Location California 2017

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SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

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CALIFORNIA

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SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

LOCATION CALIFORNIA 2017 is published for the California Film Commission by Boutique Editions Ltd. Additional copies are available on request from the Film Commission. Requests may be sent via e-mail: filmca@film.ca.gov www.film.ca.gov EDITOR Julian Newby MANAGING EDITOR Debbie Lincoln CONTRIBUTORS Andy Fry, Joanna Stephens, Gary Smith 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 - 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 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 ©2017 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.

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CALIFORNIA

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SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

CONTENTS

LOCATION 2017 CALIFORNIA

HI STORI C PRODUCTI ON LOCATI ON

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CALIFORNIA SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

04 LA LA LAND

82 TWIN PEAKS

12 HIGH-END TV

86 SEEING DOUBLE

28 SUBURBICON

94 A WRINKLE IN TIME

32 STUDIOS AND RANCHES

97 PRODUCTION INCENTIVES

45 IN PICTURES

100 DIRECTORY OF REGIONAL FILM OFFICES

How La La Land's extraordinary opening sequence came to happen

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BOOKYOURNEXTPRODUCTI ONWI THUS Si nce1 91 8we’ vebeens er vi ngt hevi s i onar i es ,t hemaver i cksandt hei ndependent soft he i ndus t r y ,f r om Davi dO.Sel zni ckt oOr s onWel l est oAl f r edHi t chcock.T oday ,t heSt udi ooffer s 1 4acr esofs ceni cpr oduct i ons pacei nt hehear tofdownt ownCul verCi t y ,s t at eof t hear t t echnol ogy ,andt heabs ol ut ebes ts uppor ts t affandf aci l i t i esi nt hei ndus t r y .

California is playing a starring role in television's golden age of drama

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First words from Kyle MacLachlan on the much-anticipated Twin Peaks re-boot

California can stand in for anywhere on the planet — and even other planets

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OLD MARINA, MONO LAKE, MONO COUNTY Mono Lake's calcium carbonate tufa rock formations form small islands here, providing an exotic backdrop. The lake is normally windless and quiet in this location in the winter months, often enabling spectacular reflections all day long. The “belt of Venus” pink-over-blue effect shown in this photo is caused by sunset light over the rising shadow of the earth and Sierra Nevada. It appears very reliably here, about 10-20 minutes after sunset on relatively clear evenings. Numerous commercials, feature films, documentaries, music videos and television series have shot at Mono Lake, from High Plains Drifter (1973) to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album (1975); and a recent television episode featuring adventurer Bear Grylls filmed here. (Photo, courtesy Jeff Sullivan)

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George Clooney and the Coen Brothers find the perfect Fifties American suburb for Suburbicon

What's on offer from the studios and film ranches of California

Location California tours some of the striking and diverse locations in the Golden State

70 SHOOTING COMMERCIALS Why commercial producers spend billions of dollars in California every year

Disney chooses California as a location for 2018's science-fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time

California's tax-credit program puts the Golden State back at the center of the movie business

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MAKING A SCENE LA LA LAND

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It’s the perfect movie for its time. Out of the darkness of 2016 comes a brash piece of optimism, with singing, dancing and two lead actors who give performances that are both relevant to now yet also take you back to the innocence of Hollywood’s golden age. Julian Newby hears how La La Land's extraordinary opening sequence was created

EAMS La La Land’s opening dance scene. Photo: Dale Robinette

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A LA LAND was a multiple-Oscar contender from the moment pen was put to paper. Academy-awardnominated for his last movie Whiplash, it’s a film that writerdirector Damien Chazelle had wanted to make all his life; his leading actors, Ryan Gosling (Sebastian) and Emma Stone (Mia) — also past nominees — can do no wrong right now; and never had movie audiences been more ready for such an intelligent, joyful piece of entertainment.

It’s a movie dripping with talent, so it should be good, shouldn’t it? But it’s not just about the talent. It’s also about making the ideas work on screen.

The inspiration for the film — and specifically for the film’s muchcelebrated opening sequence — came when Chazelle, like anyone and everyone who has experienced life in Los Angeles, found himself in his car, in a jam, on the freeway, unable to move.

Something that can happen to anyone, at any time of the day, in that city.

“In L.A. you mostly have cars with one or two people in them. It’s part of what makes the city feel a bit lonely,” Chazelle says. “But it also reflects how L.A. is a crazy haven for dreamers.

Because when you’re in your car, what are you doing? You’re playing music, or you dream. Each dreamer has their own dream, each person is living their own song. You’re in your own bubble universe, your own living musical. So that is why that moment is the perfect one for two dreamers like Sebastian and Mia to meet. We use the car radios to create a tapestry of music that everyone, one by one, on this freeway joins into at the moment.”

It’s a big risk, putting what is very likely to be the movie’s most talkedabout scene, right at the start. For 1980’s Fame, director Alan Parker was probably wise to hold his glorious dancing-in-the-traffic scene until much later in the movie. But Chazelle took the risk and it paid off, opening La La Land with a sequence which showed the city of dreams and all its ambition and frustrations in one memorable set-up. Six minutes long, it comes even before the opening credits.

Shot at the interchange of the 110 and 105 freeways overlooking Downtown, it seemingly runs without a single cut as drivers jump out of their

cars and join in a choreographed extravaganza set to the original song Another Day of Sun, by composer Justin Hurwitz and lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Actually shot in three takes stitched together, most of the sequence was filmed with a camera on a crane and a steadicam for the final shot, the operator running between cars — in Chazelle’s words, to get “a little more flexibility and precision in terms of getting close to the dancers”.

“It was a tremendous amount of work,” choreographer Mandy Moore says. “Our office was filled with Post-it notes with the brand names of each car

ROBERT FOULKES

“Tens of thousands of Angelenos and out-of-towners are whizzing below us in their cars who have no idea there’s Hollywood history happening high above them!” and who is standing on which car and which cars needed to be reinforced.

The logistics were massive."

And the shoot itself had to go off without a hitch since the crew had a very limited window in which to use the freeway interchange — which meant rehearsals were even more important than usual. “Everything had to work as perfectly as possible once the cameras were rolling, because any misstep would be basically unacceptable,” Ryan Gosling says. “So we practiced for three months beforehand so that we could deliver for Damien what he was looking for in one take.”

“It’s pretty unusual to do a Busby

Berkeley-type dance number on an L.A. freeway,” says production designer David Wasco. “So what we did was create a space in our studio parking lot filled with faux highway dividers and cars for Damien, Mandy and the cast to rehearse. And then we had a very brief window of time when the California Highway Patrol shut down the freeway and we shot this very, very complicated dance number. Somehow it all came together like magic.”

As location manager on the movie, Robert Foulkes was charged with finding the right stretch of freeway for this piece of magic. And he was the right man for the job, having been set a similar task just a year previously while working on the Jennifer Anistonstarrer Cake. “My initial thought was ’This is one helluva groovy way to open a movie musical set in Los Angeles’ and I was excited to help bring it to life,” he says. So the enthusiasm was there — but it wasn’t going to be easy. “Damien’s script specified the ’101 Freeway’ which, to me, implied seeing Downtown in the background — or Hollywood buildings, in that Mia’s apartment was ’set in Hollywood’. But, knowing that closing down and controlling the 101 for even a minuscule length of time would be impossible, I gathered information and photos on all of the usual shootable suspects — freeways, and freeway look-alikes — to present to Damien.”

Foulkes and his team checked out the 710 Freeway where it dead-ends at Valley Boulevard in Alhambra; portions of the 105 near LAX; Shoreline Drive in Long Beach; and other locations that might have been suitable for the sequence. “But early on it was clear that the favorite would become the FasTrak ramp of the 105 at the 110,” he says. “The expanse of city and sky seen from up there can’t be beat. It’s the perfect way to dive into all things La La Land.”

Foulkes had used the very same stretch of freeway ramp for Cake. “We were up there shooting for a much smaller amount of time — that scene involved, essentially, just one car and two actors — but it went very smoothly and looked fantastic, very dramatic in its vantage points from above and from below. With La La Land, though, we knew that in order for such an ambitious scene to work, to have enough time to prep, shoot and strike the location, we would need to

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MAKING A SCENE LA LA LAND

Director Damien Chazelle on the set of La La Land.

Photo: Dale Robinette

convince Caltrans [California Department of Transportation] and Metro representatives to allow for a two-day closure for shooting, and a one-day closure for rehearsal. In order to be ready to go each morning at sunrise, several hours would be needed beforehand just to get all of our equipment and support vehicles, picture cars, cast and so on, up onto the ramp and in place. So essentially we were asking for a full 48-hour period — Friday night through Sunday night — to then get everything and everybody safely off the ramps in order for the lanes to re-open by rush hour Monday morning.” He adds: “It took a few meetings, but ultimately all the groups involved — including dozens of California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers — were extremely helpful in understanding what it would take to make such a special scene happen.”

One of the key logistical issues that had to be faced was where to park all the production’s back-up vehicles. “We ultimately convinced Caltrans to allow much of our necessary equipment

MANDY MOORE

“The 'Traffic' dancers are the unsung heroes of this film... Their efforts created something magical” vehicles to be parked close to the action, up on our filming lanes themselves, while other base-camp vehicles were parked in a parking lot near the entrance to the freeway. There was only so much room up on the ramp anyway, so just deciding what should go up top and what could stay down below, made for several detailed meetings.

Having enough CHP vehicles at the ready, going back and forth, escorting us across several lanes of 105 freeway traffic just to get to and from base camp and the set, was a challenge that needed to be worked out and timed like clockwork. We had a great transportation co-ordinator [Geno Hart] who was constantly updating diagrams of his equipment, vehicle and picture-car counts, what pieces needed to be parked where, when, and in what order — it really felt like a military operation.”

From the outset Foulkes knew the scene would be one that would go down in movie history. "I knew it would be much talked about. So many people during the filming of Cake — and after seeing that movie — would ask me ’How in the world did you get to close down a freeway for that scene?’ Little did I know, a year later, they’d be asking me that again 10-fold!”

Mandy Moore credits the dancers for pulling off the sequence in nearimpossible circumstances. “The ’Traffic’ dancers are the

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Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) on location in La La Land.

Photo: Dale Robinette

unsung heroes of this film, because we had really tough conditions – dancing over cars on the freeway in almost 100º weather! Their efforts created something magical,” she says.

And Foulkes, the dancers and other crew members got a feel of what moviegoers would eventually see a matter of minutes after the scene wrapped. “Watching a couple hundred cast and crew members burst into applause as they watched a perfect take played back on the monitor, realizing ’Wow, tens of thousands of Angelenos and out-of-towners are whizzing below us in their cars who have no idea there’s Hollywood history happening high above them!’. That was one of the great moments working on La La Land.”

ON LOCATION IN LA LA LAND

T

HE MOVIE shot at a number of locations in and around L.A., including the Griffith Park Observatory and Redondo Beach’s historic Lighthouse Cafe, a jazz club since 1949. All the location shooting was overseen by the team of production designer David Wasco and set decorator Sandy Reynolds-Wasco. “We’ve had opportunities to show the city in both light and dark,” Wasco says. “But this was an opportunity to look at the city anew with a visually inventive director. We know the lay of the land here, so it was a chance to use pockets that haven’t been seen yet.”

Reynolds-Wasco adds: “We also enjoyed the idea that this film is the first real musical vision of Los Angeles in decades.” The locations shift between the present and the past. “That quality is already indigenous to the city,” Wasco says. “You can look in one direction and feel you’re in 1940s Hollywood, and then turn your head and you’re in 2016. It was Damien’s notion to capitalize on the timelessness inherent in the city itself.” “L.A. is sort of the perfect film character because it’s full of both optimism and broken dreams,” Reynolds-Wasco adds. For Chazelle, the design team’s fresh perspective on the city was exactly what he wanted. “A lot of places we scouted I’d never even been before,” Chazelle says. “I’ve lived in L.A. for nine years, and one of the things I adore about it is that there are constantly new places to discover. That further informed the story.”

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SMALL SCREEN,

BIG BUSINESS It’s not just California’s finest actors, directors, writers and showrunners who are benefiting from the boom in high-end TV drama. The state’s locations are also playing a starring role in the second golden age of television, writes Andy Fry A scene from Pitch, with Dan Lauria, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Kylie Bunbury at Petco Park, home to MLB’s San Diego Padres

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Dillin has also just finished working on Jill Soloway’s adaptation of Chris Kraus’ novel I Love Dick. “For that project, we basically recreated Texas in and around the Thirty Mile Zone,” she says. “I was really pleased because we managed to double the Texan art district Marfa with a location in downtown Los Angeles.

When you think that Sons of Anarchy, Westworld and Justified were all shot within 20 miles of each other, it just goes to show CaliTHE MOST talked-about fornia’s diversity.” trend in the television busiIt is not just the quality of California locations but also their ness over the last few years proximity to studios, crew and equipment that appeals to produchas been the growth of highers. “Having everything in such a compact space makes a end event drama production. production light on its feet,” Dillin says. “The less time the crew and Driven by companies includequipment are driving around, the more money you’re putting on ing Netflix, Amazon, HBO, screen. And more money on screen gives you the kind of high-end Showtime, Starz and FX, TV that is in demand right now.” superbly crafted mini-series Richard Deutsch, vice-president at Santa Clarita Studios, and limited series have been at agrees that it is a combination of key elements that makes Califorthe frontline of the battle to nia an attractive base for high-end TV producers. “The kind of attract audiences and distinguish projects we’ve had through here include Deadwood, Justified, channel brands from their rivals.

A significant number of these Good Girls Revolt and Santa Clarita Diet, the new drama starring high-end shows have been Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. What appeals to all of shot in California, them is this combination of great sound stages, nearby movie including HBO’s True ranches, great crews and the state’s new incentives. You can get rebates in other states, but not always the quality of crew.”

Detective, Amazon’s Transparent and FX’s Sons of Anarchy. At this FX’s Justified is a classic example of a show that fell in love with year’s Primetime Emmys, one of the stand-out performers was FX’s California-based hit American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. what Los Angeles had to offer. Although it is set in Kentucky, and the pilot episode was shot in Pennsylvania, the show eventually Simpson. Nominated for three Golden Globes was another sumpbased itself in California. Key production sites included Rancho tuousCalifornia-locatedproduction—HBO’sepic Westworld—while Deluxe and Sable Ranch, the town of Green Valley and Santa Clarone of 2017’s most hotly anticipated series is Showtime’s reboot of ita Studios, where it was resident for six seasons on three stages. cult classic Twin Peaks. When it was announced that the latter Although there are signs that big-budget movies are coming would be based in California, creators David Lynch and Mark Frost back to the studios, Deutsch says said it was “back where it belongs”. that 95% of Santa Clarita Studios’ Mandi Dillin, a location manMANDI DILLIN business is currently TV, “so we ager who has worked on a number are well-equipped for the boom in of landmark film and TV produchigh-end shows”. At time of writtions including Interstellar, The ing, for example, new projects Revenant, Joy and Westworld, coming through the studios says California’s new incentives included Atypical, a dark comedy program has clearly played a part in the influx of high-end TV into for Netflix about a family with an the state. “But the beauty of Caliautistic son, starring Jennifer fornia is that it offers such a Jason Leigh; and Blunt Talk, a sitdiversity of locations all within com for premium cable channel easy reach of each other,” she says.

Starz, starring Patrick Stewart.

“For some projects, you might While the area around Los want to travel out of state to achieve cinematic scope but, on most Angeles is especially attractive to producers, the rest of the state is episodic TV, you rarely have to travel far from Los Angeles’ Thirty also benefiting from the boom in high-end TV. Fox’s well-received Mile Zone.” drama Pitch, which tells the fictional story of Major League BaseHBO’s Westworld is a classic case in point. Although a few iconball’s (MLB) first female player — Ginny Baker played by Kylie Bunbury — is based in the southern Californian city of San Diego. ic scenes were shot in the states of Utah and Arizona, the lion’s As a result, there are scenes showcasing downtown San Diego, the share of the production was based in California. Locations within Coronado Bridge, the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel and Petco easy reach of Los Angeles included a Mexican pueblo backlot at Park, home to the MLB’s San Diego Padres.

Universal Studios, a richly detailed Western town at Santa Clarita’s The show, created by Dan Fogelman, was a real coup for CaliMelody Ranch and the sound stages at Warner Bros. Studios in fornia because it required the support of the MLB. Protective of its Burbank. Paramount Ranch and the hills around Santa Clarita trademarks and brand image, the MLB agreed to back the show were also used to great effect in the show.

“The less time the crew and equipment are driving around, the more money you’re putting on screen”

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Set the Scene in

S AN DIEGO

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FEATURE HIGH-END TV

final episode of AMC’s iconic period advertising series Mad Men, on the understanding that it stayed away from controversial topics such as gambling, domestic violence and performance-enhancing with central character Don Draper, played by John Hamm, last seen drugs. The result is one of the most authentic dramas about U.S. proin a Buddhist retreat along the spectacular Big Sur coastline. The fessional sport ever made, with a real stadium, a real team and the scene, shot in Anderson Canyon, was intended to mimic the famous kind of true-to-life stadium camera angles, press-conference Esalen Institute. Not only did it boost tourism to the area but Mad sequences and behind-the-scenes locker-room footage that make Men’s creator, Matthew Weiner, called it “a very special place to end sports content so distinctive and compelling. “The only thing that is the show”. different is that there is a woman on the mound,” Fogelman says.

More recently, HBO’s much-anticipated Big Little Lies filmed in “Pitch was written about San Diego specifically and our baseball the city of Pasadena, just north of Los Angeles, as well as in Monterey. The seven-part series, created by David E. Kelley, has a team and gorgeous stadium,” says Pitch location manager Lisa S. star-studded cast headed by Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.

Rothmuller. Shooting the action in Petco Park was not always It tells the story of three women straightforward. “The biggest whose seemingly perfect lives challenge was fitting the shoot in RICHARD DEUTSCH unravel to the point of violence between all of the other events at and murder. the stadium, most of all baseball.

The show is based on a book by We filmed the pilot prior to the Liane Moriarty, set in Australia, season and then filmed the series but the production team was lookin the few breaks that the team had ing to transfer the story to a at the stadium. It was a challenge suitable location in the US. They to keep the field looking great for first approached the Monterey baseball with a 65-person crew Film Commission in January 2016 stampeding it on every shoot, but and then returned to shoot in May it was workable.”

