Viewfinder: TV Crew Films 'Hung' at Birmingham Park, Fair and Coffeehouse

Downtown Birmingham and were more crowded and vibrant than usual Wednesday as a production crew shot scenes for the edgy HBO series Hung. 

Passersby glimpsed the hubbub from a distance in the park in the morning and from spots on Martin Street, behind , all afternoon. The 60-member crew wrapped up local filming inside after 5:30 p.m.    

Filming here originally was scheduled to start May 25, when a downpour intruded, so the cloudless sky this time was a precious reward. Weekend exterior scenes elsewhere in the area also had been washed out. "We've had to improvise with locations and adapt nearly every day," said Peter Martorano, a Los Angeles-based location manager for Hangman Films, producer of the cable series.

For the Booth scene, actors walked along a gravel path with a dog. Joggers and moms pushing strollers occasionally had to wait for a take to be completed.   

Video monitors, ladders, tripod lights, seats, prop carts, plastic "foliage" and other set materials were deployed around the rolling park. Production trucks lined Harmon and North Old Woodward, and Chow Catering of Clarkston set up a refreshment tent alongside Booth's playground. 

By noon, the Hung entourage relocated to Martin between Chester and Bates — clogging part of downtown with trucks and barricades a day before the Village Fair began.

The midway setting was a ready-made backdrop for walk-through scenes and one inside a scooter ride. About three dozen Metro Detroiters served as background actors — day players in the trade — who strolled through the set and whirled aboard a twirling "Tornado" ride. A few extras couldn't resist off-camera clowning, coaxed by 75-degree sunshine, the amusement park scenery and inevitable lulls in the action. Ride operators and Hung actors traded shop talk about creating fantasy worlds.    

, with an entrance on Martin, served as a makeshift production retreat and canopied directors' area.

The darkly humorous cable show, set in suburban Detroit and shooting its third season, focuses on a divorced former high school sports legend. Thomas Jane plays Ray Drecker, the basketball coach at fictional West Lakefield High who has unusual extracurricular activities. This PG-rated news site will let you figure out the title reference.  

The Michigan Film Office in April approved a state government incentive of just over $1 million for this season's location work. Hangman, the production company, estimates it'll spend $5.6 million in the state and will hire nearly 860 people for technical crafts, background extras, security and other support. Wednesday's activity earned permit and rental fees for the City of Birmingham, Biggby and St. James.

Royal Oak, Bloomfield Hills, Troy, West Bloomfield, Hamtramck and Detroit also serve as filming sites.