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SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY - NO1 - 2014
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INTRODUCTION - MASTHEAD
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LOCATION
SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY - NO1 - 2014
CALIFORNIA FILM COMMISSION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AMY LEMISCH DEPUTY DIRECTOR EVE HONTHANER PROGRAM DIRECTOR, FILM & TELEVISION TAX CREDIT PROGRAM NANCY RAE STONE PROGRAM COORDINATOR, FILM & TELEVISION TAX CREDIT PROGRAM LEAH MEDRANO LOCATION RESOURCE SPECIALIST LISA MOSHER PERMIT CO-ORDINATORS CATHERINE ADAMIC, DAVID BOOTH, HELENE DERVISHIAN OFFICE SPECIALISTS JOSEPH CRUZ, DON WARD LOCATION CALIFORNIA IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE CALIFORNIA FILM COMMISSION AND IS PUBLISHED FOR THE CFC BY BOUTIQUE EDITIONS LTD. ADDITIONAL COPIES ARE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST FROM THE CFC. CALIFORNIA FILM COMMISSION OFFICE 7080 HOLLYWOOD BLVD., SUITE 900 – HOLLYWOOD, CA 90028 – U.S.A. T: (323) 860-2960 – F: (323) 860-2972 – EMAIL: FILMCA@FILM.CA.GOV EDITOR JULIAN NEWBY MANAGING EDITOR DEBBIE LINCOLN CONTRIBUTORS ANDY FRY, LIZA FOREMAN PUBLISHER RICHARD WOOLLEY ART DIRECTOR CHRISTIAN ZIVOJINOVIC - WWW.ANOIR.FR PUBLISHED BY BOUTIQUE EDITIONS LTD - 117 WATERLOO ROAD - LONDON SE1 8UL - UNITED KINGDOM - T: +44 20 7902 1942 - F: +44 20 3006 8796 - WWW.BOUTIQUEEDITIONS.COM ADVERTISING SALES JERRY ODLIN INTERNATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR - JODLIN@BOUTIQUEEDITIONS.COM NICKI WEBBER SALES MANAGER (NORTH AMERICA) NWEBBER@BOUTIQUEEDITIONS.COM THE PAPER USED BY BOUTIQUE EDITIONS IS A NATURAL, RECYCLABLE PRODUCT MADE FROM WOOD GROWN IN SUSTAINABLE FORESTS. THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS CONFORMS TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS OF THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN. INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS EDITED FROM SUBMISSIONS PROVIDED BY THE INDIVIDUAL COMMISSIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS. ALTHOUGH A REASONABLE EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE IN COMPILING THIS INFORMATION, BOUTIQUE EDITIONS LTD ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ACCURACY. THE PUBLISHER ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND ARTWORK. COPYRIGHT ©2014 BOUTIQUE EDITIONS LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART OF ANY TEXT, PHOTOGRAPH OR ILLUSTRATION WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION OF BOUTIQUE EDITIONS LTD IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED PRINTED IN CALIFORNIA
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! t o l a n a th e Mor CALIFORNIA
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INTRODUCTION - LETTER
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LOCATION
SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY - NO1 - 2014
AMY LEMISCH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CALIFORNIA FILM COMMISSION
W
elcome to the debut edition of Location California, a new publication that transforms our annual film office directory into a content-rich guide highlighting the very best production talent, infrastructure and locations California has to offer. On the following pages you will find in-depth stories and on-location reports about projects shot in California and the talented people behind them, as well as detailed listings for each of California’s regional film offices. Features include: SHOOTING IN CALIFORNIA – An update on the latest developments and trends at the studios, movie ranches and iconic locations that make California the entertainment production capital. AN L.A. STATE OF MIND – An examination of how Los Angeles is a versatile on-location chameleon that can double for just about any urban center, including and perhaps most often, the Big Apple. DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSTAINABILITY – An overview of how the industry, from major studios to indie production houses, is achieving sustainable production through methods pioneered in California. CALIFORNIA IN PICTURES – A gallery of some of the state’s most majestic and iconic film locations. The range is simply unparalleled anywhere in the world. California has it all, from rugged coastline to desolate desert plains, from expansive agricultural prairies to dense urban skylines...and everything in between. You’ll also find a series of brief on-location reports from major film, television and commercial projects. These mini-case studies explore what it’s like to work in California and why, despite all the competition, there remains no substitute for the Golden State. We hope you enjoy this debut edition of Location California and that it helps spark your imagination about the unmatched possibilities and value of producing your next project in the world’s entertainment capital.
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Shasta County, California
Monterey County, California
Pasadena, California
We’re More Than Great California Locations! The film commissioners of the Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS) are ready to help you make filming in California easier than ever. And our services are FREE! With FLICS, you have the strength of 41 professional film commissions that are fully committed to help you find your locations, assist in seeing your production run smoothly, and save you time and money. When filming in California, FLICS is your first resource and partner for a great film experience.
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Send location requests online to 41 film commissioners at once!
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SAVING MR. BANKS Disney’s film about the making of Mary Poppins was shot almost entirely in and around L.A.
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SHOOTING IN CALIFORNIA Why the state of California is still a world leader in the movie business
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AN L.A. STATE OF MIND So much of the New York City that you see on the big and small screen is in fact shot in L.A.
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IN PICTURES
A collection of images of stunning locations around California — some well known, some yet to be discovered
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SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION Location California hears from some of the people who are working for a greener film industry
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NEED FOR SPEED Need For Speed started life as a videogame. But there’s nothing virtual about the locations used for the movie
LOOKING
Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch stories are coming to a screen near you. They were shot entirely in L.A.
The gritty side of San Francisco takes centre stage in Looking, HBO’s new comedy drama series
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California continues to be the go-to location for so many commercial producers. Location California finds out why
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MEET THE PROFESSIONALS Who do you ask for help when looking for the right California location?
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ANTELOPE VALLEY THE CHURCH and Joshua tree in Antelope Valley, in northern Los Angeles County, features in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2003), in a scene where Bill attempts to dispatch Uma Thurman’s character in a bloody hail of gunfire. This 30-second exposure was taken at dawn (Photo, courtesy Ken Lee Photography)
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TOM HANKS AS WALT DISNEY ON DISNEYLAND’S ICONIC MARY POPPINS CAROUSEL WITH EMMA THOMPSON, AS MARY POPPINS CREATOR P L TRAVERS, ON THE RIDE BEHIND HIM
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F YOU are going to make a movie about Walt Disney making a movie, then it has to be shot in the place where the man made his movies. Born in Chicago, Disney’s career in animation began in Kansas, before he and brother Roy decided to set up an animation studio in Hollywood, California. And the rest is history, and some of that history is told in Saving Mr. Banks, the story of how Walt Disney manages to persuade writer P L Travers to commit Mary Poppins, a character from her children’s books, to film. Travers is protective of Mary Poppins, but Disney is the consummate entrepreneur and won’t take ‘No’ for an answer, and he is desperate to keep a 20-year promise to his daughters that one day they would see the stories that are told in their favorite books, up there on the big screen. Mary Poppins gets made but not before much negotiation with the curmudgeonly author, whose seeming objection to all things Disney — and most things American — provides much of the humor in the movie. “Our story takes you back two-to-three years before the actual production of the movie began,” says the film’s director John Lee Hancock. “Walt Disney saw the promise of that movie, which made it worth dealing with P L Travers to secure the rights. That’s our story, a fantastic story, about a beloved movie, its own story and characters, and the origins of how it became this amazing, groundbreaking film. On a deeper level, it’s also about two storytellers and Disney’s journey trying to discover why P L Travers holds on so dearly and protectively to her story and the image of this father she adored.” Saving Mr. Banks shot almost entirely in the Los Angeles area. There was one day of shooting in London; other key locations included Disneyland in Anaheim (Orange County) — only the third feature film ever to shoot there in the park’s 58-year history; the TCL Chinese /// Theatre (formerly Grauman’s) in Holly-
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SAVING MR. BANKS, DISNEY’S RELEASE FOR THE 2013 HOLIDAY SEASON, IS SET IN LONDON, AUSTRALIA AND CALIFORNIA. BUT CAST AND CREW NEVER WENT DOWN-UNDER, AND SPENT VERY LITTLE TIME IN LONDON, AS THE MOVIE FOUND ALMOST ALL OF ITS LOCATIONS ON WALT’S DOORSTEP, IN AND AROUND L.A. JULIAN NEWBY REPORTS
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PAUL GIAMATTI AS P L TRAVERS’ CHAUFFEUR RALPH DURING HER STAY IN HOLLYWOOD. RALPH IS THE ONLY FICTIONAL CHARACTER TO FEATURE IN THE FILM
wood, where the 1964 premiere of Mary Poppins took place; the Disney Studios in Burbank, where the 1964 movie filmed in its entirety; and the 10,000-acre Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, which doubled for the film’s early 20th-century Australian landscape. The nine-week shoot finished late November 2012. Hancock’s quest for authenticity began with visits to the Disney museum in San Francisco’s Presidio. There production designer Michael Corenblith did the research that was used to recreate accurately Walt Disney’s office on the studio lot. Intercut with the story of how Walt wins over Pamela Lyndon Travers is the story of her childhood in Australia, her upbringing marred by the drinking habits of Travers Goff, the father she worshipped and whose name she adopted as a writer. For this his third film with Hancock, Corenblith had to create an environment for the flashbacks that depict P L Travers’ early life. “The ability to tell an Australia, 1906, story that was so integral and is integrated into the Los Angeles, 1961, story, was one of the big pleasures, and one of the big design challenges as well,” Corenblith says. “But also one of the tastiest things in this box of chocolates that we cooked up on this film.”
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ANDREW ULLMAN “I LOVE CALIFORNIA. FOR ME HOLLYWOOD IS MAGIC AND THIS SHOW IS MAGICAL” During his casting trips, Hancock visited Maryborough and Allora in Australia to experience the locations for himself — and at one point stood on the actual street where the Goffs lived. He needed a vast landscape of rolling hills to depict the remote Australian outback, and veteran location manager Andrew Ullman managed to find just that in the Greater Los Angeles Area, at the 10,000-acre Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley. “They shot here because of our infamous house on top of the hill with the wrap-around porch,” says Big Sky manager Jeff Morris, who has high praise for Ullman: “Andrew is a scholar and a gentleman to work with, so everything went smoothly.”
Director of photography was John Schwartzman, who worked with Hancock on his 2002 directorial debut The Rookie. Schwartzman chose to shoot Saving Mr. Banks on film, just as Mary Poppins was 50 years ago. “There’s an elegance to film that certainly digital will achieve, but hasn’t quite gotten yet,” Schwartzman says. “We had to work very quickly, early on in our schedule, because we had our young girl, Annie [Australian Annie Buckley who plays the P L Travers as a child] who could only work six hours a day because she was a minor. I needed to be able to trust my instincts, which were honed in the world of shooting film as opposed to digital. I’m so happy we shot on film. It just felt right.” To make the distinction between the film’s two eras — 1906 Australia and 1961 Hollywood — Schwartzman used a combination of camerawork and lighting. “There’s not a lot of color in the 1906 Australia scenes. And that was because of where they lived. It was kind of a dust-bowl part of Australia, very rural. So all the color was bleached out of the movie. Then there’s Hollywood, which the film’s scriptwriter Kelly Marcel has as ‘smelling of sweat and chlorine and sunshine everywhere’. “So, one of the things that we’ve done with all /// the sets is to drive a strong sense of sunlight
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ANNIE BUCKLEY AS THE YOUNG P L TRAVERS WITH HER FATHER TRAVERS GOFF, PLAYED BY COLIN FARRELL
through the windows. Ms. Travers, who’s from London, would be used to a gray and overcast environment. When we shot her Shawfield Street flat [in Chelsea], we made sure not to have any hard light, which is what one would think of if they’ve been to Great Britain.” A former L.A, resident himself, Andrew Ullman was happy that the production team decided to film as much as possible in California. “I think a lot of feature production has left southern California but nobody does it better than them,” he says. “There is pro-forma there, a tremendous amount of support you don’t get elsewhere. Everybody knows their business.” He adds: “I love California. For me Hollywood is magic and this show is magical.” Ullman came up against few problems during the nine-week shoot. “We had to close down Hollywood Boulevard for the premiere of Mary Poppins, but that often gets done for premieres,” he says. “But we had to dress it for the period. The budget was such that there aren’t a lot of effects used, which isn’t normally the case anymore. In fact that was the only shot where we used [digital] set extensions, in front of the Chinese Theatre.” P L Travers was staying at the Beverly Hills Hotel during the two weeks Disney set aside to persuade her to give him the rights to Mary
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JOHN SCHWARTZMAN “I’M SO HAPPY WE SHOT ON FILM. IT JUST FELT RIGHT” Poppins — but the actual hotel is “tight to get in and out of” according to Ullman. So several local alternatives were found for different aspects of the Beverly Hills — principally the Langham Huntingdon in Pasadena. Meanwhile Disneyland brought its own problems. For a movie by Disney, about Disney, one might presume that Disneyland would be made available for as long as it was needed. But it’s a 365-day-a-year business and stands still for nobody — not even Walt, or in this case, Mr Hanks. “We were in Disneyland for just two days. It was somewhat complex; they were very accommodating, but they didn’t quite grasp the scope of what we were doing. They were kind of calibrating while we were doing it, and giving us or not giving us what we needed,” Ullman says. “We did end up shutting down some areas of the park. We got there early, did our bit, shot the big
walk up Main Street and as we were moving in they were reopening the park, it was very interesting.” “Shooting took place on weekdays before the theme park opened with the first shots taken at dawn,” says Janice Arrington of the Orange County Film Commission. “And then when the park opened, filming continued in waves, with park guests steered around the shooting sites.” She adds: “I heard from the Saving Mr. Banks production staff that this was only the third film that has shot in the theme park. The first was 40 Pounds Of Trouble (1963), starring Tony Curtis and directed by Norman Jewison; the second was Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do! (1996) starring Hanks and Liv Tyler. And now you have Saving Mr. Banks, and Tom Hanks is there again at the park, only this time he is Walt Disney himself. “I attended a screening of the film for Directors Guild members, and Emma Thompson and John Lee Hancock introduced the picture, saying that it was a project of love for them both. I felt the same way when I saw the lead characters walking down Disneyland’s Main Street, through the castle, and to the famous carousel — this was Orange County, our Disneyland, home. And it was now part of movie history.”
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JEAN-MARC BARR STARS AS JACK KEROUAC IN MICHAEL POLISH’S 2013 MOVIE BIG SUR, SHOT ON LOCATION AT BIG SUR
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F E AT U R E
SHOOTING IN CALIFORNIA FILMMAKERS STARTED TO MOVE TO HOLLYWOOD IN 1908, AND BY THE EARLY TWENTIES IT HAD BECOME THE FILM CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. SINCE THAT TIME HOLLYWOOD’S INFLUENCE HAS SPREAD THROUGHOUT ITS HOME STATE OF CALIFORNIA. ANDY FRY EXPLAINS WHY CALIFORNIA IS STILL A WORLD LEADER IN THE MOVIE BUSINESS
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FILMING THE WILL AND JADEN SMITH-STARRER AFTER EARTH, AMONG THE GIANT REDWOODS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
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OR MANY people, the word Hollywood is shorthand for the genius and glamour of the film and TV business. But the reality is that there’s a lot more to California’s production prowess than a 3.5-square mile district in the heart of Los Angeles. “Hollywood is celebrated worldwide as home of the entertainment industry and the place for producing content that is uniquely enriching, both culturally and commercially,” says California Film Commission (CFC) executive director, Amy Lemisch. “But it is just one part of what California has to offer producers. Right across the state, there are modern studios, superb locations and some of the world’s best production and postproduction talent that are unmatched in terms of beauty and diversity. When you also factor in our climate, film-friendly jurisdictions, the diversity of the population for casting and our green-screen capabilities, there’s almost no film, TV or commercial production that California can’t handle.”
AMY LEMISCH “YOU DON’T NEED TO FLY SPECIALISTS OR EQUIPMENT IN, BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS RIGHT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS” Los Angeles is home to the major studios and backlots, as well as locations that can double for just about any part of the US or Europe, Lemisch says. “Drive less than an hour from downtown and you’re at California’s movie ranches — stand-alone filming sites that offer all kinds of exotic sets and natural backdrops. Beyond that, we have coastline, deserts, ancient forests, vineyards, snowy mountains and unique architecture around San
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Francisco and San Diego.” But Lemisch is the first to admit that with today’s highly competitive business climate, California isn’t always as inviting financially as it is in terms of weather and natural surroundings. “California faces tough competition from other states and countries that offer lucrative incentives,” she says. And while productions will be able to find cheaper places to film in the US, California offers great value. “Fortunately, our tax incentive launched in 2009 has gone a long way toward keeping more productions in the state,” she says. “And I always point out to producers the hidden costs of not shooting in California. When production occurs here, our critical mass of talent in front of and behind the camera doesn’t have to be imported and housed on-location, which gives producers a major advantage to shooting here. “As anyone in the industry will tell you, our production crews are the best,” Lemisch says. “Our skilled workforce, with decades of experience in every imaginable situation, works faster and more efficiently than the less experienced crews you typically find out-of-state.” She points to California’s vast production infrastructure. “Very often when shooting on location, the need for a specialized piece of equipment might cause a twoday delay in other parts of the world, but here you can have it delivered within the hour. You don’t need to fly specialists or equipment in, because everything is right at your fingertips. Over the course of a production that /// can equate to huge savings.”
