Doubling Up on Car Commercials

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, October 09, 2007, at 09:48AM

Eric Richardson

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — If you ever feel like drinking from a firehose and getting the full feel of just how much commercial and TV filming goes on Downtown (with the occasional feature sprinkled in), you can go to Film LA’s website and sign up for their e-Notification program.

Glancing through the notifications yesterday I had to laugh at a near-miss for subject-matter synergy. Tomorrow Bright Pictures will be filming a VW commercial on Grand, between 1st and 5th. At the very same time Admit One Productions will be filming a Chrysler 300 commercial directly below on Lower Grand and the 4th street freeway.

Too bad they couldn’t just share sets…

Filming

Closure Report for March 22nd

March 21, 2008

It's a very busy Saturday for filming closures, so plan your routes carefully. This weekend's Closure Report is sponsored by A&E, Saturn, Heineken...

Just Another Last Minute Closure

March 15, 2008

Here's one of those little "Oh, and by the way..." moments that we all love so much about Downtown filming. Around noon Friday Film LA sent out a notification...

5 More Stories in Filming

Comments

Benjamin Pezzillo writes:

It wouldn't be so bad except directors have gotten anti-creative when it comes to car commercials shot Downtown.

I do not think it is an exaggeration to see at least three of the following in 75% of the car commercials on television in SoCal:

Lower Grand Avenue Upper Grand Avenue (including the Disney Concert Hall) Second Street Tunnel Broadway at night with neon in the background on a wet down street

Interesting to note perhaps, the Ford Edge commercial many locals loathed earlier this year was shot by David Mamet -- at least according to the Ford junk mail I got recently.

There's novel approach to car sales, 'we had a really intellectual director shoot the ad so it's okay for you to buy this SUV-like thing...'

Too bad the behavior of the crew ensured I'd never buy that model and, if it weren't for love of our Mustang, might not like Ford altogether.

# on Oct.10.2007 AT 10:26 PM