find out what people are saying about Kansas City film

Testimonials from A$AP Rocky – Apple Beats Commercial & RIOT Music Video 2023

 

A$AP Rocky Projects Testimonial Video

Producers: Jason Eubanks, Nomada & Jason Cole, EP Doomsday / Nice One

 

Jason Eubanks – …Hey, this is Jason Eubanks from Nomada, local Kansas City production company. And also we have Jason Cole from Nice One, who is affiliated with Doomsday, a global production company. We are super excited to have them in the Kansas City area. Jason, do you want to give a quick intro to yourself?

 

Jason Cole – Yeah, thanks so much, I’m Jason Cole, like you said, Executive Producer at Doomsday Entertainment in Los Angeles and also at Nice One Productions in Austin, Texas. We did an Apple Beats commercial that brought us to Kansas City and was a smashing success.

 

Jason Eubanks – Absolutely. We are super excited to have this team. Obviously, they travel the world doing different productions in different areas, cool areas. We’ll talk a little more about how this kind of came about, why his team was here, why the artist was here, A$AP Rocky. Then obviously Apply Beats was here to film a commercial in Kansas City. We also tagged along a music video with A$AP Rocky. So, we have a few questions we can sort through, and we’ll throw in some other tidbits as well. The first thing we had is overall, just the City of Kansas City. You know obviously I’m from here, I’m from Kansas City and Nomada my production company, so I’ll throw some tidbits in there, but also, Jason, overall, what was your first impression of the city? Did you have any hesitations, potentially filming the commercial here, and just overall impressions of how Kansas City was to do a big production like this?

 

Jason Cole – Yeah, and as you said, I’ve shot all over the world, and Doomsday is based out of Los Angeles. I lived I Los Angeles for sixteen years and did a lot of production there which is obviously one of the primary film production hubs in the world. So, going to smaller markets, you always want to protect yourself a little bit, bring a lot of people you can trust, bring your core team, core crew. Though having never shot in Kansas City before, you know, I don’t want to say I was hesitant, but I needed to do a lot of research, and figure out who do I need to bring, how much of the core team, how much already exists within the city, what kind of filming infrastructure that I wasn’t previously educated on. Especially with this particular job being that it was a big art job, a massive art build, we didn’t know what we would be able to pull off in Kansas City versus what you can pull off in LA. Sometimes you know you only get four days to prep a job in Los Angeles, and you have all these set builders and all these set shops, and scenic and everything, and you can turn something around super quick. But in the smaller markets, it’s not always that way.

 

So, yeah, there was a bit of a learning curve. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was quite a bit of infrastructure and there was quite a bit of seasoned crew, and we were able to fly the minimum amount of people, just a few department heads, and find the majority of crew locally.

 

Jason Eubanks – Yeah, that’s what I was appreciative of as well, just working with you in the pre-production area, you guys asked, “What do we have for gear in Kansas City? What do we have for talent with regards to extras or models, as well as from the pre-prod and the art department?” You guys asked the questions instead of just coming in and saying, hey, we do this, we do this in different cities, we are bringing that same team. You asked, “hey, who should we use?” And obviously, we all use our different connections, Doomsday had different connections as well. But just asking that question, one, I think shows that you guys were trying to really dive in for the culture itself in the city but also just respect to the local talent, which was awesome to see.

 

Jason Cole – Well, yeah, and to build on that too, you get a better product creatively when you can work with the local crew and local culture. And that is just the reality. It’s a dirty little secret because everybody wants jobs and to travel around with a traditional crew that they work with – the DP wants his ACs and his Gaffer and his Grip; the art department wants the Production Designer, wants his Art Director, and his Lead Man and all that stuff. And the production, you know, is a tight-knit group of production people you work with, and you want to bring as many of those people as possible. However, when you work with the local infrastructure, you get more tapped into the market, more tapped into what’s available, you get a better comradery on set, because everybody knows each other and you’re not coming in and trying to take over and doing it ‘your way,’ instead you’re embracing the local way of doing things. I think that my experience, that turns out to be the better product.

