Just a guy and a girl hitting it off at sunset, high above LA on a decommissioned Nike missile tower, with no one else around for miles… (Except an annoying movie location scout who was sent to take magic hour pictures and is totally killing the mood. Sorry guys...)

Once back in my NYC scouting days, I was working on a TV show that was planning to shoot at a cemetery in Brooklyn. As we were scouting it with the director, an apartment scene was abruptly added to the day's work, and I was given an hour to find a cleared option for them to see.🧵

One thing I love about scouting on crime shows is when they'll ask the locations department for fresh ideas on where to stage a murder. I've always thought the maze of tires you find at mom-and-pop auto repair shops could make a pretty solid option...

Iconic LA Filming Location #542: Hillcrest Road @ Carmelita. Single-handedly responsible for making movie-goers around the world think this is what all LA streets must look like.

Here's another example of how hard it is to shut off the location scout part of my brain when watching old movies. I'm watching Pickup on South Street, the 1950s noir I mentioned yesterday. Set in NYC, it was actually filmed in LA, as seen in this shot staged on Grand... 🧵

Whenever I watch an old movie that was shot on location, it’s really hard to stop the location scout side of my brain from constantly trying to figure out how people did my job 70+ years ago. Here’s an example from a 1953 noir called Pickup on South Street….

The LA parks dept “no alcohol” signs serve as a much needed reminder that if you’re going to drink in public, please up your game with long stem martinis

People always ask, "so what big actors have you met as a location scout?" And I'll always lie and drop a few big names, because that's obviously what they want to hear. But what I'm actually thinking about are moments like the time I was scouting a nice midcentury house outside Los Angeles...

As a location scout, I love places that, in a single image, instantly communicate exactly where they are in the universe. Saw such a place yesterday when scouting apartments: palm trees, stucco, Spanish accents, courtyard pond with statuary... Quintessential LA.

Once, I was scouting an abandoned hospital building for a movie. I started to go into a large common room, and my guide said, "Oh, don't go in there." I asked why and he said, "because that floor is severely water damaged, and you'll fall through into the basement."🧵

One of the most hauntingly beautiful properties I've ever scouted is this abandoned chapel, located just north of NYC...🧵

When I first moved to LA from NYC to continue my scouting career, I assumed it would be the major differences that would be hardest to get used to. But in fact, it’s the elements that are sort of similar, yet VERY different, that still hit me as strange. One example: Patriotic Hall...🧵

Nothing like scouting a creepy abandoned property... No power, lights out... World is silent except for your footsteps... Step into what was once a child's bedroom... AND THEN TWO BIRDS LEAP UP SQUAWKING CRAZILY AND FLAIL OUT THE BROKEN WINDOWS.

Once upon a time back in my NYC days, I held a contest on April Fools asking readers to guess where I went on vacation from a series of pictures. The answer: the American Museum of History! 🧵

Contest time! Guess where I went on my big vacation, and every correct reply will be entered for a chance to win the first 3 issues of my zine, Scout Stories. Deadline is tomorrow at noon pacific. Good luck! (Hint: reminder that I used to be a location scout in New York City...)

I once had the opportunity to scout a Brooklyn apartment I'd always loved called The Astral, built in 1885. Later, as I was doing some research, I learned that a kindergarten had once been located on the corner where a coffee shop now was, and found a class photo taken in 1895.🧵

Backrooms 2: League Night

I might be biased, but I def thought the show looked pretty darn good this season... Congrats to the entire production team for making this possible!

In Los Feliz, there's a place called the Harvard House Motel, and I like to think that at least once in its 79-year existence, someone booked a room believing it to have some association with the university, if only in grandeur. And I would pay quite a bit to see that check-in.

A while back, I was in the middle of taking scout pictures of an office building lobby when I suddenly noticed something: a security guard staring at me from his booth in the back, arms crossed, clearly not happy with what I was up to.🧵

Want to take a quick peek at the projection room in an abandoned movie theater? Come on in… 🧵

Had an odd memory come to me of having once scouted an historic mansion in Long Island with palm trees lining the drive...but palm trees? Could that be right? So I dug thru my files...and there they were, at the old Woolworth Estate! Only turns out, I'd been tricked...🧵

If you're looking for something to do this July 4th weekend and enjoy visiting environmental disaster sites, why not take a hike to beautiful Nuclear Lake?? (Yes, this is real, and yes, it got this name for exactly the reason you'd expect...) 🧵

Well damn. I had NO idea that yesterday's post about a decommissioned nuclear power plant would be so popular, so I just fully overhauled the original article with high res versions of the old pics, and added in dozens more I forgot I had on file. Enjoy! nickcarr.com/scouting-a-d...

Field notes from the time I scouted a decommissioned nuclear power plant... This is the control room, and if you look closely, you'll see a dark stripe in the carpet running the perimeter of the room. This was referred to as the "velvet rope," and absolutely NO ONE was allowed -🧵

Sometimes I see pictures of old Hollywood, and I just can't believe what this place used to be.🧵

While we're on the subject of gas stations, this is one of my favorites in LA, of the historic variety: AMT Motors in Montecito Heights, dating (I believe) to 1943.🧵

When I'm watching a movie/TV show, sometimes it's hard to shut off the location scout part of my brain that's analyzing every scene and thinking about how they pulled off their shoot. One location that always triggers instant anxiety is The Gas Station...🧵

Look closely at the grand Park Plaza apartment building in the Bronx near Yankee Stadium and you'll find this panel, which depicts an architect offering up a model of the building itself to the Parthenon for approval.

As a location scout, I love visiting classic movie locations, because it's a fun exercise to consider why this of all possibilities was chosen. One great example is the toll booth scene in the Godfather where Sonny is gunned down... 🧵