Xochitl Pena|The Desert Sun
With three dogs in tow, Kristen Wiig walks along a lonely and windy desert road with twirling windmills and burly mountains in the background.
Laying half-naked with a toy Chihuahua on her back, Sofia Vergara poses in a pristine backyard with the San Jacinto Mountains and palm trees behind her.
Inside the perfectly manicured walls of a huge chain resort, "Saturday Night Live" alum Andy Samberg and "Game of Thrones" hunk Kit Harington play tennis on grass courts, sweating under the searing summer sun.
And at the edge of a bedroom community where city life gives way to desert and farmland, Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj shimmy and shake under a green city limits sign tucked between railroad trucks and a clunky industrial factory.
All these scenes filmed and photographed in locations across the Coachella Valley are part of the quiet but slowly growing industry that over the years has helped spark interest in the area as a tourism destination and production location.
An exhaustive Desert Sun review of film permit applications across the valley since 2010 shows that production companies, big and small, head to the Coachella Valley resorts, mid-century modern homes, streets and landmarks as backdrops for fashion shoots, commercials, television and feature films.
"We are Hollywood's backlot," said Sheri Davis,director of the Greater Palm Springs Film Office, and former director of the Inland Empire Film Commission. It's her job to work with location scouts to promote all types of filming in the desert and provide the resources to help that happen.
Film shoots in Palm Springs
The Desert Sun's Xochitl Pena and Robert Hopwood give you a tour of where some television, film and photography shoots have taken place in Palm Springs.
Marilyn Chung/The Desert Sun
Almost any location desired can be found in the greater Coachella Valley area: Desert landscape, bustling cities, farmland, a lake, aerial tramway, wilderness, snow-capped mountains, desolate roads, highways, stunning architecture, golf courses, and casinos.
By far, though, the city of Palm Springs — with its name recognition and trove of architectural gems — serves as the go-to place for all kinds of filming. Most of the filming in Riverside County is done in the resort city with about600 film permits issued since 2010. And year after year, the activity has increased in the resort city. In 2014, the economic impact — the amount of money production crews spent in the city on work and recreation — was $10.4 million.
"Palm Springs is obviously the real pick of the cities," Davis said. "When you think of California, it's synonymous with Palm Springs."
And with more than 350 days of sunshine, providing perfect lighting practically year-round, the area — specifically Palm Springs — dominates in attracting still photography and commercials.
More than half of the film permits in Palm Springs — 352 — were issued for still photography. Most were fashion shoots for everything from American Eagle Outfitters and Franco Sarto shoes to luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Aston Martin.
"That's just fact, it's always been that way and it will probably never change," Davis explained of the resort city's bread and butter.
"I don't think in the two-county region, there are any better places for the light and weather for still photography. It's just perfect. It's the cache of Palm Springs."
The rest of the film permits issued in Palm Springs were for a combination of categories, including commercials, TV episodes, music videos, and feature films.
For an industry that has generated $1.5 billion in the Inland Empire over the past 20 years, though, it goes relatively unseen — happening in private homes, in remote desert areas, and in locations that are closed to the public.
It's not until you're watching television and see that Banana Boat commercial with a convertible whizzing by the windmills or flip through the May edition of Vogue and see tennis badboy Nick Kyrgios lounging poolside with the Saguaro's signature multicolored building in the background do you realize it was filmed in the Coachella Valley.
"We are relatively a hidden industry unless you happen to be on the street we're on, you don't know we're there," Davis said.
Richard "Kip" Serafin, owner of Locations 760, one of two main location scout businesses in the Coachella Valley that connects production companies with locations, has a database of more than 1,000 places to film in the desert — most in greater Palm Springs.
A location scout is important to the film industry because they connect companies interested in filming with the location they desire.
"When art directors, producers, photographers and even Calvin Klein — if they call and say they want a mid-century home, I find them what they want," he said. He also provides full site management and helps pull all the proper permits.
Recently, he helped connect River Island, a British fashion line, with Hotel Lautner in Desert Hot Springs for a shoot that featured four models traipsing outside and inside the four-room hotel with its trademark concrete, steel, glass and redwood. Designed in the mid-1940s by lauded architect John Lautner, the hotel is a popular place for photo shoots.