2016.

The series includes some shots of real-life baseball that is integrated into the show. “It was fun to see Big Little Lies shot in a range of locations, including Monterey’s the blending of the real and the TV interpretation of these games,” Fisherman’s Wharf, the coastal city of Pacific Grove and at some priRothmuller says. vate residences along the Big Sur coast. The location manager is The pilot was shot entirely in San Diego. Pitch stayed there for Gregory Alpert, whose career to date has included numerous bigbudget features and high-end series, for example HBO’s Luck, the entire season, although most of the filming was on location in Los Angeles and on the Paramount lot. “San Diego is a great place to starring Dustin Hoffman. “The thing about these high-end TV series film, between the consistently good weather and the proximity to is that they are often shot like feature films,” Alpert says. “They have Los Angeles, paired with no city permit fees and lower location rentthe same kind of vision and approach, which is why California is al rates, it can't be beat,” Rothmuller says. “We have a robust local such a good place to base them. The necessary experience and crew, along with a few rental houses — and the best part, fantastic expertise is here.” locations, ranging from the desert, to the mountains to the ocean, In the case of Big Little Lies, Alpert reports that all seven epiwith a thriving city in between it all. Almost every look can be found sodes were directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club). here in San Diego.”

“That’s incredibly challenging for a director, so it’s great to know you Up the Californian coast, the county of Monterey hosted the have all of the necessary support networks in place,” he adds. “The

“You can get rebates in other states, but not always the quality of crew”

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GREGORY ALPERT

“With its beaches, deserts, mountains and ranches, California really has most of the world in its backyard”

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thing about California is that it doesn’t just provide great crew and equipment — it’s also home to every kind of specialist service-industry vendor that you need to support your production.”

Echoing Dillin, Alpert says California’s key asset is its versatility: “I’ve worked right across the country but, with its beaches, deserts, mountains and ranches, California really has most of the world in its backyard. You can double most places in the world and work all year round because of the climate. There’s also a really different vibe as you travel up the coast. The kind of community we found in Monterey is very different from what you would expect to encounter in Southern California.”

The relocation of the story from Australia to the U.S. West Coast

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Big Little Lies shot in a range of California locations, including Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf

was not especially difficult. “The story centers on three kindergarten moms and what we found in Monterey was the same kind of lifestyle as the author’s original vision,” Alpert says. “And it worked well for us because people there were so welcoming. At the same time, what we managed to pull off around Pasadena captured the essence of the show’s core locations.”

Further north, California’s Marin County has recently hosted the production of Thirteen Reasons Why, a Netflix series based on the best-selling book by Jay Asher. The central character is a teenager who is trying to work out why his classmate and crush, Hannah, decided to end her own life.

“We’re located in the San Francisco Bay Area,” says Marin County film liaison Deborah Albre. “It’s a beautiful area that has hosted a lot of photo shoots and commercials. It’s also home to George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and the practical-effects studio 32TEN. But this is the first time we have had a TV production on this scale.”

The hub of the production activity was the city of San Rafael, which provided a dozen or so locations in residential and downtown business areas. The show also used some outlying areas in Mill Valley and China Camp State Park. “San Rafael provided the kind of home-town feel you get from the novel,” Albre adds. “The production was with us for six months and had a major economic impact on the city. We had some 200 out-of-town crew members from Los Angeles coming and going, which meant we needed around 11,000 room nights [$1.2M].”

San Rafael events co-ordinator Brian Auger says the city worked very hard to welcome the production, recognizing the economic benefits that such projects bring: “It’s not easy for a city that isn't used to hosting such big productions, but we were fortunate that the folks from Netflix were so supportive and really understood the needs of the local community.”

The challenge, Auger adds, was ensuring public departments were able to move with the speed and flexibility required by the producers: “There’s a story about how George Lucas came here in 1973 and filmed some of American Graffiti. But he became frustrated when he was denied permission to extend his shoot so he moved 20 miles north. Things are very different these days. We’re learning how to adapt. And people appreciate the fact that a film production can mean anything from overtime for the police to spend in the local hardware store.”

Auger says the city had a great experience hosting season one of Thirteen Reasons Why and is now seeking to implement lessons learned in the hope that the show is recommissioned — or that other projects come in its wake: “San Rafael has a lot of different looks: historic, waterfront, unique housing and so on. It also acts as the hub of a number of communities, so I’d like to think that other productions would be able to base themselves here.”

Albre and Auger’s upbeat assessment of Northern Califor-

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San Francisco isn’t just a city.

It’s a genre.

Filming in San Francisco gives you more character for your budget –with up to a $600,000 rebate for productions. ƂNOUH QTI

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nia’s appeal is echoed by Joy Gorman Wettels, executive producer of Thirteen Reasons Why: “It was important to shoot in an area that would serve as an idyllic yet relatable home town for characters of different socio-economic backgrounds and experiences. The rich locations and landscapes of the Bay Area simply couldn't be found elsewhere. We have fallen in love with Northern California, from our sets and stages in Vallejo and Mare Island to the small-town feel of San Rafael and Sebastopol. Our characters get to live in a world that is cinematic and reflective of our diverse audience.”

As dramas including I Love Dick and Justified demonstrate, part of California’s appeal to producers of high-end TV is that the state is unparalleled when it comes to doubling for other parts of the U.S. Amazon’s Good Girls Revolt provides another example of this, recreating the world of 1960s New York journalism in Downtown Los Angeles and the studios of Santa Clarita; the pilot was shot in New York but the series was moved to California.

At the same time, however, some Californian locations have such an iconic quality to them that creative authenticity demands that shows are filmed there. It’s difficult, for example, to imagine anywhere else recreating the world of LAPD detective Harry Bosch, the central character in Amazon’s crime series Bosch.

BRIAN AUGER

“People appreciate the fact that a film production can mean anything from overtime for the police to spend in the local hardware store” Produced by Red Arrow Entertainment-owned Fabrik, Bosch is based on the best-selling books by Michael Connelly, who said early on in the development process that it was important to him that the series be “true to the city of Los Angeles and the character of Harry Bosch”. Speaking to Location California at the time of the series’

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launch, Connelly said he would not have made a deal “with anyone who didn’t agree to make every shot in L. A.”.

A detailed replica of the LAPD’s Hollywood Bureau was created at Red Studios Hollywood, but the show also gets out into some of the more evocative parts of the city. These include Mariachi Plaza, Echo Park, the storm-water tunnels under the city, and the rapidly regenerating area around Atwater. For fans of the books, one of the most exciting locations is the cliff-hugging house selected to replicate Bosch’s home in Connelly’s novels.

There’s a similar dynamic at work with Hulu scripted series Chance, which is set in San Francisco and stars Hugh Laurie. Producer Jane Bartelme says: “Chance is a noir contemporary show based on the novel by Kem Nunn. The story takes place in San Francisco — and San Francisco was very much a character from the inception of the project. It is infrequent I get to shoot in a city where the story takes place. So that was amazing...”

JOY GORMAN WETTELS

“We have fallen in love with Northern California.

Our characters get to live in a world that is cinematic and reflective of our diverse audience” Bartelme says the production got lucky when it found an old cheese factory to serve as its base. “It was just a few blocks from our production office, which made it perfect for TV production,” she adds. “We were also not hampered with normal permitting parameters as it was in a non-residential neighborhood.”

The real beauty of the show, however, was that it got deep under the skin of the city, with stops including North Beach, Jackson Square, United Nations Plaza and the Tenderloin. “I’m a resident of San Francisco, but it’s rare that you see much of the city on film,” says location manager Rory Enke. “For the most part, you get a few establishing shots then the rest is doubled by cities like Vancouver. So for me, Chance was a great opportunity to show some of the sides of San Francisco that are usually hidden from sight. The show took me to places I never knew existed.”

Being a resident of San Francisco really helped, Enke adds: “Most of my career has been in feature films, so it was really noticeable with this production that we had less preparation time. Often we would have just nine days from when we were given the script to the shoot. So it helps if you know your way around and have a few things ready in your bag of tricks.”

And Enke sees no reason why San Francisco cannot become more prominent in other projects: “There are some built-in hazards because of the unique layout of the city, but California’s new incentive program does make it easier to take advantage of the projects

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Hugh Laurie starring in Chance, the Hulu scripted series, which is set in San Francisco: “San Francisco was very much a character from the inception of the project," says Jane Bartelme Michael Connelly, writer of the Harry Bosch books and executive producer of the Amazon series Bosch, said he would not have made a deal “with anyone who didn’t agree to make every shot in L.A.” Shailene Woodley, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman shooting Big Little Lies in Los Angeles

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We’re just one famous bridge away...

Film in Marin County, California Bring the cameras.

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Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant in Santa Clarita Diet

being commissioned by Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and the premium pay-TV channels. And the San Francisco community is very receptive to filming.”

The good news for California is that the momentum seems to be moving its way in terms of TV-drama production, especially in the area around Los Angeles. According to figures from FilmL.A., Los Angeles’ share of new drama pilot production has been on the rise since 2013-2014 and currently stands at 20% of the North American total (2015/2016 season). What’s more, some of the titles piloted during the most recent season have gone to series and look set to establish themselves as ongoing franchises.

A case in point is TNT’s crime drama Animal Kingdom, starring Ellen Barkin. Piloted in California, the show went on to spend $33M in the state during season one and has since been re-ordered on the

back of rising ratings. Other projects that look promising include NBC’s critically acclaimed family drama This is Us and FX’s upcoming Snowfall, created by John Singleton and inspired by the crack-cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.

It is not just pilots shot in Los Angeles that point to a positive future for California’s status as the hub for high-end TV drama. A growing trend towards straight-to-series commissions has also boosted the state’s production levels, with TV drama accounting for 3,316 Los Angeles shooting days in the first nine months of 2016.

Shows that went straight to series in the last year have included Westworld, now renewed for season two, and Showtime’s anticipated reboot of Twin Peaks.

Another contributor to California’s high-end TV credentials is the growing number of pilots and series coming into the state hav-

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ing started life elsewhere. USA Network’s Shooter, for example, was piloted in Vancouver, but then shot in Los Angeles and has now been greenlit for a second season. Shooter was accepted into California’s tax credit program, which made it possible to relocate to the state — which was good news for lead actor Ryan Phillippe, also a producer, who had expressed a desire to be closer to his family.

This is a significant point, because one of the key factors that has distinguished recent high-end TV dramas is the caliber of talent they attract: “A lot of great actors and actresses live in Los Angeles, so they’re inevitably more interested in signing up for projects if they can come home to their families at the end of the day instead of being based somewhere else for months,” Phillippe says. “I think this convenience for on-screen talent — and also directors and showrunners — is a particular advantage for California.”

This point was also touched on in September when Los Angeles City Council honored a number of Emmy-nominated television

shows that shot in California. One of these was Washington D.C.-set comedy Veep, which recently relocated production from Maryland to California to secure the state’s newly enhanced tax credit. Commenting on that decision, Alex Gregory, Veep co-executive producer, said: “It’s been amazing to move the show to Los Angeles from Maryland. All of the writing staff and all of the principal actors except Anna Chlumsky are based there. Most of the show is interiors, so it’s not a problem that we’re not close to Washington, D.C.”. The show spent a week in D.C. to get the establishing shots it needed.

Even shows that do not qualify for a tax credit sometimes stay in California because of access to talent. Justin Falvey, an executive producer on HBO’s Lyndon Johnson biopic All the Way, says that the telepic was shot in Los Angeles even though the story is set in Texas and Washington, D.C. because of the wishes of director Jay Roach. “We were glad to shoot here. There’s nothing better than shooting in Los Angeles.”

Genevieve Angelson in Good Girls Revolt: the pilot was shot in New York but the series was moved to California

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MAKING A SCENE SUBURBICON MAKING A SCENE XXXXXXXXXXX

BACK TO THE FIFTIES Where did George Clooney and the Coen Brothers find the perfect American suburb for their Fifties period piece Suburbicon? Julian Newby finds out

Camera operator Colin Anderson (left), director/ writer/producer George Clooney, first assistant camera operator Erik Brown, and cinematographer Robert Elswit, shooting Suburbicon 28

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OW EASY is it to find untouched Fifties America in America? There are shining examples in the movies: Edward Scissorhands’ line of cookie-cutter, single-story homes was found in Florida; the Fifties perfection of Hill Valley in Back to the Future, on the other hand, was principally a set created at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

For Suburbicon, the latest movie from the Coen Brothers, directed by George Clooney and starring Matt Damon, Oscar Isaac, Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson, a similar look and feel was required. Location manager Michael Burmeister had worked on the 1990 Johnny Depp-starrer as well as two episodes of Robert Zemeckis’ Eighties time-traveling trilogy, and so knew all about the main problem associated with recreating this photogenic period of modern America: we all know what it looks like, but where do you find it?

Suburbicon is a crime mystery set in a quiet, American family town in 1957.

This suburban idyll is rocked when pillars of the community the Lodge family’s life is turned upside-down after two supposed strangers enter their home.

Eight-year-old Nicky Lodge hears his father, Gardner, outside his bedroom, speaking with two apparent strangers — who later force father, son, disabled mother and aunt, down into the basement where they are tied up, and given chloroform. When Nicky wakes up, he’s at the hospital and his mother is dead. Nicky, Gardner, and his aunt Margaret are later brought in to a police line-up to identify the potential killers, but Gardner asks that Nicky leave the room. Through a crack in the door, Nicky sees his father and aunt look directly at the men who killed his mother as they tell the police that they are not the culprits.

The next day, Nicky comes home from school early and finds his father and his aunt naked on the pool table.

Attention focuses on the young boy who tries to make sense of the behavior of the adults around him as the family gets caught in a web of betrayal, adultery and blackmail. Then mob racism rears its ugly head as the Meyers — the neighborhood’s first

black family — move into the house next door.

So the American dream has gone bad. But Suburbicon still needed neat homes, peaceful streets and clipped lawns, as well as tidy driveways and garages for the all-important shiny family automobile. Location manager Burmeister and his team settled on four principal locations.

“It was little bit of a challenge because obviously the story’s setting was a long time ago,” Burmeister tells Location California. “I did some of the scouting and [location scout] Ken Haber did a lot more for me and he was able to find two areas where the homes were built in the Fifties — period-correct with not a lot of improvements done to them, meaning they didn’t have modern features added. They were

MICHAEL BURMEISTER

“If you went from the Meyers’ house through the backyard to the Lodge house and then into the street, you would go from Fullerton, to Santa Clarita, and then to Carson California close to how they were when they were built and we found enough homes to make it work.”

The street Burmeister and his colleagues found is in Fullerton, northern Orange County. It had no trees at the time, which made it just right for the movie. The city authorities were about to plant along the roadside but waited until the shoot had finished.

“In Edward Scissorhands we found an attractive 50-home street in Florida and painted all 50 homes, cut down all the trees and brought in all these period cars,” Burmeister says. “Suburbicon was on a smaller scale. We didn’t need so many houses. Nowadays, with computer generation and other aspects, you can get the same effect with fewer homes.”

So far so good. The street was perfect in so many ways, but in the movie the Lodge family home was a two-story property and the Fullerton street was all single-story homes. So for the Lodge’s house the production needed to move to the city of Carson, in Los Angeles County. Most of the interiors meanwhile were shot on sound stages in Burbank.

“The Lodge dwelling is a two-story house with a backyard that joins the backyard of the Meyers’ house, which is one story,” Burmeister says. “So the one-story house was in Fullerton California, the backyards were a movie ranch in Santa Clarita, and then the Lodge house was in Carson. So if you went from the Meyers’ house through the backyard to the Lodge house and then into the street, you would go from Fullerton, to Santa Clarita, and then to Carson California. It would look like one shot, but they’re all about 30 to 40 miles from each other. And we do have a shot that connects all three. You shoot it in all three places and then stitch it together to look like one place.

That’s the tricky part.”

So why go all the way to Santa Clarita for the backyards? Don’t homes in Carson and Fullerton have their own?

“Well, there’s a huge hunk of land there called Mystery Mesa. It’s on the top of a hill — a flat mesa surrounded by cliffs, and there’s one way in and one way out,” Burmeister says. “It's a massive piece of property and they mainly use it for movies. There’s nothing on it, it’s mainly mesa — for use if you want to shoot a prairie scene or dirt road. We went out there because the nice thing about it is, it’s kinda high from the surrounding areas. So we built these backyards and in a lot of the camera angles you were just looking at blue sky because you’re so far up.”

The effect was to add to the movie’s dreamy, untouched Fifties look. “It was idyllic,” Burmeister says. “And you didn’t have to green-screen anything in. When they were in the backyards all you

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A residential neighborhood in Fullerton, California transformed into Suburbicon, a picture-perfect Fifties suburb

saw was blue sky. So its a nice matching piece between Fullerton and Carson.”

Backyards were built on the mesa, filmed, and then removed, and the land then re-seeded to match the rest of the area. As is the aim of all productions these days, the production team made every effort to leave the locations as they were, or better.

Another key location for Suburbicon was a disused shopping center in North Hollywood. For the Coen Brothers, locations always become part of the character of the movie and Suburbicon is no exception. “They definitely wanted a real Fifties look and feel, with color, costumes, vehicles — everything,” Burmeister says. “We found this shopping center in the north part of Los Angeles that’s empty — there are 30 or 40 stores that they’re going to remodel or tear down. And in the meantime they rented it to us.”

The production team went through every store, putting Fifties merchandise in all of the windows. “There were at least 50 store fronts to dress and it was really great. We painted all the facades with those Fifties pastel colors.

And then there was the signage — and to that you add the extras with the costumes and the period cars. I’ve been making films for a while and even I went, ’Oh this looks great!’. People were driving by and thinking it was going to

Photo: Hilary Bronwyn Gayle

open up again as a period plaza — they were trying to buy stuff!”

Successful location filming always depends on establishing a good rapport between crew and locals and with George Clooney at the helm, achieving this was perhaps easier than it might have been.

Surprisingly, though close to America’s movie capital of Los Angeles, the streets used in Fullerton and Carson had little experience with production crews — but were hospitable throughout.

“They were all fully on board with the filming,” Burmeister says. “Once we gained their trust they were bringing out cookies and tamales and George was taking photographs with people in the neighborhood — it was a really nice, fun experience for the filmmakers and the neighbors. In fact when we left, some of the neighbors called me and said, ’We kinda miss you guys!’.

