deviantART Visits CSI: Miami!

So, about a month or so back, our very own *red5 invited myself and $spyed to the set of CSI:Miami, which is in fact not filmed in Miami at all, but in a place called...Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles! That will hurt your head if you ponder it for too long, so let’s move on.

Let us give you a little of the background of how we ended up there and just who this mysterious *red5 is.

Ryan “*red5” Cosgrove got his start studying Directing, Screenwriting and Lighting at Columbia College in Chicago and then went on to work at Essanay Studio and Lighting, also in the windy city, where he worked on lighting and rigging for the Motion Picture and Television Industry. Once he had learned his fill from that, he picked up stakes and headed out west and worked in the Art Departments for several films, getting hands on training in the industry.

He then worked with Rick Carter and Doug “Skywalker Ranch” Chiang on Polar Express followed by work on The Terminal, Flight of the Phoenix and ”The Spongebob Squarepants Movie” as a pre-visualisation assistant for the live action sequences with David Hasselhoff! Sadly he could not figure out the key to his popularity in Germany while working with him.

His constant work as an art assistant on these projects, aided with the help of Misters Chiang and James Clyne led him to his job on CSI:Miami where he is currently a graphic designer for the show. He creates a good portion of the things you see on there, from “fake” movie posters, video game artwork on boxes, street signs, belt buckles, the logos on the precinct doorways, if it helps make the world look more real, chances are he had a hand in it. In addition he has also worked on the conceptual art for the DVD packaging for the series.

And then he invited myself and $spyed there to break things and almost sabotage the filming of a scene

We arrived early in the afternoon and were greeted by *red5 and were brought into the office were we met other members of the production team and then he brought us down to see the good stuff. The sets used to film the show. Prior to this I was unaware that this particular show was as big as it was. In viewing and literally in scale. Apparently it is the number one show watched in the world overall, and only number 2 in the states behind American Idol. The sets themselves are massive, of the size usually allotted to full blown movie production. The coolest part was getting to see Ryan’s individual work hands on. The various signs on the doors, the images put on cabinets, bottles, faux check in sheets, if it needed to be there for the sake of realism, chances are he had a hand in it. At the bottom you will find various photos form the visit showing the sets and some of his work.: All in all pretty cool stuff. $spyed even tried to sabotage a prop gun at one point! But the prop gun won in the end and $spyed ended up laying on a morgue slab for his efforts!

Overall, it was a unique experience getting to see someone who is a member of this site doing what we all love doing for a living, and that would be creating art. If you know of anyone on the site involved in this sort of thing in real life, or is making their living in some other way via artwork, drop me a note and let me know! We would be more than happy to take a look.







The photos are not the best quality due to some…camera mishaps ( That is what we like to call +cweeks bailing on us at the last minute )