Lautner also designed the infamous Elrod House on Southridge Drive used in the 1971 James Bond movie "Diamonds Are Forever." Coincidentally, actress Trina Parks, who played Thumper, the bikini-clad villainness in the movie who so memorably kicked Sean Connery's butt, is a Palm Springs resident.
The Elrod House is just down the mountain from the iconic Bob Hope Estate — which Lautner also designed and in May hosted a plethora of international press, celebrities and fashion industry insiders as the location for the Louis Vuitton Cruise 16 fashion show.
Serafin helped connect the Louis Vuitton folks with the Hope house and also helped find locations for a series of international fashion magazine shoots all across the valley featuring the French fashion line.
"They wanted two things: The look of being on the moon, some kind of lunar type of thing. They didn't want something that everyone else has seen. That is kind of what they were looking for," Serafin said of Louis Vuitton's requests.
While Serafin mostly works on fashion shoots, he does his share of commercials and recently helped a movie production company find its location for the movie "Palm Swings." It starsTia Carrere, Diane Farr andJason Lewis and is abouta married couple who discover their neighbors are swingers.
The film production company rented out the Skylark hotel for almost an entire month last summer, during a relatively slow time, and shot scenes at locations across the city such as Shag, The Purple Room and Trio.
Having production crews in the valley for multiple days does provide an economic benefit for the area, Davis said.
"Film drives tourism. Tourism doesn't drive us. When we're not working, we are tourists. When we get that per diem, we are out spending it," she said.
In addition, the locations of film shoots often charge location fees that range from a couple hundred to up to $10,000 per day, depending on the site.
Since the "Palm Swings" production wound up spending more than $25,000 in the city, they were eligible for and received a $5,000 rebate from the city of Palm Springs.
Palm Springs began its "Film Friendly Incentive Program" in 2013 that waives permit fees and encourages filmmakers and advertising photographers to work in the city by providing monetary incentives and support services in partnership with Palm Springs Resorts.
"For years, we've been Hollywood's playground. Now we can be its production lot," Mayor Pro Tem Paul Lewin said at the time of adoption. He proposed the idea to help spur business.
Since then, five projects, including "Palm Swings," have taken advantage of the program and received a $5,000 rebate. The other movies are "Hidden Away," "Loopers," "American Dream Builders," and "Zoey to the Max."
Serafin said many of the photo shoots, commercials and feature films choose Palm Springs and other parts of the Coachella Valley for the look. Other times, they like the convenience of the area, but want it to look like or be someplace else.
"I do a lot of photo shoots where they want it to look like you're in Mexico, not in Palm Springs," Serafin said.
In the 2006 "Mission: Impossible III," the nail-biting scene taking place in Germany with a helicopter weaving in and out of wind turbines, was actually filmed in north Palm Springs.
And in HBO's mockumentary, "7 Days in Hell," which premiered July 11 with stars Samberg and Harington, the grass courts at JW Marriott Resort in Palm Desert doubled last summer as the Wimbledon courts in London.
Jim Leupold, the director of tennis at the resort, was present for the three days of filming in June 2014 and saw a lot of behind-the-camera action. In deciding to use the resort's courts, he thinks they just liked the look.
"They were shopping grass tennis courts. They wanted real time photos. I took photos. I think they liked the fact that it's already down in a bowl," he said.
Palm Springs writer/director Christian Sesma, who has shot a fewof his films in the desert, said the appeal for him is the varied landscape the desert had to offer.
There's "super ritzy and chic, to mid-century modern cool, to gritty desert border town, to Saharan desert — all in a 20-mile radius," he said. "You can do a lot with the geography of the desert and how diverse it is. That's the biggest attraction."
For Belinda Foord, company producer of Shiny Projects based in London, who did a W Magazine fashion shoot with Emma Summerton in 2013, the appeal is its recognizable and stylized look.
"It's so unique to anywhere else in the world. It's iconic. Everyone knows the look of Palm Springs. So when you see a shoot that's done there, you can recognize it," she said.
"I love Palm Springs. I wish I was in Palm Springs right now," she said from London via Skype.
While Palm Springs is the most widely recognized and used city in the Coachella Valley for all kinds of filming, other cities have had their share in the limelight as well.
In Wiig's movie "Welcome To Me" released this past spring, not only were the iconic windmills northwest of Palm Springs used as a backdrop and in one of the film's posters, but her infamous nude scene was shot on the gaming floor alongside slot machines at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio. Some scenes were also filmed in Banning.
