Any downtown rooftops in L.A. to shoot on?

Bo Price · September 20, 2007

Hey everybody,

I'm shooting a short in 2 weeks, and our main location -- a downtown rooftop -- has fallen through.

Can anyone help?!

We're looking for sort of an industrial/downtown/New York feel. Any downtown rooftop would be great. Otherwise, preferably something sort of run-down looking, with "character", and big "structures" (other buildings, staircases, etc.) a big plus.

We have a tiny budget, so we can't pay very much, but we could pay *something*, and we have full production insurance, etc. And it's just dialogue scenes -- nothing dangerous. There would only be about 6 of us, and we would be done in less than a day.

If anybody has any leads or ideas that could help me with this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much!

Bo

Tom Lowe · September 21, 2007

There is a notorious low-rent "studio" in LA that mostly has porn sets inside, but we shot some awesome scenes for a feature on their roof. The name of the place escapes me. It's totally perfect for what you are saying. It's literally in an industrial area, with a scrapyard beside it, but it has a great view of the LA skyline as well, if you want to point your cameras in that direction. I emailed the director to get the name of it, but someone here might also know it.

On Fridays it's a popular swingers club... hahahah. But the owners are chill.. they let us drag all our camera equipment up there... very cool people.

Bo Price · September 21, 2007

There is a notorious low-rent "studio" in LA that mostly has porn sets inside, but we shot some awesome scenes for a feature on their roof. The name of the place escapes me. It's totally perfect for what you are saying. It's literally in an industrial area, with a scrapyard beside it, but it has a great view of the LA skyline as well, if you want to point your cameras in that direction. I emailed the director to get the name of it, but someone here might also know it.

On Fridays it's a popular swingers club... hahahah. But the owners are chill.. they let us drag all our camera equipment up there... very cool people.

Wow, thank you! That sounds perfect... Especially the scrapyard. It's about some guys that build inventions out of crap they find in dumpsters -- old TVs, ham radios, etc. So that would be a great visual...

Thanks so much for looking into that,

Bo

Michael Nash · September 21, 2007

There is a notorious low-rent "studio" in LA that mostly has porn sets inside, but we shot some awesome scenes for a feature on their roof. The name of the place escapes me. It's totally perfect for what you are saying. It's literally in an industrial area, with a scrapyard beside it, but it has a great view of the LA skyline as well, if you want to point your cameras in that direction. I emailed the director to get the name of it, but someone here might also know it.

On Fridays it's a popular swingers club... hahahah. But the owners are chill.. they let us drag all our camera equipment up there... very cool people.

Sounds like Lacy Street...

Mike Williamson · September 21, 2007

Entertainium Studios aka United Pacific Studios. I am far too familiar with the place, had the pleasure of shooting my thesis film there for six days, I also recently crewed on two different shorts that shot there. Apparently I can't escape the sweet bosom of the Pornatanium...

Mike Williamson · September 21, 2007

Perhaps more on topic, I gaffed a low budget music video that shot on the roof of the parking lot directly south of the Disney Concert Hall on Grand Ave. It's a pretty big parking lot with several different skyline views in the background, the Disney building is nice and well lit at night, and you have a number of more basic skyline views as well. I thought it photographed very well, T2 with 5218 pushed one at 800 ASA.

Further, shooting on the roof of the Entertainium isn't a great idea, very tough to get access and it's a mess up there. I had to rig some Lighting Strikes off the roof on the last show I was on, and it was a real pain to get the gear up.

Tom Lowe · September 22, 2007

Entertainium Studios aka United Pacific Studios. I am far too familiar with the place, had the pleasure of shooting my thesis film there for six days, I also recently crewed on two different shorts that shot there. Apparently I can't escape the sweet bosom of the Pornatanium...

Haha. yep... it's the Entertainium. That's the place.

As far as shooting on their roof, you basically just have to climb a ladder, so as long as you're not bringing too much equipment up, it should be fine.

Edited September 22, 2007 by Tom Lowe

Hal Smith · September 22, 2007

Any professional courtesy extended to visitors? ;)

Bill Totolo · September 22, 2007

We basically rolled into this building unannounced and shot on the roof all day and night on a Sunday and were never bothered. It's immediately south of the 10 across from a McDonalds. This was several years ago so I don't recall the street, sorry.

Take Wilshire until it ends, make a right, go under the 10 on ramp, make a left, look for a warehouse across from McDonald's.

Bo Price · September 22, 2007

I checked out United Pacific today. I figured out the name before seeing these replies by googling "porn studio" and "swingers club" (I need to erase my google history!). What a trip. They have all these "QUIET! FILMING IN PROGRESS!" signs everywhere. But...nothing was being shot -- porno or otherwise.

But the sets are classic -- locker rooms, strip clubs, jail cells. (If those walls could talk...)

Anyway, the roof: Yes, you do have to climb two tough ladders to get up there. But they have *another* roof that I liked better, and you just walk out a regular door to. And the lady who showed me around was very nice. They want $1000/day, which is pretty steep for our budget, but it's nice to have a definite option if everything else falls through. (And I suspect they'd go lower...)

And the area around there is great, too -- a lot of really rundown, deserted buildings. And it looks like we could shoot around those without any lip from anybody... I was planning on shooting a lot in actual downtown, but some of these spots might be easier, and less traffic noise as well.

Anyway, thanks so much for all the replies, everybody -- it's been a big help and a big load off my mind!

Bo

Tom Lowe · September 22, 2007

A thousand a day sounds really steep just for the roof! Sorry they were asking so much.

Frank DiBugnara · September 23, 2007

Check out this roof top at the link below, especially the reverse shots (not the ones facing the recognizable LA skyline). If it is something you are interested in, let me know and I'll ask the producers for contact information. They building seemed to be very often used for shoots, but we were able to cut a good deal on using just the roof. You see less than a quarter of the roof in this short; there is a second entire roof righ next to this one....you can actually step down from one roof to the other.....

www.filmblu.com

(probably best to email me and put "LA SKYLINE LOCATION" in the subject at frank@filmblu.com)