In the realm of television, few franchises have achieved the iconic status and global recognition of Law & Order. Renowned for its gripping crime narratives, signature “ripped from the headlines” approach to storylines, and an instantly recognizable theme song, the franchise has been a staple of the network television landscape for over thirty years. Since 1990, viewers have become familiar with the streets of New York City as portrayed on the show, delving into the nooks and crannies of one of America’s biggest cities. But now, Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is set to make history as the first-ever Law & Order spinoff to call Canada home.
Premiering on February 22nd on CityTV, the spinoff not only brings a fresh perspective to the beloved franchise but was also an exciting opportunity for the dedicated DGC Ontario Members who helped bring the series to life. The DGC Ontario Locations and Art Departments worked in tandem to seamlessly transplant the acclaimed series into the heart of Toronto, highlighting the distinctive elements that make Canada’s largest city special in the process. Collaboration between these teams was the key to authentically depicting the city’s essence within the framework of a procedural detective narrative. The Locations team scoured the diverse landscapes of Toronto to find the perfect backdrops, while the Art Department crafted visual elements that mirrored the city’s spirit through gripping crime stories.
“The essence of Law & Order is that it is a detective story,” says one of the show’s two Location Managers, Bryn Garrison. “And in the case of Law and Order: Toronto, it’s detective stories that are ripped from the headlines of our city. That meant showing Toronto as a character, just like New York as a character in the original series. We’re giving Toronto a pulse and a heartbeat.”
“The city of Toronto itself plays a prominent character in our L&O world,” says Art Director Kim McQuiston. “As the varied stories are all based in equally diverse neighbourhoods across the city, we were very much creatively encouraged to promote all the locations that showcase how culturally rich this city is.”
“It wasn’t like each episode was blatantly showcasing Toronto like it was a commercial,” adds Location Manager Andrew Gainor. “But in the very first episode, a good portion of the storyline takes place on a yacht in the Toronto harbour. There are a number of shots of the Toronto skyline in the background. We did want to showcase that in the pilot – you’re in Toronto now.”
“On my first day of work,” recalls Location Scout Malcolm McCulloch, “Bryn said something like ‘we want the audience to know it’s Toronto, but we don’t necessarily need the CN Tower in every shot.’ This became my mantra for shooting anything exterior…except I found myself trying to get the CN Tower in every shot.”
“Our Locations team definitely did a great job securing some iconic Toronto landmarks and neighbourhoods. It will be exciting for our local viewers to see the CN Tower, Lake Ontario, and City Hall – and equally for the residents of communities like Little India, Chinatown, and Toronto Harbourfront, all of which appear in the first episode,” adds Kim.
Adapting Law & Order to Toronto was no small feat; it required a delicate balance between maintaining the franchise’s established visual language and embracing the city’s distinctive qualities, not to mention the technical and logistical intricacies of shooting in a bustling metropolis like Toronto. Multiple locations per episode, diverse neighbourhoods, and the dynamic urban landscape demanded a meticulous approach to planning and execution.
The DGC Ontario Locations team was tasked with scouting, securing, and coordinating the myriad of locations that would serve as the backdrop for each episode. “One of the biggest challenges for the show, and for the Locations department in particular, was the sheer volume of locations per episode, per day,” says Bryn. “Because Law & Order is purely episodic, it meant that we had less than eight days from the first day of prep to the first day of shooting to get all of this figured out.”
“I came in on episode three, and what I found was that they were looking for such specific locations that there was quite a bit of scouting that went on,” says Malcolm. “There were two of us scouting each episode, and we would leapfrog from one location to the other. I was probably on the show for eight or ten weeks before I actually saw the team in person. It was that busy.”
“We’re usually out on the road anywhere from four to seven days. The average on this show was around six days on the road; in those six days, we would have had something like 12 or 13 different locations. Some days I would have five locations in one day,” adds Andrew.
“Andrew and I have both been doing this for over 25 years,” says Malcolm, “but this is our first time working together. What I saw him pull off in episode 10, the final episode, I’ve never seen a Location Manager accomplish so much in a very short amount of time.”
Simultaneously, the Art Department was entrusted with capturing the aesthetic of Toronto’s diverse neighbourhoods and landmarks, ensuring a faithful representation that resonated with both locals and a global audience. “Toronto has such a wonderful range of visual textures in its many culturally diverse neighbourhoods,” says Kim. “The context of each story would dictate these featured areas of the city.”
Securing specific locations that fit each character and storyline was pivotal, says Andrew, but finding that delicate balance between fidelity to the script and practicality was tricky. “We would have scenes that were written to take place in Roncesvalles, so we’d be looking at houses in that neighbourhood to represent the character. But sometimes, we’d need to be flexible – there was a scene that would have been near the Bridle Path, written specifically so that the home would have a large backyard that backed onto a park. But that particular setup ended up being impractical for shooting, so we found a house in Etobicoke that matched that scenario. We came up with locations that were true to the storyline and true to the show, and I think that when you look at the body of work that we accomplished, I’m pretty happy and impressed with our team.”
“Andrew, on his episodes, always seemed to need a nice, fancy house. And we had a Director of Photography who didn’t like white. But every house I managed to get into was yet another modern white house,” laughs Malcolm. “Another challenging location was a cell phone store in a strip mall in Episode 5. You’d think that would be easy to find, but it all became about the configuration – Sudz Sutherland was the Director of this episode, and he wanted to showcase more of a gritty environment. We picked a mall, and then the mall said no. We ended up filming it on a street, but we wanted it to be in a parking lot.”
