SeeCalifornia.com

By C. MacDonald

“Dexter,” the popular Showtime drama hit about a Miami police forensics expert, who secretly knocks off killers, recently filmed portions of its fourth episode for the upcoming season and SeeCalifornia.com went on location to cover the preparations. An ordinary tract house rented for a couple days, received Hollywood magic and was transformed into a Miami nursing home, complete with palm tree wallpaper in one patient’s room.

The adventure series, which begins its 8th season on Sunday, June 30, 2013, filmed an exciting sequence involving three cars that look identical. In the first, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is recorded talking to another character as the auto tools along. Later, a stunt car, with a double looking like Dexter, goes off into a small lake, with cameras recording from around the water. That car is then hoisted out of the lake. This action was followed by a third prop car with Dexter in it, being suspended on the lake by a crane. Production editors are able to digitally cut away the crane and wiring making it look like the car is going “down for the count” prior to a heroic rescue.

“It’s exciting because we only get one take from the cameras around the lake,” said Chris Fuentes, Key Assistant Location Manager, for Dexter. The show mainly films in Long Beach, which doubles for Miami, and on sound-sets in Hollywood. But the lake scene and Miami nursing home were filmed in Huntington Beach which looks like Miami, too, with the palm trees and other terrain.