One older resident of Fullerton was more skeptical, however, claiming when approached by Burmeister at the start of shooting, that he wasn’t interested in the movie business.

“This old timer was cutting his lawn and I go talk to him and he’s not listening to my story at all,” Burmeister says. “I tried to explain the whole movie,

and I told him our director was George Clooney, and he says, 'I don’t care about Hollywood!'. While I’m talking to him George walks over and introduces himself and they become, like, buddies — and this guy became our advocate! He was living next door to our main house and he was the curmudgeon of the block! But then he became one of our staunch allies. It was that personal touch that George has — and it is genuine. He’s always taking photographs with people, shaking hands and signing things — it’s real, but it’s also such good public relations and that was in large part why we were so successful on this shoot.”

A shoot which took place entirely in California — good news for Burmeister and other crew members as well as for the state’s film industry. “The filmmakers all kind of live here, so there was a desire to stay here,” Burmeister says.

“Also they were able to obtain a tax credit from the California Film Commission, which has helped to spearhead this drive to create incentives to keep filmmakers here. And this particular budget was a modest budget so the incentives became really important.

And, of course, there is an infrastructure in Southern California for film making so that all fell into place. Then it was incumbent upon me and the people I work with to make it work.”

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FEATURE STUDIOS AND RANCHES

FEATURE STUDIOS AND RANCHES

THE BEST PLACES TO

SHOOT Whether it's a massive sound stage, post-production, water tanks, a New York street or an isolated Western town, the studios and film ranches of California have everything.

Debbie Lincoln takes a look at what’s on offer

Chris Browning as Holden, Ben Barnes as Logan and Jimmi Simpson as William in sci-fi Western TV series Westworld, filmed at Big Sky Ranch and Rancho Deluxe

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FILMMAKERS first came to California for the weather, but since D. W. Griffith arrived here back in 1910, a comprehensive services industry has grown to provide everything that a filmmaker could possibly need. Integral to this offer are the studios and film ranches that provide an infinite variety of backdrops for every type of production.

A cluster of major studio facilities exists in and close to Los Angeles. In any one of these a filmmaker can take a project from the development of an idea, supporting a cast through rehearsal and filming to post production, including everything from catering to wardrobe and make-up. Filming can take place on a range of smallto-vast sound stages and a variety of backlots.

“We have 35 sound stages and 14 exterior sets spread out across our main lot and our nearby ranch facility, enabling us to accommodate just about any production imaginable,” says Los Angeles-based Jessica Zacholl of Warner Bros. Studios. “It’s not unusual to see a snowy cityscape right next to a Midwestern summertime party set, anytime of the year.”

Everybody knows the contribution that Warner Bros. Studios has made to the movie industry, but the facility is also right at the heart

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™

STUDIO FACILITIE S

EXTERIOR SETS & SOUND STAGES

35 SOUND STAGES • BROWNSTONE STREET • HENNESY STREET NEW YORK STREET • EMBASSY COURTYARD/NEW YORK PARK • FRENCH STREET PARK PLACE • WARNER VILLAGE • MIDWEST STREET/BUSINESS & RESIDENTIAL JUNGLE/LAGOON • BLONDIE STREET • PARK BLVD. For Location Scouts & Scheduling Contact Studio Operations @ 818.954.1501 www.wbsf.com ©2016 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

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Thandie Newton on a Westworld set in Santa Clarita with screen daughter Jasmyn Rae

ing rooms close to its New York Street backlot. “Hairspray Live! was of the vibrant television industry. “Business is increasing, and we’re actively adapting to the shorter orders and formats becoming more the first production to film on these stages,” NBC Universal’s Aaron prevalent in the television world. For example, we’ve been working Rogers says, adding: “Construction recently began on the first a lot with Netflix recently, with [family sitcom] Fuller House and phase of our new 10-sound-stage complex with support facilities on the east side of New York Street.” [comedy series] The Ranch filming on our lot,” Zacholl says. “Both According to Rogers, a lot of business for these facilities comes shows are set to shoot their upcoming second seasons here. We’re from local and international television, commercial, digital and indealso home to a consistent, rotating crop of new and returning TV pendent projects as well as the feature-film industry. “For the fall shows — one to look out for is Famous In Love, which is not only season, Universal was the home from the creator of Pretty Little for [TV series] The Good Place, Liars, but filmed on the same JESSICA ZACHOLL SAYS. stages with much of the same Pure Genius, The Mindy Project , crew as its predecessor. AdditionGreat News, Colony, Superstore, ally, we anticipate bringing and [reality show] The Voice several film productions on to the among others.” lot in 2017, both Warner Bros.

As well as Warner, Universal movies and projects brought in and the other majors — Parathrough third-party business.” mount, Sony and Fox — California Warner Bros. Studios is also a also offers a number of smaller, good example of how some facililess internationally-known ties are making themselves names, many with a history reachavailable for filmed events. “In ing back as far as the majors. For 2016 we had some huge new example The Culver Studios in events on our main Burbank lot, Culver City, to the west of central most notably the broadcast of Grease Live! in January and the MTV Los Angeles, which after 100 years of service is about to embark on an ambitious development scheme.

Movie Awards in April.” Zacholl says Warner Bros. Studios' strategy “The Culver Studios has always strived to offer the best-in-class is to become a “go-to location” for these types of productions. facilities and services. In 2017, the studio will continue that objecThis diversification by the big studios leads to a competitive tive through The Innovation Plan, a project that will modernize environment and constant updating of facilities. As recently as and re-imagine the studio lot to better meet the needs of our cusOctober 2016 Universal Studios opened two new 18,000 square foot tomers and tenants,” says studio vice-president, business sound stages, offering attached production office space and dress-

“It’s not unusual to see a snowy cityscape right next to a Midwestern summertime party set, anytime of the year”

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buildings, ICON and CUE. ICON will become the new Southern development, Michael Goldfarb. ”The goals are to create flexible California headquarters for Netflix,” says CEO and founding partphysical spaces, preserve existing sound stages, restore iconic ner Greg Berardi. “Landscaping and the creative atmosphere at buildings and invest in backbone infrastructure to meet the both studios is also being significantly upgraded and enhanced. demands of modern productions and new technologies our indusNew amenities, such as a café by celebrity chef Helen Cavalo at try is embracing.” Goldfarb adds: “Overall, the modernized campus Sunset Gower Studios, have given a modern twist to an already bouwill be more sustainable, providing tenants with more green space, tique ambiance." new HVAC systems controlled at every building, water-saving Berardi credits the California tax incentives as an important aid devices and low-flow fixtures, expanded bicycle programs on and to bolstering demand, emphasizing that the company’s facilities off the campus, upgraded technology infrastructure and overall are attractive to “a wide and more efficient energy infrastrucgrowing range of content proture.” TV series The Last Ship BILL HUMPHREY ducers” including streaming and Training Day will be filming companies such as Netflix as well at The Culver Studios in 2017. as branded cable networks — for The Sunset Bronson and Suninstance HBO — and major netset Gower Studios, are Los works including ABC, CBS and Angeles facilities owned by HudFox. “Netflix’s decision to come to son Pacific Properties — a Hollywood and occupy over publicly traded Real Estate 400,000 square feet at ICON and Investment Trust (REIT) that Sunset Bronson Studios signals a owns and operates office and new chapter in Hollywood’s magmedia and entertainment assets ical history,” Hudson Pacific throughout the West Coast.

Media general manager Bill These two studios, which comHumphrey says. “Their arrival prise the largest independently confirms the momentum of ‘the operated sound-stage facilities in new Hollywood’, which is now the U.S., are also on a modernizathe nexus of entertainment, tech tion curve. Hudson Pacific and media. This very well may be the beginning of a new golden Properties acquired Sunset Gower Studios in 2007 and Sunset age for Hollywood, and certainly for Sunset Bronson Studios.”

Bronson Studios in 2008. Sunset Gower Studios currently houses Humphrey is confident that this momentum will continue. “Now 12 sound stages and Technicolor’s North American headquarters, more than ever, leading content producers and TV networks want which Hudson Pacific Properties built in 2008. Sunset Bronson to be in Hollywood to be near creative talent, world-class studios Studios comprises 10 sound stages, and has served as the headquarand the entire entertainment ecosystem.” ters for KTLA, one of Los Angeles’ largest independent television Meanwhile, the opening of a new studio complex on Mare Island stations, for nearly 60 years. Home for over 20 years to the wildly promises to transform the local film and TV industry in the San successful syndicated reality show Judge Judy, the Studios recently Francisco Bay Area. Studio start-up expert Mark Walter was called completed a long-term, multi-stage deal with Netflix, for the proviin by leading equipment rental firm Cinelease to explore the potension of stages and services for multiple productions. tial of building a state-of-the-art Bay Area studio complex and is “Sunset Bronson Studios is in the final stages of a multi-million now in the midst of doing so: “We looked at a number of possidollar building project, adding two state-of-the art creative office

“Now more than ever, leading content producers and TV networks want to be in Hollywood to be near creative talent, world-class studios and the entire entertainment ecosystem”

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HAVING FUN

Taking Care of Your Needs in Production Heaven

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Above: Mare Island, set to become a production hub in the San Francisco Bay area. Below: Main Street on the Warner Bros. Studios lot

bilities, but came to the conclusion that Mare Island, the site of a former Naval Base, was perfect for production. It’s conveniently located and has the space you need for all of the support services that go with production.”

In the first phase, says Walter, who is general manager of the new complex, the focus has been on repurposing vast warehouse-style buildings for use by producers. But looking ahead the plan is to build some purpose-built sound stages. “The first production we had here was the Netflix drama series Thirteen Reasons Why,” he says, “but as we develop the facilities on site we expect more productions to use the site.”

For Walter, one of its key attributes is the eclectic array of buildings that has been left behind by the Naval community that used to live on the island: “This used to be a fully-functioning community with all manner of residential and commercial buildings, so there’s scope to use it as a studio and a location. We’re hoping it can develop as a kind of production hub, with other companies basing themselves here.”

Walter is in no doubt that the revitalized incentive program, in particular the 5% tax credit uplift for productions outside Los Angeles, has provided a boost to the Mare Island project: “I’ve

helped set up studios right across the U.S., and there’s no question that a positive incentive program is a key consideration when you are looking at making this kind of major studio investment.”

Jim Reikowsky, communications and film liaison at Solano County Film Office, which covers the city of Vallejo and the Mare Island site, is optimistic about the impact Cinelease might have: “We’ve had plenty of people visit us over the years and promise to turn us into Hollywood North — if the city of Vallejo paid. But this is the first time we’ve had a company with Cinelease’s credentials come and invest their own money.” Their arrival has the potential to transform the area’s filming activities: “Film and TV has been part of my brief for 20 years and it’s never been too busy,” says Reikowsky. “We’ve had still photos, commercials and the occasional high-profile production like Mythbusters and The Master [starring Joaquim Phoenix]. But if we find ourselves with a returning TV series coming to Mare Island that would provide a significant economic boost.”

Back down south, Los Angeles Center Studios, located on a 20-acre campus in Downtown Los Angeles, is also upgrading and adding to its existing production offices, six 18,000 square feet sound stages and other amenities. ”We’ve recently added our Bike

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Store frontages at Santa Clarita Studios

Lounge, which offers secure, video-monitored parking for bicycles during the work day as well as an area to relax and play pool or video games,” says Dolly K. Wyatt, director of marketing. “We also opened a new large meeting space, The Brainstorm Room, which can be utilized as a conference room, event space or filming location.”

The well-established independent studio complex has had a busy couple of years with “sitcoms, dramas, commercials and feature films”. Customers reflect the current bouyant content business and include Amazon, Sony, Disney, Netflix and YouTube. “So far 2017 is looking like more of the same,” Wyatt adds.

Built in 1913, the Main Lot of Occidental Studios on Hollywood’s Occidental Boulevard dates back to the very beginnings of the movie business, hosting Cecil B. DeMille, D. W. Griffith and Mary Pickford, among others. Now Occidental Entertainment Group Holdings offers a range of services for film, TV, commercials and games, and operates 12 sound stages. The facility offers around one million square feet dedicated to the creative industries.

“We're constantly looking to grow organically in terms of the size and scope of our present operations, which currently include stage complexes and office facilities located in multiple locations throughout Hollywood and the greater Los Angeles area, and we are always looking at more diverse technologies that complement production,” Occidental Entertainment Group's co-chairman and CEO Craig Darian says. “We're also looking at opportunities to grow and/or diversify through acquisition. As the world is getting smaller, and the trajectory of technology is getting faster, we're striving to be at the forefront while remaining focused on our core operations.”

Occidental Studio president Ricky Stoutland agrees with Hudson Pacific’s Berardi that demand has remained high due to the California Tax Credit. He also praises the work of the California Film Commission in this: “Amy Lemisch [director, CFC] and her team have done a great job.” He adds: “Scripted programming has been especially good. The added demand has been obvious in our other entertainment-related divisions that are involved in office rentals, lighting and grip and props. We are anticipating a robust 2017 with broad interest from companies like CBS, Fox, Amazon, Netflix and HBO.” As well as its famous studios, Santa Clarita is home to a number of film ranches, where filmmakers can access extensive and beautiful locations, outdoor and indoor sets close to the hub of Los Angeles, and within the Thirty Mile Zone. “The movie ranches have all benefited from the locally-based shows and continue to attract production. In terms of location filming, we'll end the calendar year [2016] with over 500 film permits contributing to over 1,300 film days, which are among our highest numbers as a film office,” Santa Clarita Film Office’s (SCFO) Evan Thomason says.

Santa Clarita’s Rancho Deluxe covers over 200 acres of property nestled in the mountains of Placerita Canyon, and offers many locations including houses, cabins, barns, forests, desert areas, a Western town and various indoor sets. “We will definitely be adding and changing things around for as long as we live here. It seems like we always have some kind of project going on,” Rancho Deluxe’s Steve Arklin says. “I think people would be surprised to see that we have everything from green grassy meadows and big oak forests to dry desert scenery. Same goes for our structures, we have everything from old-style cabins to big mountain-top mansions.”

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tion-friendly, by redoing our access roads, more than doubling our Rancho Deluxe suffered some damage in a wildfire that ramparking and base-camp capacity, adding road base to ensure allpaged through the region in July 2016, and not surprisingly this weather operability of those areas, and a secure, opaque fence line affected business. “Business has been good over the last few years. and guard gate to increase privacy and security,” owner Dylan LewLast year was our best season to date. I think that we would have is says. “This is in addition to our set dressings and production been just as busy if not more this year but the recent fires definitely vehicles — civilian and military, planes and helicopters,” He adds put a damper on that. But production is starting to come back.” that Blue Cloud has doubled the number of available shooting locaRecent productions shot at Rancho Deluxe include a new Western tions, including the mission drama starring Jean Claude Van church, an outdoor green-screen Damme destined for Netflix; TV RICKY STOUTLAND skeleton with a 3,000 square foot series The Shooter; Comedy Cenconcrete pad, “a Mad Max-style tral’s Drunk History; MasterChef fighting arena, doubling the Junior; HBO’s The Young Pope; length of roadways, and more and science-fiction Western series than doubling the size of the Westworld, also for HBO. “I am ranch through the acquisition of definitely expecting some of these an adjacent 150 acres, which shows to return to film the next includes an eight-acre plateau season,” Arklin says. with 360-degree views of the surClose, but fortunately avoiding rounding canyons and roadways. the latest wildfires, Blue Cloud “The majority of our clients are Movie Ranch offers an amazing TV shows, followed by commerrange of location possibilities cials, movies and music videos. including an airplane hangar, a We also have still shoots for branded campaigns that frequent the military base, a mission church, a historic wooden arena, urban Ranch.” Lewis says. “Past clients include productions as big as Iron areas, caves, tunnels, a helicopter crash site, pueblos and numerous vehicles over a 250-acre property with open roads and vistas.

Man and American Sniper all the way down to students cutting Blue Cloud is a great example of how movie ranches are contheir teeth on their first short films,” he adds. stantly upgrading facilities to attract production. “Since taking over Northeast of Los Angeles, in Simi Valley, Big Sky Movie Ranch covthe Ranch [in 2015] we have worked hard to become more producers more than 6,500 acres of rolling hills and valleys. Owned by J. Paul

“We're anticipating a robust 2017 with broad interest from companies like CBS, Fox, Amazon, Netflix and HBO”

AFTER THE FIRE

O

N THE afternoon of July 22, 2016, near the intersection of Soledad Canyon Road and Sand Canyon Road, a fire started that soon ran wild. “Within the jurisdiction of the Santa Clarita Film Office [SCFO], we had two movie ranches that experienced damage from the Sand Fire [named after Sand Canyon] that burned approximately 40,000 square acres,” SCFO’s Evan Thomason says.

“Sable Ranch lost a few structures and some infrastructure, but still has a magnificent property for filming and production is returning.

Right next door Rancho Deluxe lost some natural habitat, but didn't lose any structures and had location scouts setting up future shoots while embers were still smoldering.

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Disney's Golden Oak Ranch was unscathed by the fire and actually served as a staging area for the firefighting helicopter crews.”

“We had quite a bit of land burn around us which changed the scenery, and several productions cancelled their scheduled shoots,” Rancho Deluxe’s Steve Arklin says.

“The clean-up has been going well considering there isn't too much to clean up other than making sure that water-flow areas don't have too much debris in the way. We have not had to rebuild anything. The big change is that we have some burntup creepy-looking areas now which has added to our diverse look.”

Blue Cloud Ranch’s Dylan Lewis adds advice for the future: “The fires highlighted the need to increase our

fire-prevention ability by adding additional water capacity, making sure key areas are clear of brush and by adding an additional water truck and many additional fire extinguishers.”

STEVE ARKLIN “WE HAVE SOME BURNT-UP CREEPY-LOOKING AREAS NOW WHICH HAS ADDED TO OUR DIVERSE LOOK”

“Overall the fire was a very stressful and difficult time for both the movie ranches and residents in the area,” Thomason adds. “But it has been very uplifting seeing the outpouring of support from those willing to lend a hand.”

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Mickey Mouse Club. Over the years more land was acquired and now includes a wealth of natural environments — forests, knolls, meadows and fields, barns, bridges, individual houses and cabins, a 42-storefront Business District that can embody almost any time period or city, and a Residential Street consisting of 14 homes, each embodying a different architectural style on a road that is curved to allow a wide variety of shots and angles.