“There were times that we were ‘cheating Toronto as Toronto,’” Malcolm adds. “We’d be in Parkdale and calling it Cabbagetown. I think maybe some Torontonians might figure it out, but we did have some nice cheats. The creatives came up with a lot of fun ideas.
For a show the size and scale of Law & Order: Toronto, it was crucial to come out swinging with a showstopper episode, and the series pilot “is set on a 100-foot yacht,” says Bryn. “So right out of the gate, figuring out how to shoot on a 100-foot yacht was a huge challenge. But the beauty of being on the yacht was that it allowed us to be in Toronto harbour, so we see these 360-degree views of Toronto, the skyline, and the islands, which is the perfect, ideal way to showcase Toronto, especially in the series opener. I think my favourite location was the Royal Canadian Yacht Club on Toronto Island, with our 100-foot yacht moored on its dock. Looking at it from the beautiful rotating Yacht Club clubhouse, looking back at the city, and knowing this is the frame that we’re using to establish both the series and the city. It was a very proud feeling.”
Kim and the rest of the Art Department, headed by Production Designer Oleg Savytski, also paid significant attention to ensuring that the crime aspects of the show were as accurately portrayed as the city of Toronto – and maintained the signature style that’s made the Law & Order franchise so successful. “As they were such an important component of the story, we had many creative meetings to discuss the treatment of the crime scenes. During the research stage, we worked closely with a police consultant who helped us get the details right. Those meetings definitely gave us a great authentic starting point to build our scenes from, and then we added our stylized graphic language to create the crime scene documentation specific to Toronto’s version of L&O.”
McQuiston is especially proud of the police station set. “This set is designed to architecturally reflect real Toronto police buildings. Our “police station” is an amalgamation of two buildings from different eras that were joined with an interstitial modern design. We enter from the elevator into the main building, which reflects 1920s Art Nouveau architecture as evidenced by the metal grillwork in the windows, elevator, and the inlaid deco-designed flooring. The offices and main bullpen area inhabit the “newer-build”/ modern area with glass partitions and angular lighting. Following around the corridor, we find another original 1940’s Deco “building,” which features rounded corner walls, stepped wall details and curved window elements. It was definitely a gratifying design process in tying these unique architectural styles together. It feels very reflective of Toronto and gives our Police Station a definitive character of its own.”
“It’s always exciting and inspiring to get to showcase our city. Although I’ve done in the past on some of our other famous Toronto projects, like Flashpoint and Mary Kills People, none of the other shows actually had ‘Toronto’ in the title,” says Bryn.
Maintaining that signature Law & Order style while retaining Toronto’s unique character was “a welcome challenge,” adds Kim. “We were promoting Toronto as itself and as an extension to the Law & Order franchise. The use of colour palettes and lighting techniques are very deliberate visual decisions to marry Toronto with the recognizable look of the established Law & Order brand.”
“We wanted the city to be on par with how New York looks in the original series,” Bryn continues. “We needed to showcase Toronto as a world-class city with world-class locations, as well as staying true to these detective stories. It can be inspiring to have that extra bit of professional pressure to live up to the Law & Order franchise as well as showcase the city in ways that are new, interesting, and compelling for Torontonians and make them proud. And for international audiences, they might see the city portrayed this way for the first time and thinking, that’s pretty cool.”
“Wherever you point the camera, there’s something interesting going on,” adds Andrew. “Toronto has a lot to offer with a lot of diversity, whether we were at Nathan Phillips Square, in front of Old City Hall, or the sidewalks on Adelaide, or office towers with views looking out to the lake. We even shot at the council chambers at Toronto City Hall, which was a tricky location to get into. There were a lot of logistics that went into that, but we managed to pull it off. I think if you’re from Toronto, you’ll recognize a lot. If you’re not from Toronto, and you’ve never been, you’ll hopefully be impressed at the size and scale of the city.”
While Ontario and Toronto are incredibly versatile filming locations, frequently standing in for other cities in North America and even Europe, Law & Order: Toronto embraces the rare opportunity for Toronto to authentically portray itself in a major network franchise show. Working on a series that allowed Toronto to take centre stage as the star of the show was a major source of pride.
“I’m usually a Location Manager as well,” says Malcolm, “But it was so great to scout to stay current. A very good scout once told me you never fully discover a neighbourhood unless you get out of your car and follow your nose. Toronto is an endless journey of discovery through the act of scouting, and this opportunity allowed me to rediscover classic Toronto locations, and discover new ones which I hope to use in the future. I’m so excited to see it, and I was so proud to be a part of it and so happy that I got to work with these guys.”
“The people we met at these locations were so enthusiastic and go the extra mile for a show like Law & Order: Toronto,” says Bryn. “I was equally proud of my fellow Torontonians as the locations that they were representing. We weren’t focused on making it look only one way, but by showing that 360-degree view of Toronto, from uptown to downtown, east to west, Little Italy to Little India, the Junction to Rosedale. Toronto’s not just one thing. It’s many things. It’s a privilege, I think, for us to be the ambassadors who are showcasing the character of Toronto.”
Photo credit to Malcolm McCulloch, Andrew Gainor, Kim McQuiston, and Cameron Pictures. Watch Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent starting February 22nd on CityTV.
Click here for a full list of DGC Ontario Members who worked on Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent.