Ernest Belding, the location manager on the movie, said the script called for a tribal casino, so he looked at Agua Caliente, Morongo and Fantasy Springs. But when it came down to it, he said the Indio casino was the most responsive.
"Fantasy Springs was very accommodating. They were super professional," he said of the filming in 2013.
A portion of the casino — closest to the bowling alley — was closed to the public during its filming while the rest of the casino remained open.
Over the years, several other reality shows and movies have filmed at the casino, more recently "Blast Vegas," starring Frankie Muniz and Barry Bostwick. Since the casino ison tribal land, film permits are requested with the tribe.
Since 2010, Indio has only had four photography/film permits issued — three for still photography and one a TV episode for Departure Films in 2014 that shoots a lot of do-it-yourself reality shows.
Next door in Coachella, at least two film productions have occurred during the same time frame. In 2013, city officials approved a special events permit for Sesma to shoot his feature length film "The Night Crew" in 2013. It is set to be released in the U.S. this fall.
He shot elsewhere in the Coachella Valley as well. His original plan was to shoot the movie in New Mexico, but he convinced his executive team to let him shoot in the valley because of the local support.
"It's a border town story. We used a lot of things that could double as a border town. We were able to use the whole desert from Palm Springs to Coachella," said Sesma, who just returned from Europe shooting his latest film "Vigilante Diaries Chapter 2."
The other shoot in Coachella — likely the most publicized in recent years — was a music video by Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj. In the "Feeling Myself" video released in May, the two divas sing and dance around a "Coachella" city limits sign at the intersection of Grapefruit Boulevard and Avenue 54. Railroad tracks are on one side, with an industrial factory on the other.
Coachella does not have an ordinance specific to film or photography, said DeputyCity Clerk Andrea Carranza, so the practice is regulated using special event permits. But no such permit was requested for the music video.
Filming done without permits are called "run and gun" shoots, Davis said. Their prevalence in the valley is hard to determine, but they happen, she said.
"I think it's ignorance on the part of people who don't do it," she said of taking out film permits. Filming without the proper permits and insurance can be risky, especially if someone is hurt during the filming.
Davis said she would like to see police and fire asking for film permits if they run across a production in action. That would help determine which ones are following the rules and which ones are breaking them. For illegal shoots, there usually isn't much of a penalty aside from having to shut down, which can be pricey depending on the production.
"We need to be sure, first of all, that everybody coming out here understands who to contact, how to reach the appropriate jurisdictions for permits," Davis said.
The revamped Greater Palm Springs Film Alliance, at palmspringsfilm.com, not only promotes the Coachella Valley by providing a location library with photos, but it also provides film permit information on all the Coachella Valley cities as well as Yucca Valley, Twentynine Palms and Blythe. It also lets perusers know which cities provide film incentives.
How a film shoot gets set up in the desert
Shari Davis, director of the Greater Palm Springs Film Office, explains the process of setting up a shoot in the desert. To her left are Levi Vincent and Dan Taylor.
Robert Hopwood, The Desert Sun
Levi Vincent, who spearheaded the website changes, said he is also trying to build up a local resource list of behind-the-scenes talent that can be tapped for various production projects.
The goal, he said: "Flush out all the talent we have here in the desert. Crew, cameramen, lights, electrical, vendors, craft service; to let the industry know the desert and the Coachella Valley is extremely film friendly."
Reporters visit site of "Feeling Myself" video
The sign made famous by Beyonce and Nicki Minaj. (May 21, 2015)
Xochitl Pena/Desert Sun
Prior to July 1, the Coachella Valley was promoted by the Inland Empire Film Commission.
Davis and her assistant Dan Taylor, now director of the San Bernardino Film Commission, worked side by side covering 27,000 square miles of land that included both San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
The split, with Davis leading efforts in Riverside County and Taylor in San Bernardino, is intended to provide more focused attention and resources in the respective communities, thus helping to boost that industry.
"I'm going to be helping Riverside but will concentrate down here (in the Coachella Valley) because we have the Greater Palm Springs Film Office and Greater Palm Springs Film Alliance. I'm going to bring my energy and the people I know into seeing how we can increase filming in the area," Davis said.
Each film commission also has more people helping out in the respective regions. In addition to Vincent, David Stern assists the Greater Palm Springs Film Alliance as director of development.
