Scenes from the Next: Trauma in Alamo Square

by Andrew Dalton on October 22, 2009

We alluded to this yesterday, but in case you missed it the crew of the so-bad-it’s-good new medical drama Trauma did some filming on Scott St. across from the dog poop side of Alamo Square (and of course where some of the most famous TV lessons from our collective childhood took place, just across the park).

All in all, we sat for over an hour waiting for some excitement. Maybe the apartment these EMTs were rushing into would have a gas leak and explode? Because that seems to be happening a lot around town.

No such luck though. Actually, the most amusing thing we got a glimpse of were the extras paid to walk by and look like “normal” San Franciscans as if there were such a thing. They seemed to cover all the bases though: The chick in the orange sweater (pictured) with a nice scarf and sensible walking pants walked Northward, seemingly to a Pac Heights wine bar on every take while a creepy Jack Nicholson look-alike in a battered leather jacket and gas station shades wandered south, as if to recycle some cans by the Safeway on Market St. and a couple cops stood around not really doing anything and talking about how many episodes of Nash Bridges they appeared in.

The most interesting though was the dreadlocked white guy in cutoffs sitting on the grass in the back of their shot. Was he paid to sit there and look apathetic to the “emergency” happening across the street? Or had the producers simply deemed him “authentic” enough to let him remain in the shot? Despite the camera crews, a TV shoot in this town seems to be just like any other day in San Francisco – you can never quite tell who’s acting.

More photos on Flickr: Trauma Photoshoot on the AggressivePanhandler photostream