 

Jason Eubanks – Yeah, any last-minute items with regard to gear or just additional resources from the team, local people know better, and you don’t have to wait for people to fly in. It’s cool to see. I think this leads us into the second question – with regards to doing production in Kansas City, I know you’ve kind of hit on it a little bit, we do have the resources here, we do have the art teams, we do have the production talent, we also have the artist talent, and we also have gear as well. But just talk about more about like the city itself like logistically. You mentioned doing work in LA and different cities around the world, but you know, flying into our new airport that we just built, and everyone is super proud of, navigating around Kansas City, itself, maybe the fields of farmland and then you finally come to a city and being like, ‘Oh wow.’ Theres a lot of cool stuff here. So, you know, just logistically your impressions and opinion about doing production work in Kansas City.

 

Jason Cole – First of all the airport’s awesome. That’s great. Never been to the old airport but the new airport is awesome. It was nice to arrive at that. I’d say the biggest thing, it sounds a little silly, but getting around town it is easy in Kansas City. Again, coming from Los Angeles it’s like it takes an hour  to drive five miles so just being able to zip around town, it didn’t matter if all the vendors were right next to each other, you know the art department could shop in different places. You could go thrift shopping and whatnot then to the location, you know we went there all the time, far more than we typically would go to a location just because it was so easy to just jump in and out. So, I’d say getting around town both for the job and for just entertainment and restaurants and nightlife and whatnot was a big thing to me. I’d wondered out loud, ‘was it always this quiet in terms of traffic and accessibility?’ Which is totally a good thing. I was excited to be a part of that.

 

Jason Eubanks – Can you give some impressions of the larger team; did they enjoy their time in Kansas City? Did they really dive into the local culture? Just any thoughts on that.

 

Jason Cole – Absolutely, I mean, everybody really enjoyed their time. We were staying at the Crossroads Hotel and working out of there and it’s a great hotel. We took over that lobby pretty much every single day and worked from the lobby. Worked from the rooftop. Just that whole Crossroads area was really fun. It reminded me a lot of the Arts District in Los Angeles, which to me is the best part of Downtown LA. It felt like an up-and-coming area, everything was aesthetically pleasing. Like I said it was very easy to get around. And lots of good restaurant choices too. Every night we had something good to go out to eat. I will say, living in Austin, the bar-be-cue is not better than Austin. Ha ha ha.

 

Jason Eubanks – We’ll clip that piece out… I love hearing from a logistical standpoint the comparisons of doing work in LA a big production city like that. And that’s why a lot of people like living here in general. It reflects on doing work here as well. Tons of people that might not be from here being able to navigate the city, being able to go to the areas we’re shooting, which predominately was in the West Bottoms, obviously, very close to the Crossroads areas. It was a big piece. It made our lives a lot easier. No one wants to spend hours in a car. But we were spending very minimal time that allowed us to put our heads together or just be on set more.

 

Jason Cole – Just to comment on that. It’s true. Typically when you’re location scouting and choose a location, the whole crew there, to do any kind of technical scout, things like that, it maybe happens one time you have your whole crew there before you end up shooting. And this was such a unique project because we went there every day. It was five minutes away. It was very easy to get around town so the whole crew would come to meet us there and we were constantly able to supervise the art build on the street. Yeah, it felt like, it didn’t feel like a city was working against us in terms of adding additional time and logistics to the workflow.

Jason Eubanks – I love that. And just to summarize, most of the shooting, well 100% of the shooting was done in the West Bottoms for the commercial and the music video. Most of the crew and staff stayed in the Crossroads Art District. Some people were in a couple hotels in the Downtown area. But the shooting once again was all the in the West Bottoms. So, shout out to some of the local business owners and property owners in the West Bottoms. They really made it possible. They made it easy to work. We had to change a couple different sites a couple days before shooting for a couple different reasons. But it was awesome to come together as a community, once again, being from the local Kansas City scene, these buildings that we see on a day-to-day basis, but we were able to reimagine and repurpose them into something extremely beautiful. A shout out to some of the local property owners, SomeraRoad, a local development company, we used their building for a couple shots, as well as the green room for the artists themselves. Shout out to the business owners on St. Louis Street who were easy to work with as well as the city in general. We used a lot of public streets – we had to work with the Kansas City Film Commission, as well as the permitting group to get those permitted to be able to use. Then we also worked with local road closure companies, Road Runner was the who we worked with to do the road closure plan as well as to get the materials to close the roads. The other shout for the locations for the commercial was Maria down on Union Avenue as well. I think that was pretty much most of the locations for the music video and the commercial. For the music video we used a lot of public streets in the West Bottoms area. Thank you to all that team for making that easy to permit, make changes on the fly, as you all know things come up and we’re trying to make the best product possible. It’s awesome to have partners as well as the city that can get things through quickly if we have to make any changes. That summarizes most of the locations…

