A year in the life

2013 was a great year for film production in the Northwest.  I had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects that took me all over the region.   A favorite would be tough to pick, but here are some of the highlights.

I started the year working on Megan Griffith’s feature Lucky Them, which later premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews.  It should be released later this year and we expect it to do very well.   Lots of bars and clubs were shot for the movie, which made for some very interesting location scouting.   I was sad to hear that recently that the Comet Tavern, one of our filming locations, had to close it’s doors.  We shot some great stuff at the Comet– watch for a scene in the bar’s infamous bathroom–and I got to know the owner and staff well.   Hoping it re-opens in all it’s grungy glory very soon.

I also got to see a private performance by the band The Head and the Heart, which will play in the film.   It was a trip attending a rock show at the Crocodile Cafe at the crack of dawn.

Later in the spring I worked on a pilot episode for a TNT show called Bounty Hunter, filming scenes involving a car chase in SoDo and a shootout at Gasworks Park.   I also did some scouting for a fascinating little movie called The Assembly of Gasping Fish, which had me scouting various beaches and wilderness areas along the Washington coast.   I then moved on to Lynn Shelton’s latest feature Laggies, which is premiering at Sundance this month.  It includes a big wedding scene we shot at Chihuly’s Garden and Glass museum, as well as scenes filmed at Nordstrom.  Nordstrom typically rejects filming requests, but made a rare exception in our case.  That the scene involved our stars Kiera Knightley and Chloe Moretz doing a little shopping there may have had something to do with it.

Right after Laggies I had a great time working on a new music video for the band Alice in Chains.  That was followed up by lots of interesting commercial work.   I did some scouting for the hunting and fishing outfitter Cabela’s, which had me four-wheeling my way to remote fly-fishing locations on the Olympic Peninsula.

I also worked on some promotional pieces for MSNBC out in eastern Washington, filming ranchers herding cattle.  Got a chance to work with some serious Marlboro Men on that gig.

Later I was involved with a big shoot for Dr. Pepper that featured Seattle’s hometown heroes Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.   A cool aspect of that shoot was seeing the Paramount Theater’s majestic grand lobby converted into a set representing Macklemore’s childhood bedroom.

I wrapped up 2013 working on a collection of spots down in Tacoma, which has become one of my favorite cities to shoot– lots of great old homes and buildings down there, as well as a flexible and accommodating film office.  All in all it was an exciting and eventful year–here’s hoping 2014 can top it.