Tejon Ranch — the largest private ranch in California — is a vast property 60 miles north of Los Angeles that covers 240 square miles that include rolling hills, mountain vistas, various tree areas, paved roads, streams, wide-open spaces with no visible power lines, two auto pads, cattle and horses, and white ranch fencing.

The myriad studios and ranches available in California without doubt reinforces the State’s pre-eminent position as the center of the filmmaking industry. Consistently striving to offer filmmakers what they need — and on many occasions more than they had imagined — the division between ranches and studios in terms of facilities is not that easily defined. Not all sound-stage filming takes place in studios and not all location shoots take place in open country. But whatever any production requires, it is pretty much guaranteed that one of these facilities will be able to provide it.

Getty from the Thirties until the early Eighties, the Ranch’s filming credentials are well-established. It was used for Western TV series Gunsmoke and Rawhide in the Fifties, and for Bonanza in the late Sixties. It is particularly well-known for many exterior shots in The Little House On The Prairie, culminating in the final television movie in the franchise, The Last Farewell in 1984.

More recently Big Sky replicated the beautiful Australian outback location that was the childhood home of P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins, in Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks in 2013. Disney had originally planned to film in Australia but found everything that was needed to recreate Australia at Big Sky Ranch.

Jeff Morris, from Scout Ventura, a Ventura City-based company that puts location scouts, independent producers and event planners in touch with local property owners, reports that recently crews shooting for features The Revenant, Hail, Caesar!, Annabelle 2 and TV series Westworld have used Big Sky, as well as commercial and short-film producers. The Ranch has also teamed up with local studios complex ANJAC Studios West to offer the use of sound stages and post-production facilities to filmmakers using the Ranch.

Walt Disney chose Golden Oak Ranch in the Santa Clarita valley as the location for segments of his landmark television show, The

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FILM FRIENDLY PRIVATE NO NEIGHBORS STUNTS ALLOWED 24 HOUR SHOOTING * 7 houses * 2 barns * 2 warehouses * beautiful lake * olive tree grove * paved roads * rural roads * valley overlook * helipad * plus much more

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CALIFORNIA The best of everything.

Endless Facilities • 315 Days of Sunshine • $330 Million in Tax Credits Plentiful Crews and Talent • 800 Miles of Coastline

California Film Commission Incentives • Locations • Permits

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(323) 860-2960 WWW.FILM.CA.GOV

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LAKE SONOMA, HEALDSBURG, SONOMA COUNTY Lake Sonoma is a reservoir west of Healdsburg in northern Sonoma County, California, created by the construction of Warm Springs Dam. Directors choose this location for its wonderful scenic beauty, proximity to other great driving roads, and the bridge’s inherent quality as a storytelling device. Many commercials have been shot here including Porsche, Ferrari, Subaru and International Trucks. (Photo, courtesy Jof Hanwright, LMGI)

CALIFORNIA IN PICTURES WITH THE HELP OF FILM COMMISSIONS, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND LOCATION MANAGERS, LOCATION CALIFORNIA TAKES A TOUR OF THE STRIKING AND DIVERSE LOCATIONS ON OFFER IN THE GOLDEN STATE

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CHINA CAMP STATE PARK, MARIN COUNTY China Camp State Park surrounds a historic Chinese-American shrimp-fishing village and a salt marsh. The park is located in San Rafael, California, on the shore of San Pablo Bay. Popular features include buildings dating back to the early 1900s, views of San Pablo Bay, an accessible beach area and easy permitting. Features shot here include Blood Alley (1955) with John Wayne and Lauren Bacall and recently, scenes for the last episode of Netflix’s Thirteen Reasons Why (2017-).

(Photo, courtesy Marin Film Resource Office)

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES SKYLINE A view of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline from the Green Line, framed by the curves of the freeway system. The Green Line is a 20-mile light-rail line running between Redondo Beach and Norwalk within Los Angeles County; it is one of six lines forming the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system. The line opened on August 12, 1995.

The Green Line parallels the 105 freeway, giving great views of Los Angeles. Numerous films and commercials have used the Green Line and the 105 freeway over the years. The opening dance scene from La La Land (2017) was filmed on the ramp connecting the 105 and 110 freeways. (Photo, courtesy Mandi Dillin, LMGI)

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FIGUEROA MOUNTAIN ROAD, LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST, SANTA YNEZ VALLEY, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY Figueroa Mountain is located in the Santa Lucia district of Los Padres National Forest in the Southern California wilderness area. Los Padres National Forest is a United States national forest in Southern and Central California. Administered by the United States Forest Service, Los Padres includes most of the mountainous land along the California coast from Ventura to Monterey, extending inland. Elevations range from sea level to 8,847 ft (2,697 m). Just a few of the movies shot in Santa Ynez Valley include Of Mice and Men (1992), Seabiscuit ( 2003) and Sideways (2004), among many others. Also, numerous car commercials have been shot on this road. (Photo, courtesy Geoff Jukes LMGI)

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VENICE BEACH BOARDWALK, VENICE This iconic Californian beach location has an unmistakable look with unmistakable people. The famous long sandy beach and promenade is populated with street performers, body-builders, eccentrics and extroverts. The promenade is full of interesting architecture, lively shops and eateries. Venice Beach has featured as a film location in hundreds of movies. Some of the many productions to shoot here include: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They ? (1969), Grease (1978), American Gigolo (1980), White Men Can’t Jump (1992), Speed (1994) and American History X (1998). (Photo, courtesy Nick Jamison, LGMI)

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CASINO WAY, AVALON, SANTA CATALINA ISLAND Santa Catalina Island has served as the location for the filming of hundreds motion pictures, documentaries, television programs and commercials over the past 90 years. Santa Catalina Island holds a unique place in the history of feature films as Hollywood’s exotic back lot. One of the first films shot here was D. W. Griffith's Man's Genesis back in 1912; the island also provided the backdrop for several scenes in Chinatown (1974) and the famous mechanical shark in Jaws (1975). (Photo, courtesy Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau)

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THE MISSION INN HOTEL & SPA, RIVERSIDE COUNTY From its modest beginnings as a two-story adobe guest house in 1876 to its current position as an icon of breathtaking architecture, timeless beauty and old-world charm, The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa is a place of history, grandeur and inspiration. Riverside, only 60 miles away from Hollywood, is the 12th largest city in California providing over 85 square miles of potential filming sites. The Inn's architecture has lots of potential to represent many different settings, and has served as Mexico in Kingpin (1996), a Spanish courtyard in a Shiseido commercial and Florida in TV series Hotel (1983-88). The dramatic architecture has created backdrops for numerous other film projects including Hotel (1967) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). (Photo, courtesy Riverside County Film Commission)

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MONTAÑA DE ORO STATE PARK, SAN LUIS OBISPO Montaña de Oro (Mountain of Gold in Spanish) is a state park located six miles southwest of Morro Bay and two miles south of Los Osos. The name Mountain of Gold refers to the golden wildflowers found in the park. Filmmakers choose to film here because of the natural beauty and open space. Montaña de Oro offers stunning rugged cliffs, secluded sandy beaches, wide coastal plains, canyons and hills. It is under the permitting jurisdiction of State Parks, and State Park officers are on hand to support productions. A recent shoot was for Andrew Zimmern’s TV series Bizarre Foods (2006 -). (Photo, courtesy Silent G Photography)

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DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO FROM SAN DIEGO BAY Downtown San Diego, along with the CA-75, Coronado Bridge and San Diego Bay, are filming landmarks within the San Diego region. The bridge and San Diego Bay offer sweeping views of the region from Downtown San Diego to Chula Vista. Downtown San Diego is an interesting juxtaposition of neighborhoods and entertainment districts, from the upscale urban living of Little Italy to the historic buildings of the Gaslamp Quarter, and the high rises of the Core/Columbia to the up-and-coming, eclectic East Village. Downtown San Diego has the backdrop to appeal to film, television, and stills productions of all sizes. It has set the scene for feature films including Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978), Top Gun (1986), Hunt for Red October (1990), My Blue Heaven (1990), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), as well as the TV series Veronica Mars (2004-7), Pitch ( 2016 -) and countless commercial and print campaigns. (Photo, courtesy Arash Afshar)

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TWIN PEAKS, SAN FRANCISCO Twin Peaks offers a serpentine roadway and trails with panoramic views of the city skyline and bay. Filmmakers choose San Francisco for its diverse global looks, intimate neighborhoods, iconic scenery, and mix of history and modernity. Twin Peaks has been featured in hundreds of movies, TV commercials, print and web ads, including San Francisco (1936), Freebie and the Bean (1974) and Copycat (1995). Recent commercial shoots have featured Subaru, Cadillac and Harley-Davidson. (Photo, courtesy Baldwin Production Services)

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POINT LOBOS STATE NATURAL RESERVE, MONTEREY Film productions love Point Lobos for its natural beauty — from sandy beaches to ancient trees, trails along textured rocky shorelines, birds in flight and crashing waves. Access is easy, just off Highway One, south of Carmel in Monterey County. The protection of Point Lobos is a key factor when productions seek to film here, but movies, videos, documentaries, fashion shoots, underwater photography and commercials are regularly accommodated. Scenes from more than 40 films were shot here over the years, including: silent film Foolish Wives (1922), Tess of the Storm Country (1922), Evangeline (1929) and Treasure Island (1934). Other notable movies include: Rebecca (1940), Lassie Come Home (1943), A Summer Place (1959) and The Sandpiper (1965). (Photo, courtesy Chuck Bancroft/Monterey County Film Commission)

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BERTH 47, PORT OF LOS ANGELES The Port of Los Angeles, also called America's Port, is a complex that occupies 7,500 acres of land and water along 43 miles of waterfront, and adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach. As well as its industrial backdrop, filmmakers use this location for its beautiful light and 1930s architecture, along with land and water access. A recent movie that shot here was Live by Night (2016). (Photo, courtesy Nick Jamison, LGMI)

BROWN-ISRAEL OUTFITTING COMPANY, THEATRE DISTRICT, LOS ANGELES The front of this famous building is on Broadway. This view is seen from Spring Street and shows the old Brown-Israel pre-neon bulb sign. Established in the early 1920s the Brown-Israel Outfitting Company provided clothes on credit. This iconic structure is located in the historic Los Angeles theatre district near the Rialto and Tower theatres. Many movies have been shot in this area including Let’s do it Again (1975), Mambo Kings (1992), She’s so Lovely (1997) and Transformers (2007).

(Photo, courtesy David Israel, LMGI)

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MESQUITE FLAT SAND DUNES, DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are at the northern end of the valley floor and are surrounded by mountains. With easy access from the road and the proximity of Death Valley to Hollywood, these dunes have been used in scenes for several movies including a number of titles in the Star Wars series. The largest dune is called Star Dune and is relatively stable and stationary because it is at a point where the various winds that shape the dunes converge. Mesquite Flat is best known for its portrayal as Tatooine in the original Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) (Photo, courtesy Kent Matsuoka, LMGI)

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LUFFENHOLTZ BEACH, HUMBOLDT COUNTY This spectacular black-rock cove with tide pools and wildlife provides a unique backdrop for any project. Humboldt and Del Norte counties usually handle about 20 shoots a year on average. The projects have varied from commercials to music videos and feature films. A recent movie which shot here was Swiss Army Man ( 2016). A Brad Pitt photo shoot in 2014 by photographer Mark Seliger also used this location. (Photo, courtesy Andy Rydzewski)

LOCATION IN PICTURES DUMONT DUNES, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY Dumont Sand Dunes are located approximately 30 miles north of Baker, CA and cover some 8,150 acres of open area. The elevation at Dumont ranges from about 700 feet at the river crossing to 1,200 feet on the top of Comp Hill. From one end to the other Dumont is between three and four miles long and around 1.3 miles wide. The dunes range from small rollers to large razorbacks and bowls. Films shot here include The Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (Tim Story, 2007), Pirates Of The Caribbean: At Worlds End (Gore Verbinski, 2007), G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra (Stephen Sommers, 2009), Land Of The Lost (Brad Silberling, 2009) and GI Joe: Retaliation (Jon M. Chu, 2013). The terrain is also perfect for car commercials: brands to have shot here include Jeep, Ford, GM and Honda. (Photo, courtesy Geoff Juckes, LMGI)

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BENT JOSHUA TREE, SAN BERNARDINO VALLEY This image was taken near the town of Joshua Tree, which is situated on State Route 62 in San Bernardino County. At approximately 2,700ft above sea level, Joshua Tree and its surrounding communities are located in the California High Desert. Home to Joshua Tree National Park, it is bordered by Twentynine Palms, Landers and Coachella Valley. Joshua Tree was one of the filming locations for Sky (2015). Scenes for Bagdad Cafe (1987) were shot in nearby Newberry Springs. (Photo, courtesy David Israel, LMGI)

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THE WHISKY A GO GO, SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD Whisky a Go Go is a nightclub in West Hollywood, at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on Sunset Strip. The club has been the launching pad for bands including The Doors, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Steppenwolf, Van Halen, Johnny Rivers, Guns N' Roses, Linkin Park and Mötley Crüe. In 2006, the venue was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is an important landmark on the iconic Strip. Productions that have shot in this area include Netflix’s Sandy Wexler (2017), various television pilots and music videos, as well as commercials for Oscar Meyer, Kia and Chrysler, among many others. (Photo, courtesy Jon Viscott)

KING CITY, SOUTHERN SALINAS VALLEY This image shows the freeway and railroad tracks at the intersection of Wildhorse Road and Cattleman Road, near King City in Monterey County. King City is located on the Salinas River, 51 miles southeast of Salinas, at an elevation of 335ft — 155 miles south of San Francisco and 277 miles north of Los Angeles — and provides convenient access to all areas of California. King City is mentioned repeatedly in John Steinbeck's novel, East of Eden, set in the surrounding Salinas Valley. The Candidate (1972), starring Robert Redford, was filmed here. (Photo, courtesy David Israel, LGMI)

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DAVENPORT BEACH, DAVENPORT This location forms part of the beautiful Central California coastline with rugged cliffs and sea stacks, close to the charming town of Davenport, about nine miles north of Santa Cruz. This area has hosted many films, TV shows and commercials, and has a boardwalk, pier, majestic redwood forests, winding mountain roads, charming rustic towns, a historic narrow-gauge railroad at Roaring Camp Railroads, old Victorian neighborhoods, colorful seaside villages, lush agricultural fields, dramatic coastal bluffs, and miles of coastline.

Movies shot in Santa Cruz include Sudden Impact (1983), The Lost Boys (1987) and Killer Clowns from Outer Space (1988). (Photo, courtesy Ken Lee Photography)

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VENTURA PIER, VENTURA BEACH Ventura Pier is a feature on the main central beach of Ventura — an old wooden structure on wooden pilings. Ventura lies along U.S. Route 101 between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, known as the Ventura Freeway. Ventura Beach is an easy drive from Los Angeles, and as well as the beautiful pier, offers many other waterside locations including Ventura County Fairgrounds. Among the best-known movies shot here is Little Miss Sunshine (2006); the TV series Melrose Place (1992-99) also filmed here; and many commercials including a spot for Rolling Rock beer chose this location. (Photo, courtesy Ken Lee Photography)

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COURTHOUSE, AUBURN, PLACER COUNTY The Courthouse in Auburn, Placer County, was built between 1894-98, and is still in use. This location includes an early 20th-century sheriff’s station that is not in use, period and contemporary courtrooms, a museum, marble floors, two large exterior flights of stairs, all in a Gold Rush-era small town. Films shot here include Phenomenon (1996) and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000). (Photo, courtesy Placer County)

HOPE STREET, DOWNTOWN, LOS ANGELES This picture is taken at Hope Street and West General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way in Downtown Los Angeles. Contemporary art museum The Broad is in the upper left quadrant, with its stairs on the left. Downtown Los Angeles declined economically for decades but since the early 2000s has seen a renaissance with some of the old buildings — including banks, department stores and movie palaces — renewed and modified, and new exciting skyscrapers and landmark architecture have been built. Now the area is a thriving business district with government buildings, parks, theatres and other public places. (Photo, courtesy Barbara J Miller, LMGI)

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RED HILL, SALTON SEA, IMPERIAL COUNTY Red Island, or Red Hill, is a low mound of mud on the east shore of the Salton Sea, in southeast California. It is Southern California's only active volcano, its summit lying 235 feet below sea level. The Salton Sea, which lies across the San Andreas fault, is a popular destination for film crews. Its otherworldly landscapes, salt-crusted structures and time-capsule communities are unique and in high demand. Productions that have shot here include: TV shows The Mentalist (2008-2015) and River Monsters (2009-); movie The Bad Batch ( 2016); a John Midgley fashion shoot for 125 Magazine; commercials for Ford and Toyota among others; and music videos and video-games.

(Photo, courtesy, Geoff Juckes, LMGI)

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LOCATION IN PICTURES MOVIE ROAD, ALABAMA HILLS, LONE PINE The Alabama Hills comprise hills and rock formations situated near the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in the Owens Valley, west of Lone Pine. The vast expanse, the variety of rocks and mountains, the ability to transport people to another place, make this a unique location. Several Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy Westerns were made in the Alabama Hills, as were many John Wayne movies. Among the numerous films to have shot in Lone Pine and the surrounding area are: Gladiator (2000), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) and Django Unchained (2012). This photo was taken during the filming of Iron Man (2007) which was shot throughout the Alabama Hills. (Photo, courtesy Mandi Dillin, LMGI)

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MUSSEL ROCK IN PACIFICA, SAN MATEO COUNTY Mussel Rock is a rock formation on the coast of San Mateo County, offshore from Daly City. It consists of one large and numerous smaller rocks of a type known as a stack, where a headland is eroded unevenly, leaving small islands. It is best known for being the closest point to the epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and where the San Andreas Fault enters the San Francisco Peninsula from the northwest. The county’s beautiful coast has been featured in many films including Harold and Maude (1971), The House of Sand and Fog (2003) and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005); and TV series Further Tales of the City (2001-). (Photo, courtesy Bradley Wittke)

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THEY LOVE IT

HERE...