 

Jason Cole – I will say too just quickly about West Bottoms, logistically it was a dream. But on top of that creatively I don’t know a lot of areas that look like that. It’s a special place. And I know Nomada is located down there, and you guys are kind of the heartbeat of that area and really fit in to that aesthetic and it was beautiful, and it was cool to be, to be able to create something down there, in an otherwise seemingly untapped market.”

 

Jason Eubanks – And the goal for this is for it not to be too untapped anymore. Do more work here. Hopefully to have you back. I know we touched on it earlier, but the capability of the crew in Kansas City as well as the capability of the actors. You alluded before coming in, not being familiar with the city, being of the thought ‘well, maybe we need to bring in our teams that we’ve been dealing with, and if we need to bring in actors and talent’. I think you were surprised with what you could find here production assistance as well as art team assistance and local talent from models and actors.

 

Jason Cole – I’d say specifically speaking of crew first, as you said the production support and the art support, those were the two big things that having never shot in Kansas City we knew this was going to be a big production, we knew we were going to need a lot of support there, a lot of infrastructure, and originally I thought we were going to have to bring a good portion of the art department which would have been, which wouldn’t have served the project because specifically with art department when you are sourcing lumber and props and things like that, those things are not going to get trucked in from Los Angeles necessarily. So, you need a good local team for that and luckily, we had a really good local team. And I believe you put us in touch with that team, so you know, again production support as well, and it’s everything really everybody was pulling their weight and there was no need to fly a big crew out. Like I said originally, you always need to do a little bit of research on that upfront on how many people to we need to bring, and you try to keep it minimal. Specifically for this project I think it helped us quite a bit to rely, because it was such a local project, with West Bottoms, and with the spirit of Kansas City being so involved in both the commercial and the music video. So, I think that was the way to go.

 

Jason Eubanks – Shout out to the local art department leads especially for the commercial piece. The Corys as they are known. And we can provide their full names after this. So that was cool to hear. I believe the talent from a model and actor standpoint were pretty much sourced here as well, correct?

 

Jason Cole – Yep. They were all sourced there. And the Casting Director, Wright Laird, Heather Laird, she was great, she was super on top of it. I’d say she was right there with the casting directors that I work with in Los Angeles. And she had her finger on the pulse for sure of who was available locally and had everybody excited about it and everybody readily available. It was awesome.

 

Jason Eubanks – We used Heather also from the music video standpoint as well. Big shout out to her. She was awesome. From the Nomada side we pulled in a lot of our own contacts and team but she was able to wrangle the troops on production days which was a super help. And she also brough in some additional talent from a model standpoint. I think for the music video she sourced everyone here in Kansas City too so it’s cool to see local faces and local names really contributing to big productions done here in Kansas City. We talked about the art department, talked about casting models and artists and from the crew standpoint you touched on production assistance as well as art teams. I think that primarily covers all of it. From a gear standpoint I know we used a couple different gear houses in town, Lights On being one of them.

 

Jason Cole – Yeah Lights On was the big one.

 

Jason Eubanks – I think you tried to source as much gear in Kansas City as you could, correct?

 

Jason Cole – Yeah, I believe the camera came from Los Angeles because the DP had a specific package that he liked to work with a vendor in Los Angeles. But the accessories for the camera and pretty much everything else film gear wise, lights, gripping everything came from locally from Kansas City and specifically from Lights On.

