"What's going on?" I asked. "This is for atmosphere," said one of the many security guards about the steam. I wondered where the movie action was. He told me it was inside the boxing place. They were filming in there and I'd have to move along because it was supposed to be clear outside--except for the smoke swirling up--for the filming inside. No one was supposed to walk in front of the windows and screw up the scene.

So I crossed back over and went to the meeting.

A few hours later, I took one of my nighttime walks and as I got to 14th and State I saw the same batch of movie trailers and bright lights and security people hanging out. This time another security guard told me they were filming "on the tracks." At first I thought they stopped the el above or the subway below, but after some roundabout discussion with another security guard I realized they were using the old service track that goes underground but doesn't get much use. They had an old train on the tracks behind a barrier that they said they were filming in and around.

Then I started to head north along the east side of State and I noticed that the doors of a long warehouse/modern commercial conversion that had been an advertising agency and a day care were flung open and filled with tons of people under dim fluorescent lights eating. It looked like a cross between a high school cafeteria and "The Handmaid's Tale." Most of the diners were dressed in mild law enforcement attire. And even though it was about 10:30 PM, they were calling it "lunch."

"It's lunch because they will keep filming until about four in the morning," another security guard said. He said there were 200 people inside and that they were all working on a pilot for a new show to be broadcast this spring called "ATF."

"You know what that is?" he asked. "Alcohol, tobacco and firearms. It's the department that deals with that stuff, anything having to do with guns and smoking and drinking and that kind of thing."