Albq. where there are big, expensive houses surrounded by such large, old Cottonwood trees. It takes a long time for them to get that old and they only get that big near the river where the Country Club area is, the 'traditional' place where Albq.'s 'movers and shakers' have lived in years past.

[Banjo]

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[Berry]

Looks like "The Tour" photos ops are coming along nicely.

[Banjo]

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[BoardMomma]

"Tour photo ops."

[Banjo]

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This would seem to be little early since more filming locations will exist as the show progresses, but since the final episode for the first half of the total season is tonight, and no more will be seen until next fall or later, they at least have some locations to take a tour to. But I think they won't get too many customers right now for the Saul tour although there could be some 'spill over' from the BB tour customers......

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