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WOODY COMES TO CALIFORNIA AMONG the many projects to be shot in San Francisco recently was Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine (2013). The city received a ringing endorsement from Helen Robin, one of the producers on the film, who said: “Filming in San Francisco does present its challenges, as does any city in the world, but I had a great crew and I’ve never had a better personal experience working with a film commission. The Film Commision staff were always there for anything we needed and understood our need for flexibility.” Back in San Francisco 40 years after 1972’s Play It Again Sam, Allen said: “It’s a fantastic city with fantastic people.” ON THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO: CATE BLANCHETT, MAX CASELLA, SALLY HAWKINS AND BOBBY CANNAVALE IN BLUE JASMINE
A good illustration of this is CBS’s lavish TV series Vegas, which was filmed in Los Angeles during 2012. The pilot had been shot in New Mexico, but when the show went to series, lead actors Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis asked the producers to stay in California. As a result, an elaborate set was built in Santa Clarita Studios — and all of 1960s Rat Pack-era Vegas was found in and around L.A. Ben Affleck’s 2012 Oscar-winning movie Argo is another impressive example of California’s endless versatility. Location-managed by Chris Baugh, the film used a veterans’ hospital in San Fernando Valley to recreate the American Embassy in Iran, while Tehran Airport was duplicated at the international airport in Ontario, California by production designer Sharon Seymour. “They did an incredible job creating 1979 Iran,” Lemisch says. “They pulled together all the exotic locations, the signage, the period vehi-
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cles and tapped into L.A.’s large Persian population to work as extras to pull it off seamlessly.” Veteran location manager Baugh won a COLA (California On-Location Award) in the Studio Feature Film category for his work doubling various California locations for Iran in Argo. “There were many layers of difficulty in scouting the locations for Argo,” he says. “First of all, it was a 1979 period piece shooting in present-day Los Angeles with scenes set in Tehran, Washington, DC and, of course, Hollywood.” He adds: “As Ben Affleck is a stickler for accurate details our most productive scouting came more from strategic detective work than boots on the ground.” Another important benefit is California’s network of regional film offices. “At the CFC, we can field inquiries and organize a customized location search,” Lemisch says. “But there’s also an excellent statewide network of 60 film offices running from Del Norte at the top to Imperial County on the Mexican border. You can either approach these offices directly or go via their centralized body, Film Liaisons In California Statewide (FLICS). Between us, we can identify the right locations and put in place the logistical support to make things go smoothly.” While most of California has experience hosting productions of all kinds, most film work takes place within an area known as the Thirty-Mile Zone (TMZ), measured from the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and La Cienega Boulevard in L.A. The TMZ was set up many years ///
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FILMING CHASING MAVERICKS (2012), WHICH SHOT IN 21 DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE SAN MATEO AREA
ago to help the industry establish fair conditions of employment for union workers. Work outside the TMZ and costs may go up due to travel time, though this can be subject to negotiation. The inevitable upshot of this is that a lot of film industry infrastructure — though by no means all of it — is located within the TMZ. “The great thing about working in the TMZ is that there is so much capacity to absorb production,” Lemisch says. “If you shoot in some parts of the US, they only have the resources to go one or two productions deep. Here, there’s capacity to handle more than a hundred simultaneous productions.” That view is endorsed by a number of executives based in L.A. Speaking from the point of view of the studios, for example, Universal Studios vicepresident of stage & backlot operations, Willi Schmidt, says his company’s 391-acre backlot is occupied all year round except for holidays: “There’s always a mix of in-house and third-party productions on the lot, often more than one at a time,” he says. “On the rare occasion there are no film or TV productions there are usually commercials. We’re so busy we are looking at what we might add to better service producers. The good news is that the Universal backlot is big enough to accommodate that.” This upbeat assessment is echoed by Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A.,
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a private not-for-profit company that is the official film office for the city of Los Angeles and other area jurisdictions. “We have around 150-200 filming locations in use pretty much every day, covering everything from downtown L.A. and Santa Monica to the Angeles National Forest. Around 160 permits a year are issued for the national forest which is particularly popular for car commercials.” Audley echoes Lemisch when he says: “You’re dealing with vendors and crews that know exactly what it takes to get the job done quickly and efficiently. But there’s also an appreciation by the L.A. authorities and the community of the importance of the film industry to the region. That means there’s a willingness to be flexible. One great example was when L.A.’s transportation department changed the paint on its bike lanes because the existing paint was highly reflective and couldn’t be digitally removed during post. Not many city authorities /// would listen to that kind of argument.”
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THEY PAY YOU TO FILM HERE SINCE 2009, California has allocated $100m per year in tax credits to eligible film and television productions. More than 270 projects have benefited from the program. Together they have contributed $4.75bn in direct in-state production spending. Feature films eligible for California’s Film & Television 20% Tax Credit Program must have a production budget between $1m and $75m. For movies of the week or miniseries, $500,000 is the minimum production budget. Also eligible are new, scripted onehour television series licensed for original distribution on basic cable. A 25% tax credit is available for television series that relocate from outside California. There is no minimum budget requirement and relocating series may be produced for distribution in any media outlet. A 25% tax credit is also available for independent films with a total budget of $1m up to a qualified spend budget of $10m; independent films must be produced by a company that is not publicly traded. To qualify, a production must spend 75% of its budget or shoot 75% of principal photography in California. There are local incentive programs in place too. Los Angeles waives use fee charges at many frequently filmed city-owned properties. The city also offers qualified television pilot projects a waiver against certain city fees for on-location filming. San Francisco offers a refund up to $600,000 for each qualifying scripted or unscripted television episode or feature-length film or documentary. Santa Barbara County provides a cash rebate to still photo shoots and commercials – the only county to do so – and to unscripted and scripted television, and feature films. Santa Clarita offers a threepart incentive program that refunds basic permit fees for productions that are locally based, recurring or part of the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program. It also can provide a partial refund of hotel taxes. A STREET SET AT DISNEY’S GOLDEN OAK RANCH
While central L.A. is constantly buzzing with production, one of the key features of the TMZ is the array of movie ranches that exist within an hour of the city. Dating as far back as the start of the 20th century, the movie ranches were originally set up as a way of increasing production capacity or providing backdrops that didn’t work so well in city backlots. Newhall Film is a southern California film location company overseeing thousands of acres of privately owned land. Minutes from Los Angeles, many of its locations are within the TMZ. Newhall dates back some 130 years, when pioneer Henry Mayo Newhall bought Rancho San Francisco — a 48,000acre property rich with surrounding natural beauty. Newhall Film property includes canyons, meadows, fields, orchards, houses, buildings, dirt and paved roads. Another famous example is Melody Ranch. First used for filming way
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back in 1915, it was bought in 1952 by singing cowboy sensation Gene Autry for his movies and TV shows. Throughout the Fifties, it was used as the base for a number of TV series including The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid and Rin-Tin-Tin. Melody is still going strong, having recently hosted Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012) and reality series The Amazing Race. These days it is one of three Santa Clarita movie ranches that belong to the Veluzat family, the others being The Veluzat Ranch and Blue Cloud Ranch. Blue Cloud, 45 minutes north of Los Angeles, regularly hosts film, TV and commercials and is noted for standing sets that double as Western towns, Mexican pueblos, Army camps, Middle-Eastern towns and African Villages. With a fleet of military vehicles also on site, productions ranging from Iron Man (2008) to CBS series The Unit have used Blue Cloud’s backdrops. The Veluzat ranches are one part of a booming production community based around Santa Clarita, a suburb of L.A. “often referred to as Hollywood North”, says Kelli Lajer of the Santa Clarita Film Office. “We have more movie ranches than anywhere else in the world, in addition to sound stages and thousands of film-friendly locations. Hit TV shows to have been based here include NCIS, Justified, Big Love, and Deadwood.” Other important destinations within the Santa Clarita area include Santa Clarita Studios, an independently-owned complex that has 10 stages; and Golden Oak Ranch — a vast Disney/ABC Studios complex that was built in the 1950s and continues to host high-profile productions. Credits include Jerry Bruckheimer’s Pirates Of The Caribbean series of movies (2003-11) and Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor (2001), along with TV series Sons Of Anarchy, CSI, The X-Files and American Idol. While Golden Oak has everything you’d expect from a movie ranch, including barns, bridges, cabins, forests, a lake and various agricultural backdrops, the people at Disney/ABC Studios have not stopped there. In 2011, the company unveiled two new backlots. One of these, a 42-storefront Urban District, was constructed entirely with filmmakers in mind — with, for example, straight, horizontal rooflines that make creating CGI backdrops simpler, while the layout of the buildings is such that it is possible to shoot a particular style of architecture, while leaving another style out of the scene. Along with the Urban District, Disney/ABC Studios constructed a Residential Street, consisting of 14 homes, each embodying a different architectural style. Many of the houses have full backyards and they all have manicured front yards ready to be dressed or filmed. More recently, Disney/ABC applied for permission to erect an array of new buildings including production offices, backlots, writers’ bungalows and sound stages. Towards the end of 2013, Los Angeles County granted permission, which means Golden Oak will soon be transformed into a fully-fledged studio complex. According to Lajer, Santa Clarita benefits from the fact that it has both state-of-the-art studios and ranches in close proximity. Not only that, but it is a film-friendly area. “Santa Clarita was the first city in the L.A. area to offer a Film Incentive Program,” Lajer says. “To date, we have refunded more than $230,000 in permit fees and saved productions more than $100,000 in Sheriff ///
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time and money in the process.” Nordstrand says an estimated $3-$4m a year comes into Monterey county from film productions, commercials, fashion and stills shoots, TV productions and new media. “For the past several years, Monterey County has been in the top-three counties in terms of the number of film days spent in California State Parks and beaches. When film producers come they are impressed with the variety of looks, from coastal cliffs and redwoods to Steinbeck-country rural ranches and agricultural fields. Most who film here want to return with their families for vacations.” Monterey is one of a number of Central California counties that continues to be popular with filmmakers.
JEFF MORRIS “YOU DON’T FIND MANY PLACES THAT ARE MORE FILM-FRIENDLY THAN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA”
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fees. We also created a Movie Ranch Overlay Zone which designates certain properties where filming and related facilities — for example sound stages — are permitted by right.” Movie ranches within the city’s Movie Ranch Overlay Zone include Sable Movie Ranch, Rancho Maria and A Rancho Deluxe. Explaining the rationale for the Zone, Marsha McLean, a Santa Clarita council member and former Mayor, says: “Filming is one of Santa Clarita’s top industries, employing thousands of residents and infusing millions of dollars into our local businesses. We are committed to doing everything we can to grow California’s signature industry, while making a name for Santa Clarita as the city that supports filming at every level.” Another part of the TMZ that is home to leading movie ranches is Ventura County’s Simi Valley. Here you’ll find Hummingbird Nest Ranch, a high-end luxury location that hosts around 30 productions a year; and Big Sky Movie Ranch. Big Sky is managed by Jeff Morris, also a highly-experienced location scout. “Big Sky has a terrific history,” he says. “It was the location for classic series like Bonanza, Gunsmoke and Little House On The Prairie. I came in about five years ago and since then we’ve worked hard to revitalize the place and expand on the kind of productions we are able to attract.” That effort has paid off, with recent credits including Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012), John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and Peter Cornwell’s Mercy (2014), a film based on Stephen King’s short story Gramma. In the case of Django, Big Sky played host to a surreal scene in which 40 moaning Ku Klux Klan members gather to set fire to the central characters’ wagon. With his scouting hat on, Morris criss-crosses the US on behalf of producers. But he’s still a big fan of what California has to offer: “You don’t find many places that are more film-friendly than southern California. And once you start heading north you’re into stunning locations like Big Sur in Monterey, which is particularly popular with producers of car commercials.” California’s striking Big Sur coastline gets top billing in the 2013 movie based on Jack Kerouac’s classic work — Big Sur. Directed by Michael Polish, the film takes full advantage the area’s spectacular coastline and forests. Monterey film commissioner Karen Seppa Nordstrand says: “Big Sur spent around 11 days shooting here. Private properties in the Bixby Canyon and below Rocky Point Bridge were shot, in addition to scenes on Highway One.” According to Nordstrand: “Big Sur, which represents some 90 miles of coastline in Monterey County, is one of our most sought-after locations. On this film, the commission worked with Soquel-based location scout Peter Newfield, who co-ordinated the Big Sur locations. We were in close communication and on-hand before filming and during to provide location suggestions, location contacts, and to handle jurisdictional questions and issues with residents as the filming progressed.” This latter role is a crucial one: “With its variety of jurisdictions from private properties to state and federal lands, we help productions make the right connections, saving them
Other popular destinations in this part of the state include Kern, Fresno, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. “A number of counties outside the TMZ are popular because they offer a unique look that can’t be found anywhere else,” says the CFC’s Lemisch. “And they have worked extra hard to promote what they have to the filmmaking community.” For example Santa Barbara, which boasts a film industry as old as that of Hollywood. Films shot there include Mike Nichols’ The Graduate (1967), Gary Ross’ Seabiscuit (2003), Alexander Payne’s Sideways (2004), Gore Verbinski’s Pirates Of The Caribbean III: At World’s End (2007), Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood (2007) and Nancy Meyers’ It’s Complicated (2009), a Meryl Streep movie which showed off Santa Barbara to great effect. These days, Santa Barbara is looking to attract all kinds of production and has just introduced its own incentive program. Created by ///
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TNT’S TV SERIES THE LAST SHIP, SHOT IN SAN DIEGO
BEVERLY LEWIS “IN 90 MINUTES, YOU CAN GO FROM TERRIFIC MIDWESTERN ROADS AND FARMLANDS TO THE MAJESTIC SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAINS AT LAKE TAHOE” the Santa Barbara County Film Commission, the incentive provides a cash rebate for eligible productions that book a minimum number of room nights in specified areas of the county. According to Film Commissioner Geoff Alexander: “By including still photography production, commercials, and unscripted television, we have created an incentive program which is unique in California. We believe word will travel fast that Santa Barbara wants this business.” Kern, meanwhile, has successfully traded off its diverse geography and relatively low cost of living when compared to the L.A. area. With $20m worth of production coming into the county each year, it has played host to movies including Zack Snyder’s Superman tale Man Of Steel (2013), Joss Whedon’s The Avengers (2012) and the 2007 and 2009 Transformers movies, which shot at Edwards Air Force Base and Tejon Ranch. It has also seen indie films, commercials, reality TV series and music videos come to visit. Rihanna and Pink have both filmed videos in Kern County. Tejon Ranch is particularly popular. Its 270,000 acres has rolling hills, rugged mountains, sweeping valleys, grassy plains, oak and conifer forests, orchards, vineyards, lakes, streams, high deserts and cattle country with cor-
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rals. With backdrops that can double as everything from Tuscany to the Australian outback, it has hosted a number of high-profile movies and a wide array of star-studded commercials. Illustrious visitors have included Cybill Shepherd for Mercedes-Benz, Pierce Brosnan for Roche Chocolate and Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson, who came to shoot Japanese television commercials. For Lemisch, counties like Kern and Fresno are an important part of the Californian mix because “they offer a less well-known side of the State. The coast is famous worldwide but these counties have a range of agricultural looks that can either double for other parts of the world or provide a classic American impression. They keep crop charts, so if a producer needs a vineyard or a cornfield, someone can tell them exactly what it will look like and where to go at any time of year.” Further north, California continues to offer a range of breathtaking locations, for example the snowy peaks around Placer and El Dorado County’s Lake Tahoe; the giant redwoods of Humboldt and Del Norte; and the spectacular coastlines around San Mateo, Mendocino and Sonoma. Placer County film commissioner Beverly Lewis, who is also just ending a stint as chair of film office trade body FLICS, says: “Placer has had four productions work in our county as a result of the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program. These included Cinema Verite (2011), an HBO TV movie starring Diane Lane, Tim Robbins and the late James Gandolfini; and Disney’s recent movie The Muppets (2011).” A key strength of Placer, says Lewis, is “you can ///
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Barbara Hillman, Film Commissioner (510) 549-7040 / (800) 847-4823 film@visitberkeley.com www.FilmBerkeley.com
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IN HONOR of its 20th anniversary, the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival screened 10 movies this summer that were made in the county. The films included Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 silent film The Ten Commandments; Lewis Milestone’s 1939 film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men; and Duwayne Dunham’s 1994 family movie Little Giants with Rick Moranis. Like Monterey and Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo County has unique coastal locations including Oceano Dunes, the only drivable beach in California. A popular choice among producers, it was recently used in PSY’s new music video and in the past for the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise. TIRE TRACKS ON OCEANO DUNES, THE ONLY DRIVABLE BEACH IN CALIFORNIA
get a cross-section of American looks in a very close area. In 90 minutes, you can go from terrific Midwestern roads and farmlands to the majestic snowcovered mountains at Lake Tahoe. We’re also very accessible. Placer is located along a major interstate [Interstate-80] with airports servicing both ends of the county. We also have ample lodging for all budgets, great crews, Red and Epic cameras and key support services including Sno-Cats, helicopters, and white water rafting experts.” Its geographic diversity has also made Placer popular with commercials producers, “particularly because in the spring we can offer four seasons at the same time,” Lewis says. “Snow at Lake Tahoe then spring-to-fall greens and yellows and the summer sun in our gold rush country and mid-western flatlands. We are particularly proud to offer a couple of roads that do not require traffic control, saving productions money.” Even further north are the counties of Humboldt and Del Norte, which are managed by the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission. According to film commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine: “We get a lot of production up here because we have the ocean, beachfronts and the tallest trees in the world. We can double for the U.S. east coast or mystery islands and have great roads for car commercials.” Hesseltine’s patch has hosted some classic adventure films, notably Return Of The Jedi (1983) and Jurassic Park (1993). And last year it also welcomed Will Smith’s futuristic blockbuster, the M Night Shyamalan-directed After Earth (2013). “The film sees Will and Jaden Smith coming down to Earth 1,000 years after humanity has left it. So it needed trees with huge scale. The location scout remembered having visited this region as a kid and came to see us. In the end, a third of the film was shot here and we hosted around 300 film-related personnel.” The downside of shooting so far north is that it is a long way from the technical support of San Francisco. But this is made up for by fact that “you can find locations that have never been used”, Hesseltine says. “Productions are also able to film virtually unnoticed. It’s so spread out up here that a lot
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SAN LUIS OBISPO CELEBRATES
of local residents would never even know you’ve been in the area.” Any analysis of northern California wouldn’t be complete without reference to San Francisco, a beautiful, iconic city that has long-recognized the economic and cultural value of a dynamic film industry, says Susannah Robbins, executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission. “San Francisco has a Mayor and Board of Supervisors who are very pro-film and realize the importance of filming to create local jobs and to keep San Francisco in the eye of the world, helping to bolster tourism. As a result, we’ve been able to expand our incentives numerous times over the past few years, to make it more cost-effective to shoot here. In addition, our film office makes San Francisco very film-friendly. We work closely with productions to make sure everything they need is taken care of, working with agencies such as the SF Police Department, Streets & Traffic, and the SFMTA [the transportation agency] to make their production flow smoothly.” Projects to have visited recently underline the breadth of San Francisco’s work. “We played host to HBO’s new series Looking which will air in January,” Robbins says. “They shot the pilot in April 2013 and returned in September to shoot an additional seven episodes. Tim Burton’s new film Big Eyes (2014) shot for a few days here, as did 20th Century Fox’s upcoming Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014); Electronic Arts’ and DreamWorks Need For Speed (2014); The Great Food Truck Race Season 4; and a portion of a TV pilot for TNT’s Murder In The First, a Steven Bochco production. We have also had Fox TV’s American Idol and MTV’s Real World.” While many producers come to San Francisco for its beautiful architecture, rolling hills and unique bay area, it’s worth noting that the city is also a good double. “Phil Kaufman shot Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012) here, a story which took place all over the world — and yet it was all shot here in San Francisco, and in neighboring counties just miles away.” Among the locations it doubled for were China, Finland, Germany, Spain and Cuba. Echoing the situation around L.A., San Francisco and the Bay Area provide a great base for producers that need to combine studio and post-production work with location work. “There are mountains, rolling hills, forests and streams nearby,” Robbins says. “So producers will often shoot in multiple places then come back to SF for post. Or sometimes shows shoot around the area then come here to use a stage for one or two days.” Among the world-class companies in the Bay Area is practical effects studio 32Ten, which is based 18 miles outside San Francisco at San Rafael, in a building that used to be occupied by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). According to CEO Tim Partridge the company has had a stellar year, providing effects for high-profile motion pictures including Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger (2013), Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013) and Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium (2013). “Nowhere else in the world has the kind of practical effects talent pool you see here,” Partridge says. “We can call on people that have worked on iconic franchises such as Indiana Jones, Back To The Future and Star Wars.” That level of expertise is highly-valued by top directors. Gore Verbinski, who was in charge of Disney’s The Lone Ranger, says: “I knew the story of The Lone ///
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Film in Marin County.a We’re just one famous bridge away...
