Building a Bar

in the 6 years I've been making Indie films, I've had several times where a "BAR" was involved as a location. And because of flagging indie budgets we usually dropped the idea or changed the whole concept of the scene to play out somewhere easier to get. In one case we found a large back yard that looked a lot like a hotel garden with pool and walkways and we dressed up the rest with handmade foam core tables that light from inside and 10' column like lights I made from wire, paper and black foamcore.

So here was my first attempt at making and shooting a fictitious bar. It was for a movie that was written and directed by a friend, James Smith and Al Shaker. The location is in Chatsworth, CA.

The reason I bring up this BAR thing is because I am now in the middle of building another one in my living room for Battery Row. Why? 3 reasons. 1. I want to be able to take time with this scene and get good performances out of my actors. I usually have to rush if I rent a place and then the scene suffers. 2. Having the set in my house lets me spend any extra time with Lighting and figuring camera angles as well. And anyone who's dealt with Lighting knows it takes some work adjusting and perfecting. 3. Smoke. A real Noir film is not complete with out that beautiful yet "Publicly illegal" substance known as cigarette smoke. This scene is supposed to be in a dirty little bar in the bottom of the bad part of town. So  here are a few test shots of where I am now. Just the beginning of the lighting I'll be doing since there will be 5 actors in this scene. One where I am, Allen Burns, and then a bartender, Heidi Hamilton will stand across the bar and then there will be 3 actors down at the other end of the bar.

Here's Battery Row indie short film teaser. Just thought I'd add this to show off what we shot in the Factory (mostly) to those involved and those friends who were interested. This isn't meant to tell a story or sell the film to any investor. As of last sunday we now have almost another 1/3 of footage and some great little scenes that are not represented in this video.

Location Location Location...

For this Indie short film the Factory Location was the inspiration for the story. So I didn't need to run out and search far and wide for a great place. To be honest I have searched downtown LA and found very few locations to match this for the money. The stairways, the vast open floors with nothing but columns, the foggy, early factory sized windows. Hard to replicate without using several different locations.

there are 6 floors plus a basement and a roof. each floor has about 60,000 square feet.

burnt out stair well was used often through Battery Row. We have a very nice fight scene in here toward the end of the film. As a still photographer I find this stairway one of the best locations in Los Angeles.

More to come...