CHRIS HORNBECKER / IFC HZ 06.13 PDXFilm.indd 24 5/16/13 12:40 PM SUPPORTING Portland locations and companies play important parts in the fi lm/TV industry ROLES By Eric Gold ast August, Roger Faires drove Hollywood director Kyle Alvarez around downtown Portland, through southeast neighborhoods and out L to Hood River Valley apple country. Faires is a location scout, and the Oregon Governor’s Offi ce of Film & Television had asked him to give the visit- ing fi lmmaker a tour. Alvarez was looking for a place to shoot C.O.G., his fi lm based on the David Sedaris short story, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is expected to be released in movie theaters this fall. Even though the story—inspired by a period in Sedaris’ life when he picked apples and worked craft fairs—was set in Oregon, Faires knew Alvarez could shoot elsewhere: Virginia, Vermont or California could stand in. But Faires recalls that on the ride back into town, Alvarez “was on the phone to differ- ent people, saying, ‘We have to fi lm in Oregon. This is just unbelievable. It all makes sense now.’ ” This reaction has become familiar to Faires, who has scouted and managed fi lm locations for 25 years, the last 10 in Portland. As a scout, he is responsible for fi nding a place—or, usually, several options— that could be used to fi lm each scene in the script. When shooting begins, he becomes a location SIMON MAX HILL manager, deciding where to park trucks, acquiring curiosity and exploration, he says, are key to his suc- city permits and informing neighbors about where cess. “I’m not embarrassed to go to somebody’s house the crew will be fi lming, with special attention to and say, ‘Hey, what’s a quarter mile past the other edge night shots and any simulated gunfi re or pyrotech- of your property? It looks like there might be a pond nics (he also keeps police in the loop). He estimates there. Am I right?’ Sometimes those things pay off.” that a hundred factors could be in play for each The needs of the script come fi rst, logistics second, location. “Some have to be perfect,” he says. For Faires says. “I think all of my peers would agree that instance, you can’t have Mount Hood in the back- they’re directing a version of the fi lm in their heads.” ground if the story is set elsewhere. “Some, you kind On the other hand, some of his best fi nds, such as of work out on the day,” he says. For example, if a a fl oating cabin and its dock—they fl oat on large logs Left: The TV show location is usable except for a nearby highway, fi lm cabled together—at a lake about 45 miles southwest Portlandia stars Carrie crews can sometimes avoid showing the road. of Portland, have led to script rewrites to highlight Brownstein and Fred The chance to work with Gus Van Sant, director of them. “The director asked the writer of the Hall- Armisen. The primary Good Will Hunting, on fi lms being shot in Portland mark Hall of Fame fi lm The Valley of Light to rewrite on-the-ground producer led Faires to move in 2002 from Los Angeles to the the whole scene because of how cool this thing in Portland for the show City of Roses, where Oscar-nominated Van Sant— looked,” Faires says. Professional divers added pres- is David Cress, who has who graduated from Southwest Portland’s Catlin surized plastic barrels to make sure the cabin could also been a producer for Gabel School in 1971—has long been based. Faires support the extra weight of the crew and equipment. feature fi lms shot in the has scouted and managed locations for several Van Faires has been impressed by how directors use Portland area. Sant fi lms, as well as for the Kelly Reichardt–directed his locations. For example, for the 2008 fi lm Wendy Above: Wendy and movies Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff, and many and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt wanted a wooded area for Lucy, starring Michelle other projects, such as some scouting for the pilot the scene in which viewers fi rst meet Wendy, played Williams, is one of the of NBC’s Grimm. His car is his main scouting tool. by Michelle Williams (Lucy is her dog, played by many fi lms that Portland “What’s around that corner?” he asks himself. “OK, Reichardt’s dog). Faires suggested Kelley Point Park, location scout Roger if I see a little gravel road that says, ‘Do not enter,’ at the North Portland confl uence of the Willamette Faires has worked on. why don’t they want me to enter it?” This kind of and Columbia rivers. The crew could shoot from a JUNE 2013 ALASKA