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GORE VERBINSKI “IT WAS ESSENTIAL TO GROUND THE LONE RANGER IN AS MUCH REALITY AS POSSIBLE; I WANTED THE AUDIENCE TO TASTE THE DUST” on Pacific Rim: “We love to use practical effects whenever it makes sense because it gives us a level of realism that can be difficult to achieve in CG. 32Ten built beautiful models and then utterly destroyed them. The results were spectacular and the blending of these practical effects with our CG work brought the project a higher level of realism.” According to Partridge, northern California is “buzzing right now and we’re doing what we can to make San Rafael play a key part in that. While our core business is high-end practical effects, we have studio capacity here, to support producers that are in the area for locations. And we’ve rented out space in the building to a number of independent companies.” Another area that is flourishing is the San Mateo County/Silicon Valley region, just south of San Francisco. “The high tech/startup industry is an example of the can-do, innovative attitude of the area, with companies such as Facebook, GoPro, YouTube, Apple, HP, Google, Pinterest and Oracle, to name a few,” says San Mateo film chief Brena Bailey. “The area supports filming with state-of-the-art studios and equipment, prop houses, and a seasoned talent pool from all around the Bay Area to draw upon,” Bailey says. “The area’s diverse filming locations are a big plus, along with an active film commission that supports filmmakers with local resources and referrals, a free digital location library, film permit information, and accommodation assistance.”
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San Mateo’s bread and butter is commercials; the national ad campaign for Old Navy was recently filmed on a private farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But it also attracts a lot of feature-film production, Bailey says. For example Joshua Michael Stern’s Jobs (2013), about the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs; Shawn Levy’s The Internship (2013) and Sony’s Michael Apted and Curtis Hansen–directed feature film Chasing Mavericks (2012) “which shot in 21 different and unique locations throughout the area”. San Mateo also does doubles: “For Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005), a Japanese fishing village was replicated on Moss Beach’s Fitzgerald Marine Reserve,” Bailey says. “Matching the English countryside, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (2012) with Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman, was one of many productions that have filmed at Filoli Mansion & Gardens.” Doubling back to the southern end of the State, the city of San Diego has a long and prestigious history of hosting productions. Films to have shot in and around the city include Adam McKay’s Anchorman (2004) and Anchorman 2 (2013), Rob Thomas’ Veronica Mars and Tony Scott’s Top Gun (1986) — the bar where Tom Cruise sang Great Balls Of Fire is still a tourist attraction. The city has also recently hosted TNT’s TV series The Last Ship, as well as car ads featuring brands like Ford, Hyundai and Toyota. Explaining the appeal of San Diego, veteran location scout Welton Jones says: “We have a beautiful downtown, affluent neighborhoods and probably the biggest collection of Spanish colonial architecture in the US. Outside the city you can find a lot of different looks in close proximity. We have forests, the coast, deserts that can double for futuristic post-apocalyptic worlds and mountains that rise 6,000 to 7,000 feet. At certain times of the year you can go from snow to surf in 90 minutes.” But San Diego’s production business doesn’t attempt to compete with L.A. “We don’t have many studio stages here so people are really coming for locations,” Jones adds. “And what we can deliver is locations that haven’t been over-used, that can add a distinctive look to a production. Not to be overlooked is that we have a great road system, which means you can get right across the San Diego area without hitting much congestion.”
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Ranger was going to be epic. It was therefore essential to ground the film in as much reality as possible; I wanted the audience to taste the dust. When it came time to scale the larger than life effects, 32Ten were in stride with that intention. They knew how important it was to make things feel raw, dynamic, and gravitationally correct. They painstakingly adapted their approach through craft, passion, and good cinematographic science, until it was absolutely believable. It is almost a lost art, and I am so happy to have a team like 32Ten around who know all the tricks of the trade and are constantly advancing it to the next level.” Equally enthusiastic is Lindy DeQuattro, co-visual effects supervisor, ILM,
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F E AT U R E
AN L.A. STATE OF MIND… SO MUCH OF THE NEW YORK CITY THAT YOU SEE ON THE BIG AND SMALL SCREEN IS IN FACT SHOT IN L.A. WHY WOULD YOU GO ELSEWHERE TO SHOOT SUCH A PHOTOGENIC CITY? ANDY FRY EXPLAINS
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JOHN HUERTAS AS HOMICIDE DETECTIVE JAVIER ESPOSITO IN ABC’S HIT SERIES CASTLE — SET IN NY, SHOT IN L.A.
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HERE are few sights more exciting on film and TV than New York City. Iconic, dynamic, bustling with energy and enterprise, the Big Apple is one of those cities you just can’t replicate. Unless you work in Hollywood, that is. Because the reality is that scores of productions set in N.Y. were shot in L.A. And you’d have to be a locations geek to know. The tradition of shooting Los Angeles for New York goes right back to The Jazz Singer in 1927. It continued with classics like King Kong (1933), A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1945), Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House (1948) and Escape From New York (1981) before coming
right up to date with Captain America 2 (2014) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). It’s a similar story with TV shows, many of which have rebuilt parts of Manhattan on the West Coast. These range from quintessentially New York classics like Taxi, NYPD Blue, Friends and Fame to more recent hits including CSI, Mad Men, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Castle. So what are the advantages of shooting in L.A. rather than on location in N.Y.? One producer who can give you chapter-and-verse on the subject is Andrew Marlowe, creator and showrunner of ///
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ANDREW MARLOWE “YOU HAVE TO MOVE QUICKLY AND GET STUFF DONE. L.A.’S INDUSTRY IS SET UP FOR THAT TO HAPPEN” ABC’s hit series Castle, still going strong after six seasons. “We shot the pilot of Castle in New York but when it went to series it made sense to produce in L.A. for a number of reasons, ranging from the film-friendly weather to the quality of the L.A. crews and technical infrastructure.” Fundamentally, Marlowe says, L.A. is better equipped for the highlystressed schedule of a high-profile network TV show. “In New York, you’re up against the traffic, the narrow streets and old buildings which aren’t designed to have crews going up and down their elevators. You’re also competing with other productions for the best crew, whereas the talent pool in Los Angeles. is big enough to cope. It’s a similar situation with studios. Stage space is at a premium in New York whereas here we have a great ongoing relationship with L.A.’s Raleigh Studios.” All of these factors can have financial implications, Marlowe adds. “When you’re making 23 or 24 episodes of a network show any delay can cost money. You have to move quickly and get stuff done. L.A.’s industry is set up for that to happen.” On top of that, there’s the fact that L.A.-based actors are often reluctant to work so far from home. “It can mean 10 months away from your
family with just the occasional shuttle trip home,” says Marlowe. “That doesn’t appeal to some talent.” The actual job of finding N.Y.-style backdrops falls to L.A.’s army of supremely talented location managers. In the case of Castle, the main responsibility lies with George Shockley, who says: “It isn’t that hard to find the exterior shots we need in downtown L.A. or on the backlots at Paramount, Universal or Warner Bros. There’s more legwork when we’re looking for residential homes in keeping with the script. But usually we can find what we’re looking for. As an example, we might visit the large mansions in Hancock Park [in central L.A.] and drop leaflets or knock on doors.” Shockley, who has worked on a number of movies including Michael Gondry’s The Green Hornet (2011) and Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day (2010), says it is rare for Castle to stray too far from central L.A. “But sometimes you get a specific scene in the script that demands it. There was one episode where we had to recreate Brooklyn’s Coney Island so we went out to Magic Mountain theme park in Santa Clarita. There’s also a film-friendly casino called the Morongo that we use, even though it’s located outside of the thirty-mile zone. Has he ever struggled to find the right N.Y. location? “Not really. But one of our biggest challenges was a scene where the cops burst in on a killer in a planetarium just as he is about to murder someone.
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SHOT IN LOS ANGELES TNT’S Boston-based detective series Rizzoli & Isles has been running since 2010. Throughout that time it has been filmed on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles. Eagle-eyed fans would also have seen season four of the production out on the streets of L.A. throughout much of 2013. Locations included Canoga Park, and Pickwick Ice in Burbank for an ice-skating scene. IS IT BOSTON, OR IS IT L.A? BOSTON-BASED RIZZOLI & ISLES SHOOTS ON THE PARAMOUNT LOT AND THE STREETS OF L.A.
THE PILOT for ABC Family’s TV series Twisted was shot in New York. But when a full series was ordered the production moved to Los Angeles and set up shop at CBS Studio Center in Studio City. SHOWTIME’s Shameless is set in Chicago, but much of it is shot at the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank. ABC’s Scandal is a political thriller set in Washington, D.C. But the production is actually based in Los Angeles. The exterior of Olivia Pope & Associates, a crisis management firm at the heart of the story, is actually the top floor of the Palace Theatre, in downtown L.A.’s theater district. Scandal is one of many shows that have also used the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. FOX’s musical hit series Glee is set in Ohio and New York but much of it is shot in and around Los Angeles. Kurt and Rachel’s fab New York apartment is actually on Paramount Studio’s backlot. GREY’s Anatomy provides a brilliant insight into day-to-day life at Seattle Grace Hospital. At least it would if that hospital existed. In reality, Seattle Grace is located at Prospect Studios in Los Feliz. At Prospect, you’ll find most of the hospital, Joe’s bar, and the characters’ residences. Other shots are filmed at Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center in North Hills.
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We couldn’t work out how to do that at first and then we found the Vortex Dome, an immersive cinema venue in downtown L.A.” Shockley’s experiences in L.A. are echoed by Timothy Hillman, another experienced location manager who has worked on productions including Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), the recent reboot of Ironside and CSI: NY, which shot in and around L.A. for nine seasons. “CSI: NY used the CBS Studio Center and downtown L.A. for almost everything, with just a few shots actually based in New York,” he says. “It’s amazing how often you can go back to the same spots if you put some thought into the angle you’re going to shoot from or the way you dress the location.” Like Marlowe, Hillman says the compelling reason for shooting N.Y. in L.A. is the quality of the crews and the infrastructure. “The crews here work so fast and in this business, time is money.” This expertise is particularly important when you’re called on to create complex shots: “Over the years, we’ve faced some difficult challenges,” he says. “There was one episode in season nine where Mac [played by Gary Sinise] ordered his team to drain a lake in Central Park. That was actually done at a lake in Malibu. On another occasion — in season six — we had to find somewhere that could double up as a ///
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A NEW YORK LOOK CAN BE FOUND IN THE FACADE OF L.A.’S 1926 CHESTER WILLIAMS OFFICE BUILDING, RENOVATED AS LOFTS. SCOUTED ORIGINALLY BY LOCATION SCOUT BARBARA MILLER FOR A PHARMACEUTICAL COMMERCIAL IN JULY, 2011
PAUL AUDLEY: “DOWNTOWN L.A. IS REGULARLY USED TO DOUBLE FOR NEW YORK BECAUSE OF ITS VERSATILITY” Formula One-style racing track. When you’re trying to makes scenes like that work you’re reliant on a lot of people knowing how to pull it all together.” Paul Audley, president of production-enabling body FilmL.A., says: “Downtown L.A. is regularly used to double for New York because of its versatility. One of its key strengths is that it can double for contemporary or period. We have had current-day series like CSI and Castle but we also have Mad Men, which is famously set against a 1950s backdrop.” AMC’s Mad Men is a classic example of how modern-day L.A. can be transformed into period New York without viewers batting an eyelid. While the show is all about the ad industry in Manhattan, the sets were built in Los Angeles Center Studios, a 20-acre complex where the Vortex Dome is housed. On a number of occasions, the show has visited the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, an iconic location that has been featured in scores of films and TV series. In the case of Mad Men, seasons two, five and six all paid
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a visit to this historic and much loved venue. In season five, lead character Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, takes a trip to upstate New York with his wife Megan, played by Jessica Paré. Along the way they have an argument in a diner that is, in reality, Rod’s Grill in Arcadia — also used as a location for HBO series Luck. In another episode, Don wins an Award at a ceremony that takes place in Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria. This scene was filmed at the Cicada Restaurant in Downtown L.A.’s art deco Oviatt Building. There are many more examples of Mad Men locations in L.A. ranging from Los Angeles Theatre to the Quality Café. But it’s also important to note the key role that the various studio backlots play in delivering the L.A.-N.Y. transformation. This point is picked up by Universal Studios vicepresident of stages & backlot operations Willi Schmidt: “Universal Studios suffered a real setback in 2008 when part of the backlot was destroyed by fire, including the New York street. But the one positive to come out of that was that we were able to take filmmakers’ recommendations into account when we rebuilt our New York street — including advice from the likes of Steven Spielberg.” Examples of how things improved include taller facades, to give the street more of a big-city feel, and
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“All the factors that might bring a N.Y. story to L.A. also apply to other cities,” says Paul Audley. “In recent times, L.A. has doubled for Philadelphia, St Louis and Washington, DC among others. DC is a very interesting example, because homeland security issues prevent crews from having the flexibility they need to film there. That’s one reason L.A. hosts TV shows like Bones, NCIS and Scandal.” Of course, all of this raises one obvious question: ‘Does the decision to shoot in Los Angeles. compromise the end result?’ “I really don’t think so,” says Castle’s Marlowe, who can point to strong audience ratings to back his case. “You might have one or two hero shots that you can’t achieve in L.A., but you can get 99% of what you want with a combination of downtown L.A. and the studios. And don’t forget the big advances in digital effects. If you need to add a specific skyline, L.A. is the place to be.”
