91视频

On a rainy afternoon recently, the 107-year-old Rich Block in Old Town Chinatown played a starring role.

鈥淎ll right, pictures up!鈥� yelled a crew member of NBC drama 鈥淕rimm鈥� as others circled the sidewalk with cameras and sound equipment. 鈥淏ackground 鈥� Action!鈥�

Actress Bitsie Tulloch (Juliette) hurriedly exited the building and jumped into a Subaru parked on the street. As she pulled away, actor Sasha Roiz (Capt. Renard) gave chase, banging on the driver鈥檚-side window.

鈥淗ey 鈥� Hey!鈥� he yelled.

The Rich Block, recently renovated into workforce apartments, is one of a growing number of properties and buildings around Portland that are going prime time. Film professionals say that without them, their shows would not go on.

鈥淲ithout access to houses and businesses and even public property 鈥� because a city could say, 鈥楴o, we鈥檙e not going to let you shoot鈥� 鈥� without the cooperation of the public and private sectors you couldn鈥檛 have a real vibrant filming environment,鈥� said Bob Schmaling, senior project manager at .

Part of Schmaling鈥檚 job is connecting production companies with potential sites for filming. His office has a database of 70,000 homes, parks and buildings throughout Oregon featuring specific criteria.

But when the database comes up dry, production companies turn to location managers who scout out cities for ideal properties. Oftentimes, locations are determined by the script, but Bobby Warberg, location manager for 鈥淟everage,鈥� a TNT drama, said the script sometimes is fashioned around a particularly poignant spot.

That is what happened after Warberg took producer Dean Devlin to the Domaine Serene winery in Dayton.

鈥淲e shot almost the whole episode at that winery 鈥� 鈥楾he Corkscrew Job,鈥� 鈥� Warberg said.

The Portland-metro area has drawn crews shooting movies such as 鈥淕one,鈥� 鈥淭wilight鈥� and 鈥淓xtraordinary Measures.鈥� The TV show 鈥淧ortlandia鈥� also is shot here. Recently, Commercial Real Estate Women held a luncheon about navigating real estate opportunities related to film. The meeting featured professionals who had worked to set up MTV鈥檚 鈥淭he Real World鈥� in Portland.

But David Wichert, key assistant location manager for 鈥淕rimm,鈥� said that property owners can鈥檛 call up a crew and volunteer their properties; the process is much more serendipitous.

鈥淭he look of 鈥楪rimm鈥� is really determined by the architecture in which we film it,鈥� he said, adding that the team targets darker, aged properties that are more reminiscent of the fairy tales it is based on. 鈥淩arely will I shoot in a Mediterranean (home) or something with a Spanish-tiled roof. I know that I鈥檓 looking for a craftsman or something that is old Portland 鈥� We love everything that is run-down or broke or abandoned.鈥�

Most of the time, those places are found by just driving around. Wichert thought he鈥檇 hit the mother lode when he came across the old, abandoned GasCo building on Northwest St. Helens Road. Unfortunately, he said the site was too contaminated from industrial use and its owner, NW Natural, wouldn鈥檛 give him the OK to film there.

Other property owners are eager to oblige. The 鈥淕rimm鈥� team rents about 40,000 square feet of warehouse space near Montgomery Park from the Inside one building is a stage set with a life-size interior model of the U.S. Custom House 鈥� the TV show鈥檚 police headquarters.

One day, the film crew needed to shoot in a parking garage and asked its landlord if it could use the one adjacent to the warehouse. The Bill Naito Co. obliged and roped off a section. But early in the morning, an annoyed tenant tore the tape down; within hours, the garage had filled up with cars.

鈥淭here was some serious scrambling at 6 o鈥檆lock in the morning when the crew got there and started setting their equipment up,鈥� said Jody Allen, the property manager for the Montgomery Park complex and the Albers Mill Building.

The company ultimately had to hire a tow truck to move the cars out of the way. Allen said the company is happy to assist 鈥淕rimm鈥� because it is helping the local economy.

Indeed, Ben Lipsey, another key assistant location manager for 鈥淕rimm,鈥� said his department spends on average about $120,000 per $2 million to $3 million episode. It also employs about 30 construction crew members to make improvements as needed.

鈥淲e鈥檙e in the middle of season two,鈥� Wichert said. 鈥淎t some point people will begin to sell their homes and make changes. Do they want to put up a fence? Do we pay you not to put it up or do we help in crafting a fence that we can easily remove?鈥�

Wichert said he sometimes has to tell writers to keep the story line out of a certain neighborhood for a while. The role of the Rich Block, however, appears to be a recurring one.

Prior to shooting on that rainy afternoon, crews had already repainted the exterior, hung new lights and added landscaping. Then they returned it to its previous state after shooting wrapped.