Restaurant Scouting

Now that our fundraiser was over, and we have money to shoot our first scene. It was time to go out and find it. The first scene takes place in a Mexican restaurant. We had one location that fell through, so it was up to me to find another. I enlisted the help Leo: of one of our translators, and a good friend of mine. Leo was getting over a cold, but was still good enough to come out and help me search.

What I was looking for is someplace rustic, kind of worn down, and kitschy. It should be a place that you recognize as a Mexican restaurant immediately from the background. Logistically, we needed someplace that is big enough to shoot in. But also has room to store equipment and have a holding area. The scene takes place at night, so we would require somewhere that will let us shoot overnight while the business is closed.

We started our search at King Taco downtown. We stepped inside, I took one look, and immediately left. Too big and it looked more like a McDonalds than a Mexican restaurant. We stopped at a few other places on Olvera Street, and found a few possibilities as far as look. But after talking to the owners or managers, they would not be able to accommodate us. These are the kinds of places that get a lot of tourists and foot traffic. So they have probably had more than one production approach them about shooting. And for our budget and what we're looking for, they're less receptive to us.

We expanded our search to East LA, and found two very promising restaurants. For those of you who haven't been. East LA isn't as bad as the movies make it out to be. It is a lower class neighborhood.  But where we went had well-manicured lawns, and it seemed more like a suburb than the warzone it has the reputation of being. One restaurant gave me the number for the owner to call, and the other was very curious about the project. He said he would just have to get someone to be there while we shot, and would get back to me as soon as he could.

Leo was feeling tired, so I dropped him off back downtown. I headed back towards my neighborhood of North Hollywood to look at two more locations. One was too small, but did have the right look. The other was a restaurant that I frequented quite a bit and was my original idea of how the restaurant should look when I was writing.

I asked for the manager, and was told that he would be there in an hour. I returned an hour later, and talked to an older Mexican man who spoke poor English. I explained the project as best I could, and he seemed to be excited about helping us. He asked that I fax him a sheet on Monday explaining what I am trying to do, and would try to help us if he could after talking to his partner. So I left the restaurant feeling very excited.

So far, I'd say my first day of location scouting was a success. We're moving in the right direction, and the pieces are falling into place. Hopefully, I can shoot right near my own neighborhood, and really start to bring this project to life.