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WILLI SCHMIDT “MOST IMPORTANT IS THAT YOU’RE WORKING IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT”
reinforced steel in the facades so that cameras could film from elevated positions. Universal’s New York Street was also narrowed so cameras could capture both sides: “There were also smaller changes,” Schmidt adds. “For example, fire escapes that actually can be used and a manhole cover that has steam coming up out of it.” Universal’s new backlot totals nine acres and has 15 different locations including contemporary Manhattan, the Broadway theater district and 1930s residential buildings. “Most important is that you’re working in a controlled environment… there are no cars racing by, no permits to worry about, no need to keep the local community happy or pay companies for lost business,” Schmidt says. “Then there’s the fact that you have all the support services you need right on site. Everything from stages, grip and lighting equipment to post and sound facilities. Finally, you get to do what you want in terms of dressing the street. Within reason, anything goes — as long as you put it back together the way you found it when you arrived in the first place.” Warner Bros., Paramount and Fox Studios all provide alternatives to Universal and are regularly used for film, TV and commercials. Warners’ New York street was built in the Thirties for the classic gangster pictures of James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, George Raft and Edward G Robinson, but has more recently featured in ER and The Artist (2011). Fox, meanwhile, hosted NYPD Blue. Paramount’s five-acre site covers eight areas of the city including Brooklyn, Brownstones, the Financial District and Greenwich Village and is used for Castle. “We really enjoy working there,” Shockley says. “It’s really close to Raleigh Studios and the people there couldn’t be more helpful.” Paramount also has a Chicago section of the backlot, which uses common architectural styles found in the Midwest.
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SHOWCASE
LOCATION IN PICTURES LOCATION CALIFORNIA HAS TEAMED UP WITH FILM COMMISSIONS, LOCATION SCOUTS, AND PHOTOGRAPHERS TO BRING YOU IMAGES OF STUNNING LOCATIONS AROUND CALIFORNIA. SOME ARE WELL-TRODDEN BY FILM CREWS, OTHERS ARE STILL TO BE MADE FAMOUS ON THE BIG OR SMALL SCREEN... DUMONT DUNES, MOHAVE DESERT LOCATED 33 miles north of Baker, Dumont Dunes are at the southern end of Death Valley. Dumont is unique in that it is tucked in between two mountain ranges giving it a lost-world look and the winds blow the dunes into a steep face with sharp razor tops. It has a very large staging area for equipment and vehicles and can be accessed by a four-mile dirt road that can support heavy loads. Films shot here include: The Core (2003); Hulk (2003); I Robot (2004); Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (2007); Drifter (2008); and Land Of The Lost (2009). (Photo, courtesy Neal Rideout Photography)
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SURFER HUT, CORAL CANYON BEACH, MALIBU SITUATED on Pacific Coast Highway this stunning stretch of sandy coastline is a favorite location for swimming, bodysurfing, boogie boarding and snorkeling. The area is also a great look-out point to watch dolphins and whales in season. (Photo, courtesy Mark Indig)
KINGS RIVER, KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK, SIERRA NEVADA THIS national park is in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Fresno. Kings Canyon is a wide glacial valley featuring tall cliffs, a meandering river, green vibrant meadows and waterfalls. A few miles outside the park, Kings Canyon steepens to become one of the deepest canyons in North America. The area was featured in an Enterprise Car Rental commercial campaign in 2012. (Photo, courtesy Geoff Jukes)
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SIERRAVILLE, SIERRA COUNTY LOCATED at the southern end of the vast Sierra Valley, this area has been used for numerous features and commercials over the years. Productions are drawn to this part of the state for its rugged natural beauty and pristine mountain environments. Movies that have shot here include Vin Diesel’s xXx. (Photo, courtesy Jof Hanwright - www.scout911.com)
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DEL NORTE REDWOODS STATE PARK, DEL NORTE THIS photograph was taken in Stout Grove, part of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. California’s north coast is home to the most spectacular old-growth redwoods, the world’s tallest trees. The cathedral-like groves with their lush ground cover of sword ferns and redwood sorrel are perhaps best known as a film location for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi (1983), which shot in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
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(Photo, courtesy David Baselt, Redwood Hikes Press)
DANA POINT HARBOR, ORANGE COUNTY DANA Point is a picturesque, film-friendly yacht harbor which also has sandy beaches, a rock jetty, restaurants, and the historic replica of the ship The Pilgrim which featured in Richard Henry Dana’s 1840 novel Two Years Before The Mast. The harbor is situated near the freeway, there are several large film-friendly hotels close by, and permit fees are reasonable. Productions to have shot here include The Perfect Storm (2000), The Death And Life Of Bobby Z (2007), and most recently Savages (2012), starring John Travolta. (Photo, courtesy The City of Dana Point)
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EDNA VALLEY VINEYARD, SAN LUIS OBISPO LOCATED in San Luis Obispo County, about three hours north of Los Angeles, this vineyard is in close proximity to beaches, country roads, drivable sand dunes, historic ranches and small-town settings. San Luis Obispo has been called “the happiest city in America” by author Dan Buettner. The vineyard currently sees a lot of event and wedding activity, offering a beautiful backdrop for photography and filming. (Photo, courtesy E. & J. Gallo)
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BIXBY BRIDGE, HIGHWAY 1, MONTEREY COUNTY
BIXBY Bridge, or Bixby Creek Bridge, is a reinforced concrete open-spandrel arch bridge in Big Sur, 120 miles south of San Francisco and 13 miles south of Carmel in Monterey County along Highway 1. Completed in 1932, its aesthetic design and location make it one of the most photographed and filmed bridges along the Pacific Coast. (Photo, courtesy Geoff Jukes)
ROSSLYN HOTEL, DOWNTOWN LA THIS picture was taken from E 5th St between Wall Street and Los Angeles Street, in downtown L.A. Many features and commercials shoot in this area, historically known as Skid Row, as it can pass for an urban area in New York or any large city. (Photo, courtesy Barbara J Miller )
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POINT MONTARA LIGHTHOUSE, MONTARA SITUATED on the southern approach to San Francisco Bay, the lighthouse was established in 1875 and provides striking ocean views of the Northern California coastline and Devils Slide area. As a navigation aid it is still operated by the US Coast Guard. In 2001, the lighthouse was used in the film Bandits (2001) starring Bruce Willis, Cate Blanchett and Billy Bob Thornton. (Photo, courtesy Nora Lee)
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MINARETS, MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN
(Photo, courtesy Brad Peatross/Mammoth Mountain Ski Area)
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THIS view of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in Mammoth Lakes shows the north side of the mountain which offers spectacular views of the Minarets. This area of Mono County has over 3,500 skiable acres, a summit of 11,053 ft, and one of the longest ski seasons in North America, from early November through May and sometimes June. Just a five-hour drive or a one-hour flight from LAX, film productions requiring snow on the ground or dramatic, authentic, pristine mountain landscapes can find it at Mammouth Mountain. Movies shot here include Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984), The Scorpion King (2002), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and The Golden Child (1986). Commercials for Aflac, Ford and Capital One were also, shot here.
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VINCENT THOMAS BRIDGE, PORT OF LOS ANGELES A 1,500 ft-long suspension bridge crossing the Los Angeles Harbor linking San Pedro with Terminal Island, this forms part of State Route 47 and has a clear navigation height of approximately 185 ft. The Port of Los Angeles, falling under control of the film-friendly city of Los Angeles, offers a diverse maritime and commercial backdrop to filmmakers using either publicly-owned port land, or privately-leased terminals. Nearby are a 100-year-old lighthouse, battleship The U.S.S. Iowa and towering cargo cranes. Adjacent San Pedro is large enough to provide plenty of parking and industrial infrastructure for whatever a production might need. The bridge was memorably used in Gone In 60 Seconds (2000). (Photo, courtesy Mark Indig)
HOTEL DEL CORONADO, SAN DIEGO
HOTEL del Coronado is a classic grand beachfront inn and resort built in 1888 and situated across the San Diego Bay from the city of San Diego. This National Historic Landmark has provided a perfect backdrop for films including: Some Like it Hot (1959); Cry For Happy (1961); The Stunt Man (1980); K-9 (1989); My Blue Heaven (1990); and Mr. Wrong (1996). The Hotel del Coronado is said to be Wizard Of Oz author L Frank Baum’s inspiration for the Emerald City. ( Photo, courtesy Hotel del Coronado)
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POINT CABRILLO LIGHT STATION, MENDOCINO POINT Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park in Mendocino is the farthest southwesterly point on the Mendocino Coast and the closest point for watching migrating whales. Because it is on a 300-acre nature preserve, there is a lot of room for filming equipment and very easy access to and from the lighthouse on a short well-paved road. The building was completely restored in 2000 to its 1909 construction specifications, and could therefore fit any period of history from 1909 to the present, as well as doubling for other countries. The Majestic (2001), starring Jim Carrey, was filmed here. (Photo, courtesy Bruce Lewis )
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WEST MARIN, MARIN COUNTY THIS tunnel of trees is to be found in West Marin County, an area of outstanding natural beauty located in the North San Francisco Bay Area, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Fransisco. The landscape has proved popular for commercials, including VW, Audi, Infiniti, Smuckers and Coca-Cola.
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(Photo, courtesy Jof Hanwright - www.scout911.com)
MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO MARKET Street is an important three-mile thoroughfare in San Francisco, cutting across from the waterfront to the hills of Twin Peaks. This image shows a view from the roof of a building on Market Street. The location features a huge open rooftop, with ample space for camera movement and long-lens work, as well as panoramic views, and film-friendly management. Notably this location was used in Dirty Harry (1971) and Basic Instinct (1992). (Photo, courtesy Baldwin Production Services)
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HIGHWAY 247, SAN BERNADINO COUNTY THIS vista looks north over Highway 247 to Lucerne Dry Lake. The location is popular for car commercials with a clear straight road, beautiful desert mountains in the distance and no sign of civilization. The road is above the dry lake surface which allows for angles difficult to film on most roadways. With assistance from both the California Film Commission and the Inland Empire Film Commission, filming here requires a standard highway permit. (Photo, courtesy Norman Diaz)
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MONO LAKE, MONO COUNTY MONO Lake in the heart of Mono County is a vast, shallow inland saline lake. Because there is no outlet for the lake, high levels of salt accumulate and the area is known for its intriguing, mystical-looking tufa limestone formations. Mono Lake has attracted a range of productions to the site, including films, commercials and documentaries. (Photo, courtesy Chris Tinker/Mono County Tourism & Film Commission)
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LITTLE SHASTA CHURCH, NEAR MONTAGUE, SISKIYOU COUNTY
THE LITTLE Shasta Church is seen here looking south from Ball Mountain, east of Montague in the Shasta Valley, an area with an amazing variety of natural beauty and cultural history. Siskiyou County is at the northern-most part of California, bordering Oregon. The Shasta Valley and this church are the backdrop for the annual Montague balloon fair. (Photo, courtesy Jane English - www.eheart.com)
GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY, GRIFFITH PARK, LOS ANGELES
FEATHER RIVER, SACRAMENTO VALLEY
THE OBSERVATORY is an iconic part of Los Angeles and the city’s cinema history. On a clear day, the facility offers panoramic views of L.A. from the ocean to downtown and beyond. There is ample on-site parking and the process to film at the Observatory is straightforward. Also, nearby Griffith Park is used to film natural scenes of all kinds. The Observatory featured in two major sequences of the James Dean film Rebel Without A Cause (1955) which helped to make it an international emblem of California. Other films have used this location including: Queen Of The Damned (2002); Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003); and Transformers (2007). TV productions shot here include 24, Adventures Of Superman and 90210. (Photo, courtesy FilmL.A. Inc./Sharokin Isayo)
THIS is one of a few bridges on the Feather River off Highway 70, near Pulga. Further up the canyon is Arch Rock Tunnel and Elephant Butte Tunnel, and bridges at Rock Creek, Storrie and Tobin, where the river, train tracks and highway all come together. The canyon was a key location for the 1985 TV show Bay Area Backroads. (Photo, courtesy Mark Kitchell )
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F E AT U R E
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSTAINABILITY
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WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS TOWARDS A MORE ECO-FRIENDLY APPROACH TO PRODUCTION? JULIAN NEWBY SPEAKS TO SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WORKING FOR A GREENER FILM INDUSTRY
SABRINA (SHANNON WOODWARD), JIMMY (LUCAS NEFF), BURT (GARRET DILLAHUNT) AND VIRGINIA (MARTHA PLIMPTON) IN DEJA VU MAN, AN EPISODE OF FOX’S HIT COMEDY SERIES RAISING HOPE, A PRODUCTION WHOSE SETS ARE BUILT USING ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIALS. © 2013-2014 FOX AND ITS RELATED ENTITIES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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G
REEN approaches to production have come a long way since filmmaking was first identified as a target by those who are keeping an eye on the environment. Early campaigners really started with the basics, for example encouraging crews to use refillable containers rather than disposable plastic water bottles for drinking; encouraging the separation of trash on set to make recycling easier; and renting fuel-efficient or hybrid vehicles for transportation. But things have moved on, with today’s approaches to eco-friendly production focusing on bigger issues, for example the employment of new technologies to help reduce power consumption and the use of low-impact materials for set construction. “I would say there are green practices written into many aspects of our work, but the true measure of success is that some of them just feel like standard practice,” says Ali Brown, executive producer at Prettybird, an L.A.- and London-based commercial production company and vice-president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP). “We are getting to a place where the term ‘green’ isn’t required to delineate what has become standard operating procedure. Of course there is tremendous room for growth, but things such as eliminating plastic water bottles at our office, or providing pre-production booklets on a flash drive versus in a printed form, are now simply taken to be the norm.” She adds: “The AICP has written green guidelines for production, which begin with many of what people now consider the basics — part of being a citizen of the world — and progress from there. They provide a great entry point and a roadmap of how to take these practices to the next level, which will help change that ‘many’ into an ‘every’.” Amanda Scarano Carter is chair of the Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) Green Committee and has over 20 years experience of working on location with production crews around the world. “Habits are hard to change, but if you start with small changes they become new habits and you build from there,” she says. “Ironically, the way films used to be made was a good model: repurposing everything for multiple productions. We’ve just gotten away from it over the years. I hope we can head back in that direction.”
RICK MAAS “EVENTUALLY, I THINK WE’LL GET TO THE DAY WHERE WE’RE PROBABLY 90% LED ON SET” The purpose of the PGA’s Green Committee is to educate and promote sustainability within the entertainment industry through its West, East and Pacific NW chapters. These efforts include hosting screenings, panels, providing booths at other industry eco-events, including CBS Eco-Fair, and Film Biz Recycling’s Eco-Expo. It has also developed two websites: Greenproductionguide.com, an interactive, international database developed to further PGA Green’s goal of integrating sustainable practices into production; and PGAgreen.org, an online resource offering related news and information, videos, and green best practices. The ultimate goal for activists in the field is of course a 100% carbon-neutral — or zero-impact — production. Is this an eventual possibility? “We can dream!” Scarano Carter says. “I certainly know people who have tried, and I applaud them for the incredible creativity and bravery in pushing back against the status quo. In the end, it’s really about awareness and effort.”