According to the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, 48% of total U.S. expenditures on commercials was spent in California in 2015 — totaling $1.82B. Gary Smith found out why so many commercials producers choose to work here Sunset at Lake Tahoe. Photo: Tim White

THE NUMBERS are impressive. There were 6,426 shoot days for both online and broadcast commercials in California in 2015. And of the 350 members of industry body the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), 70% have offices in the state, which means California has a large and varied production and skills base to offer local and visiting productions. Add to that the types of location that all commercial producers love — temperate, moss-covered rain forests, snow-capped mountains, huge lakes, giant redwoods, glorious, shimmering coastlines, unique rock formations and desert — and you have the perfect environment for the production of commercials.

“Commercial production is a vital part of the motion-picture industry in California,” says California Film Commission executive director Amy Lemisch.

“With over 6,000 commercial shooting days each year, commercials support our workforce and specialized suppliers. And because they shoot all over the state, they showcase California’s natural beauty.”

Brena Bailey, film commissioner for San Mateo County/Silicon Valley, says it’s all about the roads: “Pick a car company and they have probably shot a commercial or a stills shoot in San Mateo County/

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Dillon Road, Riverside County

Susannah Greason Robbins, executive director, San Francisco Film Silicon Valley. We have over 90 miles of coastline on both the Bay and Commission, says. “They are part of the steady, consistent flow of Pacific coast, and we are easily accessible, affordable and near to San bread-and-butter permits, which include still photo, corporate/ Francisco.” She adds: “Our beautiful coastal roads, switchbacks, hills, industrials and web spots. We love them because they bring a lot of cliffs, countryside, farmland and two working lighthouses are all big employment to our local crews, giving them steady work.” She draws for car campaigns. Our roads run through old growth redwoods adds: “We also host a lot of TV series and feature shoots, along with and mirror the giant redwoods in places further away from the San a big increase in web shoot days which are up 35% since last fiscal Francisco Bay Area. We have the beautiful backdrops of ranches and year.” farms on the Ocean side of the county, while the Bayside offers filmAlongside the staple automotive and technology brands, caming in multiple metropolitan areas of the high-tech and biotech paigns advertising sports industries, as well as a variety of cosproducts are San Francisco regumopolitan neighborhoods, and AMY LEMISCH lars. Mary Zeeble, location homes ranging from Victorian to manager at San Francisco- and mansions to bungalows.”

Los Angeles-based Crew You ProLocation manager Wilson Wu ductions, worked on a Nike sport recalls a shoot in the area. “We shot apparel campaign last summer a Lexus commercial on Pescadero which was, she says, one of the Creek Road near the Memorial most complex shoots she has ever Park. We needed a redwood forest worked on. “In July 2016 we shot road that was paved, had curves and for five days and closed down the straights, nice pavement… and intersection of San Bruno Avenue there is no better road for this that and Alameda Street [a busy is close to San Francisco. San Mateo stretch of Highway 101 in the heart of the city]. We had water County has the best redwood motif in the San Francisco area. The trucks with rain bars making rain in the streets, and a huge crew. county is a go-to for car commercials because of its diverse looks of As is so often the case with big campaigns like this, the project was forests, beaches, and suburban cities and communities.“ approved at the last minute, leaving us with eight working days to For Bay Area location scout Peter Kwong, “San Mateo County is the organize the permits, the water trucks, and shutting down the county for beautiful roads suitable for running shots and end shots. intersection. The San Francisco Film Commission, SFPD (police) We scout stretches of Highway One along the San Mateo coast, which and SFMTA [municipal transport authority] really came together has pristine asphalt and views of the Pacific Ocean in the to rush this into action for us allowing for a seamless production to background." happen. It was challenging, but with the amazing cooperation we And many brands like the backdrop of the city itself. “Commergot, I was able to give them everything they wanted.” cials are an important part of our business in San Francisco,”

“Commercial production is a vital part of the motion picture industry in California”

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The producers flew out from Michigan and we arranged for perIn the case of the Nike shoot — and as with many others — the city mission to use a vacant parking lot. The resort was not open for the was chosen for its diverse locations and its intersections with scenic season so we had a road and base all to ourselves. I believe in going overpasses. “San Francisco is amazing at being beautifully generic, forward regardless of the situation and never to give up!” that is to say looking like anywhere, and certainly not like San FranAccording to Alicia Vennos, economic development director and cisco unless you want it to,” Zeeble adds. “Plus the Film Commission, film commissioner for Mono County, about 90% of all filming that the Parks Department and the authorities understand what shoots takes place in the county is for commercials. are all about. They’re super helpful, experienced and reactive.”

Located in California’s Eastern Sierra, Mono County is home to Up in the northeast of the state of California, Lake Tahoe and its the east entrance of Yosemite National Park. The county covers surrounding areas offer a range of locations for commercial shoots 3,123 sq miles (8,088 sq km), with a total population of just over and other productions. The area is popular for car commercials — 14,000, and is almost 85% federal public land. “There are massive, Acura, Tesla, Audi, Ford, BMW and Alpha-Romeo recently shot in wide-open spaces, winding, scethe area, but it attracts other nic roads — both paved and dirt shoots too — its appeal to lovers of EVAN THOMASON — beautiful evergreen and decidoutdoor activities has brought uous forests, rolling high desert, sporting goods shoots to the area, dozens of road-accessible lakes, as well as some TV work from Disrivers and streams, and most sigcovery Channel. nificantly, the Sierra Nevada “Our location here in beautiful mountain range that boasts snowy Lake Tahoe resembles many difpeaks for 75% of the year,” Vennos ferent places in the country and adds. “Snow-covered alpine landthe world,” says local location scout scapes in California may sound Tim White. “We have beautiful improbable, but Mammoth winding roads, bike and hiking Mountain Ski Area, in the heart of trails, lakes and high mountain visMono County, stretches up to 11,063 ft (3,400 meters) above sea tas and valleys. We have 4x4 roads, rivers and meadows. Lake Tahoe level and receives over 400 inches of snowfall annually which procan be Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Bosnia, Colorado, The Rockvides the longest ski season in North America — usually from early ies, the ocean, middle America, and small-town America.”

November through late May, and sometimes even to the July 4th The area’s ski resorts attract a lot of sports shoots, and the airport Independence Day holiday.”

— in the middle of a crown of mountains — offers a unique sight “The majority of commercials shot in the county are vehicle- or that can be seen in few places around the world. “We also have one auto-related brands with some outdoor recreation/sports gear comof the finest examples of Norwegian architecture in the Northern panies, as well — Nike, for example, shot here a number of times,” Hemisphere, at Emerald Bay, Vikingsholm,” White says.

Vennos says. A notable shoot from 2016 was for the Toyota Rav 4 in On a recent shoot for Honda’s luxury brand Acura, a range of which X-Men star James Marsden rescues lumberjacks from almost places had been selected to show the vehicle in different situations. certain death and nurses a pack of wild wolf cubs. “With 120 crew “But during the permitting process we lost all but two of those locamembers, the shoot lasted a full week and involved the construction tions due to emergency road repairs and highway striping — both of a logging camp in the forest, complete with log-rolling pond — as of which were scheduled for the two days we needed the location,” well as three days with trained wolves at snowy Reds Lake on MamWhite says. “I had scouted more than the required amount of locamoth Mountain.” Vennos also recalls a “huge” Nissan Titan tions and quickly called the Sierra-at-Tahoe mountain manager.

“We’ve refunded permit fees to quite a few large commercial production companies”

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campaign: “With a crew size of 140 and seven picture cars, it required fake snow to be produced from a chipper, and the production was in the area for six shoot days.” 2016 also saw a BMW commercial shoot on snow at the spectacular Minaret Vista for five days.

The county also features Mono Lake — almost three times saltier than the ocean. “The amorphous limestone tufa towers in the lake and along the shoreline offer a mystical, other-worldly landscape,” Vennos says. “Then there’s Bodie State Historic Park — the largest un-restored ghost town in the West. Bodie is preserved in a state of ‘arrested decay’ and there are about 200 original buildings still standing in the abandoned mining town, which was once the second-largest city in California.

With a population of 200,000, Santa Clarita is the seventh largest city in California and home to the famous Vasquez Rocks. The local Film Commission runs a Film Incentive Program for which commercials qualify if they pull multiple film permits. “We’ve

refunded permit fees to quite a few large commercial production companies including @Radical, Anonymous Content, Furlined, Smuggler, Wondros, and many more over the years,” says film commissioner Evan Thomason. “On average throughout the year commercials constitute about 20% of the permits we issue, and we want to reward them just as much as we do film and TV shoots. We don’t discriminate and we are very proud to be able to offer great value for money generally, thanks to the variety of landscapes and looks that we can offer.”

For most people the name Monterey is synonymous with the stunning coastline of Big Sur and the enduringly astonishing Bixby Bridge which hovers 260 feet above the stream bed below. “Big Sur and Bixby Bridge are among our most popular locations. I think pretty much every car-maker has shot there at some point. The bridge remains popular because there are so many different shooting angles. If you film from the east you get the setting sun and

The opening sequence to Dancing with the Stars

THE VIEW FROM ABOVE

D

RONES have rapidly established themselves as a great and cost-effective way to get aerial shots — particularly on commercials where dramatic action shots are often required, but shooting time is limited to just a few days.

But according to Tony Carmean of Aerial MOB, drones are capable of so much more. “They are not just a small helicopter, they are a complement to many existing ways of shooting, including helicopters,” he says. “They can also work complementing what Russian Arms are used for, and

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they can effectively replace jib and dolly shots. We were involved in Hairspray Live, a shoot on the Universal lot where we used a drone shot to replace a typical crane shot and it worked perfectly. Another shoot we were involved in — for the intro to [reality TV show] Dancing with the Stars — was a continuous twominute drone shot at Los Angeles’s Griffith Observatory, that looks like a crane shot. We really pushed the envelope of what a drone can do on that one and it has got us a lot of attention. It has even been

The drone used to shoot the Dancing with the Stars opening sequence at Los Angeles’s Griffith Observatory.

Photo: Steve Blizzard, co-founder, Aerial MOB

described as a game-changer in how drones are perceived. It has proved that they are a much more complex and highly adaptable tool than was previously thought.”

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SAN BERNARDINO

Where filming is made easy!

20,000 Square miles of FILMING opportunity www.FilmSanBernardinoCounty.com | 909.387.4339

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Barbara Hillman, Film Commissioner (510) 549-7040 / (800) 847-4823 film@visitberkeley.com www.FilmBerkeley.com

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silhouettes of the bridge, but you can also shoot from a helicopter and from the coast road with the sea in the background,” says Karen Seppa Nordstrand, film commissioner and director of marketing and film production for the Monterey County Film Commission. “We’ve hosted shoots by Audi, Michelin, Jeep and Kawasaki, and it’s not for nothing that the Monterey Peninsula was described as ‘the greatest meeting of land and sea’ by Robert Louis Stevenson. Views of Big Sur from Rocky Creek were also used for the iconic opening sequence of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series.”

But Monterey is much more than a bridge and amazing coast roads; the county also includes Carmel and its beaches, the lush Salinas Valley and its wineries, the old town of Monterey which includes Cannery Row, Fisherman’s Wharf, Monterey Marina and Pebble Beach Golf Course.

“One of the more unusual shoots we’ve hosted this year was a commercial for a local cosmetic dentist Jeannette Kerns. It was shot on Carmel beach featuring sculptor Andres Amador who created a sculpture in honor of beauty and creativity which was shot using a drone,” Nordstrand says. “There is also a recreation trail that runs from Marin City all the way to Carmel with the Monterey

dtc

Bay Marine Sanctuary just offshore, which features kelp forests and a huge variety of wildlife. Plus the whole area is well known to scuba divers and surfers. It’s a very diverse region that also includes the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You can film there if your request is deemed as being compatible with the aims of the establishment.”

Over 200 miles to the east in California’s interior lies Tulare County, a four-hour drive from Los Angeles with multiple compensations: “It’s cheap here,” says film commissioner Eric Coyne, “and we have some unique natural features such as the Giant Forest and its giant sequoias, one of which is the Alonzo Stagg, the world’s fifth-largest tree. These trees can be up to 3,000-years-old with the lower branches around 100 ft. off the ground.” Samsung shot a cellphone commercial here, using a slightly smaller tree to demonstrate the phone’s camera. “When the scout found the right tree on private land it was February and there was snow on the ground, but a climber got the shots they were after,” Coyne says.

Another cost-saving aspect of the County is its permits. “We see so much value in shoots, both in terms of local businesses and driving tourism, that we issue permits for free, following a risk evaluation and providing they have the right insurance,” Coyne

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says. “We can normally provide verbal approval within three days, and if it’s a rush job, we can turn it around in 12 hours.”

Balch Park, part of the Sequoia National Forest in the east of Tulare County, resembles Yosemite Park, but doesn’t have the same visitor issues: “We get a lot of international crews because the county doesn’t have the same volume of tourism [as Yosemite] so we can offer total site control,” Coyne says. “Plus we have Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the U.S., and 3,500 miles of paved roads — so we‘ve hosted shoots by KTM bikes and Land Rover plus several music videos including by DJ R3hab.”

Over 500 miles to the northwest of Tulare there are more redwoods, some of them up to 400 ft (120 meters) tall in the Redwood National and State Parks area. In fact, trees and greenery — and, like Tulare, low population — are all part of the attraction of this northernmost tip of California, which was used to film parts of Will Smith’s After Earth. “It’s very rural up here and it’s green all year round,” film commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine says. “The redwoods are very popular with all manner of shoots, and the Avenue of the Giants is used a lot for car commercials, with recent visitors including Toyota, Land Rover and Lincoln. We also have extensive dirt and paved roads, quaint, colorful, gingerbread towns like Ferndale where Jim Carrey filmed The Majestic, plus we have the Carson Mansion in Eureka which is considered to be the most elaborate Victorian mansion in the U.S.” Humboldt, unlike the rest of California, is genuinely temperate and is famous for its mists. “We have real winters here and even get snow from time to time,” Hesseltine says. “It rains quite a lot and when the mist comes in the temperate rain forest just looks amazing with its mosscovered trees. And of course, given that we have that sort of terrain, outdoor apparel companies like it here. We are also getting much more interest in our countryside these days. We have rolling fields and golden grass, with the different colors forming a lovely patchwork effect.”

Some 50 miles to the east of Los Angeles is Riverside County, where the light attracts fashion shoots, and the winding roads are popular with car brands: “The light here is unique and spectacular,” says Bettina Breckenfeld, film commissioner at Riverside County Film Commission. “And we also have some unique buildings such as Bob Hope’s old home, which is mushroom-shaped — Louis Vuitton recently spent a week filming there. Then we have giant palm trees

A Lucid Motors commercial shot in a secret location in San Mateo County

SUSANNAH GREASON ROBBINS

“We love commercials because they bring a lot of employment to our local crews, giving them steady work” which, combined with our very mild winter, attract fashion shoots by brands, including Banana Boat and River Island, all year round.”

But it’s the roads that are the main draw: “Our roads have a mountain backdrop, and most importantly they have no power lines running alongside. Plus in San Gorgonio we have wind farms which form another popular backdrop. We’ve hosted road shoots by Exxon Mobil, Honda, BMW, VW and Buick,” she says. “In terms of architecture we have every look from Victorian through to very modern, and the Mission Inn, a 19th century Spanish Mission-style masterpiece.” The county also features vineyards in the west that are much closer to Los Angeles than Napa Valley. “We also have some great canyons which were used in Ben Hur and giant aircraft hangars at Jacqueline Cochran airport which can be used to mock-up otherwise impossible aerial stunts.”

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Kyle MacLachlan.

Photo: Yann Coatsaliou/360Medias

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HE’S BACK

There has been much secrecy surrounding the third season of David Lynch’s cult TV masterpiece Twin Peaks.

So Joanna Stephens spoke to its star Kyle MacLachlan to try and find out more

“L

OCATION sometimes becomes a character,” says Michael Horse in Showtime’s enigmatic trailer for what is arguably the most anticipated series return in the history of television — the third season of the iconic 1990s drama Twin Peaks. Horse, who played native American policeman Deputy Hawk in the two first seasons of

the ABC drama, is talking over a moody backdrop of mist and forest and mountain and lake. As the camera pans over scenery so ethereal it feels sacred, Horse’s voice continues: “There are a lot of holy places up here, secret places… It just touches something in the psyche.

It’s almost like being in a moving painting.”

If ever a TV drama touched the psyche it is Twin Peaks. It’s difficult now, from the perspective of today’s ’golden age’ of television, to remember its impact on viewers in the early Nineties. It was like nothing else that had ever been on TV, not only in terms of its gripping supernatural storyline, but also because of its cinematic production values, superb writing and Angelo Badalamenti’s haunting soundtrack, which still has the power to raise goosebumps. To say it changed television is no exaggeration — in the 25 years since the second season of Twin Peaks ended with the famous ’How’s Annie?’ cliffhanger, it has inspired countless mystical, densely layered dramas, from The X-Files through Lost to Stranger Things and Wayward Pines. Also, with Hollywood royalty David Lynch in the director’s chair, it anticipated the great talent drift

from feature film to television, which has found its ultimate expression in superdramas such as House of Cards, Game of Thrones and True Detective.

Against this backdrop, it is no surprise that interest in the comeback is intense — Twin Peaks doesn’t so much have fans as worshippers at the altar, several hundred of whom (they call themselves Peakies) congregate annually at the fan-funded, fan-operated Twin Peaks Festival held in and around North Bend, Washington. And the anticipation has been sharpened by Showtime and CBS Studios International’s total lockdown on advance publicity. Like the finale of the second season, the reboot is shrouded in mystery. What little is known is that the new series finished filming around September 2016 — with around 100 days shot in Los Angeles County at locations including Lancaster and Palmdale — airs on Showtime in the US in the first half of 2017, and re-unites David Lynch and fellow series creator Mark Frost. The massive 217-strong cast, led by Kyle MacLachlan reprising his role as Special Agent Dale Cooper, includes most of the original cast members, a notable exception being Lara Flynn Boyle, who played ’good girl’ Donna

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Hayward in the original. Among the new faces are Naomi Watts, Amanda Seyfried, Ashley Judd, Laura Dern and Michael Cera.

And the rest, so far, is mystery — and an awful lot of speculation.

Lynch, in his first major project since the dark 2006 thriller Inland Empire, has directed the entire series. At one point, however, it looked as though his name would be missing from the credits, if indeed there were going to be any. In April 2015, the Mulholland Drive director walked away from the series after months of negotiation because, as he put it on Twitter, “not enough money was offered [by Showtime] to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done”. A month later, having brokered a more favorable deal, he was back on board, to the relief of the show’s fans, some 30,000 of whom had signed a petition calling for Lynch to return.

