The hiatus is over and our beloved Castle crew is back at work again. Andrew Bikichky, too, is in the crew, filming the new episodes for us. While the season premiere is still month and a half away, they have already shot two episodes in the month of July and are continuing with the same pace in August.
This year, the crew has new equipment on the set. The Panavision cameras that recorded on the film have been replaced with Arri Alexa cameras, making the quality of the show even better. Andrew says that he has worked with them before and they are very different than the film cameras they are used to working with on Castle. He says the German made Alexa is the best digital camera around so far. The camera assistants still have their jobs because new cameras still need operators – from grips to second assistants. The only new job to be added is “data management”.
Out of tradition, Castle crew has still two cameras on set constantly, using three main zooms (17.5-75mm, 24-275mm, and 135-420mm). While the cameras may be Arri Alexa, Andrew says that they still use lenses from Panavision.
Here are some tweets from Andrew:
“@touchyfillion: production porn?” Exactly. And HGTV is the house porn channel
— Andrew Bikichky (@AndrewBikichky) July 31, 2013
“@FredBC77: Do you know if the title of 601 has been found?” Didn't know it was lost
— Andrew Bikichky (@AndrewBikichky) July 29, 2013
“@Chaunders: Has the lack of mag changes altered shooting rhythm?” Perhaps, but the absence of them not really felt on our set.
— Andrew Bikichky (@AndrewBikichky) July 18, 2013
“@sspader1: Has 'Checking Gate' been announced out of habit? :p #OldSchool #35mmFilm” Yep
— Andrew Bikichky (@AndrewBikichky) July 17, 2013
“@DavidBlansett: Are you still using film this season or are you digital this season?” 0101100011110001110101
— Andrew Bikichky (@AndrewBikichky) July 10, 2013
.We're all back and catching up. Some of our makeup crew did huge blood gags with 'Lilith' on Trueblood over the hiatus. Small town…
— Andrew Bikichky (@AndrewBikichky) July 9, 2013
And finally, here are some pictures Andrew has tweeted during the month of July:
Back at work!
Season 6…..it’s coming…
wild animals spotted during recent test shoot.
Busy day back. First day of school. Changes and everything’s the same.
The German eyepiece.
New Arri Alexa cameras.
Panavision is known for world class customer service. On set helping us customize a new handle & machining new parts.
Yes. I’m pretty busy today 
My viewfinder looks like this now…
New antennas on the video village cart, receiving crystal clear full HD images wirelessly from the cameras.
HD transmitter on the Alexa. All I can think is “rooster comb”. (Andrew’s Comment on new equipment).
You gotta ask yourself sometimes, “which fog should I really use?”
“1.21 Gigawatts! Great Scott!”
Inside the big glass (empty) building on the Universal Backlot.
Andrew Bikichky and the whole Castle crew are Busy on new sets.
Fresh from manufacturing, we have some of the first new KinoLED’s out in the wild .
The new kid on the block on #Castle – new Arri Alexa camera.
Putting the big lens up. 135mm-420mm 3:1 Panavision Primo Zoom
5 peeping Toms (2k blondes banging thru full blue)…that’s the sound of show business
We shot at Rock Hudson’s old house yesterday. Many details from that era remain intact.
.Rock Hudson’s old backyard.
Marta Evry: Look who I ran into on the Paramount lot!
Adjusting a flag, up on high in the ceiling!
.From here, an internal cooling fan blows warm electronic smelling air into my face.
Alexa’s backside readout.
A brief history in time
Detail of bottles in #Castle kitchen.
Snow globe on #Castle bookshelf leftover from Xmas Ep.