 

Jason Eubanks – And for the music video piece we 100% tried to source everything here. Big shout out to Lights On once again. I think our jib was from Lights On as well, so same theme, trying to source locally and Kansas City really came through on that front. OK, the last thing we had, you already gave a couple shout outs to some cool things you were able to participate in and enjoy from outside of just working while you are here in Kansas City. It sounds like most of the hotels are at the Crossroads Hotel and used as a central hub where a lot of people were meeting.

 

Jason Cole – And it was great. It was fantastic. I smile because we spent so much time there and so much time in that lobby and at the hotel staff was so cool with us the entire time. They just knew every morning we’d be posted up at the exact same spot. We made friends with all the servers and hotel staff and everything. Had a beautiful roof with a beautiful view of Kansas City too. Like I said, the whole Crossroads area, I was super impressed with. I just thought it was just a cool aesthetic artsy community that reminded me a lot of some of the best arts districts in the cities that I’ve been to. But more relaxed, a little quieter in the best way possible. And great food. I think Corvino was the place that I went to multiple times. That was something special.

 

Jason Eubanks – Corvino’s a great one. Going back to Crossroads Hotel. We do a lot of work with them. Very accommodating from a production standpoint. Anytime we know we have artists coming into town, they make sure to make it happen. We let them know this was coming so they tried their best to accommodate all the rooms possible. Again, it’s not just rooms, it’s also accommodations with the restaurant but also meetings, friendly faces and being accommodating. Big shout out to them. The restaurants I know Jason you asked for a full list, and I gave you many many names around town and different genres of different types of food. Corvino, Farina, Rudy’s, some West Bottoms spots. I think that the crew stopped at The Lunch Box in town. Have to give a shout out to Crossroads Hotel also Lazia in the bottom of Crossroads Hotel. Any nightlife? Were you able to hit any events or anything outside of maybe just restaurants?

 

Jason Cole – Some of the local restaurants and bars in Crossroads, but what I really enjoyed when I went out with the crew a couple of the nights, we came down and attended Nomada events in West Bottoms. So that was a lot of fun. And again, being a part of that community feeling that feeling not only working there but hanging out with the locals and seeing you guys put on your events there it’s like it was cool to be a part of the community.

 

Jason Eubanks – It was awesome to see everyone from out of towners from your guys standpoint, obviously everyone working hard but really made a pointed note to dive into the culture. And that is what we are doing from a Nomada events entertainment piece. We had a big weekend event over that weekend. The team came through and it was awesome to see. Big shout out to you guys, big kudos to you guys for diving into culture. That’s extremely important to feel the city, to understand the city.

 

Jason Cole – That’s part of travel. What’s the point of shooting in Kansas City if your not going to enrich yourself in the culture.

 

Jason Eubanks – From what I heard it sounds like the team is more than willing to come back and do more work here. Any final thoughts?

 

Jason Cole – One thing I was going to add is having shot a lot in Los Angeles and other big film hubs. I think what gets lost is a little bit of the magic of filmmaking in that you have a lot of locations that get a bit oversaturated, they get shot a lot. People forget how fun and special this business and this industry is. There is something about going to smaller markets that enthusiasm, the way that you are welcomed, brings some of that magic back and it makes it a lot more fun. That’s not to say anything negative all the big hubs in Atlanta and Los Angeles and London and things like that but there is something…a different feeling and you feel the community embracing you more in a smaller market like Kansas City. That was a really enjoyable experience.

 

Jason Eubanks – I can throw a little bit on as well; the artist was A$AP Rocky who was featured in the commercial and it was his music video that was also shot here in Kansas City. It was a big piece for him. He was wanting to get out, wanting to do something different, that hasn’t been done a lot in different big cities. That’s the point, there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think there is something magical when you can come and create something that has never been done before in a new City in a new place. The teams were excited. A lot of people put in tons of hours – overnight work, lots of pre-production work, tear down work, and I can say that from the team’s perspective local in Kansas City that people were still excited, let alone the number of hours, they know the magic they are about to create and both projects are out. Go check out the commercial, which again, was led by Nice One and Jason Cole, amazing, beautiful work. Amazing to see Kansas City in that light. Even the post-production work from a creative standpoint – it’s an amazing commercial. Then the music video is out as well – I think it just passed 5,000,000 views. Which is super exciting. Just to see Kansas City in that light is something new, something amazing and all the teams should be super proud. I’m super proud of the local production teams, the local art teams, the gear houses, the casting agencies, the local restaurants, and entertainment, as well as the business owners to make this all happen. I’m super appreciative. We created magic. That’s all I had here.