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LED LIGHTING CAN SAVE UP TO 90% OF THE ENERGY REQUIRED ON SET. PHOTO: MAC TECH LED
One production that recently moved towards this goal is 2014’s About Last Night, directed by Steve Pink and starring Kevin Hart. A Screen Gems production, it proudly claims to be almost completely generator-free. “What I wanted to do is shoot a film at a location in downtown Los Angeles, I wanted to embrace the world around me and not fight the world around me, which has been the case for so many years with making movies,” says the film’s executive producer Glenn Gainor, who began his crusade to reduce generator power on Tim Story’s 2012 movie Think Like A Man . “You look around, you see how the city has a lit environment, but you re-light the environment to your own taste,” he says. The cameras used on the film were key to saving energy. “In this particular case I embraced low-light sensitivity, and used Sony F55 and F65 cameras, which are 4K cameras and extremely lightsensitive,” Gainor adds. “By using energy-efficient [LED] lighting, combined with finding locations that had city street lighting, combined with finding locations that allowed us to plug-in, plus a story that lent itself to practical locations, that allowed us to be bold in our choice to rid ourselves of the large generators for lighting the movie.” NBCUniversal has furthered its attempts to lessen the impact of production on the environment with its investment in Mac Tech LED, a producer of LED lighting for the film industry. Executive in charge is Rick Maas, who has been observing the development of LED lighting for some time. “Several years ago we saw the progression that the technology had been achieving,” he says. “LED historically had very poor color quality and output capability compared to the tools we were using, but we have seen improvements taking place in the past three to five years and about three years ago we felt that it was getting to the point where we could use LED lighting to replace some of the older conventional technology which has been in use in the industry for up to 70 years.” And so Mac Tech LED was established to create lighting that can compete with the current lighting technology that is used by filmmakers. “Lights that
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SERVING THE ENVIRONMENT THE FILM Commission of Tulare County, in California’s Central Valley, takes a sustainable approach to the filmmaking that occurs within Balch Park, one of its most popular film locations. Home to hundreds of giant sequoias and scenic vistas that include lakes and high country, Balch Park is often used by productions looking for Yosemite-like settings, but free of tourists. Tulare County uses film location fees generated in Balch Park to sustain this wilderness area, which is located within the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Tulare County film commissioner and tourism manager, Eric Coyne, says that officials are currently evaluating using film activity fees generated during 2012-2013 to fund pond restorations to enhance habitat for endangered golden trout, an elusive species generally found only in the High Sierra back country.
umental strides in reducing our environmental impact.” For Glenn Gainor, the use of solar-powered trailers would represent a big step forward. One company pioneering the production of green transportation for the industry is King Kong Production Vehicles, based in Burbank. The company is headed up by keen outdoorsman David Rovsek, who says he is seeing “rising demand from both production companies and clients who are requiring sets to become as eco-friendly as possible”. Rovsek adds: “One of the most talked about features is our solar generator, because it makes no noise and does not give the trailer any vibration. Location mangers love this when we are in sensitive residential neighborhoods, early or late at night.” The sound department enjoys the benefits too as its work is not affected by the constant hum of a diesel generator. “Our units also do have bio-diesel generators for back up and the other day I was on set and we started up the bio diesel generator. We were immediately called and asked to go back on to solar power because the director was in the client lounge on a conference call and there was no noise with the solar power.” For Brown, “eliminating all paper and plastic items would make a big difference. With transportation, using trucks that are bio-diesel or solar powered would be a great step. And for art departments, putting a total emphasis on using environmentally-friendly materials when building sets or reusing materials versus disposing of them, would be the biggest change we could make. It isn’t always possible, but these three areas would collectively have a huge impact in my opinion.” Art director John Zachary is doing exactly as Brown suggests. On the last season of Fox’s comedy series Raising Hope, Zachary designed and built an entire set that used only sustainable and non-toxic materials. For example instead of lauan, the tropical hardwood that is commonly used for set building, he used a new material called Ecor. The product comes from Noble Environmental Technologies, based in San Diego, and is made from any kind of recycled pulp — paper, cardboard or agricultural materials. He also used carpet tiles supplied by Chicago-based company Flor, which has a returnand-recycle program, so that the flooring could be re-used once the production was over. Zachary says that other similar products need to be developed to reduce the environmental impact of set construction, and that products such as Ecor are crucial to a sustainable future. “The use of tropical hardwoods such as lauan can only have bad results and should be banned,” he says. “Producers should make the environment an important concern of the production. There are responsible ways to build and shoot beautiful sets without compromising standards. It may take a little more thought or a little more money, but the benefits are priceless. I think that it is unacceptable to build huge sets without regard for their environmental impact. There should always be a plan to reuse, and recycle. The finishes should also be considered carefully since so many are terribly toxic and there are always alternatives.”
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we use currently can be 50 to 200 amps per unit. Those same lights can be replaced with LED lights from 5 to 50 amps so your savings can be upwards of 70% to as high as 90% in some applications,” Maas says. “With the early LED technology you could light an actor from about 10 feet away. Now you can actually light a 30,000 sq ft stage and large exterior sets with LED technology.” As any actor or director will tell you, traditional lighting that uses tungsten technology gives off a considerable amount of heat — and none of that heat is transformed into light so it is completely wasted. What is more, in interior situations, that heat sometimes has to be dealt with using air conditioning, doubling the wastage of power. “If you look at a color graph of an LED light, when you get into that red spectrum, which is the part that produces all the heat, it drops to nearly nothing.” As a result, Maas says he is witnessing up to 70% less air conditioning used in sets with high LED usage. The use of LED lighting can result in efficiencies in several areas. “Obviously savings are coming from dropping power — between 70% and 90% and that’s huge,” he says. “But also, what it takes to drive that power. The materials required to power-up the set drop drastically as well, so you’re not having to produce as much copper cable, you don’t need the generators so you’re not spewing diesel exhaust. Eventually, I think we’ll get to the day where we’re probably 90% LED on set and now it’s probably 10-15%. So there’s a heck of an opportunity for us to make a difference and that’s what drove us to decide to move into this technology. There are so many spin-off benefits from it. It’s great if you can do something green, and this industry is very keen on that and so is this company. But if you can get the cost benefits as well, then it’s hard to argue against it.” Green approaches to production don’t always save money, but many people are agreed that the measures are worth taking and that savings will always result somewhere in the process. “If you’re comparing a green service or product to a regular one, it may cost more on a line item basis,” Scarano Carter says. “However, more cost-effective green solutions are being developed every day. The real cost savings are created through increased efficiency and reduced waste across multiple departments.” Prettybird’s Brown adds: “When thinking about on-set production practices, I do believe [some green applications] cost a bit more but as there are more vendors, more options, more competition, I do believe that the costs will become even. And eventually, it won’t be a choice, it will be the standard.” So what other changes would make a difference to the impact of production on the environment? Scarano Carter believes green production practices have to become mandatory, “like health and safety. This can no longer be optional. Once that happens we will make mon-
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BOSCH MAKING A SCENE THE HARRY BOSCH SERIES OF BOOKS BY CRIME WRITER MICHAEL CONNELLY HAS BEEN TRANSLATED INTO OVER 30 LANGUAGES AND READ BY MILLIONS AROUND THE WORLD. AND NOW THOSE READERS CAN BREATHE A SIGH OF RELIEF — OR A GASP OF EXCITEMENT — AS AT LAST THE STORIES AND CHARACTERS ARE BEING BROUGHT TO LIFE ON THE SMALL SCREEN. AND YES, OF COURSE, THEY ARE BEING SHOT IN L.A. JULIAN NEWBY REPORTS
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JIM MCKAY, DIRECTOR OF THE BOSCH PILOT TV MOVIE, DIRECTS TITUS WELLIVER (RIGHT) AS BOSCH WITH AMY PRICE-FRANCIS WHO PLAYS HONEY ‘MONEY’ CHANDLER, A CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY WITH A REPUTATION FOR GOING AFTER POLICE OFFICERS
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ARRY Bosch fans have been waiting for this for far too long. Tied-up for many years by a deal with Paramount, the 18 books telling of the exploits of author Michael Connelly’s homicide detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch have been confined to print for some 20 years. Not that lovers of Bosch have been deprived; Connelly’s cinematic writing style tells compelling stories while painting the most vivid pictures of Bosch’s Los Angeles. It’s just that they are written like movies and so nobody has ever been able to understand quite why they have not been adapted for film or television. Well the wait is over and in the view of Bosch’s creator, it was worth it. Many would jump to blame Hollywood. “I’ve had some success and disappointments with Hollywood,” Michael Connelly says. “I know the easy thing for writers to say is that Hollywood people are stupid and they don’t know what they are doing, but more often than not, in my case people have known what they’re doing. Harry Bosch languished for years at Paramount and that was because when scripts were written, they didn’t capture his character — they were just procedurals. And no matter how frustrating it was for me, it was a very smart move on their part not to make these movies based on what I
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read in the scripts. And I had a part in the scripts — I’m not blaming everyone else, I mean I was hired at least twice to try and rewrite other people’s scripts and get the character of Harry Bosch in there and I had a hard time doing it. So I was part of the issue, so I’m not blaming people.” And now there are 18 books to draw from, and television has come a long way — with many observers saying that these days the small screen is telling stories better than the big screen. “Now we’ve got here, we have an immense amount of character and material to draw from, so it becomes a no-brainer: we’ll go for the long-form, we’ll go for television or streaming or whatever we call this now, and have hours instead of minutes to tell the Harry Bosch stories,” Connelly says. “Yeah I went through a lot of frustration but it was for a very good reason and we are at that reason now.” Talks began on a Bosch television series back in 2011 when Connelly met executive producer Henrik Bastin of Fabrik Entertainment, the L.A.-based scripted house of Germany’s Red Arrow Entertainment Group. “Henrik and I met two years ago to talk about doing this and by the end of that breakfast it was clear that, while nobody could know Bosch better than me, he was up there, close to knowing Bosch as well as I do.”
Connelly, Bastin and showrunner Eric Overmyer are executive producers, and Jim McKay is director on the pilot film, known simply as Bosch. The production company is Fabrik Entertainment for Amazon, which is streaming the film from February 2014, before the full series is developed. Bastin explains his relationship with Bosch: “I had read a few of Michael’s books over the years and then eight or so years ago, when my wife was pregnant with our first child, we had one of those rainy summers in Sweden — so from our small cottage in the archipelago we took the boat into the city and went to a small book shop and I found all of the Harry Bosch books in paperback. We bought all of them and went through them that summer. We actually ended up naming our son Harry.” Difficult though it must have been to contemplate handing over his baby to someone else, Connelly felt he was placing Bosch in good hands. “By building this web of people who were not just taking jobs but wanted to be involved in the Harry Bosch project, I think it allowed me to step back and say, ‘These are the experts, they love Harry Bosch, they’re going to watch out for him and I’m going to be there too.’ So I didn’t really have to say, ‘This is my baby /// and you’re not going to mess with this or
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ANGELS FLIGHT, THE FUNICULAR RAILWAY IN DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, AND THE TITLE OF ONE OF MICHAEL CONNELLY’S HARRY BOSCH NOVELS
that.’ This is their baby too.” The experts included many of the team that had worked on Brad Furman’s 2011 adaptation of Connelly’s book The Lincoln Lawyer, starring Matthew McConaughey as another Connelly character Mickey Haller, who runs his one-man L.A. law firm from the back seat of a Lincoln town car. “I loved the movie. It’s different in some ways from the book, and McConaughey is different from the guy in the book in some ways, but he nailed the character,” Connelly says. “And the milieu and the look of the film was just perfect — we have the production designer and many of the people involved on that film, in the Bosch show.” Crucial to Connelly’s first discussions with Bastin was the subject of where Bosch would be shot. For Connelly that was non-negotiable. “When I met Henrik, I said, ‘I know how Hollywood works and I’m going to tell you right now that we can be great friends, but I’m not going to do this on a promise. I’m going to put it in the contract that every shot of this show must be shot in L.A., or I won’t make a deal with you.’ And he agreed to that two years ago, so since then that has never really been an issue.” For Connelly and his readers, Harry Bosch and L.A. are inseparable. “I think people have a
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MICHAEL CONNELLY “I’M GOING TO PUT IT IN THE CONTRACT THAT EVERY SHOT OF THIS SHOW MUST BE SHOT IN L.A., OR I WON’T MAKE A DEAL WITH YOU” tendency to break down books into character and place and plot, and to me there is no breakdown, especially between character and place. L.A. is Harry Bosch, and Harry Bosch is L.A. and that’s the way it is. And so you cannot try to re-create that somewhere else — somewhere you might get a tax break or something. Yes it will be more expensive to shoot in L.A. but that’s what we wanted to do.” “Los Angeles for me has always been the other character in these books,” Bastin says. “I’ve always been fascinated by Los Angeles. I have this weird love-hate relationship with it. I think it
is truly a fantastic city.” An unexpected bonus came with the help the production received from a city full of Bosch fans. “What we didn’t see coming, which was very helpful, is that Harry Bosch has been around for 20 years and [in the books] he goes into some very real places and it created a great goodwill for us,” Connelly says. “People opened their doors for us. And yes there are expensive things and difficulties, there always are wherever you film — but places like Musso & Frank Grill [the real-life restaurant used regularly by Bosch] said, ‘Yes, please film here.’ The guy who runs Angels Flight [the downtown funicular railway after which one of the books is named] said, ‘Whatever you need!’ And for the first time possibly ever, the LAPD let us film in real police stations. So you know stuff happened that we didn’t expect to happen when Henrik agreed two years ago that this should be shot in L.A. That decision ended up leading to a bounty of goodwill from the city.” “A lot of people came up to me and said, ‘It’s so cool that you’re shooting it here. You could have gone anywhere’,” Bastin says. “That’s the kind of reaction we got.” Much of the goodwill was for Connelly himself. “In L.A. Michael Connelly is a rock star,” says Bosch location manager Chris Fuentes, a member of the Location Managers Guild of ///
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America. “He doesn’t demand star attention, but everywhere we went people came out and they’d say, ‘Hey, you’re Michael Connelly, can I have a picture with you?’ It never failed. And there were so many fans that would come forward and help us with the locations, or give us information.” The goodwill extended to official organizations and departments that would normally be out of bounds to any filmmaker — notably L.A.’s courtrooms and police stations. “I went to the governor’s office and the California Film Commission (CFC) to gain access to closed, state superior courts, because we really wanted to shoot the court scenes in an actual court, not on a stage,” Fuentes says. “We gained access to film at The Federal Courthouse downtown, which has been routinely denied over the years. This was through a program run by the General Services Administration (GSA) which is designed to promote filming on historic federal property in order to publicize these public assets and to help raise money for their upkeep.” Scheduling meant that the production ended up not being able to shoot at any of the courthouses to which they gained access, “but the good news is that we have opened them up for other film companies”. And the access wasn’t wasted on this production either: “We eventually shot in a courtroom set in the Masonic Lodge in Silverlake,” Fuentes says. “We completely re-did it to resemble the actual Federal Courthouse where I had the permission to photograph all the historic courtrooms. That had not been permitted before — so our production designer used the photographs to reconstruct a composite of those courtrooms.” Connelly was very hands-on too where location scouting was concerned. “One of the amazing things to me was, the pilot opens with what you can call a teaser where Bosch and [his partner] Edgar are following a suspect and they’re watching his house,” he says. “I worked some years back on a [Bosch] book called Echo 799 HSH Location CA Ad 2FO.pdf
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Park and I spent some time in Echo Park for that and I remembered a street where the houses were very working class, but they had wonderful views onto the street. I wanted to get that flavor into one of the opening shots of the show. So I went up and drove around there at night and I saw a house which I thought was perfect. I put that house and its address into the script and we ended up getting that exact house. It was quite amazing. It wasn’t like a house that’s on a roll-call that location managers have when they need a house in a certain area and it’s been used several times. This was a knock on the door of a house with bars on the window and graffiti and so forth, and we were able to secure it. That meant so much to me because it was also the opening shot for the show.” “This was my first big experience of shooting in L.A. and I have to say I am happily surprised,” Bastin says. “There is a very old well-oiled machinery here. Is it a bit expensive? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. You get the best crews in the world. Here in Los Angeles is where the best film workers in the world work, period. “What it gets you is that you can access some fantastic actors on a day-to-day basis — you know, Alan Rosenberg, Scott Wilson — these high-level older gentlemen who would never have flown over to Vancouver in November for one day. They just wouldn’t. We could pick them up from their house in the morning, shoot the scene, then take them home at the end of the day and they love it because they want to be a part of a great show.” What all Bosch fans will be anticipating most is the first sight of Harry’s house. It’s where he does his thinking, it’s where he bonds with his beloved daughter and the women in his life, it’s where he listens to jazz music into the early hours while poring over evidence, and it’s where he stares out from his deck at the city below, with a beer and a cigarette, contemplating his love-hate relationship with Los Angeles. And here too the team found exactly the right place. “Our line producer, Pieter Jann Brugge — who
was executive producer on Michael Mann’s movie Heat about 20 years ago — he knew this house and had used it in that movie, so we were able to secure it. And one of the cool things about it — in the pilot we are only in the house at night — but in the day you can see it has a major power line trunk that goes right over the house and kind of swoops down towards La Cienega Boulevard. It’s a really cool daytime visual. That’s for future episodes,” Connelly says. “Bosch’s view has expanded from the books. We really wanted to bring L.A. into his house, more so than it is in the books — it is a great spot.” “The great thing is that that owner doesn’t stay there much so we were able to dress it up quite a lot,” Bastin says. “It was perfect for the part.” Bosch fans will know how precarious the house is. Built on the hills overlooking the city, it’s the type of house you stare at wondering, ‘How does that stay up?’ “All of the house is on stilts so we had to get a structural engineer to do a weight test to see how much equipment we could bring in there,” Fuentes says. “It’s a lair, an eagle’s nest overlooking the city — and you have the wildlife below, and the wild, wild life even further below that. It’s a very special place.” And so to Hieronymus Bosch himself. The locations are perfect, but if the chosen actor does not do the job for the readers, all could be lost. Titus Welliver was eventually given the honor and for Connelly, at least, he’s the right man for the job. “I know Harry Bosch better than anybody and I think Titus nails it, I just think he’s really good. I think anybody who is aware of Bosch will be thrilled with how it begins; there is a contemplative moment of Harry on his back porch while Frank Morgan’s saxophone is playing in background. It is so right out of the books, so on the money. I think that’s the moment when the people who know who Harry Bosch is, without realizing it, they’re going to be nodding their heads and saying, ‘That’s Harry’.”
