The Locations
One of the core tenets of a VOKSEE production is location, because locations matter. Not just creatively – of course it has to fit the part – but each place has a soul, a history, and it can influence the story, the cast and crew, and overall amplify the creative in its own way. The location itself has experienced a life for years, or even decades, and those experiences imprint themselves on the people in that space and it shows up on screen in special ways. Locations matter.
While writing A Place to Fall Down, I knew two locations were going to be critical: the garage, obviously, but also the recording studio for the score.
The Garage
I shared an early draft of the screenplay with Devin Stinson, the Assistant Director on the film, and he immediately had the perfect location in mind – an old fabrication shop in Venice Beach where he’d filmed a previous project. He shared some stills from that shoot and it was absolutely perfect; this place was ripped right out of the script and dropped into Venice Beach 50 years ago.
It was indeed a mix of chaos and genius, and after some preliminary conversations, the owner was excited to have us shoot there and we started outlining how we would use the space. On our initial tech scout we photographed every square inch of the space – I sketched out a floorplan of the shop and worked through which areas we would use for each scene. This also included a light study, forecasting the path of the sun throughout the day and how it would impact the space. Did I mention it was the perfect location?
We locked in our dates with the cast and were just about to send over the location agreement when the garage owner decided he was going on extended vacation. Waiting for him to return was going to push production more than a month, and we knew we would lose some key members of our team, so the only option was to find a new garage. This kicked off a two week sprint to find a location that was also nothing short of perfect.
After 48 hours of deep research I had a list of 20 commercial garages around the Los Angeles area. I spent the next day driving around looking at each one, checking it against my long list of non-negotiable criteria. I came home with two possible locations, but I wasn’t overly excited about either of them. Late that night, I came across a garage in Pasadena that caught my eye and I started reading everything I could about it. The following morning, we reached out to the shop to see if it would even be something they’d be interested in, and a few days later we met with Jason Remington of Genesis Automotive. The rest is history.
Jason’s shop was an exact replica of what I had envisioned for the story – so much so that it was a little uncanny. Even down to Jason’s own background, a true legend of the early import tuning scene; he had lived so much of Jose’s life. As we toured the space and he shared stories, it was unbelievable how much of his life connected to A Place to Fall Down.
Meeting Jason was truly kismet, he understood the history and legacy of import culture, he also had an appreciation for the details, which was apparent when he told me about his 1985 Honda Civic 1500S. It’s not a car you hear a lot about, but one of my personal favorites. Listening to Jason talk about this restomod build gave me chills, and I immediately knew this was the place, and Jason was the guy. He would take care of us – he understood what we were trying to do here.
When I got home that night, I did more research on Jason and found this article in Motortrend where he discusses, in depth, his Civic build. This particular section was so on the nose for our story that I had to save it:
“The build portion of this Civic is short and simple but required first buying an '87 Integra. That's right, he purchased an entire car in order to pull its 1.6L DOHC D16A1 engine and transmission, which is a direct swap into the 3rd gen. Civic and CRX chassis, and one that Jason has done countless times. "Way back in the day when we were street racing these old Civics, we'd hit Watanabe and pick up a ZC swap (Japanese version of the D16A1) for like 300 bucks, toss it in with direct port nitrous and run the V8 guys in Ontario. We'd blow them up sometimes and just head back to the wrecking yard to pick up another one." That was then, when these engines, both in U.S. and Japanese form, were scattered around everywhere. Today they're much tougher to source in working condition and buying a beat-up 1st gen. Integra in running condition proved to be the best option.” - Motortrend, “Time Capsule 1985 Honda Civic Hatchback” April 2021, by Rodrez
Genesis Automotive became our home for A Place to Fall Down and Jason was our Automotive Consultant during the shoot, helping us dial-in the details along the way. We couldn’t have done it with them.
The Recording Studio
While audiences will never actually see this location, they will be able to feel it. We recorded the score at Westlake Studios, founded in the early 1970s. The studio is draped with legendary Hollywood status – it’s the central, creative hub of Los Angeles, with today’s most influential artists, producers and labels gathering in the historic hallways and studios to create music. The world-renowned studio has withstood the test of time; home of some of the most iconic recordings in the history of music.
To me, cinema is the perfect marriage of light and sound. Naturally when I had the idea to do an original score for the film, there was only ever one place in mind: Westlake Studios. It’s a hit factory for a reason, great musicians and producers alike understand this place is literally built differently.
Everyone from Quincy Jones to Britney Spears have recorded albums there. As it relates to film, Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” (From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” (From Top Gun: Maverick) were both recorded at the studio in recent years.
It was my belief that these walls, and the collective energy from both the past and present, would imprint their magic on our score.
To learn more about the score, check out the section on THE SCORE.