Showtime Networks' president David Nevins is on record as saying that Lynch shot the series continuously as a movie, based on one long script by Frost. It was then edited down in post-production into individual episodes — although quite how many and of what length remains unclear. Initially, it was announced there would be nine episodes, but various sources claim this has been doubled to 18. However, Nevins said at Showtime’s 2016 TCA executive session that “everything about Twin Peaks is going to be unconventional”, including episode lengths and the series’ release patterns.

In terms of plot, season three is not a remake, but a sequel. The action picks up 25 years after the citizens of the fictional mountain town of Twin Peaks in Washington wake up to find their homecoming queen, Laura Palmer, brutally murdered. FBI agent Cooper is called in to investigate the case, whereupon it all gets very weird indeed.

We leave Cooper 30 episodes later possessed by an evil spirit, head-butting himself in a mirror, laughing dementedly at his blood-soaked reflection.

Given the silence blanketing the project, the best clues to season three’s story arc come from Mark Frost’s recently published book, The Secret History of Twin Peaks. The book’s blurb explains that, 25 years after Cooper’s murder investigation, a strange box falls into the hands of the FBI. A female agent is tasked with analyzing the documents inside, and to determine the identity of the dossier’s mysterious compiler.

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Along the way, she uncovers secrets about the town’s residents, investigative reports from Cooper — who has since vanished — and other classified information about Laura Palmer’s murder. The summary ends with the question: “What happened since the death of the young woman? And why did any anonymous ’archivist’ compile such a thorough dossier on Twin Peaks and its origins?”

This being Twin Peaks, the answer is anyone’s guess. Although Frost was not involved in David Lynch’s controversial 1992 Twin Peaks prequel/sequel, Fire Walk With Me, he is on record as saying that it should be part of the new Twin Peaks universe since it “reflects the work that was done before and it will

KYLE MACLACHLAN

“I went to work every day on the new series with a tremendous amount of excitement and gratitude” have some bearing on the work as we go forward”. Meanwhile, he told the UK’s Observer newspaper in 2016 that his book “deepens and widens the mythology of the show”. He added: “If you come in with all the answers, you might create something that’s very beautiful and powerful, but I think it will also seem sterile if you don’t leave room for people to have their own reactions to it. There’s such a thing as being a little too perfect — a little too shiny. I know I prefer things that have room to breathe…”

Kyle MacLachlan says that the cast’s expectation at the close of the second season, back in the summer of 1991, was that a third season would be forthcoming: “We were all hoping it would continue — you never want something that good to end — but it wasn’t meant to be. So it was left on a cliffhanger and people have been anxious to have a resolution ever since.”

MacLachlan was as tight-lipped about plot and location as the rest of the cast, crew and executive team, saying only

that he was “excited, pleased and grateful” to find himself back on the set of Twin Peaks after a quarter-century hiatus. He was, however, happy to talk about the indefatigable Agent Cooper, with his ’damn fine’ cups of coffee and slices of cherry pie, calling him one of the “most complex and interesting characters” he has ever played: "There are so many facets about him that are unexpected: his oblique sense of humor, his fascination with the minutiae of life, his observation skills. It’s all part of what makes him such a good investigator, but I think he’s a cut above that. He operates on another level of perception.”

It was, MacLachlan added, “thrilling not only to revisit the character of Cooper, but also to have the chance to work with people who, in many cases, I hadn’t seen for 25 years. I went to work every day on the new series with a tremendous amount of excitement and gratitude — not only to be working, but to be working with my friend David Lynch, which is always very special.”

The show’s California-based locations manager Eric Fierstein is also a fan of Lynch, both professionally and personally: “I’ve worked with a lot of famous and talented people, but I learned more from just watching David than I have from all the others put together. It was a grind of a show, but he was a soldier.

He’s also unpretentious and makes everybody feel comfortable. He’s the kind of guy you can go out with for a hamburger and a chocolate milkshake.

For me, he went from being the legendary David Lynch to just David. That’s my take-away memory of Twin Peaks.”

For MacLachlan, it was the “explosive public response” to the first season that sticks in his mind: “The way people instantly embraced the show was completely unexpected. We had all signed up to do a movie-of-the-week — a back-door pilot of two hours, which is unusual now but at the time was quite common. The idea was that, if the show wasn’t bought as a series, it could air as a stand-alone movie. We were expecting that would be the case when it suddenly went stratospheric. This was before social media: it was 1989 so the elements weren’t in place for that level of explosive interest.”

Twenty-five years has done nothing to diminish that interest. In fact, it’s about the only thing about Twin Peaks, season three, that’s certain not to be a mystery.

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We’re not just desert. We’re hills, mountains, buttes, ranches, aviation and high brow cities.

Contact Pauline East, North LA County Film Liaison Antelope Valley Film Office (661) 510-4231 • ZZZ DY¿OP FRP email: pauline@filmantelopevalley.org

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CALIFORNI IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS

The global image of California as the place where sea, surf, sand and wineries come together in perfect harmony is not inaccurate.

But it ignores a key aspect of this huge state — that it can stand in for anywhere on the planet, and even other planets. Gary Smith reports

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NIA

Los Angeles serves as Manhattan in many productions, recently Good Girls Revolt, which is set in New York but was based at a sound stage in Santa Clarita, with exterior shots in Downtown Los Angeles

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rounded building that can double for a MASH-type Korean war-era venue,” she says, adding that the hangar contains authentic wooden trusses dating back to the Thirties and Forties.

As previously stated, San Francisco and its surrounding area are home to an astonishing array of looks. Location manager Patrick Ranahan has worked on numerous productions there. “Within the city itself or a maximum of a one-hour’s drive away, you can find the whole world,” he says. “On top of that, you also have incredibly helpful and co-operative authorities that go the extra mile. For A View to a Kill, they let us fly a blimp very close to the Golden Gate Bridge in real time, plus we got to set City Hall on fire.”

But perhaps San Francisco’s crowning moment in terms of letting the creativity flow was when it was allowed to be itself in the iconic Sony Bravia ‘Balls’ commercial directed by Nicolai Fuglsig. “It was without doubt the hardest job I ever did,” Ranahan says. “Just marshaling the tens of thousands of colored balls was a huge task. Then, of course, there was the stuff you don’t see on the clip. There was quite a lot of minor damage done to property, signs, bushes, trees and street furniture — anything that got in the way of those bouncing balls, basically. But if you’re responsible and clear up and do the repairs after yourself, as we did, the authorities are very flexible.”

As indeed is the city itself. Ranahan recalls a shoot for Under Armour basketball shoes: “We needed a rough neighborhood. San Francisco doesn’t really have any, but it does have an area on Sutter Street with a few blocks that look like Projects. Those concrete buildings allowed us to get the outdoor urban and basketball court shots we needed.”

Then there’s the Bay Area where part of the Stephen King film CALIFORNIA stretches for 900 miles (1,500 km) from the Mexican border up to Oregon. So it is unsurprising, given its massive and varCujo was filmed, even though the story is set in Maine. “When King ied geography, that the state offers a globe-spanning range of looks. saw the scenes he was convinced it had been shot in Maine — and he But then add in the fact that in and around the comparatively small actually lives up there,” Ranahan says. He also cites Burney Falls, a city of San Francisco you can double the whole world, and it becomes double-headed waterfall that, due to the amount of moisture in the clear that California is so much more than sea, sun, sand and abnorair, has a year-round tropical micro-climate. “We often use the falls mally large trees. to double for South America,” he If, for example, you need a adds. “But it was also where the CHARLA TEETERS WWII airfield complete with periEwok village was in Star Wars. And od administration buildings and Johnny Weissmuller dived from the rugged, on-the-verge-of-unfinthe top of the cliffs into the pool in ished look that airfields had in the Tarzan and the Mermaids in 1948.”

Forties, Fresno has just the place.

Two film projects that really “The location is called Eagle Field show San Francisco’s adaptability and is in the northwestern area of are the globe-spanning HBO biopFresno County, close to the city of ic Hemingway & Gellhorn and The Firebaugh,” says Gigi Gibbs, film Right Stuff, neither of which was commissioner at the Fresno Counactually based in San Francisco. ty Film Commission. “Firebaugh “For Hemingway & Gellhorn, we also has a small airport that can be needed Shanghai in the 1930s, for used for production offices, but airwhich two blocks of Chinatown craft can land directly at Eagle turned out to be perfect,” Ranahan Field. In fact Harrison Ford flew says. “We brought in dirt, straw and his plane directly there. It’s an animals and that was it, more or extremely film-friendly location.” less. It’s such a thoroughly Chinese district anyway — so much so that Gibbs reports that, in addition to being used as a WWII-era set, you hear the click of mahjong tiles all day — so we could get the necFirebaugh was recently used by the reality television series Bullrun essary period look easily. We also got Spain and Iceland using sections of the facades of certain buildings around San Francisco, and we used as a day race-car venue and has also been dressed as Nazca, Peru for the old train station in Oakland for Spain during the Civil War.” an Indiana Jones movie. “There are some special features, such as a

“The Salton Sea is run down, salt-encrusted, other-worldly and post-apocalyptic — plus there are algae in the salt crust that create unusual colors”

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The Right Stuff is set in Florida near Cape Canaveral, the U.S. capital and the desert. “We used the dome of City Hall for Washington, D.C., program director Henry Luce’s office was filmed in the San Francisco customs building, and the test program, which is set in the desert, was filmed in a hospital in Haight-Ashbury with arc lights outside the windows to reproduce desert light. We doubled Florida’s famous Cocoa Beach in Pacifica and the NASA headquarters were created in Dogpatch, a San Francisco neighborhood,” Ranahan says.

According to Beverly Lewis, director of Placer-Lake Tahoe Film Office, one of the pluses for Placer County, to the north of San Francisco, is that it can offer “four seasons in one weekend” — especially during the skiing season. “From the ski resorts of Lake Tahoe, you just hop on Interstate 80 and, within 90 minutes, you’re in the foothills and flatlands at the other end of the county,” she says.

Disney’s The Muppets was drawn to Placer County by this diversity. “They also had the California tax credit and had only one day to film a cross-section of the U.S.,” Lewis adds. “So the Tahoe shots doubled for the Rocky Mountains and our rural area in the western part of the county doubled for mid-western roads. One of those is a decommissioned county road, so no traffic control is required.”

Then there’s a dock, pier and boathouse, part of the lake-front

PATRICK RANAHAN

“When Stephen King saw the scenes he was convinced it had been shot in Maine — and he actually lives up there” property at West Shore on Lake Tahoe, that doubled for an upstate New York lake-front home in the film classic A Place in the Sun starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. “Only the home’s exteriors, lakefront and pier were used in the film, and the present owners still only make the exteriors available,” Lewis says. “The water-skiing scenes and many of the forested scenes were also shot here in our county.”

Also of note is Obexer’s Boat Company, which can double as a

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A fashion shoot on the Salton Sea, which spans the Imperial and Coachella valleys in Southern California. Photo: John Midgley

small Alaskan or east-coast fishing hamlet/marina, and Tunnel Chute, a large private property in the Sierra foothills. The latter has a river sporting a class four-to-five rapid cutting though it, which spits rafters into a tunnel. “It’s been shot for two major films — George of the Jungle and Dragonfly — doubling for tropical locations,” Lewis says. “In Dragonfly with Kevin Costner, it doubled for the Venezuela highlands, thanks to an area that is tropical in the springtime.”

Pasadena is a city with a proud tradition of protecting historic buildings, according to Michelle Garrett, project manager, economic development at the City of Pasadena. This, she adds, has led to some unique and rather stately looks that have been used in Veep and Scandal in place of Washington, D.C. “Some of our most popular doubling buildings include the Art Center College of Design, which has very little signage so is easy to dress; the California Institute of Technology; our City Hall; and the Pacific Asia Museum,” Garrett says. “We also have a very popular vacant hospital called St. Luke’s, which has featured in Women’s Ward; Nurse Jacky, where it doubled as a New York hospital; and True Blood, which is situated in small-town Louisiana.”

Pasadena also features typical Midwest-style tree-lined streets, and can provide a Deep-South look. “Beyonce’s video for Formation was filmed here,” Garrett adds. “And Live by Night, which is based in Boston, was also filmed in Pasadena.”

But anyone considering shooting in Pasadena needs to be aware that there is a moratorium on filming around the time of the Rose Bowl. “As we head towards the Rose Bowl game, we don’t issue permits — that’s roughly from December 20 for two weeks,” Garrett

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JANICE ARRINGTON

“We can do East Coast too. The County Courthouse in Santa Ana doubled as the Harvard University Law School in Legally Blond — they just had to dress the palm trees as pine trees” says. “But outside of that, the Rose Bowl stadium is available for filming and is used regularly, mainly for commercials. And our City Hall, widely regarded as one of the most beautiful in the state, was extensively used in Parks and Recreation, which is set in Indiana.”

Permits for the City Hall, which take an average of three days, are available for pretty much any day except when there are council meetings. “Another popular building is the Red Cross headquarters in the center of Pasadena, which has recently been used by two TV series that are launching this year: Doubt, which features transgender actress Laverne Cox from Orange is the New

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Black; and The Mick, which is set in genteel, affluent Greenwich, Connecticut. Other shows that have featured the Red Cross building include Mascots, Scandal and CSI: Cyber,” Garrett says.

It’s no surprise that Los Angeles is where a significant proportion of California’s filming activity takes place. But what is less well known is the city’s chameleon-like ability to be ‘somewhere else’.

“Good Girls Revolt, set in New York, was based at a sound stage in Santa Clarita, but the outdoor shots were done in downtown Los Angeles,” says Amy Lemisch, director of the California Film Commission. “Doubling for New York in Los Angeles’ downtown area happens a lot. We also had CSI: New York shooting there.

And Ballers, the American football series featuring The Rock, is set in Miami, but it also filmed in Los Angeles.”

“California can also do period very well,” says FLICS (Film Liaisons in California Statewide) president and film commissioner for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, Cassandra Hesseltine. “The Ben Affleck film Argo used parts of Los Angeles to re-create the Seventies, and the Beverly Hills Hilton, and parts of Crescent City are very Sixties-looking. There’s also a bluff in Crescent City that doubles for the East Coast, and up in Humboldt we’ve doubled

Ireland and Scotland. In the rainforest up there, we’ve also doubled Northern Europe. And then there’s the light. Mexican director Juan Andres Bueno [Amorous Pancho Villa] is filming his next feature here because he loves the California light.”

NBC’s critically acclaimed family drama This is Us is set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — but shot in Los Angeles. Showrunner Dan Fogelman, who produced the filmed-in-Pittsburgh movie Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, grew up in Pittsburgh, but says he never gave a thought to filming This is Us in that city because the actors wanted to stay in Los Angeles. So it was down to location manager Duffy Taylor to match Los Angeles with Fogelman’s home town. “When I scout for different city looks here in Los Angeles I look for angles and views that we can build on to create a world that has a feeling of the city we are trying to represent,” Taylor says. “The areas we have filmed that have doubled for Pittsburgh are San Pedro, South Pasadena, Long Beach and some areas of Downtown Los Angeles. I remember in Episode 104, The Pool, the swimming pool was a difficult location. We were shooting around the end of summer and most of the public pools just couldn't let us in because they were so busy and we needed it for a full week. In the end we found a great location in Long Beach.”

AFRICA, TUSCANY, MEXICO...

AND OF COURSE WE’VE BEEN SHOT FOR

SANTA BARBARA!

FILMSANTABARBARA.COM

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Long Beach, a dead ringer for Miami

Taylor adds: “I would say it's easier to find Pittsburgh in Los Angeles than Los Angeles in Pittsburgh.”

According to Charla Teeters, film commissioner for Imperial County in southeastern Southern California, the region features some places that are hugely popular for out-of-this-world scenes.

“The Salton Sea is popular for pretty much every kind of production,” she says. “We’ve had music videos, films, TV series and even catalogue shoots around there because it’s run down, salt-encrusted, other-worldly and post-apocalyptic — plus there are algae in the salt crust that create unusual colors, such as bright red. And then we have the Glamis Dunes — also known as the Algodones Dunes — which are around 40 miles long, and have been used to double for the Sahara desert. They were also used in Return of the Jedi when, among other scenes, Jabba’s barge was constructed there.”

American Sniper used an abandoned milk distribution center in the town of El Centro. “The place used to be an ice house, so it’s huge and has really thick walls,” Teeters says. “The scene in American Sniper was the one where he’s on a roof in Afghanistan in the middle of a sandstorm with a helicopter flying over. We also have the Superstition Mountains area, which has been used to double for Mars in Pixar/Disney’s Moms are from Mars — and with its rocks, sand and dunes, it has also been used as the Middle East.”

One of the state’s best-kept secrets is how often it doubles for Miami — especially Orange County and Long Beach. “CSI: Miami was filmed here and, more recently, the hit series Rosewood has been a regular visitor,” says Orange County film commissioner Jan-

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STANDING IN FOR MIAMI

K

RIS Bunting, one of two location managers working on the police procedural Rosewood, which is set in Miami, has been on the series since it started shooting. “When they showed me the pilot, it was all Long Beach and Huntington Beach,” he says. “And Rosewood still uses those two cities a lot — they have the Miami look already and really all we had to do to finish it off was to bring in plants, because it’s very dry there.” Bunting says California’s film offices and authorities have been “accommodating to quite extraordinary degrees”. He adds: “For example, in one episode we had a hostage situation, and we were using Huntington Beach’s City Hall, which is a working building, to double as the police headquarters. But they let us get on with it because they trust us.” Bunting is also impressed with the Port of Los Angeles: “It has some really fantastic properties. Last year, we filmed some Rosewood scenes on the roof of a huge building called Warehouse 1. We also found a couple of locations in Anaheim that were very Miami-like.”

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Shooting This is Us on location in California – for Pennsylvania – Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore with Mackenzie Hancsicsak, Parker Bates and Lonnie Chavis

ice Arrington. “There are several locations here that regularly double as Miami — or as a generic beach-city location — including Main Street on Huntington Beach, which is good for beach-front restaurants. Then there are hotels such as the Hilton Waterfront and the Hyatt Regency that have a Miami look. We can even do the classic Miami Art Deco look on some streets in the county. And we can do East Coast looks too. For example, the County Courthouse in Santa Ana doubled as the Harvard University Law School in Legally Blond — they just had to dress the palm trees as pine trees.

