Prime-Crime Verite : BARRY LEVINSON’S ‘HOMICIDE’ KICKS OFF IN A BIG WAY

They found the body in a recycling plant, sprawled in a pit filled with thousands of empty soda cans. He was a young black male dressed in a blue jacket and pants, with large wounds visible on his forehead and chest.

Homicide detectives Stanley Bolander and John Munch arrived on the crime scene shortly after it had been closed to the public. After asking a few perfunctory questions of the uniformed officer who discovered the body, the beefy Bolander stepped gingerly into the slippery pit and began searching the body for personal effects. Then his partner noticed something odd about the victim.

“This guy is so cold he’s shaking,” said Munch. “Can we throw a blanket on him between takes?”

Like a bursting balloon, the illusion of a real crime scene was punctured. The body in the pit was an actor, suffering the effects of lying outside on a windy December day in the waterfront neighborhood of Fell’s Point.

The detectives were played by Ned Beatty (Bolander) and Richard Belzer (Munch), two of the stars of “Homicide: Life on the Street,” a gritty new crime series debuting in the high-profile slot that follows the Super Bowl.

“Homicide,” which follows a squad of Baltimore detectives on their day-to-day rounds, was shooting in this gritty working-class city for two reasons: It is based on “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,” a book written by local writer David Simon, who followed some real detectives around for a full year; and the executive producer of the series is Baltimore native and Academy Award-winning (for “Rain Man”) director Barry Levinson, who previously filmed “Diner,” “Tin Men” and “Avalon” in his hometown.

“I think audiences are seeing another place from what they’re seeing all the time, and that in itself is enough” reason to shoot in Baltimore, said Levinson. “There’s a specificity that’s very valid in working that way. ‘Diner’ could have taken place in other cities, but I know that place well, and I feel why not place it there, where it was envisioned. The same thing applies to ‘Homicide.’ ”

Said Richard Belzer: “It’s good for the audience to see something other than New York or L.A. To me, the city is like Liverpool--working class, the docks, a lot of crime. It has a unique personality. It’s a funky kind of place.”

Levinson was introduced to Simon’s book by people in the filmmaker’s production company. It was one of a number of projects being considered, but, said Levinson, “probably moved up in the mix” because of the Baltimore connection. Impressed with the work, the director decided to pursue it as a TV series because “Simon covered one year of a squad on the street, and I felt it was in the best spirit of the book to do it in long form, which is what TV can offer.”

Shooting on location in this Maryland city seemed obvious. But beyond its uniquely local look, “Homicide” aims to be different in a number of other ways. The program, which also stars Yaphet Kotto, Daniel Baldwin, Jon Polito and Melissa Leo, is trying to capture a realistic “day in the life” feel that has more to do with relationships than violence.

“It’s about people trying to do a good job,” said Beatty, “it’s completely nonviolent. These are real stories about a real place, and these people are struggling with a Herculean task.”

“I’m most interested in the characters, in the sense that crime becomes part of the journey,” said Levinson, who is co-producing the series with Emmy-winner (“St. Elsewhere”) Tom Fontana. “It’s what we learn about the people that I’m most fascinated by, how they behave through this journey.”

In an attempt to capture this feeling on film, “Homicide” has taken what is an exciting, and potentially risky, creative move: The entire series is being shot with a hand-held camera. In the already fast-paced world of TV production, this technique allows for even more speed and mobility. Because less equipment is involved, shots can be set up in less time. This also means actors have less standing around to do, which tends to keep them fresher from scene to scene. It also puts more demands on them.

“You have to have total concentration; you can’t let the hopping around (of the cameraman and soundman) distract you,” said Kotto, who plays Lt. Al Giardello, the half-Italian, half-black homicide squad leader. “Actors have this thing in the movies,” he added, “where they say, ‘out of my sight lines’ (removing extraneous things from their field of vision while performing). Well, if that’s your problem, then you better leave this show right now.”

The hand-held technique “creates an intimacy for the viewer, the camera is like another witness,” said Belzer. “It makes it more compelling, like you’re eavesdropping on the scene. The combination of the documentary feel and the dramatic acting is unique to TV.”

This documentarylike feel has an interesting offshoot: If the sequence at the recycling plant was any indication, rubberneckers find it difficult to distinguish a cinematic crime scene from an actual one. Without the cranes, big lights and enormous trailer trucks usually hovering around a film location, all that’s really visible are uniformed police (mostly actors) and their police cars, an area cordoned off by yellow “crime scene” tape, and a few somber-looking men in suits (also actors) combing the area for evidence.

Because of this stripped-down feel, neighborhood residents passing the location looked like they had stumbled on the real thing.

This unintended consequence delighted Levinson, who said he had a “great time” directing the first episode of the series. His previous TV experience had been limited to directing a pilot for a series based on “Diner.” The series was never picked up, and Levinson went on to a successful motion-picture career, his latest “Toys” notwithstanding.

Levinson said he “loved the idea of having a small crew and moving extremely fast” on “Homicide.” I’d like to be able to take advantage of that in my features--it gets the actors on their feet, you can experiment and ad lib, and there’s an enormous amount of freedom that’s invigorating and energizing.”

The major players tend to feel the same. All three leads are excited about exploring the nuances of their characters, an opportunity they feel is not often provided in garden-variety cop shows.

Belzer, best known as a comedian, said his character “is a very volatile person, a mental case, but he’s witty, smart, and has opinions about everything.”

Beatty calls Bolander “a highly respected individual on both sides of the fence, a straight-shooter with a photographic memory.”

Kotto describes Giardello as “a classic poet who sees life from the philosophical point of view, and that’s the only way he can adjust to his job--see the poetry in it.”

NBC, which could use a hit in a big way, has high hopes for the series. The initial order of six episodes was increased by three, and four additional scripts are ready to shoot. The program has also made a commitment by hiring quality directors who either have feature-film credits--Michael Lehmann (“Heathers”), Nick Gomez (“Laws of Gravity”)--or significant, award-winning TV experience (Bruce Paltrow of “St. Elsewhere”).

But Levinson knows that “Homicide’s” success rests on how it separates itself from the pack. Gritty, urban, East Coast, nonviolent, personality-oriented. If all those pieces come together and work for an audience, then “Homicide: Life on the Street” will be a hit.

“Sometimes you can have good material,” Levinson said, “but the other elements are so familiar, the audience tends to faze out. So if you change the style, the look, the backgrounds and actors, there are new things to watch. Every little element contributes.”

“Homicide: Life on the Street” premieres Sunday after the Super Bowl concludes, tentatively at 7 p.m., on NBC. It moves to its regular time slot Wednesday at 9 p.m.