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THERE’S SOMETHING THAT THOSE IN THE ADVERTISING WORLD CALL ‘THE CALIFORNIA VIBE’. IT BRINGS A SENSE OF SPACE, SUNSHINE AND ENERGY TO ANY BRAND WHOSE SPOT IS SHOT IN THE GOLDEN STATE. DEBBIE LINCOLN WENT IN SEARCH OF THE VIBE…
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T’S NO exaggeration to say that pretty well every car company in the world has, at some time, shot a commercial in California. With year-round sunshine and wide, empty roads in ocean, desert or mountain settings, what better place to show off your brand? And it’s not just the motor industry that has warmed to this part of the world. From healthcare to sportswear California has proved the perfect setting for pretty well every kind of product. And today, with long-form branded content and online viral ads adding to the commercial mix, the state is proving even more popular among brands and film production companies keen to stand out from the rest. “We shoot the majority of our work in California,” says Jonny Zeller, co-founder of production company Sweatpants Media, based in Long Beach, CA and Minneapolis, MN. “Our productions have taken us from the sand dunes in Glamis to the Safari Park in San Diego to the mountains of Napa Valley and all throughout the Los Angeles area. We’ve pretty much covered the whole state. Our team is made up of transplants from Minnesota, Canada and Colorado, so the mild winters and year-round sun is an extremely welcome change. It also
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means shooting with consistently amazing weather and a wealth of location styles, which is a big part of what makes California great for filming. But more importantly, shooting here gives us easy access to some of the best talent and crew in the world.” Recent work from Sweatpants includes an Adidas spot, which plays on the image of Southern California as a place where people live to be fit and enjoy the sunshine. “The lifestyle portion of the Adidas commercial was shot in Venice,” says Sweatpants senior producer Tim Frazier. “The beach and the surf-town aesthetic is an interesting thing. Many clients like highlighting the lifestyle that is associated with being on the beach without identifying any one particular beach. Adidas didn’t want to blatantly showcase Venice, but they wanted the essence of Venice to come across on screen. That seems to be a common theme with our clients. We don’t care where it is as long as we get to spend our days in the sun!” California was also important for showing off BMW’s R90S motorcycle in a short branded documentary film for the German motor manufacturer. “Portraying the ‘California vibe’ was very important for our BMW mini doc,” Zeller says. “The piece transitioned back and forth between Germany and California and because the motorcycle was designed here, it was important to showcase the southern California influence. Our color grading, location selection, and overall aesthetic all had to help convey the essence of the motorcycle and the area.” For a 2014 Toyota commercial, the Japanese company was looking for “a fast-paced,
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A SCENE FROM AN ADIDAS SPOT, SHOT AT VENICE BEACH
light-hearted television commercial that would appeal to a younger, action sports-oriented consumer”, Zeller says. “We needed to feature three cars in the commercial — the Tacoma, Corolla and Prius — and Toyota wanted to put each one in a different environment.” California had it all. “We paired the Tacoma with the mountains, the Corolla with the beach and the Prius with the city.” Zeller adds: “We chose to shoot in the Angeles National Forest near Big Bear for the mountain portion because it allowed for easy access, great scenery and of course, the right overall feel. We shot the remaining portion of the commercial in Long Beach because of the more affordable permitting fees and variety of locations. Both the beach and the city scenes were shot near downtown.” The aim for Sweatpants is always to shoot car commercials in the state. “We shoot our car commercials in California because it makes our life easier,” Zeller says. “Whether it is a dry lake bed, a curvy mountain road, or a beachfront boulevard, California offers versatility unmatched by any other state. The proximity of different location styles and predictably pleasant weather removes a lot of variables present elsewhere. Los Angeles also offers a wide variety of production resources that you just can’t find in other cities. We frequently use camera cars, motion control, and a wide variety of high-end cinema-quality equipment. These types of resources are much harder to come by outside of L.A.” He adds: “There is a reason people from around the world associate Hollywood with the best in film production.”
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F E AT U R E
MEET THE PROFESSIONALS WHO DO YOU ASK FOR HELP WHEN LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT CALIFORNIA LOCATION? LIZA FOREMAN SPOKE TO SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHOSE JOB IT IS TO FIND THE RIGHT PLACE TO SHOOT
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HE STATE of California covers close to 164,000 square miles, and its population is close to 40 million — that’s the same as Poland, more than Canada and almost double the population of Australia. Thankfully a lot of those people have a great deal of experience in filming across this vast area, and are ready and willing to help those who haven’t. Veronique Vowell is one such person. Over the past 12 years she has specialized in securing locations in the Los Angeles area for TV series that aren’t necessarily set there. For example the police series Cold Case which ran on CBS from 2003 to 2010. Cold Case was set in Philadelphia, but shot in L.A. Why? “I think it’s the facilities. I think the studios and the production companies, when they have multiple productions going, it’s actually easier for them if they are in L.A. because they are able to have a more handson approach,” Vowell says. “If the writers and showrunners are here in L.A. and there are problems on another show and it’s in another state, there’s more of a divide — here if there are issues you can have a meeting, you can have a face-to-face and you can be right there with the production almost immediately.”
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ABC’S SCANDAL, SHOT IN L.A., SET IN D.C.
Recent work for Vowell has included ABC’s political series Scandal, again shot in L.A., but set mainly in Washington, D.C. — and for which she won the California On Location Awards (COLA) Location Manager Of The Year Award in 2013. “What I love the most about doing this series is the challenge, every week, that all of the locations have to look like Washington, D.C., Virginia or Maryland. Recent locations to feature in Scandal have included the Huntingdon Botanical Gardens in San Marino, and Exposition Park and Hancock Park, both in L.A. NBC’s hit political series The West Wing is another Washington, D.C.-based story filmed in L.A. — and Vowell has regularly turned to Mike Leon, location manager for that series, for advice on how to shoot L.A. for D.C. And there is further help available, too: “Here in L.A. we have a web group called LocoList that was founded by a commercials scout years ago and there are probably 500 location managers that scout on this chat room,” she says. “It’s wonderful sometimes when you are at a loss you can post a request and there are 500 brains that can come up with ideas of places we might have forgotten.” Producer and location manager Joe Madalena is originally from Rochester, New York. Madalena worked in Los Angeles for 23 years, producing commercials, television and films, including Fritz Kiersch’s Children Of The Corn (1984), Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys (1987) and Brian Levant’s Beethoven (1992). In 1993, he moved to Santa Rosa, Sonoma County and launched Prime Film Sites, Northern California’s largest locations database. It includes more than 4,500 listings, spanning 30 categories — including artisans and wineries — from Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties. One of his jobs is to find places that double as Europe for the wellness-oriented Melaleuca Company and its Sei Bella cosmetics line catalogs. “The sites are mainly privately owned villas or wineries in Napa and Sonoma that can double for Italy or France,” he says. These sites represent only part of his knowledge base. “Having lived and worked in Northern California for the past 20 years, I have an encyclopedic memory of every location possibility in Sonoma, Napa and Marin Counties that can match a client’s specifications,” he says. “This part of the state offers a wide range of scenery that is available within a relatively short drive. In Sonoma County you have access to the Pacific, Redwood National Park, ranches, farms, world-class wineries and vineyards, all ///
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within a two-hour drive from the Golden Gate.” In addition to the California Film Commission, Madalena cites chambers of commerce, film-permit offices and real-estate websites as good places to scout. Gregory Alpert’s career has taken him countrywide but some of his favorite locations are in California. For Todd Phillips’ The Hangover Part III (2013), Alpert was awarded the COLA Location Professional Of The Year Award – Studio Features for 2013. Some of his favorite spots include La Casa Pacifica in San Clemente, the former Western Whitehouse of President Richard Nixon. Others
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include the Santa Anita Park, which served as the main home location for the HBO series Luck starring Dustin Hoffman. He also likes the Foresthill Bridge in Auburn, which was used in the opening sequence in Rob Cohen’s xXx with Vin Diesel (2002). “It spans the north fork of the American river at the confluence of where the north and middle forks meet up. It is the highest bridge [deck height] in California and the fourth-highest bridge in the U.S.,” he says. Jeffrey T Spellman, the location manager for ///
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the CBS series Criminal Minds was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. As a child, he traveled the state with his father, John Spellman, who was County Executive and Governor of Washington. “As an intern in the local film office, Hollywood producers discovered that I had a knack for knowing the area and having a creative eye,” he says. While studying at The Evergreen State College, he managed his first pilot for Aaron Spelling Productions. “On graduation, I moved to Los Angeles and was lucky to manage my first big show, Airwolf. I am currently enjoying working on my ninth season of Criminal Minds,” he says. In the series, the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit investigates a crime in a different American city each week. Criminal Minds films regularly in Los Angeles, Glendale, Altadena and Santa Clarita. “Somehow we are always inevitably filming our greenbelt shows (Washington, Oregon, Midwest and ‘Back East’) during the dry brown summer and our dry southeast shows during the moist and green winter,” Spellman says, letting readers into a small secret. “Our series carries plenty of cut brush, shrubs and trees to help us with the cheat.” And the show has also made some friends, who have helped with an inevitable problem here: parking. “Being a ninth-season show we carry a tremendous amount of equipment and vehicles with us on a daily basis,” he says. “It is becoming more difficult to find nearby parking for our circus. Fortunately, neighbors are happy to rent out their yards and driveways for all of our accessories.” A few seasons ago the Criminal Minds Alaskan episode shot in Fra-
KEEP IT IN CALIFORNIA ANOTHER COLA winner this year is Caleb Duffy, who won Location Professional Of The Year – Independent Feature Film, for Steven Soderbergh’s Behind The Candelabra (2013). Duffy recently served as location manager for Disney’s McFarland (2014), set in the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County. In McFarland, directed by Niki Caro and starring Kevin Costner, a track coach in a small California town transforms a team of athletes into championship contenders. Duffy’s work has taken him to a range of locations including Palm Springs, Central California, Los Angeles and Long Beach. But some of his best new discoveries are indoors. Alongside favorite spots that include Black’s Beach in San Diego, he recently filmed inside The Getty Museum for Thor (2011). “The Getty Museum had never had a production so there was an unknown there and it went off perfectly. Black’s Beach in San Diego is a State Park so there are always challenges including animal preservation issues; it is a California Condor habitat,” he says, but adds: “Anything that can be kept in California is an advantage.” BLACK’S BEACH, SAN DIEGO: CHALLENGES INCLUDE ANIMAL PRESERVATION ISSUES
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zier Park in California’s Kern County. “With snow on the peaks behind us, we worked with all of the merchants and neighbors in creating our fantasy. It seemed like the whole town came out. Our cast let the local kids hang out with them on the set and the crew enjoyed the hotels, dining and nightlife,” Spellman says. The show may even have made local history: “For the obligatory docks and float plane arrival we filmed on Terminal Island in the Los Angeles harbor. With the assistance of the Port of Los Angeles, FilmL.A. and the Coast Guard we landed our plane in the harbor. No one locally could recall that ever being done before.” For Spellman, some of the positives in California include adaptability. “We can be at Daytona Beach in Florida, the desert of Afghanistan, the Rocky Mountains and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. all within an hour,” he says. But filming here has had its problems. He recalls a day that he managed a film that was directed by, and also starred, Dennis Hopper. “We shot in a very exclusive condominium in Marina Del Rey. Most residents didn’t even know we were there. A well-known sitcom actor who lived in the building came to the set and schmoozed with Dennis for several hours. The next morning we learned that he had actually complained about us filming there.” The bigger the talent, the bigger the problem? But as with filming in any part of the world, the local people and environment must always be the number-one consideration of any production. “It is a fine high-wire balancing act filming in California. You must listen and address the concerns of all the affected neighbors and communities while still fighting to achieve maximum access and success for the show. It is not possible to make everyone happy, but that doesn’t mean that we should stop trying.” Spellman speaks for many when he says that in recent years California’s production industry has seen some quiet — even tough — periods despite being the cinema capital of the world. But business is good right now. “It is now crazy busy here in town and we are back to the good old days of fighting for locations. When Criminal Minds finally finishes its tremendous run, I sure hope that it stays busy locally.” And one of the reasons it’s “crazy busy”? “We have the best crews in the world. I hear this from countless directors and producers.” “Los Angeles Mayor (Eric) Garcetti and the state’s newly appointed ‘Film Czar’ Tom Sherak, are showing great support for the film industry, according to Spellman. “Filming is just as important as other subsidized industries that maintain the California economy.” Mike Fantasia worked for 13 years as a realty specialist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the US Forest Service, when one day Steven Spielberg visited the small town in Montana where he was based. His career made a full turn. “Suddenly, I became a location manager,” Fantasia recalls — and his credits, which include Catch Me If You Can
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(2002), Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005), Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), suggest that he made the right decision. Today he works primarily in Los Angeles. But Fantasia’s career has also taken him to some “far-flung” and “magnificent” locations in the Golden State. His favorite spots include the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach, San Mateo County Park which lies south of San Francisco, and the Sierra mountains. “Moss Beach is one of the most spectacular locations anywhere,” he says. As for Northern California’s beaches: “There is a mix of sand and rock outcrops that are some of the most beautiful in the world. Death Valley has a variety of looks that can double for arid locations worldwide,” he says. It doesn’t stop there. From seashores to deserts, forests, dunes, mountains and a range of locations in Los Angeles and southern California, he is a big fan. “We have a fantastic diversity of locations, and
we have the best trained and most plentiful crews in the world.” But such is the appeal that securing a permit can sometimes be a problem. “Some locations are overshot and some are burned out,” he says. “But we’ve been filming in California for over a hundred years. If it’s in the script, we can find a way to do it in California.” From the thousands of places one can research locations, which includes photo archives, historic photo databases and county and local film offices, he has a favorite: The California Coastal Records Project, which offers a breathtaking compendium of photos of the coastline from Oregon to Mexico taken from a helicopter. He also points to the California Film Commission’s locations database as an important “one-stop shop” for permitting state properties. “Most importantly, they step in when we’re having problems and serve as an advocate for filmmakers when we need their clout.” Other positives include California’s production services industry. “It is unparalleled and unmatched anywhere in the world,” he says. “If you suddenly find you need a need a crane, camera or prop, it’ll be delivered within hours.” The same goes for wardrobe, vehicles, grip and electric supplies. “It is a stone’s throw away.”