The interior of the same building was also used for the trial scenes in Lindbergh, doubling for a New Jersey courthouse. And for American Sniper, Seal Beach doubled as Oceanside.”

But Arrington’s favorite location is the huge blimp hangar in Tustin: “It’s 1,000-feet long and 300-feet high and it was used in Pearl Harbor, as well as Star Trek one and two.” The county has also hosted Ocean’s Eleven and Planet of the Apes. Recently, George Clooney’s new feature film Suburbicon filmed in Fullerton, which has wide classic streets that can double for Fifties suburbia.”

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A WRINKLE IN TIME Shot mainly in California, Disney’s 2018 release marks a couple of firsts for the movie world. Julian Newby reports

W

ALT Disney Picture’s 2018 release, A Wrinkle in Time, is an important film for a number of reasons. Chicago-born, California was Walt Disney’s chosen state for both his home and his iconic Burbank studios. So like Saving Mr. Banks before it, a major Disney film shot on location in California is always an event.

But most of the headlines have been about the film’s director, Ava DuVernay, whose first full-length film was 2008’s hip-hop documentary, This is the Life.

DuVernay’s name was assured a place in cinema history after 2014’s Selma was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, the first film directed by a black woman to achieve this accolade. And A Wrinkle in Time marks another milestone, as the first movie with a budget of $100m-plus to be directed by an

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African-American.

Which fits nicely into what ABC-Disney president Ben Sherwood insists is not so much company policy, but simply the right way to do things. “I think of it as a reflection of the best and the brightest people in the right roles at the right time — it’s the right thing for our business,” Sherwood says with specific reference to the naming of Channing Dungey as president, ABC Entertainment in May 2016. “So whether it’s what [TV showrunner] Shonda [Rhimes] does, putting the best actor — Viola Davis — in a lead role, or Kerry Washington in a lead role, or whether it’s Channing taking the reigns at ABC Entertainment, these are the best people for the right roles at the right time and reflecting the world around us. So it’s the reality of the world today and ABC is proud to reflect the diversity of the audiences that we serve.”

Sherwood adds: “We have eight values that are posted on the walls of our

building, the values of Disney ABC — one of them is that we are global citizens and we believe that doing well also means doing good, and what we’re talking about here seems to make sense and is really sort of table stakes in the world today.”

Alison Taylor, supervising location manager on A Wrinkle in Time, explains what this approach means on a day-today level. “Something very special and uncommon about this project is the diverse crew that we have working on it,” she says. “I’ve been working in locations for over 20 years and have never been in an office and on a set with so many women and people of color. As an African-American woman myself, I am thrilled to see people that look like me on the job every day. But it's not just me. Many of the crew members have mentioned how nice it is to come to work and have the environment look like the city of Los Angeles — multi-cultural. It is also nice to hear laughter all the time.

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Sequoia Park in Eureka, California, one of the locations chosen for A Wrinkle in Time Photo : Anibal Polanco

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While our director, Ava DuVernay, should be credited with the level of inclusiveness that we are experiencing on the project, she shares the credit with our producer, Jim Whitaker, and executive producer Doug Merrifield for keeping the air in the room light. Even though the film isn’t easy and we are all working hard, those three always manage to find a way to share a good laugh with those around them. I absolutely love working around people that make me laugh.”

The film — adapted from Madeleine L’Engle’s classic science-fantasy, time-travel novel by Jennifer Lee — follows 13-year-old Meg Murry, played by Storm Reid, and her younger brother Charles Wallace, played by Deric McCabe, as they travel through space and time in search of their missing scientist father. Joining them on their adventure is Meg’s classmate Calvin, played by Levi Miller, and three very peculiar neighbors — Mrs. Which, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit — played respectively by Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon.

At the start of the book, Meg is an awkward but loving girl, troubled by personal insecurities and worried for her father, who has been missing for over a year. The story begins with the arrival of Mrs. Whatsit at the Murry house on a dark and stormy night. Although she looks like a weird tramp lady, she has certain powers, including the ability to read Meg’s thoughts. She tells Meg’s mother of the existence of a tesseract — a sort of "wrinkle" in space and time. It is through this wrinkle that Meg and her companions will travel to the planet Camazotz, where Mr. Murry is being held captive.

Filming was mid-way through at press time and already the production had shot in the Los Angeles area — including West Adams and Downtown — Venice Beach, San Pedro, Santa Clarita and Humboldt County. There were further plans to shoot in Simi Valley — in Southern Ventura and bordering the San Fernando Valley — and Acton, in Los Angeles County. A Wrinkle in Time would also travel around the world to New Zealand.

The film’s plot required both recognizable earthly locations as well as other-worldliness, and California has plenty of both. “One of the most wonderful aspects of this film is that the story takes place on several planets, each of which has a very different look and feel,”

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Taylor says. “The majority of the L.A. locations are representing earth so we are able to show Los Angeles for Los Angeles, which is great because we are able to show the beauty of the city. We are also representing another planet in the area. For that planet we have locations at the beach, on a ranch, in a quarry and even in a military housing neighborhood.”

And the film has brought new business to Patrick’s Point State Park in Humboldt County. Chosen as a location by the production crew, the Park has little experience of hosting film shoots. “We helped the state park with the production’s requests,” says Film Commissioner for Humboldt & Del Norte Counties,

ALISON TAYLOR

“I’ve been working in locations for over 20 years and have never been in an office and on a set with so many women and people of color” Cassandra Hesseltine. “In the end, the movie helped pave the way for future filming in the Park now that they have had a major picture film there.”

And while California can offer pretty much any location that any movie could wish for — and predictable weather conditions throughout the state — nature doesn’t always co-operate with a shooting schedule. “We have had more than a few challenges that we have had to overcome thus far,” Taylor says. “We have had a couple of locations that we were scouting for that were weather-dependent and out of our control. In one case we needed green, grassy rolling hills and in another we needed a frozen lake.

Because of the drought in California we had very poor luck finding the grassy hills, so we switched the concept to a different type of terrain.” And at press time the crew was still working on plans for the

lake shoot: “Since we could not guarantee it would be frozen at the time we wanted to shoot, we may have to build the lake.”

Taylor says that California was one of a number of places that were considered for the film at the pre-production stage.

“The director and producers wanted to film in California, but of course they were also looking to maximize their budget by filming in a state that offered tax incentives,” she says. “Location scouts were working in both California and Georgia, but once we were approved to receive the California tax incentive, the decision was made to film in California.”

The $100m-plus budget film will bring some $85m of qualified spend to the state, and is receiving $18m in tax incentives. And the wider consequences of this are good going forward, according to Mike DeLorenzo, president of Santa Clarita Studios, which hosted part of A Wrinkle in Time. “We had the film here for an 80-day schedule. It’s more than a decade since we’ve seen a movie with a budget north of $100m in the state and I’ve no doubt we’ll see more,” he says.

“We’ve had another Disney movie Magic Camp with us, so it’s a really busy time.”

For DeLorenzo, the beauty of the incentive program is not just the impact it is having on production-based employment, but also on ancillary activities: “There were 350 employees, including construction, working on A Wrinkle in Time, and another five that we have taken on at the studios. But in addition there are all the dry cleaners and car repair shops and caterers that are benefiting.

Think of the number of lunches a production like A Wrinkle in Time brings into the city of Santa Clarita.”

The studio’s vice-president Richard Deutsch echoes DeLorenzo’s point: “We are proud to work on the biggest feature to ever receive a California tax credit.

Without the new incentives, a feature of this size would not likely shoot in California.”

The incentive is also underpinning the Studio’s expansion plans: “We have 16 stages at the moment, but we are adding a total of 25,000 square feet to the studio complex,” DeLorenzo says, of which 6,000 square feet will be a green screen/motion capture studio, to be established with a leading partner in the field. “VR and gaming are both big growth industries, so we need to adapt for that.”

A Wrinkle in Time goes on general release in April 2018.

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Veep, which came to California from Maryland for season five

BACK TO

BUSINESS California’s new and improved tax credit program has put the Golden State back at the center of the global entertainment industry. “We have seen a dramatic increase in work,” California Film Commission’s Amy Lemisch tells Andy Fry

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FEATURE INCENTIVES

our old program went on to film in jurisdictions where tax credits were available,” Lemisch says. “From 2010 to 2016, we estimate that these runaway projects accounted for around $3.7B in production spending outside California.”

Secondly, the new program has had a dramatic impact on the number of TV series relocating to California. “During seven years of the old tax credit program, four TV series relocated from out of state,” Lemisch says. “But in the first year of the new program, we saw five series relocate and then another relocate during the first application cycle of year two. That looks set to continue, with more series coming to California.”

One encouraging outcome of the new program is the range of rival locations from which TV productions are coming since it shows — assuming a level playing field — that California can compete with anywhere. “American Crime relocated from Texas, Scream Queens and American Horror Story from Louisiana, Veep from Maryland, Secrets and Lies from North Carolina and Mistresses from Vancouver in Canada,” Lemisch says. A recent newcomer is HBO’s Ballers , which arrived from Miami in January.

The CFC has created a specific fund for relocating TV series and has carefully monitored the financial impact of the aboveANYONE in the screen entertainment business knows that tax named productions to ensure this ring-fenced approach has paid credits play a crucial part in the final decision about where to off. At the time of writing, the $59M worth of tax credits allocated shoot a film or TV series. Such is the pressure on budgets that proto these series was estimated to have generated $385M of Califorducers can no longer afford to turn their back on incentives, nia-based expenditures. unless there is a specific reason for doing so in the script’s For Lemisch, Ballers is a great illustration of the financial storyline.

In situations where regional incentives cancel each other out, impact that the tax credit program can have. The next 10-episode however, attention is focused on factors including studios, crews, run of the show is expected to employ 135 cast members, 209 base equipment and locations. It is for this reason that the state of Calicrew and 5,700 extras, generating $33.5M in qualified expendifornia is once again enjoying a boom in production, according to tures. In return, it will secure an $8.3M tax credit. “The storyline California Film Commission of Ballers is set in Florida,” (CFC) executive director Amy Lemisch adds. “So it’s also an PAUL AUDLEY Lemisch. “It’s no secret that, up opportunity for us to showcase until last year, California was losour doubling skills.” ing work to rival locations While TV has been the big because of the strength of their beneficiary of the program to incentives,” she says. “But since date, there are also clear signs we improved our own incentive that the California movie indusprogram in 2015/2016, we have try is bouncing back. Movies seen a dramatic increase in that recently received tax credwork, especially TV series.” its include the comedy Why This has come about even Him?, starring Bryan Cranston though the state’s new tax credit and James Franco, the horror program is only now reaching sequel Annabelle 2, and the bigfull throttle. California’s new screen version of CHiPs. five-year incentive program increases funding from $100M to With the removal of a $75M budget cap (part of the old pro$330M a year. In year one (2015-2016), the available fund was gram), California is also starting to see more enquiries from $230M and is estimated to have generated $1.5B in direct in-state big-budget movies. In August, for example, Disney committed to spending, including $600M in below-the-line wages. ”We are conbase its movie A Wrinkle in Time in California, in return for an fident those figures will grow again now that the $330M is $18M credit. Overall, the film is expected to bring $85M in qualiavailable,” Lemisch adds. fied spending to California. Of this, $44M will be below-the-line One of the biggest successes of the new program is the impact wages. it is having on TV series. This is evident in two ways. First, the The CFC’s assessment of California’s changing fortunes is increased fund means that fewer projects that apply for support endorsed by key players from across the state. In October 2016, from California are rejected. “Most projects denied funding under for example, FilmL.A., the not-for-profit film office serving the

“California’s film incentive is helping sustain local TV production after seven straight quarters of growth”

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Greater Los Angeles region, reported that on-location filming in ie Ranch are American Sniper and Man Down, while TV series its area increased 3% in the third quarter of 2016 to a record-sethave included Scorpion, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Last Ship, Crimting 9,795 shoot days. With television production proving inal Minds: Beyond Borders, State of Affairs, Westworld and particularly dynamic, FilmL.A. president Paul Audley summed up Shooter. “TV is a great business for us, particularly if a series returns, because it runs like clockwork,” Lewis says. “In addition the situation, saying: “California’s film incentive is helping sustain to drama, we’ve hosted commercials, reality series and The local TV production after seven straight quarters of growth.”

Evan Thomason, economic development associate in the city Almost Impossible Gameshow.” of Santa Clarita, adds: “Santa Clarita has always been busy with According to Lewis, the ranch is pretty much a year-round busiproduction because it is in Los Angeles’ Thirty Mile Zone and is ness these days: “The rise of Netflix, Amazon and the kind of home to an array of great movie ranches and studios. But we’ve limited series you see on cable means you don't see the summer certainly seen an increased buzz around the place as a result of and winter breaks that used to characterize the television the new incentive program. Recent Santa Clarita-based TV probusiness.”

Lewis acknowledges that his ranch isn't the prettiest spot in jects to have been approved include Good Girls Revolt, Shooter, California — but he regards this as a strength. “If your backdrops Westworld and Switched at Birth. Santa Clarita Studios is also are too pretty, viewers notice the view over the action, and they home to Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time.” also spot if it’s been used before. Ideally, you want topography that As Thomason points out, one of the big benefits of the incencan double for different parts of tive program is that it gives the world. What we have are others the confidence to invest DYLAN LEWIS protected sightlines and finger in and support the film and TV canyons where different producbusiness. “We’re seeing it in some of the expansion plans at tions can be insulated from each studios and ranches,” he says. other.”

“And it also makes it easier for While the incentives are core places like Santa Clarita to have to California’s turnaround, Lewtheir own regional programs. We is stresses it is important not to have been running a Film Incensee them in isolation: “California is set up like nowhere else in the tive Program [FIP] since 2009, world. You’ve got depth of crews, which is aimed at retaining and great climate and the ability to increasing production in the sort out any problem.”

City of Santa Clarita by subsidizFurther south, San Diego has ing permit fees and reducing hired a new filming program costs of safety personnel. To manager and is looking at the date, we have refunded more feasibility of re-opening its film office, which was closed in 2013. than $389,000 to 100-plus different productions and/or compaSpeaking to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the new manager, nies and saved productions more than $207,000 on sheriff fees Brandy Shimabukuro, said: “San Diego is a fantastic, film-friendly associated with filming.” destination. We should be promoting that.” Key developments Santa Clarita’s proximity to downtown Los Angeles makes it an include efforts to streamline approvals, reduce red tape, compile obvious beneficiary of the tax credit program. But other local film a locations database and promote talented local crews. “It needs commissions around the state report increased enquiries, includto be articulated that San Diego is a competitive, leading filming ing locations outside Los Angeles’ Thirty Mile Zone, which allow destination,” Shimabukuro said. "We have crews to support a for an additional 5% tax credit. Indeed, such is the optimism assorobust filming industry, but that hasn’t been stated in a proactive ciated with the +5% out-of-zone uplift of the program that new way.” Although it is early days, Shimabukuro also suggested that initiatives are popping up across the state.

San Diego might consider additional local incentives in the Dylan Lewis, owner of Santa Clarita-based Blue Cloud Movie future.

Ranch, is another who has seen the impact of the incentives first San Francisco is another vibrant film and TV hub that has hand. “It's a good time to be in this business in California,” he says: recently hosted several TV productions, including Silicon Valley, “The tax credit has created a lot of excitement among stage owners and ranch owners. We’re seeing a lot of production permits Sense8, Chance and When We Rise. In addition to the Californiabeing granted for TV and indie films.” wide incentive, it offers its own Scene In San Francisco Rebate Program. At the time of writing, the rebate was worth up to Lewis has taken advantage of the upbeat mood in California by $600,000 per film/documentary or per episode of a TV episode/ making a series of investments. In addition to a well-established pilot/web series. In order to qualify, productions with budgets middle-eastern village, the ranch now has a fighting arena and a under $3M need to shoot 55% of their days in San Francisco; with Latin village with a mission-style church. “We also acquired a parbudgets of over $3M, productions need to shoot 65% of their days cel of land that has allowed us to build new roads and parking in the city. This attractive program was enough to encourage the space, as well as offering new vistas,” he adds. acclaimed Steve Jobs film to locate to the city.

