single-minded pursuit extends to ignoring other potential targets. He is seen to ignore most thieves, drug dealers, and one violent pimp. Another change involves his abilities. In the first film, his activities as a vigilante rely only on his use of weapons. In the sequel, he is able to beat up men who are considerably younger than himself. While casting the actors for the roles of the villains, Winner gave the actors playing the thugs a lot of creative leeway. They bought their own costumes, designed their own makeup and tested them out on passers-by to see how intimidating they'd look. Laurence Fishburne bought a pair of magician's gloves and waved his knife like a wand, while Kevyn Major Howard waxed his eyebrows and shaved the front of his head to make himself look like a snake. He even developed mannerisms like his insane laugh, slapping his head and twirling a baton from seeing a live drummer in a punk band. Filming Among the final revisions of the script was a change in location. The original script set the action in San Francisco, but the revision moved the setting to Los Angeles. Winner said the film was "the same, but different", from the original. "That's what sequels are – Rocky II, Rocky III – you don't see Sylvester Stallone move to the Congo and become a nurse. Here the look of LA is what's different. Besides – rape doesn't date!" Engelbach argued the film raised "serious issues – namely, the deteriorating state of our criminal justice system. The actions of the Bronson character are dictated by the inability of the police to prevent crime, the preoccupation of the courts with technical rather than real justice, and the cancerous climate of fear in which we find ourselves today. Paul Kersey is no hero. In his pursuit of vengeance, he loses the only emotional relationship of his life and by story's end has become as much a victim of crime as the thugs he leaves dead in his wake." Principal photography began on May 4, 1981, in Downtown Los Angeles and concluded on July 1, 1981, in San Pedro. Filming often lasted twelve hours a day in order to complete it before a Screen Actors Guild strike. The film was shot on location and depicted actual "sleazy" areas of the city. Twenty off-duty men of the LAPD were hired to protect the