73 FEATURE - MEET THE PROFESSIONALS
MIKE FANTASIA “WE’VE BEEN FILMING IN CALIFORNIA FOR OVER A HUNDRED YEARS. IF IT’S IN THE SCRIPT, WE CAN FIND A WAY TO DO IT”
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DIRECTOR SCOTT WAUGH APPLIED HIS EXPERIENCE AS A STUNT MAN AND AS DIRECTOR OF ACT OF VALOR TO HIS LATEST MOVIE, NEED FOR SPEED
NO NEED FOR GREEN SCREEN MAKING A SCENE
THE DREAMWORKS/EA ALLACTION MOVIE NEED FOR SPEED MAY HAVE STARTED LIFE VIRTUALLY AS A VIDEOGAME, BUT ON THE BIG SCREEN EVERYTHING IS VERY REAL. DEBBIE LINCOLN CAUGHT UP WITH THE PRODUCTION TEAM
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UST out of prison after serving a sentence for a crime he didn’t commit, car mechanic, street racer and all-round tough guy Tobey (Aaron Paul) takes to the road on a high-octane mission — to seek revenge on the man who framed him. Director Scott Waugh’s Need For Speed is the spring 2014 release from DreamWorks SKG and Electronic Arts (EA). Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios is distributor for the movie, based on the hit Electronic Arts games franchise. “It’s about taking your ride to the limit and beyond,” according to EA. “Nailing perfect 200mile-an-hour drifts, slamming your ///
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NEED FOR SPEED: “OUTSMARTING THE COPS AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT IN STYLE”
friends off the road, outsmarting the cops and getting away with it in style.” Movie adaptations of computer games have typically been problematic. The upside is the ready-made audience; the downside is that they rarely offer the sort of narrative structure that’s required to keep the moviegoer’s attention. “Making movies from games has not been an endeavor that has had a huge track record of success, and you have to think of the reasons why that is,” Need For Speed producer Mark Sourian says. “What you fundamentally come to understand is that a videogame experience isn’t really the experience of a character in a story. When you’re playing [the game] you are the character. You’re playing and having the experience — that’s where the premium lies.” So for the movie, the key is to create a character that can take the place of the player. “That’s really the first cardinal rule that you have to consider when making that kind of adaptation,” Sourian says. “You have to say OK, as a movie, we really need a character.” And the more real the movie looks, the less the audience will be equating it to computer-generated images of a videogame. Which is one reason why the entire movie was shot on location: many different locations in fact. “That was very much a part of the videogame and it is very much a part of what we wanted. But I’ve got to give Scott Waugh a tremendous amount of credit for really standing firm on the idea that, ‘Hey we can’t shoot the whole film in one big
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state like Georgia, if we do we’re just not going to get that cross-country feel’.” And so Need For Speed became one of the biggest stories in 2013 for California’s Mendocino County, some two hours north of San Francisco. The production spent the first two weeks of its shoot in Mendocino, filming what would become the final scenes of the film. Need For Speed had originally been planned to climax further south. But after
MARK SOURIAN “IT WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY NICE AND COMFORTABLE FOR US JUST TO SIT IN A STUDIO AND SHOOT IT ON STAGE” scouting during the summer of 2012 and seeing the county’s vineyards, redwoods and coastline, the script was rewritten to give Mendocino the credit it deserves. The final race starts south of Ukiah on Highway 253, continues through Boonville, winds down Highway 128 through the redwoods at Navarro, turns south and ends at the Point Arena Lighthouse. The local community and authorities did their utmost to accommodate the 250 personnel who set up base camp in
Mendocino’s Boonville Fairgrounds. The production had to work with the coastal commission, Bureau of Land Management, property owners and county supervisors to get permits for the filming. In return, they spent as many production dollars as possible on using local services. “Local outreach was a massive portion of both the Mendocino and San Francisco schedule,” says the film’s location manager Mandy Dillin. “In Mendocino, there are only so many roads so making sure the entire county was aware of our filming activity on each day was essential. Prior to the start of filming, we held several town hall meetings where the public could receive information about our schedule and ask questions. Since Need For Speed was the largest film to shoot in the area for many, many years, the community was certainly curious about our potential impact.” So each night Dillin would send an email to local radio stations so they could announce the next day’s location and commuters could allow for extra time. “We offered detours for commuters who did not want to wait in our zones of traffic control, which gave some locals an opportunity to discover new roadways through their community.” “Locations are a very important part of any movie, and with this movie maybe even more so because we needed roads that we could drive at high speeds, that we could close and control and then release,” says John Gatins, who wrote the screenplay with his brother George and George Nolfi. “We had advance locations
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THE PRODUCTION TEAM KEPT IN CONSTANT CONTACT WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITY ABOUT WHERE THEY WERE FILMING
people communicating with us as we were going. They were alerting us to all kinds of things, like ‘Hey there’s a marathon on this weekend’. That was very intense, getting these cities lined up as we went. I mean we started in Mendocino, then San Francisco, then shot all over Georgia and did like two days here, three days there, then Detroit, then Nevada, then Utah.” For Gatins San Francisco was a key location: “I think that it is such an iconic place in North America and we got to shoot great night exterior shots there — in the middle of the most iconic intersections, with the cable cars and the great architecture in the background all there in shot,” he says. “It’s great to be able to put a beautiful city like San Francisco as a star in your movie. I think people just appreciate that, and you look at it and think wow they’re really there and it adds to the believability, as well as the fantasy you’re in.” At times Sourian started to consider what it might have been like to take the easy way out: “The biggest challenge was the monumental level of logistics. All of these cars, all of these stunts, we were going from location to location to location, and suddenly having to block off roads, “ he says. “Day in and day out, the constant moving. I knew we were going to do it but when you actually got in to the thick of it and saw how elaborate it was going to be, it was exhausting. It would have been very nice and comfortable for us just to sit in a studio and shoot it on stage, on green screen and do all of the stunts digitally.” But the comfort of the studio was not for
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Scott Waugh. “We were waging a campaign, and we had a great general. Scott always kept his cool, always kept track of where he was. And he had this experience as a stunt man and he had made Act Of Valor [2012, co-directed with Mike McCoy] in a style and approach that this movie needed. So he had a tremendous amount of courage to do what he did. But he also was able to absorb all the logistics and forge ahead, and that’s not easy.”
JOHN GATINS “IT’S GREAT TO BE ABLE TO PUT A BEAUTIFUL CITY LIKE SAN FRANCISCO AS A STAR IN YOUR MOVIE” Of all the locations visited by the film, for Gatins, Mendocino was the wildest. “It felt like the rocky coast of Ireland, it was remote. I felt off the grid. I mean there was no cell phone coverage up there, and you’re under this canvas of trees which were amazing — but still you can’t communicate. If someone’s half a mile down the road and we have spotty radio connection with them, it’s hard because everything is about precision. These cars have to go at a certain speed at a certain
time to pull together all of these events we were doing.” The weather up north wasn’t always in the film’s favor either. “Mother nature didn’t take it easy on us during filming in Mendocino,” Dillin says. “Our representative from Caltrans, Kelley Schultz, and our local traffic company, Wipf Construction, adjusted to our filming schedule when we were rainedand fogged-out of filming on the coast. Their flexibility and understanding saved the day.” She adds: “While filming on Highway One near Navarro Beach State Park, we used the beach parking lot as base camp. On the day of our shoot, as we were moving out of the parking lot it began to rain. The following day the parking lot was flooded with water; we just missed loosing our parking for the day.” But the location’s remoteness had its positives: “It was certainly a challenge because we are so reliant on technology. However, sometimes it was nice knowing that I had a full 90-minute drive with no cell service; it forced me into having alone time on my commute between locations. Luckily we had our base of operations at the Boonville Fairgrounds, where everyone could make phone calls and get online.” For Scott Waugh, it was the look and feel of the place that mattered. “He knew the coastline and knew how majestic is was,” Gatins says. “You’ll see in the movie it is absolutely gorgeous. But it was challenging, I mean if it was easy everybody would do it.”
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the awe-inspiring
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LOOKING STARS OF LOOKING: MURRAY BARTLETT, JONATHAN GROFF, FRANKIE J ALVAREZ AND THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. PHOTO: JOHN P JOHNSON/HBO
MAKING A SCENE WHEN IT COMES TO SCREEN APPEARANCES SAN FRANCISCO HAS ITS BIG STARS. THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, THE CABLE CARS... BUT IT IS THE REAL CITY, AWAY FROM THE TOURIST LANDMARKS, THAT TAKES CENTER STAGE IN HBO’S NEW COMEDY DRAMA SERIES, LOOKING. CLIVE BULL REPORTS
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ULLITT, Milk and Mrs. Doubtfire are among a number of hit movies to have been set in San Francisco. For baby boomers it was perhaps the TV series The Streets Of San Francisco, starring a young Michael Douglas, that introduced them to its stunning cityscapes. More recently Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine put San Francisco in the limelight — and now comes HBO’s Looking, with the city’s everyday
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streets, rather than its landmarks, playing a leading role. Starring Jonathan Groff, Frankie J Alvarez and Murray Bartlett, Looking explores the complexities of modern-day gay life, and aims to show the unfiltered experiences of three close friends with real-life San Francisco locations as a backdrop. In the past many productions have been in the habit of just shooting establishing shots in the city and then moving elsewhere. “I’m so glad that didn’t happen,” Looking’s creator Michael Lannan says. “The show would not have been the same at all. It would have been a shadow of what it is. A lot of films go there just to shoot a couple of days of exteriors but that’s really just for the beauty shots. We wanted to show a grittier, rawer side of San Francisco.” A resident from 1999 to 2003, Lannan was determined to put across the uniqueness of the city which he says has rarely been captured
properly on film. “That was one of our big goals — to show the city that people actually live in, not just the postcard version.” Lannan adds: “As our director Andrew Haigh put it, we wanted to look out the windows and walk through the doors and down the street. HBO was fantastic and fully supported us in shooting in San Francisco. They did a lot of research and figured out that it was very possible. Any time you shoot in the street and you’re out in public it gets complicated but it was great that Susannah Robbins and the film commission really helped us out, and in terms of the general public in the city, people were overall really excited and happy to have us.” San Francisco Film Commission executive director Susannah Robbins says Looking is one of the first productions centered around life in the city itself: “I can’t think of a story that is more San Francisco-based, that shows the city /// through the day-to-day lives of three gay
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ON LOCATION: JONATHAN GROFF AND RAUL CASTILLO. PHOTO: JOHN P JOHNSON/HBO
men who live here,” she says. “It’s not the iconic San Francisco that audiences will see. They’ll get to see what life is really like in the Mission, the Haight, the Castro — neighborhoods that everyone has heard of, but might not really know well.” But in highlighting the less-recognizable streets and clubs, did the production deliberately avoid the well-known sights? Lannan says it was hard to avoid the hills, but they stayed away from the bridges as they didn’t want to use the traditional scene-setting shots of landmarks. “You will see them but we always shot them in passing rather than a giant establishing shot. We focused on some of the bars and clubs that the everyday folk go to,” he says. The series shot at Doc’s Clock bar and The Stud Bar in the Mission District and The Café club in the heart of the Castro. “The Stud is classic San Francisco and I don’t know if they’ve had anyone shoot there for a long time — if ever. Harvey Milk used to hang out there back in
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the day and one of our crew members’ father used to go dancing at the club back in the 70s. It was the coolest dance club so it’s a kind of San Francisco landmark and it’s great inside, it’s beautiful — but it’s not a spectacular location where somebody from out of town would say: ‘We have to shoot here’.” Early versions of the story were written about New York where Lannan was living when he first started writing about the characters. But through the development process at HBO it ended up being set in San Francisco. “At first I resisted and some others resisted because it was so on the nose, it was almost too obvious,” Lannan says. “But when we really thought about it, it seemed like a perfect choice. It’s such an important place in our culture right now, in terms of being an epicenter of so many things — gay culture, tech culture, progressive political culture. San Francisco is so full of gay history and has been for so long that we wanted to capture some of that.”
One of the goals of the series was to tell the most contemporary gay stories possible and Lannan sees the choice of San Francisco as an opportunity to revisit the ‘homeland’ and examine the lives of gay people in the current era. “Where once San Francisco was this kind of stronghold and island for gay people, now it’s much more than that,” he says. “As gay culture has gone mainstream I think it’s a really fascinating place to look at and see how it’s changing and how these guys are living their lives.” Looking focuses on the lives of three gay friends and the personal issues they face day-to-day. Patrick (Jonathan Groff) is approaching 30 and is still single. “He’s never really had a long relationship and he’s trying to sort out how to find someone,” Lannan says. “One of his close friends Augustin (Frankie J Alvarez ) is moving in with a boyfriend and struggles with how to make that domestic life work. And Dom (Murray Bartlett), the third of
07/01/14 09:57
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city clearly inspired him, and he was determined that the series reflect the cramped nature of inner-city rental apartments. Patrick’s onebedroom apartment is grimily realistic, the kind of detail the series was keen to portray. While the inner city might be tightly packed, the series also aims to show the vast expanse of the Bay Area. “It’s such a big place and it’s fun to step out and the East Bay is so important now,” Lannan says. “A lot of people are moving there from the city and in the pilot episode one of our characters moves to Oakland. We wanted to
SUSANNAH ROBBINS “SAN FRANCISCO ALSO HAS A GREAT ENERGY WHICH FILMMAKERS SEEM TO BE ATTRACTED TO” show how varied and how big the Bay Area is.” Having a studio set in the heart of the city was a real advantage, but Lannan stresses that getting out and about was vital. “We were out on location the vast majority of the time,” he says. “There have been a number of network shows that have shot exteriors but it never really felt like being in the city. I’m really proud of the way the city comes out in the series because it does feel like San Francisco — and a lot of our crew who have seen the show say it does feel like San Francisco.” Lannan says another San Francisco-based TV series that influenced him was Tales Of The City, based on the novels of Armistead Maupin. “It’s one of my favorite programs. That’s a great San Francisco story and one of my inspirations.” The indications are that San Franciscans
have taken to the concept of the series and are happy that it is shot within the city limits, and gives an authentic picture. Lannan is keen to capture the feeling that you can ramble from one part of town to another, something that can only be done by getting out on the streets of genuine neighborhoods. “Overall, San Francisco is very receptive to filmmaking,” Robbins says. “While we will always get a complaint here or there about someone being upset about losing their parking space — as parking is at a premium here — San Franciscans love seeing their city on screen. With the proper notification and outreach by the location teams, and co-ordination through our office, filming still gets San Franciscans excited.” San Francisco has a unique look and feel to it, which has been drawing filmmakers for more than a century. “We’re a city of great beauty — with steep rolling hills affording incredible views, surrounded by a bay and an ocean on three sides, along with eclectic architecture, and all within 49 square miles,” Robbins says. “San Francisco also has a great energy which filmmakers seem to be attracted to. Those that shoot here say the city plays a character on its own.” Lannan says the film commission was key to securing the space for the sets and generally supported the production. “I hope that more production comes to San Francisco because we had such a great experience. It is a city with so many stories to tell and I hope people recognize that it can be done and it’s a great place to shoot.” And the mini boom in San Francisco filming looks set to continue with a number of productions shooting in the city this year — and of course there’s the prospect of a second season of Looking. “We’re excited that there is a lot of buzz about filming in San Francisco,” Robbins says. “Filmmakers are beginning to notice that we do have a film incentive that makes it possible to film here — and we have great crew and talent to go with it.”
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the trio, is reaching 40 and is still a waiter and is reckoning with his unfulfilled life.” Perhaps not surprisingly, with those kinds of personal stories at its center, the show is one with a high degree of naturalism. “It has a very everyday kitchen-sink kind of feel to it,” Lannan says. “It’s not very stylized. It was important for us to show that kind of authenticity about the city, about the scale and about the architecture. The spaces. Things are built so differently in San Francisco. The streets just feel so different. Even the light is different.” Looking was an important production for the city’s Film Commission as there hadn’t been a San Francisco-based TV series since NBC’s Trauma ended in early 2010. “We were able to offer Looking our Scene In San Francisco Rebate Program, which helped lower the cost of each episode, along with our Vendor Discount Program, which offers discounts to productions from various merchants around the city,” Robbins says. The Commission was also able to amend its rebate program to enable rented commercial space to be designated as a stage area and production offices. At the time, no city-owned stage space was available and normally only city-owned property is eligible for a rebate under the program. “We were fortunate to be able to secure a fantastic stage space for them right in the middle of San Francisco, in the Mission District,” Robbins says. The building — known as the Cinderbiter studio — used to be an old chocolate factory, and had been used by Disney for an abandoned stop-motion animation project. “We were able to work with the owners of the building — who are very pro-film — and our real-estate department, to get a short-term lease on the property that met the needs of the production. They had almost 60,000 square feet for sets and production office space.” A replica of a Lower Haight apartment was constructed inside the studio space, alongside a second set representing the videogame developers where Patrick works. Lannan’s time as a resident in the
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LUCY ALONSO Permit Technician O : (510) 747-6819 lalonso@ci.alameda.ca.us www.cityofalamedaca.gov/ Business/Filming-in-Alameda
AMADOR COUNTY Amador County Film Commission 836 N. Hwy. 49/88 Jackson, CA 95642
TOM BLACKMAN Film Commissioner O : (209) 223-2276 C : (209) 607-3456 filmamador@volcano.net www.filmamador.org
BERKELEY Berkeley Film Office, Convention & Visitors Bureau 2030 Addison St., #102 Berkeley, CA 94704
BARBARA HILLMAN Film Commissioner O : (510) 549-7040 (800) 847-4823 film@visitberkeley.com www.filmberkeley.com
BUTTE COUNTY Chico Chamber of Commerce 300 Salem St. Chico, CA 95928
ALICE PATTERSON Film Commissioner O : (530) 891-5556 (ext.309) (800) 852-8570 alice@chicochamber.com www.chicochamber.com
CALAVERAS COUNTY Calaveras Visitors Bureau 1192 S. Main St. Angels Camp, CA 95222
LISA BOULTON Executive Director O : (209) 736-0049 C : (209) 768-3214 (800) 225-3764 lisa@gocalaveras.com www.filmcalaveras.org
DEL NORTE COUNTY Humboldt – Del Norte Film Commission 1385 8th St., Suite 106 Arcata, CA 95521
CASSANDRA HESSELTINE Film Commissioner O : (707) 825-7600 C : (707) 502-0018 info@filmhumboldtdelnorte.org. www.filmdelnorte.org
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ALAMEDA CITY City of Alameda Building Division Permit Center 2263 Santa Clara Ave., Rm. 190 Alameda, CA 94501
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OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
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OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 86
EL DORADO COUNTY El Dorado Lake Tahoe Film Office 542 Main St. Placerville, CA 95667
KATHLEEN DODGE Executive Director O : (530) 626-4400 C : (530) 417-0266 (800) 457-6279 film@eldoradocounty.org www.filmtahoe.com
FOLSOM Folsom Tourism Bureau 200 Wool St. Folsom, CA 95630
MARY ANN MCALEA Director O : (916) 985-2698 (ext: 26) C : (916) 337-7881 maryann@visitfolsom.com www.visitfolsom.com
HUMBOLDT COUNTY Humboldt – Del Norte Film Commission 1385 8th St., Suite 106 Arcata, CA 95521
CASSANDRA HESSELTINE Film Commissioner O : (707) 825-7600 C : (707) 502-0018 info@filmhumboldtdelnorte.org. http://filmhumboldt.org.