AIRLINES | HORIZON EDITION 25 HZ 06.13 PDXFilm.indd 25 5/17/13 1:27 PM meadow, he told the director, showing Williams walking her dog along a nearby Meet me in Seattle service road. “Kelly did the opposite,” Faires recalls, “using the road for a moving cam- era lane, and we watched as Wendy slowly, like a daydreaming schoolgirl, walked Lucy through this meadow while Wendy hummed this haunting simple melody that Will Oldham wrote for the fi lm.” The decision, Faires says, “gave, in one short sequence, the heart and soul of the fi lm: a woman moving through time and space but not aware yet of the dangers that lie ahead. Absolutely brilliant.” Faires touts Portland’s versatility as a major benefi t for fi lmmakers. “You start with a city that was built in the middle of the 1800s, and old Victorians,” he says, “and then you drive 70 blocks, and it’s 1950s America. Then you drive over here, and it’s 1980s America. It’s got a lot of great variety.” He encourages fi lmgoers to remember the location scout. “Every time you see a real-world place in your favorite TV show or movie,” he says, “somebody found that. And a lot of those great places are in Portland.” SEATTLE CENTER ecause the City of Roses and nearby sites are such appealing locales, the BPortland metropolitan area’s fi lm/ television-production industry is strong DOWNTOWN and growing, according to the Portland Film Offi ce. Films such as the 2012 thriller Gone, and ongoing TV shows such as UNIVERSITY DISTRICT Grimm and Portlandia bring jobs and dol- lars to the metro area. New projects include the pilot for a possible new drama starring UNIVERSITY DISTRICT Geena Davis, which is being overseen by the producers of TNT’s Leverage TV series. Leverage was fi lmed in Portland for four years before its last episode aired in December 2012. The series won the Favor- ite Cable TV Drama award at the People’s Choice Awards this past January. In addition, local studios such as Laika PINEAPPLE HOSPITALITY continue the world-class legacy of Port- land-based animation. Laika is known for award-winning commercial content and also for producing the Oscar-nominated stop-motion features Coraline (2009) and ParaNorman (2012). Its next animated feature, The Boxtrolls, will premiere in 3D 866.866.7977 in theaters on October 17, 2014. The area’s reputation for noteworthy ani- staypineapple.com mation work was built by people such as Will Vinton, who coined the term “Claymation” /StayPine apple in 1976 and won acclaim for the “California Raisins” commercials of the late 1980s (he also created the computer-animated M&M’s characters “Red” and “Yellow”). Laika, Continued on page 75 26 ALASKA AIRLINES | HORIZON EDITION JUNE 2013 HZ 06.13 PDXFilm.indd 26 5/17/13 1:27 PM within the Portland Development Commission. “The PDC, the mayor, all of our bureau partners [such as Portland Parks & Recreation and the Port- land Bureau of Transportation]—we’ve really got the city behind this industry,” she says. Filmmakers know they also can rely on knowl- edgeable and experienced local companies and crews, Midthun says. In addition to location-scout Faires, some of the area’s top film/TV-production- support experts include the animation wizards at Bent Image Lab, the casting aces at Cast Iron Stu- dios, and respected Portlandia producer David Cress—just a few examples of the thousands who make film-and-television production a vital part of Roger Faires found Liz’s COURTESY: ROGER FAIRES Portland’s economic and cultural landscape. Palace for Beauty for the Continued from page 26 movie C.O.G., expected which now owns the Claymation trademark, grew Bent Image Lab to be on-screen in movie out of a studio Vinton founded in 1976. Other promi- In 2002, Ray Di Carlo—who put in more than 700 theaters this fall. nent animation-industry players include Jim Blash- hours of scuba diving off the east coast while work- field, Joan Gratz, Joanna Priestley and Bill Plympton. Blashfield’s career in animation for films, art PORTLAND’S ATTRIBUTES installations and music videos dates to the 1970s, Skilled workforce: Work on local and out-of-town film productions and in the and he directed, produced and oversaw animation demanding field of episodic television—such as on TNT’s Leverage, which for the Grammy-winning Michael Jackson music filmed in Portland for four of its five seasons—has resulted in a crew and video Leave Me Alone. Gratz developed the technique of clay painting in animation, first used in her actor base of people who are experienced and knowledgeable.