Among the feature films to have been based at Blue Cloud Mov-

“California is set up like nowhere else in the world. You’ve got depth of crews, great climate and the ability to sort out any problem”

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Mono

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Santa Cruz

Alameda County Berkeley Livermore Oakland Amador County Butte County Calaveras County Del Norte County El Dorado County Humboldt County Lake County Lassen County Marin County Mendocino County Mono County Placer County Sacramento County Folsom Sacramento San Francisco San Joaquin County Stockton San Mateo County Santa Clara County San Jose Santa Cruz County Shasta County Siskiyou County Solano County Vallejo Sonoma County Stanislaus County Modesto Trinity County Tuolumne County Yolo County

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Santa Barbara

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LOS ANGELES AREA Antelope Valley/ North Los Angeles County Beverly Hills Catalina Island FilmL.A. Diamond Bar Fullerton Hawthorne City of Industry La Habra Heights Lancaster Los Angeles City Los Angeles County Monrovia

Monterey Park Newport Beach Palmdale San Dimas Santa Monica South Gate Vernon Long Beach Malibu Pasadena Santa Clarita South Pasadena West Hollywood

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AMADOR COUNTY Amador County Film Commission 836 N. Hwy. 49/88 Jackson, CA 95642

TOM BLACKMAN Film Commissioner Office: (209) 223-2276 Cell: (209) 607-3456 blackmansells@gmail.com www.touramador.com/ amador-county-film-commission

BERKELEY Berkeley Film Office Convention & Visitors Bureau 2030 Addison Street, Suite 102 Berkeley, CA 94704

BARBARA HILLMAN Film Commissioner Office: (800) 847-4823 / (510) 549-7040 film@visitberkeley.com www.filmberkeley.com

BUTTE COUNTY Chico Chamber of Commerce 441 Main Street, Suite 150 P.O. Box 3300 Chico, CA 95927

KATIE SIMMONS President & CEO/Film Liaison Office: (530) 891-5556, ext. 303 katie@chicochamber.com www.chicochamber.com

CALAVERAS COUNTY Calaveras Visitors Bureau & Film Commission 1192 S. Main Street Angels Camp, CA 95222

LISA BOULTON, Executive Director/ Film Commissioner Office: (209) 736-0049 / (800) 225-3764 Cell: (209) 481-5824 lisab@gocalaveras.com www.filmcalaveras.org

DEL NORTE COUNTY Humboldt–Del Norte Film Commission 520 E Street Eureka, CA 95501

CASSANDRA HESSELTINE Film Commissioner Office: (707) 443-4488 Cell: (707) 502-0018 commissioner@filmhumboldtdelnorte.org www.filmhumboldtdelnorte.org

EL DORADO COUNTY South Lake Tahoe Region El Dorado Lake Tahoe Film & Media Office 542 Main Street Placerville, CA 95667

KATHLEEN DODGE Executive Director Office/Cell: (530) 626-4400 film@eldoradocounty.org www.filmtahoe.com

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FOLSOM Folsom Tourism Bureau 200 Wool Street Folsom, CA 95630

MARY ANN MCALEA Director Office: (916) 985-2698, ext. 26 Cell: (916) 337-7881 maryann@visitfolsom.com www.visitfolsom.com

HUMBOLDT COUNTY Humbolt–Del Norte Film Commission 520 E Street Eureka, CA 95501

CASSANDRA HESSELTINE Film Commissioner Office: (707) 443-4488 Cell: (707) 502-0018 commissioner@filmhumboldtdelnorte.org www.filmhumboldtdelnorte.org

LAKE COUNTY County of Lake, Administrative Office 255 N. Forbes St. Lakeport, CA 95453

TIFFANY HARZ Film Liaison Office: (707) 263-2580 tiffany.harz@lakecountyca.gov www.lakecounty.com

LASSEN COUNTY Department of Community Development 707 Nevada St., Suite 5 Susanville, CA 96130

MAURICE ANDERSON Director of Planning & Building Services Office: (530) 251-8269 manderson@co.lassen.ca.us www.lassencounty.org

LIVERMORE Livermore Valley Chamber of Commerce 2157 First Street Livermore, CA 94550

JEANIE HAIGH Director Office: (925) 447-1606, ext. 203 Cell: (510) 409-6754 jhaigh@livermorechamber.org www.livermorechamber.org

MARIN COUNTY Marin Film Resource Office 1 Mitchell Blvd., Suite B San Rafael, CA 94903

DEBORAH ALBRE Film Liaison Office: (866) 925-2060 / (415) 925-2060 deborah@visitmarin.org www.filmmarin.org

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MENDOCINO COUNTY Mendocino County Film Commission P.O. Box 1141 217 S. Main Street Fort Bragg, CA 95437

SHARON DAVIS Film Commissioner Office: (800) 726-2780 / (707) 961-6302 Cell: (707) 813-7574 filmmendocino@mcn.org www.filmmendocino.com

MODESTO / STANISLAUS COUNTY City of Modesto – Community & Economic Development 1010 Tenth Street, Suite 3300 Modesto, CA 95353

CYNTHIA BIRDSILL Director Office: (209) 341-2938 Cell: (209) 484-0670 cbirdsill@modestogov.com www.visitmodesto.com

MONO COUNTY Mono County Tourism and Film Commission 452 Old Mammoth Rd., Suite 306 Mammoth Lakes, CA 93546

ALICIA VENNOS Film Commissioner Office: (760) 924-1743 Cell: (760) 709-1149 avennos@mono.ca.gov www.filmmonocounty.com

OAKLAND Oakland Film Office One Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, 9th Floor Oakland, CA 94612

JIM MACILVAINE Special Events Coordinator Office: (510) 238-4734 jimmac@oaklandnet.com www.filmoakland.com

PLACER COUNTY North Lake Tahoe Region Placer-Lake Tahoe Film Office 175 Fulweiler Avenue Auburn, CA 95603

BEVERLY LEWIS Director Office: (877) 228-3456 / (530) 889-4091 Cell: (530) 906-3350 blewis@placer.ca.gov www.placer.ca.gov/films

SACRAMENTO COUNTY Sacramento Film Commission 1608 “I” Street Sacramento, CA 95814

LUCY STEFFENS Film Commissioner Office: (916) 808-7777 Direct: (916) 808-5553 lsteffens@visitsacramento.com www.filmsacramento.com

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SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY San Francisco Film Commission 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place City Hall, Room 473 San Francisco, CA 94102

SUSANNAH GREASON ROBBINS Executive Director Office: (415) 554-6241 Direct: (415) 554-6642 susannah.robbins@sfgov.org www.filmsf.org

SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY/ STOCKTON Stockton/San Joaquin County Film Commission 125 Bridge Place, 2nd floor Stockton, CA 95202

WES RHEA Executive Director/Film Liaison Office: (877) 778-6258 / (209) 938-1555 film@visitstockton.org www.filmstockton.com

SAN JOSE Team San Jose 408 Almaden Blvd.

San Jose, CA 95110

KYLE SCHATZEL Film Liaison/ Communication Manager Office: (408) 792-4119 kschatzel@sanjose.org www.sanjose.org/media/film-office

SAN MATEO COUNTY / SILICON VALLEY San Mateo County / Silicon Valley Film Commission 111 Anza Boulevard, Suite 410 Burlingame, CA 94010

MARIE IVICH Film Commissioner Office: (800) 288-4748/(650) 348-7600 Direct: (650) 348-3071 marie@smccvb.com www.filmsanmateocounty.com

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY Santa Cruz County Film Commission 303 Water Street, Suite 100 Santa Cruz, CA 95060

CHRISTINA GLYNN Communications Director/ Film Commissioner Office: (831) 425-1234, ext. 112 cglynn@santacruz.org www.santacruzfilm.org

SHASTA COUNTY Shasta County Film Commission 2334 Washington Ave., Suite B Redding, CA 96001

SABRINA CHARLSON Film Commissioner Office: (530) 225 4103 sabrina@visitredding.com www.filmshasta.com

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SISKIYOU COUNTY Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce 300 Pine Street Mt. Shasta, CA 96067

JIM MULLINS Executive Director Office: (530) 926-3696, ext. 201 bigjim@mtshastachamber.com www.filmsiskiyou.com

SONOMA COUNTY Sonoma County Film Office 141 Stony Circle, Suite 110 Santa Rosa, CA 95401

KATHERINE PARRISH Film Liaison Office: (707) 565-7170 katie.parrish@sonoma-county.org www.sonomacountyfilm.com

TRINITY COUNTY Trinity County Chamber of Commerce 509 Main Street, P.O. Box 517 Weaverville, CA 96093

PATRICIA ZUGG Director Office: (530) 623-6101 trinitycoc@yahoo.com www.visittrinity.com

TUOLUMNE COUNTY Tuolumne County Film Commission 542 W. Stockton Road P.O. Box 4020 Sonora, CA 95370

LISA MAYO Film Commissioner Office: (800) 446-1333 / (209) 533-4420 lisa@gotuolumne.com www.filmtuolumne.org

VALLEJO / SOLANO COUNTY Vallejo / Solano County Film Office 289 Mare Island Way Vallejo, CA 94590

JIM REIKOWSKY Film Liaison Office: (707) 642-3653 Cell: (707) 321-1818 jim@visitvallejo.com www.visitvallejo.com/film-office/

YOLO COUNTY Visit Yolo 132 E. Street, Suite 200 Davis, CA 95616

ALAN HUMASON Executive Director Office: (530) 297-1900 Cell: (530) 400-7702 alan@yolocvb.org www.visityolo.com

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2017 FRESNO COUNTY 2220 Tulare Street, Suite 800 Fresno, CA 93721

CENTRAL REGION

Office: (559) 600-4271 www.filmfresno.com

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GIGI GIBBS Film Commissioner Cell: (559) 906-0355 ggibbs@co.fresno.ca.us KRISTI JOHNSON Associate Film Commissioner Cell: (559) 230-9377 kgjohnson@co.fresno.ca.us

INYO COUNTY Inyo County Film Commission 701 S Main Street Lone Pine, CA 93545

CHRIS LANGLEY Film Commissioner Mail Address: P.O. Box 99 Lone Pine, CA 93545 Office: (760) 937-1189 lonepinemovies@aol.com www.lonepinechamber.org

KERN COUNTY Kern County Board of Trade & Film Commission 1115 Truxtun Ave. Bakersfield, CA 93301

DAVID CHAVEZ Film Liaison Office: (800) 500-5376 / (661) 868-5376 Cell: (661) 868-7097 dchavez@filmkern.com www.filmkern.com

MADERA COUNTY Yosemite/Madera County Film Commission P.O. Box 3690 Oakhurst, CA 93644

DAVE WOLIN Film Commissioner Office: (559) 658-2281 Cell: (559) 760-1143 davewolin@earthlink.net www.yosemitefilm.com www.filmmadera.com

MARIPOSA COUNTY Mariposa County Film Commission P.O. Box 967 5065 State Highway 140, Suite E Mariposa, CA 95338

NOEL MORRISSON Communication Manager & Film Liaison Office: (209) 742-4567 noelm@yosemite.com www.yosemite.com/film-commission/

MONTEREY COUNTY Monterey County Film Commission 801 Lighthouse Ave., Suite 104 Monterey, CA 93940 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 111, Monterey, CA 93942

KAREN NORDSTRAND Director of Marketing & Film Production Office: (831) 646-0910 Cell: (831) 594-9410 karen@filmmonterey.org www.filmmonterey.org

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RIDGECREST Ridgecrest Regional Film Commission 643 N. China Lake Blvd., Suite C Ridgecrest, CA 93555

DOUG LUECK Film Commissioner Office: (800) 847-4830 / (760) 375-8202 Cell: (760) 371-5742 racvb@filmdeserts.com www.filmdeserts.com

SAN BENITO COUNTY San Benito County Chamber of Commerce 243 Sixth Street, Suite 100 Hollister, CA 95023

JULI VIEIRA President/CEO Office: (831) 637-5315 juli@sanbenitocountychamber.com www.sanbenitocountychamber.com

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY Visit San Luis Obispo County 1334 Marsh St. San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

KYLEE JEPSEN Film Commission Liaison Office: (800) 634-1414 / (805) 541-8000 kyleej@visitsanluisobispocounty.com www.visitsanluisobispocounty.com/ film-commission/

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY Santa Barbara County Film Commission 500 E. Montecito Street Santa Barbara, CA 93103

GEOFF ALEXANDER Film Commissioner Office: (805) 966-9222, ext. 110 Cell: (818) 359-4883 geoff@filmsantabarbara.com www.filmsantabarbara.com

TULARE COUNTY Tulare County Film Commission 5961 S. Mooney Boulevard Visalia, CA 93277

ERIC COYNE Film Commissioner Office: (559) 624-7187 Cell: (559) 786-5339 ecoyne@co.tulare.ca.us www.filmtularecounty.com

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CALIFORNIA

2017 ANTELOPE VALLEY / NORTH LOS ANGELES COUNTY LANCASTER / PALMDALE Antelope Valley / North Los Angeles County Film Office 42035 12th Street West, Suite 103 Lancaster, CA 93534

PAULINE EAST, Film Liaison Office: (661) 510-4231 pauline@filmantelopevalley.org www.avfilm.com

BEVERLY HILLS City of Beverly Hills 455 N. Rexford Drive, 1st Floor Beverly Hills, CA 90210

BENITA MILLER Events & Filming Supervisor Office: (310) 285-2408 bmiller@beverlyhills.org www.beverlyhills.org

CATALINA ISLAND Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau P.O. Box 217 Avalon, CA 90704

JIM LUTTJOHANN President & CEO/Film Liaison Office: (310) 510-7643 jluttjohann@catalinachamber.com www.catalinachamber.com/ catalina-filming-information

LONG BEACH Office of Special Events & Filming City of Long Beach 211 E. Ocean Blvd., Suite 410 Long Beach, CA 90802

TASHA DAY Manager/Film Commissioner Office: (562) 570-5333 / (562) 570-5313 tasha.day@longbeach.gov www.filmlongbeach.com

LOS ANGELES CITY & COUNTY 6255 W. Sunset Blvd., 12th Floor Hollywood, CA 90028 PAUL AUDLEY President, Film L.A. Office: (213) 977-8600 info@filmla.com www.filmla.com

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FILML.A. Diamond Bar Fullerton Hawthorne City of Industry La Habra Heights Lancaster Los Angeles City Los Angeles County Monrovia Monterey Park Newport Beach Palmdale San Dimas Santa Monica South Gate Vernon

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MALIBU City of Malibu c/o SWS Inc. 25 W. Rolling Oaks Drive, Suite 201 Thousand Oaks, CA 91361

KIMBERLY NILSSON Film Commissioner Office: (805) 495-7521 filming@sws-inc.com www.malibucity.org/filming

PASADENA Pasadena Film Office 100 North Garfield Avenue, 4th Floor Pasadena, CA 91109-7215

MICHELLE GARRETT Film Commissioner Office: (626) 744-3964 filmoffice@cityofpasadena.net www.filmpasadena.com

SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita Film Office City of Santa Clarita 23920 Valencia Boulevard, Suite 100 Santa Clarita, CA 91355

EVAN THOMASON Economic Development Associate JENNIFER JZYK Film Permit Specialist Office: (661) 284-1425 film@santa-clarita.com www.filmsantaclarita.com

SOUTH PASADENA City of South Pasadena 1414 Mission Street South Pasadena, CA 91030

JOAN AGUADO Film Liaison Office: (626) 403-7263 Cell: (818) 421-8611 jaguado@southpasadenaca.gov www.southpasadenaca.gov/filming

WEST HOLLYWOOD West Hollywood Film Office City of West Hollywood 8300 Santa Monica Blvd.

West Hollywood, CA 90069

EDDIE ROBINSON Film Liaison Office: (323) 848-6489 erobinson@weho.org www.weho.org/film

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HUNTINGTON BEACH Surf City USA – Visit Huntington Beach 301 Main Street, Suite 212 Huntington Beach, CA 92648

SOPHIA VALDIVIA Film Commissioner Office: (714) 969-3492 sophia@surfcityusa.com www.filmhuntingtonbeach.com

IMPERIAL COUNTY Imperial County Film Commission 1095 S. 4th Street El Centro, CA 92243

CHARLA TEETERS Film Commissioner Office: (760) 337-4155 Cell: (760) 235-9947 filmhere@sbcglobal.net www.filmimperialcounty.com

ORANGE COUNTY Orange County Film Commission

JANICE ARRINGTON Film Commissioner Office/Cell: (949) 246-9704 jarrington@filmorangecounty.org www.filmorangecounty.org

RIVERSIDE COUNTY Riverside County Film Commission 3403 10th St, Suite 400 Riverside CA 92501

BETTINA BRECKENFELD & STEPHANIE STETHEM Film Commissioners Office: (951) 955-2044 info@filmriversidecounty.com www.rcfilmtv.org

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY San Bernardino County Film Office 385 N. Arrowhead Ave., 3rd Floor San Bernardino, CA 92415

DAN TAYLOR Film Liaison Office: (909) 300-5648 sbcountyfilm@outlook.com filmsanbernardinocounty.com

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SAN DIEGO City of San Diego Special Events & Filming Department Civic Center Plaza 1200 Third Avenue, Suite 1326 BRANDY SHIMABUKURO Filming Program Manager Office: (619) 685-1340 Cell: (619) 846-2099 bshimabukuro@sandiego.gov www.sandiego.gov/specialevents-filming

PORT OF SAN DIEGO PERMITS SOFIA BAYARDO Special Events and Permits Specialist Office: (619) 686-6463 Cell: (619) 952-7981 sbayardo@portofsandiego.org

BILL BARTELS Film Liaison Office: (805) 409-9947 bill.bartels@venturacountyfilm.com www.venturacountyfilm.com

SOUTHERN REGION

VENTURA COUNTY Ventura County Film Commission 1601 Carmen Dr., Suite 215 Camarillo, CA 93010

COUNTY PERMITS DIANE QUINONES Project Manager for the Chief Administrative Office Office: (619) 531-5184 diane.quinones@sdcounty.ca.gov

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FEATURE XXXXXXXXX

ADVERTISERS 32 Ten Studios

37

Antelope Valley Film Office

85

Berkeley Film Office

78

Blue Cloud Movie Ranch

38

California Film Commission

44

California State University, Northridge

26

Cinelease

10

Culver Studios DTC Grip and Electric

Outside Back Cover 23 & 79

Film Mare Island

10

FLICS

26

Fresno County Film Commission Golden Oak Ranch

18 Inside Back Cover

Humboldt Del Norte Film Commission

25

Hummingbird Nest Ranch

43

Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

19

Inland Empire Film Services

75

Little Giant Lighting and Grip Co

74

Long Beach Special Events and Filming

89

Los Angeles Center Studios

3

Marin Film Commission

23

Modesto/Stanislaus County Film Commission

30

Mono County Tourism & Film Office

24

Monterey Film Commission

77

Oakwood Worldwide

21

Occidental Studios

36

Pacific Park Santa Monica Pier Pasadena Film Office

8 8

Placer-Lake Tahoe Film Office

85

Rancho Deluxe

40

Riverside County Film Commission

72

San Bernardino County Film Office

77

San Diego Film Commission

16

San Diego Productions San Francisco Film Commission

17 & 81 20

San Luis Obispo County Film Commission

6

San Mateo Silicon Valley Film Commission

30

Santa Barbara Film Commission

91

Santa Clarita Film Office

14

Santa Clarita Studios Tejon Ranch

Inside Front Cover 40

Temecula Valley Southern California Wine Country

93

Tulare County Film Commission

80

Warner Bros. Studio Facilities

34

West Hollywood Film Office

24

COURTLAND, SACRAMENTO COUNTY Courtland lies along the Sacramento River, 17 miles (27 km) south-southwest of the city of Sacramento, which is the capital of California. Life (1999) with Eddie Murphy was filmed in several locations on the river's delta, including Locke, the only rural Chinese town in the U.S. Some of the most notable movies set or shot in Sacramento include Pink Cadillac (1989), Frankie and Johnny (1991) and What's Love Got to Do with It? (1993). (Photo, courtesy David Israel, LMGI)

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SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

SHOWCASING CALIFORNIA’S PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

BOOKYOURNEXTPRODUCTI ONWI THUS

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HI STORI C PRODUCTI ON LOCATI ON

2017 CALIFORNIA

PUBLISHED BY BOUTIQUE EDITIONS

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