LAKE COUNTY Marketing & Economic Development County of Lake 255 N. Forbes St. Lakeport, CA 95453
JILL M. RUZICKA Film Liaison O: (707) 263-2580 Jill.Ruzicka@lakecountyca.gov www.lakecounty.com
LASSEN COUNTY Dept. of Community Development 707 Nevada St., Suite 1 Susanville, CA 96130
JENNA AGUILERA Development Specialist O : (530) 251-8309 jaguilera@co.lassen.ca.us www.lasseneconomic development.com
06/01/14 16:15
NORTHERN REGION
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 87
JEANIE HAIGH Director O : (925) 447-1606 C : (510) 409-6754 jhaigh@livermorechamber.org www.livermorechamber.org/filmcommission/about-filmcommission.aspx
MARIN COUNTY Marin Film Resource Office 1 Mitchell Blvd., Suite B San Rafael, CA 94903
DEBORAH ALBRE Film Liaison O : (415) 925-2060 (866) 925-2060 deborah@visitmarin.org www.visitmarin.org/films-permits/
MENDOCINO COUNTY Mendocino County Film Office 217 S. Main St. Fort Bragg, CA 95437
DEBRA DE GRAW Chief Executive Officer/ Film Liaison O : (707) 961-6302 C : (800) 726-2780 debra@filmmendocino.com Chamber2@mcn.org www.filmmendocino.com
MODESTO/STANISLAUS COUNTY Modesto Convention & Visitors Bureau 1150 9th St., Suite C Modesto, CA 95354
MARY LOU HOWELL Sales Manager O : (209) 526-5588 C : (408) 807-7233 (888) 640-8467 marylou@visitmodesto.com www.visitmodesto.com
MONO COUNTY Mono County Economic Development & Tourism 452 Old Mammoth Rd., Sierra Center Mall Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546
ALICIA VENNOS Economic Development Mgr/ Film Commissioner O : (760) 924-1743 avennos@mono.ca.gov www.monocounty.org
87 OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
LIVERMORE VALLEY Livermore Chamber of Commerce 2157 First St. Livermore, CA 94550
06/01/14 16:15
NORTHERN REGION
OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
88
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 88
OAKLAND Oakland Film Office One Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, 9th Fl. Oakland, CA 94612
JIM MACILVAINE Special Event Coordinator O : (510) 238-6693 jimmac@oaklandnet.com www.filmoakland.com
PLACER COUNTY Placer – Lake Tahoe Film Office 175 Fulweiler Ave. Auburn, CA 95603
BEVERLY LEWIS Director O : (530) 889-4091 C : (530) 906-3350 (877) 228-3456 blewis@placer.ca.gov www.placer.ca.gov/films
SACRAMENTO COUNTY Sacramento Film Commission 1608 “I” St. Sacramento, CA 95814
LUCY STEFFENS Film Commissioner O : (916) 808-5553 lsteffens@visitsacramento.com www.filmsacramento.com
SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY San Francisco Film Commission 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place City Hall, Rm. 473 San Francisco, CA 94102
SUSANNAH GREASON ROBBINS Executive Director O : (415) 554-6241 susannah.robbins@sfgov.org www.filmsf.org
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY/ STOCKTON Stockton/San Joaquin County Film Commission 125 Bridge Place Stockton, CA 95202
WES RHEA Executive Director O : (209) 938-1555 (877) 778-6258 film@visitstockton.org www.filmstockton.com
06/01/14 16:15
NORTHERN REGION
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 89
MEGHAN HORRIGAN Director of Public Affairs & Comm. O : (408) 792-4175 C : (408) 499-1345 mhorrigan@sanjose.org www.sanjose.org
SAN MATEO COUNTY San Mateo County Convention and Visitors Bureau Seabreeze Plaza, 111 Anza Blvd., #410 Burlingame, CA 94010
BRENA BAILEY Film Commissioner O : (650) 348-7600 (800) 288-4748 Brena@smccvb.com www.filmsanmateocounty.com
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY Santa Cruz County Film Commission 303 Water St., #100 Santa Cruz, CA 95060
CHRISTINA GLYNN Communications Director/ Film Commissioner O : (831) 425-1234 (ext: 112) cglynn@santacruz.org www.santacruzfilm.org
SHASTA COUNTY Redding Convention & Visitors Bureau 2334 Washington Ave., Suite B Redding, CA 96001
CHAD NEW Director of Industry Relations and Sales O : (530) 225-4105 Chad@filmShasta.com www.filmShasta.com
SISKIYOU COUNTY Siskiyou County Film Office 300 Pine St. Mt. Shasta, CA 96067
MARIE-JOSﾃ右 WELLS Film Commissioner O : (530) 918-9240 info@filmsiskiyou.com www.filmsiskiyou.com
89 OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
SAN JOSE San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau 408 Almaden Blvd. San Jose, CA 95110
06/01/14 16:15
NORTHERN REGION
OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
90
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 90
SONOMA COUNTY Sonoma County Film Office 401 College Ave., Suite D Santa Rosa, CA 95401
COLETTE THOMAS Film Commissioner O : (707) 565-7170 cthomas4@sonoma-county.org film@sonoma-county.org www.sonomacountyfilm.com
TRINITY COUNTY Trinity County Film Office P.O Box 517 Weaverville, CA 96093
PATRICIA ZUGG Director O : (530) 623-6101 trinitycoc@yahoo.com www.trinitycounty.com
TUOLUMNE COUNTY Tuolumne County Film Commission 542 W. Stockton Rd. Sonora, CA 95370
LISA MAYO, Film Commissioner O : (209) 533-4420 (800) 446-1333 filmtuolumne@gmail.com www.filmtuolumne.com
VALLEJO/SOLANO COUNTY Vallejo/Solano County Film Office 289 Mare Island Way Vallejo, CA 94590
JIM REIKOWSKY Film Liaison O : (707) 642-3653 jim@visitvallejo.com www.visitvallejo.com/film
YOLO COUNTY Yolo County Visitors Bureau 132 E Street, Suite 200 Davis, CA 95616
ALAN HUMASON Executive Director O : (530) 297-1900 C : (530) 400-7702 alan@yolocvb.org www.yolocvb.org
06/01/14 16:15
CENTRAL REGION
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 91
GIGI GIBBS Film Commissioner O : (559) 600-4271 ggibbs@co.fresno.ca.us KRISTI JOHNSON Assoc. Film Commissioner kgjohnson@co.fresno.ca.us www.filmfresno.com
FRESNO (CITY) Fresno Film Commission (City) 5241 E. Townsend Ave. Fresno, CA 93721
RAY ARTHUR Film Commissioner O : (559) 908-0539 fresnofilm@gmail.com www.fresnofilm.com
INYO COUNTY Inyo County Film Commission 120 S. Main St. Lone Pine, CA 93545
CHRIS LANGLEY Film Commissioner O : (760) 876-0076 C : (760) 937-1189 lonepinemovies@aol.com inyofilm@inyolocations.org www.inyolocations.org
KERN COUNTY Kern County Board of Trade & Film Commission 2101 Oak St. Bakersfield, CA 93301
JOANIE HAENELT Film Liaison O : (661) 868-7095 (800) 500-5376 joanie@filmkern.com www.filmkern.com
MADERA COUNTY Yosemite/Madera County Film Commission P.O. Box 3690 Oakhurst, CA 93644
DAVE WOLIN Film Commissioner O : (559) 658-2281 C : (559) 760-1143 davewolin@earthlink.net www.yosemitefilm.com
MARIPOSA COUNTY Mariposa County Film Commission 5320 Hwy 49 North, Suite 4 Mariposa, CA 95338
TERRY SELK Executive Director O : (209) 742-4567 terrys@homeofyosemite.com www.homeofyosemite.com
91 OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
FRESNO COUNTY Fresno County Film Commission 2220 Tulare St., Suite 800 Fresno, CA 93721
06/01/14 16:15
CENTRAL REGION
OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
92
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 92
MONTEREY COUNTY Monterey County Film Commission 801 Lighthouse Ave., Suite 104 Monterey, CA 93942
KAREN NORDSTRAND Director of Marketing & Film Production O : (831) 646-0910 karen@filmmonterey.org www.filmmonterey.org
RIDGECREST Ridgecrest Regional Film Commission 643 N. China Lake Blvd., Suite C Ridgecrest, CA 93555
DOUG LUECK Film Commissioner O : (760) 375-8202 C : (760) 382-4778 (800) 847-4830 racvb@filmdeserts.com www.filmdeserts.com
SAN BENITO COUNTY San Benito County Film Commission 650 San Benito St., Suite 130 Hollister, CA 95023
NIC CALDER Film Commissioner O : (831) 637-9855 nic@sanbenitocountychamber.com www.sanbenitocountychamber.com
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY Visit San Luis Obispo County and Film Commission 811 El Capitan Way, Suite 200 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
LAUREN TOGNAZZINI Film Commission Liaison O : (805) 541-8000 lauren@visitsanluisobispocounty.com www.visitsanluisobispocounty.com
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY Santa Barbara County Film Commission 1601 Anacapa St. Santa Barbara, CA 93101
GEOFF ALEXANDER Film Commissioner O : (805) 966-9222 (ext: 110) C : (805) 570-7179 geoff@filmsantabarbara.com www.filmsantabarbara.com
TULARE COUNTY Tulare County Film Commission 5961 S. Mooney Blvd. Visalia, CA 93277
ERIC COYNE Film Commissioner O : (559) 624-7187 C : (559) 786-5339 ecoyne@co.tulare.ca.us www.filmtularecounty.com
06/01/14 16:15
LOS ANGELES REGION
PAULINE EAST Film Liaison O : (661) 723-6090 C : (661) 510-4231 pauline@filmantelopevalley.org www.avfilm.com
BEVERLY HILLS City of Beverly Hills 455 N. Rexford Dr., 1st Floor Beverly Hills, CA 90210
BENITA MILLER Events & Filming Supervisor O : (310) 285-2408 bmiller@beverlyhills.org www.beverlyhills.org
CATALINA ISLAND Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce #1 Green Pier Avalon, CA 90704
DONNA HARRIS Marketing Mgr. & Film Liaison O : (310) 510-7649 dharris@catalinachamber.com www.catalinachamber.com
LONG BEACH City of Long Beach Office of Special Events & Filming 211 E. Ocean Blvd., Suite 410 Long Beach, CA 90802
TASHA DAY Manager Special Events & Filming O : (562) 570-5333 tasha.day@longbeach.gov www.filmlongbeach.com
LOS ANGELES CITY & COUNTY 6255 W. Sunset Blvd. 12th Floor Hollywood, CA 90028
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 93
FILML.A. Diamond Bar City of Industry La Habra Heights Lancaster Los Angeles City Los Angeles County Monrovia Monterey Park Palmdale Santa Monica South Gate Vernon
93 OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
ANTELOPE VALLEY / LANCASTER / PALMDALE Antelope Valley Film Office 42035 12th St.West, Suite #103 Lancaster, CA 93534
PAUL AUDLEY President O : (213) 977-8600 info@filmla.com www.filmla.com
06/01/14 16:15
LOS ANGELES REGION
OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
94
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 94
MALIBU City of Malibu c/o SWS Inc. 25 W. Rolling Oaks Dr., Suite 201 Thousand Oaks, CA 91361
KIMBERLY COLLINS-NILSSON Film Commissioner O : (805) 495-7521 kim@swsinc.com www.ci.malibu.ca.us/Index. aspx?NID=124
PASADENA City of Pasadena Film Office 100 N. Garfield Ave, #S116 Pasadena, CA 91109
ARIEL PENN Film Commissioner O : (626) 744-3964 apenn@cityofpasadena.net www.filmpasadena.com
SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita Film Office 23920 Valencia Blvd., #100 Santa Clarita, CA 91355
RUSSELL SYPOWICZ Film Office Administrator O : (661) 284-1425 film@santa-clarita.com www.filmsantaclarita.com
SOUTH PASADENA City of South Pasadena 1414 Mission St. South Pasadena, CA 91030
JOAN AGUADO Film Liaison O : (626) 403-7263 jaguado@ci.south-pasadena.ca.us www.ci.south-pasadena.ca.us/ index.aspx?page=110
WEST HOLLYWOOD West Hollywood Film Office 8300 Santa Monica Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90069
EDDIE ROBINSON Film Liaison O : (323) 848-6489 erobinson@weho.org wehofilm@weho.org www.weho.org/film
06/01/14 16:16
SOUTHERN REGION
BRITON SAXTON Film Commissioner O : (714) 969-3492 (ext: 211) C : (657) 222-0964 briton@surfcityusa.com www.filmhuntingtonbeach.com
IMPERIAL COUNTY Imperial County Film Commission 1095 S. 4th St. El Centro, CA 92244
CHARLA TEETERS Film Commissioner O : (760) 337-4155 filmhere@sbcglobal.net www.filmimperialcounty.com
INLAND EMPIRE (Riverside & San Bernardino Counties) Inland Empire Film Commission 1601 E. Third St., Suite 102 San Bernardino, CA 92408
SHERI DAVIS, Director C : (951) 377-7849 sheridavis@filminlandempire.com
ORANGE COUNTY Orange County Film Commission P.O. Box 6850 Fullerton, CA 92834
JANICE ARRINGTON Film Commissioner O : (657) 278-7569 C : (949) 246-9704 jarrington@fullerton.edu jarrington@filmorangecounty.org www.filmorangecounty.org
SAN DIEGO
COUNTY PERMITS Diane Quinones O: (619) 531-5184 Diane.Quinones@sdcounty.ca.gov PORT OF SAN DIEGO PERMITS Sofia Bayardo O: (619) 686-6463 SBayardo@portofsandiego.org
CITY PERMITS Cindy Kodama Office of Special Events O: (619) 685-1481 ckodama@sandiego.gov
VENTURA COUNTY Economic Development Corp.VC / Ventura County Film Commission 1601 Carmen Dr., Suite 215 Camarillo, CA 93010
OFFICE MEMBERS.indd 95
95 OFFICE MEMBERS - INDEX
HUNTINGTON BEACH Surf City USA Huntington Beach Marketing and Visitors Bureau 301 Main St., Suite 208 Huntington Beach, CA 92648
DAN TAYLOR, Deputy Director C : (951) 232-1271 dtaylor@filminlandempire.com www.filminlandempire.com
KAREN KELLEY Film Liaison O : (805) 758-4071 karen.kelley@venturacountyfilm.com www.venturacountyfilm.com
06/01/14 16:16
ADVERTISERS - INDEX
96
Photo, courtesy San Mateo County
A DVE RT I SE RS 32TEN STUDIOS BERKELEY FILM OFFICE BIG SKY MOVIE RANCH CALIFORNIA FILM COMMISSION CAPS LLC CAST AND CREW ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES CRANEWAY PAVILION DTC LIGHTING AND GRIP ENTERTAINMENT PARTNERS FILM L.A. FILM LIAISONS IN CALIFORNIA STATEWIDE (FLICS) GOLDEN OAK RANCH HOLLYWOOD CENTER STUDIOS HOME SHOOT HOME HUMMINGBIRD NEST RANCH HUNTINGTON LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS AND BOTANICAL GARDENS INLAND EMPIRE FILM COMMISSION KERN COUNTY FILM COMMISSION PLACER-LAKE TAHOE FILM OFFICE LITTLE GIANT LIGHTING AND GRIP COMPANY MARIN FILM COMMISSION MONO COUNTY FILM COMMISSION MONTEREY COUNTY FILM COMMISSION MORRO BAY TOURISM BUREAU NBC UNIVERSAL STUDIOS NEWHALL FILM OAKWOOD WORLDWIDE OCCIDENTAL ENTERTAINMENT GROUP HOLDINGS PACIFIC PARK PARAMOUNT STUDIOS PASADENA FILM OFFICE RALEIGH STUDIOS RIDGECREST REGIONAL FILM COMMISSION ROBERTSON TAYLOR INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE BROKERS, INC. SAN FRANCISCO FILM COMMISSION SAN MATEO COUNTY/SILICON VALLEY FILM COMMISSION SANTA BARBARA COUNTY FILM COMMISSION SANTA CLARITA FILM OFFICE TEJON RANCH COMPANY THUNDER STUDIOS TULARE COUNTY FILM COMMISSION VIDEOFAX
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