 

Jason Cole – You did a great job. Kansas City, be seeing you soon.

 

Transcriber: Steph Shannon, 8/14/23

Testimonials from Netflix’s “Queer Eye – Season 3” filmed in Kansas City in 2018

 

KC Testimonials  – “Queer Eye – Season 3”

 

Dave Collins (Executive Producer, Creator): We had been deciding where we were gonna bring Queer Eye and fell crazy in love with Kansas City. The film commission, they did everything they could to make sure that our crew and team and talent and cast were gonna be happy while they were here.

 

Jennifer Lane (Executive Producer, Showrunner): The Kansas City Film commission has been nothing but open to us since they day we made the first phone call. They’ve helped us source locations, housing, and not only that they have been treating us with generosity and taking us to cool restaurants and making it sort of their mission to help us learn Kansas City.

 

Rob Eric (Executive Producer): Everything we need, it’s a phone call away. And that to me is what you need when you’re doing a production as touch as this production.

 

Rachelle Mendez (Co-Executive Producer): On Queer Eye, we make probably five mini reality shows every single week. From looking for a restaurant, a salon, an amazing cultural activity. Kansas City has an endless supply of locations for us and the owners of these businesses, many of them who are entrepreneurs, have welcomed us into their city in a way that I’ve never experienced before.

 

Jennifer Lane (Executive Producer, Showrunner): Kansas City not only has like these great industrial areas, it also has farmlands, it just has an amazing variety of buildings and architecture and history. Doing a series, we need a community that’s not only rich and mainstream but also has rural areas and Kansas City is perfect for that.

 

Dave Collins (Executive Producer, Creator): This restaurant, this availability, meet these people, come over here say hi to this gang. That’s what works, that’s how you make production work.

 

Rob Eric (Executive Producer): I was in Kansas City for I think maybe eight hours, and I felt like I had come home. It’s a wonderful-wonderful place to come and shoot because it just gets our crew and our cast so involved in the city itself because they feel like their part of it. And that to me when you are dealing with where you’re gonna do a location for a movie or a television show is ninety percent of it.

 

Jennifer Lane (Executive Producer, Showrunner): I’m extremely proud to say that two thirds of our crew is from Kansas City.

 

Dave Collins (Executive Producer, Creator): We’re so fortunate that that’s able to happen, that we don’t have to bring everyone in from LA but instead our teams can be made of locals who know what they’re doing here, who bring top notch expertise in all the – all the departments, and allow us to be able to make this show on time and on budget here in Kansas City.

 

Rachelle Mendez (Co-Executive Producer): I can’t understate the help that the Kansas City Film commission has given us in terms of support, resources, and even friendship. I constantly text and email the Kansas City Film Commission Office and they never tire of giving me a connection, a resource.

 

Jennifer Lane (Executive Producer, Showrunner): I couldn’t recommend another city in the United States more highly than Kansas City Missouri.

 

Rob Eric (Executive Producer): I may move here and live here forever.

 

Dave Collins (Executive Producer, Creator): Kansas City Missouri thank you, thank you so much for having us here.

 

Transcriber: Hannah Fussner

Testimonials from NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior – Season 9” filmed in Kansas City in 2017 (and 2015)

 

KC Testimonials  – “American Ninja Warrior – Season 9”

 

Adam Biggs (Lighting Designer/DP):

What’s not to love, you know? I mean you’ve got great BBQ, great jazz, we went to the Green Lady Lounge, perfect, awesome. Everyone’s friendly! Even the taxi ride to the shopping center, they were all trying to be helpful and explain where everything is. It’s awesome!

 

Kristen Stabile (Co-Executive Producer/VP of Production):

It’s very important for us that we get a true representation of what America is. We always get: West Coast city, East Coast city, Couthern city, and a Mid-west city. And Kansas [City] now we’ve been to twice!

