On Location

What do J-Lo, Ben Affleck and Michael Bolton have in common? No, the answer has nothing to do with hairstyles or ego sizes. All of these celebs have worked, or are currently working, on films (or videos) in Philly. Our town’s reputation as a good and inexpensive place to make movies has only been enhanced by the recent hype from the Kevin Smith film Jersey Girl, now shooting with Lopez, Affleck and other stars in various locations in the city. But after Smith, who hails from New Jersey, opted to shoot in Philly, it was time for our local location scouts to enter the scene to help film crews make the most of what the city has to offer.

These folks know everything there is to know about a city, including its underbelly. The scouts are hired guns who find the locations, negotiate with the owner of the location for permission to shoot there, and often end up becoming the location managers once the spot is secured.

Robert Holtzman, who goes by the nickname Ratface, is one such gun. Ratface is actually a production designer, but the Fishtown resident has become known as an asset to directors and producers looking for unique spots to shoot. Ratface reads the film scripts in advance and draws on his knowledge of the city to find backdrops that reflect the proper look and feel for the scene.

"If the script calls for a seedy bar, I would immediately think of McGlinchey's," he says."We shot the film Dogma (also directed by Smith) in Pittsburgh, and I had to find a seedy bar, so I looked for one that had a nicotine mural like McGlinchey's has."

"Philadelphia has great locations," he says, "and it's not expensive." He emphasizes that budget is very important and that Philly is much cheaper than New York, although not as cheap as Canada, another popular alternative to Hollywood shoots.

Jersey Girl takes place in the Highlands in central New Jersey and in New York, and while there are some scenes shot in both places, the bulk of the film is shot in Philadelphia.

"New York was cost prohibitive," Ratface says. "Miramax wanted Canada, but Kevin and I wanted Philly. The only issue was the difference in cost between Philly and Canada and Philly got it because Ben [Affleck] wanted Philly."

Sharon Levin-Prag, a location scout and manager, has been in the business for 10 years. She started out working for craft services, providing snacks for the cast and crew during shoots.

“A good location manager gets their contacts through networking,” she says. “It’s all who you know and I have a photographic memory. I know the city and I know everyone. After all, I worked at the Black Banana.” Levin-Prag is originally from the Main Line but lived in the city for over 25 years before moving to New Jersey.

When the Jersey Girl script called for a scene at a New York deli, both Levin-Prag and Ratface immediately thought of the Famous 4th Street Deli at Fourth and Bainbridge streets.

Once a scout finds the right location, the next step is to obtain permission to shoot there. The price for locations is negotiable with the owner as long as it is within the film company’s budget. Sometimes, there is a difference of opinion on the value of a location.

"I had a bad situation," said Levin-Prag. "I found a fabulous house in the 12th and Locust area that was perfect for my client, which was Comcast. A husband and wife lived there and he agreed to $175 an hour, which was a good rate. But his wife came back and said she wanted $10,000 for one day of shooting. They got the $10,000 but it caused a lot of problems with the budget and the client."

Famous Deli owner David Auspitz (father of CP arts editor Debra Auspitz) says his experience as a location owner has been a positive one. "It's great exposure for the city and there has been such cooperation from everyone," he says. Auspitz had to close down his deli all day before an evening of filming for Jersey Girl.

The Jersey Girl scouts found a location of mine appealing, too. I met Ratface and Levin-Prag when they came by to take a look at my condominium for Ben Affleck's pad in the film.

They found my apartment through my builder, who met them on a shoot for a commercial several years back. Affleck's apartment was planned as a SoHo loft. Then the SoHo look morphed into a 1920s building and the crew decided to build the character's home on a set. But that wasn't my only experience with scouts.

Last July, the film company Avrilux was in town shooting a Michael Bolton music video. The SoHo and Main Line-based company's main partners, Ken Keller and Caron Rudner, were hired by Marcelo Paez of America Film in Miami at the last minute.

Bolton, who collaborated on the video with Argentinean pianist Raul DiBlasio, wanted a location near Atlantic City, where he was about to start his tour.

Keller, Rudner and Paez chose a neighboring apartment in my building but saw my raw brick walls a few floors higher through the window.

"That is what we were looking for," says Keller, who is now working on a film about legendary golfer Bobby Jones, being shot in part at the Merion Country Club.

The Bolton video crew ended up using both lofts for the shoot, which took 16 hours, 55 people and a lot of cleaning up on my part. It became the party that never ended. But hey, that's Hollywood.

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September 8, 2005
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