"I'm excited about the industry in general for the desert area. Organizing and fragmenting the industry, I think, it has nowhere to go but up. I think it's going to really increase production out here," Vincent said.
Taylor said he's noticed an uptick in TV production and music videos in recent years. In Palm Springs, there were 26 TV episodes shot in 2014, compared to 20 the year before. And as far as music videos, three were shot in all of 2014 and, this year, already four have been shot.
And Davis has noticed a surge in reality TV wanting to film in the valley, especially Palm Springs. The "Real Housewives" franchise especially loves the resort city. The "Housewives of Beverly Hills" were in town twice in 2014 and once in 2013. And in 2010, both "The Housewives of Atlanta" and "Housewives of Orange County" visited Palm Springs.
Some of the other reality shows that have filmed in Palm Springs since 2010 include: "Storage Wars," "Back Flip," "Hell's Kitchen," "Storage Hunters," "WWE Legends' House," "All About Aubrey," "Bite This with Nadia G," "The Next Food Network Star," "America's Next Top Model" and "Shahs of Sunset."
What could help further boost other types of production in the valley is opening up the federal desert land to filming, Davis said.
"That's the missing piece out here," she said.
Any open desert scene shot in the Inland Empire is done in San Bernardino County because the Federal Bureau of Land Management has opened the land there to filming.
"One of the biggest things (the Coachella Valley) could do is work with the BLM to open up this desert land for filming," Davis said of trying to increase film shoots.
"I don't think the BLM doesn't want filming on their land. They don't have the staff or money to open the land," Taylor said.
Folks in the local film industry also hope that changes in the state's film credit program will put a stop to runaway projects that now film outside the state, lured by lucrative incentives.
One misconception about "Hidden Palms,"a 2007 TV show whose pilot was filmed in Palm Springs, was that it moved to Arizona after being picked up as a series because the city wasn't film friendly, Davis said.
The show decided to move to the neighboring state because of greater tax incentives.
"Palm Springs did everything. The city bent over backwards. It was a great effort on their part," Davis said.
The state's new Film and Television Tax Credit Program 2.0 increases available funding from $100 million to $330 million annually to retain and attract production jobs and economic activity across the state.
Already, 11 projects, including six new TV series, one pilot and four relocating TV series, have been approved for a combined $82.8 million. And later this year, $48.3 million will be provided for feature films and $6.9 million for independent projects. The application period for the films and independent projects opened July 13 and ends July 25.
Davis was part of the film industry insiders who pushed for the tax changes at the state level and is already starting to see the benefits.
HBO's "Veep" and Fox's "American Horror Story" — two TV shows that received tax credits to relocate production to California — have gotten a hold of her to see about filming in the Inland Empire region.
"Not this far out (to the Coachella Valley) unfortunately. They are coming out into Ontario and city of Riverside," Davis said.
The shows will likely relocate to the Los Angeles area, but if shows want an extra 5 percent bump in tax incentives, they have to film a certain number of days outside the Los Angeles 30-mile zone, she said.
"That's where our relationships come in," Davis said.
She tries to put production companies in touch with all the resources they need so they want to film in the area.
Getting big budget feature films to locate to the desert, though, is tough, Davis said, unless the script specifically calls for Palm Springs or its distinctive features.
The smaller independent movies tend to film in the area, including "Christmas in Palm Springs" and "Hidden Away," that use local incentive programs and adapt the script to feature the locale.
Under the state's previous tax incentive program, there was much less money in the pot and most of it was going to TV series, which tend to stay in the L.A. area, said Amy Lemisch, executive director of the California Film Commission.
With more money and separate pots of funds for different types of productions, Lemisch thinks areas outside of Los Angeles, including the Coachella Valley, could see some benefit.
"So we will see more feature films ... and more likely that will need to go outside L.A. It's more common for that to happen. That's where you may see some effect. Pilots as well because pilots will travel," Lemisch said.
When the state's tax credits are announced for the features, Davis said she will be ready to see who gets them.
"We'd love to see that increase ... and we will work the features who get the incentive program," she said.
"It's up to me and Dan when those features get the nod that we're in touch with them saying 'Looking for a desert? Looking for a mid-century modern? Looking for a tram?'" she said.
Robert Hopwood contributed to this report.Xochitl Peña is the Vibe & Style Columnist at The Desert Sun and can be reached at xochitl.pena@desertsun.com or at (760) 778-4647.