 

Adam Biggs (Lighting Designer/DP):

When we go scouting locations one of the big things we look for is really something amazingly cool/different architecturally, and this has got it all, it’s great, so lots of places to put lights, lots of places to design lighting on.

 

Kristen Stabile (Co-Executive Producer/VP of Production):

We need to have locations that, quite honestly, have direct flights to Los Angeles. Most of us are from Los Angeles. I traveled 125 people, and we’re in the cities for 10 days at a time, so it’s gotta be comfortable, it’s gotta have great entertainment for the crew, I mean the crew they work 12 hours a day, but there’s 12 hours a day they’re not working. I traveled with 125, but the best way to say how many people actually work on my show is how many people I feed per day, and I feed 250 people. So, it’s kind of a 50/50 situation.

 

Adam Biggs (Lighting Designer/DP):

Without those guys we can’t do the show. We have to have strong local presence. That’s one of the big things we look for when we go out to all these different cities and scout, is to make sure we have excellent support, and Kansas City has been amazing.

 

Kristen Stabile (Co-Executive Producer/VP of Production):

The [KC] Film Office is instrumental in clearing the permits, the road closures, helping us facilitate things with Union Station, with the Mayor’s office, it’s just a great … enthusiastic, is all I can say about the [KC Film] Office.

 

Adam Biggs (Lighting Designer/DP):

*regarding KC Film Office* As far as getting the locals, the crew, equipment, vendors, and without that … it’s not just about the end result, it’s about the process [when] we go to each of these cities, because if we don’t have a good process it makes it hard to have a great end product, so it’s been fantastic since day one.

 

Transcriber:  Ted Miller

Testimonials from film production “All Creatures Here Below” filmed in Kansas City in 2016

 

KC Testimonials  – “All Creatures Here Below”

 

David Dastmalchian (Writer/Actor):

Working in Kansas City is one of the best places I ever shot, working in film. What makes Kansas City so unique and special when you are trying to make a movie is that not only do you have an awesome support system from the talent, the local talent, crew talent – the textures and looks of the city are like no other place I have ever been.

 

Amy Greene (Producer):

The Kansas City Film office was probably the best city film office I ever worked with.  The incentive program was super clear and clean and easy to use, I think we had a really great experience.  Steph Scupham is one of the best advocates for film that I have ever met in my life and we had a really, really incredible time in Kansas City.

 

Nacho Arenas (Producer):

For me it was very important reading the script that basically is a road trip back from Los Angeles to Kansas City.  And the writer being from Kansas City, it was instrumental for us to return to Kansas City.  And to have the community embrace us and the film office embrace us the way they did, especially for a story that was so close to the writer’s heart.

 

Collin Schiffli (Director):

We work with Heather Laird casting and it was fantastic. It was one of the first things we did when we got there.  So right off the bat you’re kind of wondering you know who we gonna be meeting and what are the people gonna be like, people that we’ll be working with.  Heather was amazing, her team was amazing, they were on it and they just brought their A-game.

 

David Dastmalchian (Writer/Actor):

We loved working with the local cast in Kansas City.  It was such a joy to find a lot of actors who have all this talent, and who are really experienced and passionate, but haven’t been seen in a lot of work before.  So that’s always exciting when you get to discover new faces, new voices, new talents and Kansas City is just chalk full of that.

 

Transcriber:  Sara Thaemlitz

Testimonials from BicMedia corporate project filmed in KC in 2017

 

KC Testimonials  – BicMedia corporate project

 

Austin Bicford (Co-Founder/Managing Partner):

We moved BicMedia to Kansas City’s Crossroads to be part of the creative community, and we’re really excited that this film tax credit is up and running, it allows us to execute more of our productions here in the city, and also incentivizes out-of-town production companies to bring their projects here.

 

Corwin Carroll (Executive Producer):

Having run studios in both New York and LA, I can say that Kansas City is an absolute dream to work in. There is a great variety of back drops, great local talent, strong crew. You can really accomplish anything you’d set out to do in New York or LA right here in Kansas City, and the tax credit makes it all that much easier.

 

Valerie Anderson (Head of Production):

I’ve been working in Kansas City as a producer for a couple of decades now, and it’s been so wonderful to see the city grow and flourish as well as the production community. Whatever you need; we’re very warm and welcoming. I always hear great reviews.

 

Corwin Carroll (Executive Producer):

The Film Office is an absolute pleasure to work with. Steph [Scupham] makes everything easy.

 

Valerie Anderson (Head of Production):

She’s helped us find locations or crew members. She’s great for local production companies, as well as films that are coming to town.

 

Austin Bicford (Co-Founder/Managing Partner):

We’d love to see the tax credit [incentive] go state wide, throughout Missouri, to utilize all of the resources and diverse locations and assets that the state has to offer.

 

Transcriber:  Ted Miller

Testimonials from television show “New Girls on the Block” filmed in Kansas City in 2015

 

Eric Streit (Executive Producer)

Anytime you go to a location and you have to shoot everything local with local crews, for an executive producer or director or show runner, it’s the most nerve racking, frightening thing that keeps you up at night.  Twenty-five years of working in television, I’ve shot in every state in the United States and almost twenty countries, and I have never had such a trouble-free production in my life.  I would love to bring more shows here.  I wanna come here often.  I want to take my Kansas City crew to other locations to shoot other shows.  This is . . . shooting in Kansas City has been a turning point in my career.

 

Kansas City has been the most welcoming city I have ever worked in – from the production community, the business community, just local people wanting to help and be involved.  I’ve never had such a positive experience.  I hope I can shoot here all the time.

 

The crews here are absolutely phenomenal.  They’re ready to work.  Their rates are reasonable and the depth of skill and knowledge they have far exceeds the capacity of any other local crew I have ever worked with.
I was originally going to bring a lot more people from Los Angeles when I came until I met with the local crew and I said I can do almost a hundred percent of our crew from right here in Kansas City.  And the savings because of that has been astronomical.  All the money we’re not spending on hotels, and rental cars, and per diem, is now going into the production of the show.  And that has made our series so much better.

 

So many moves from location to location usually eat up one to two hours a day anywhere else I have ever been.  Here in Kansas City, you can get anywhere in ten to fifteen minutes.  Everyday, we’re getting two to three more setups than I expected.  On one day alone, we were able to go to eight different locations and shoot fourteen different scenes.  This would be impossible in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, New York, anywhere else I have ever worked.  There’s no traffic, but it’s still a large metropolitan city with two million people.  It’s unbelievable how easy it is to get from place to place.

 

Kansas City is full of amazing, beautiful locations that you would expect to find in New York, in Paris, in capital cities of the world.  They’re pristine.  They’re Art Deco.  They’re ultra-modern.  They really have every era of architecture available and reasonably priced.  Sometimes that price is free because Kansas City’s film office, and the mayor’s office, and the tourism office, are working very hard to bring film and television here.  So, just based on locations alone and the access of locations.

 

Mona Vasiloiu (Line Producer)

When I first got the call about the Kansas City shoot, my first thought was permits.  So, I called the film commissioner and I was shocked when I found out there are no permits in Kansas City.  Unless of course, you shut down a whole street.  So that, combined with the quality of local labor and a variety of locations, really makes this place unique and very film friendly.  It’s also easy to fly in and fly out.  It’s probably three and a half hours a direct flight to LA and two hour flight direct to New York.  It has a lot of potential.

 

As far as locations, Kansas City, it’s very different than a lot of cities I’ve seen before.  There’s a little bit of everything here.  It could play as New York.  It could play as . . . obviously Midwest, Chicago.  I’ve seen a couple of buildings yesterday around the World War I Museum that can totally play as Eastern Central Europe back in the ’30s.  I was absolutely blown away.  And again, people’s attitude is very important because they want us to shoot here.  They want to open the doors and show their locations to the world and the filmmaking.  There’s a lot of potential here.  And also the fact that the city is very compact, you can get from one location to another within ten minutes.  I mean our show shoots in four or five different locations a day.  And our company moves are smooth which is incredible.  Parking is not a problem.  I haven’t seen traffic since I’ve been here.  You could probably walk from one location to another if you stay downtown.  It’s very easy to film here, as well as, a lot of diversity in the types of locations.