Who: Hervé Attia is an architect based in Northern California’s Bay Area, whose hobby is making videos about his visits to movie filming locations. The videos are part of a series called On The Set that Attia posts to a YouTube channel, whose most popular upload (over 1 million views, as of July 2013) is the first of several that focus on the 1982 Sylvester Stallone action film, First Blood. That project took Attia to locations in British Columbia — while his second most-popular video (over 820,000 views), for 1982’s Conan the Barbarian, took him to Spain. While there, he also found time to film locations for several Sergio Leone Westerns. It was a strategy that Attia has used to maximize the film locations he can cover while on his far-flung travels. While in England, he shot videos for both A Clockwork Orange and An American Werewolf in London. In New York City, he shot videos for both Ghostbusters and Superman. In Chicago, he shot videos for The Untouchables, The Blues Brothers and Home Alone. Attia has also traveled to more rural locations, like Lake Powell in Arizona for Planet of the Apes, and difficult-to-access places like a buffalo ranch in South Dakota for Dances With Wolves. Camera In The Sun caught up with Attia between location visits, and talked to him about On The Set, and some memorable location visits.
How did you become a fan of the films in your “On The Set” series?
I grew up in the ’80s, but during the ’70’s was the King Kong remake with Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges. And back in 1976, it was the first movie I watched in a movie theater. And since, I’ve had a deep love of American movies. And I grew up during the ’80s, with all the movies from Steven Spielberg, and John Carpenter, and others. I grew up with American culture. So every time I would go to see a movie in France, it was always an American movie. I came to the U.S. exactly on the 4th of July, 1999. I came for work. I grew up in the south of France, and I spent five years in Paris to start my professional life. And when I was in my 30s, I decided that I was fed up with that place, and I wanted that international experience. And the best place for me to balance my personal life — I like outdoors activities, of course — and my professional life was here.
What are the origins of your On The Set series?
It was like a joke at the beginning, when I started this like 5 years ago. I was planning to do some backpacking at some place in California at Yosemite National Park. And I was watching the movie with Clint Eastwood from 1973, High Plains Drifter. And when I was watching the movie, I recognized the landscape, and I said to myself, “Yeah, I think I know where that place is.” So I saw fit to do some research, and I found the lake where the movie was shot, and where Clint Eastwood had built the town of “Lago” in the movie. I was planning to go backpacking in this area, so I thought, “You know what, I’m gonna make a video. I’m gonna go back to the place, and try to redo some of the shots of the movie on-site.” So I found the right place where to put my tripod to replicate the scene.
I did the video for myself and for my family, who are huge fans of Clint Eastwood. And when the video was done, I said, “I’m gonna put this on YouTube.” And in fact, I got a lot of feedback from that. It was interesting to do, and so I thought of which other movies I could do the same thing. So I did the same thing for First Blood. It was shot in Hope, Canada — which is not by my place. High Plains Drifter was shot at Mono Lake, which is like four hours driving. So it’s not that big of a deal for me to drive, because I was doing backpacking in that area. The distance of travel was not a concern for me. But for First Blood, I was a little apprehensive, asking myself, “Why? Why expect me to travel so far to British Columbia, in this small town to find the location?” But I forced myself to do it, and for me it was one of the big journeys, to do this First Blood video on location. And after, I went back like four times to do more videos to cover more locations for this movie.
The first trip I made for First Blood to visit Hope, I was looking for the opening scene of the movie, the “Delmore Berry” property. And I had no information about how to find this location. And in fact, most of the movie had been shot along Hope. But there are a few scenes, like the Delmore Berry property, that were shot closer to a place called Port Coquitlam — which is in fact two hours driving from Hope, nearby Vancouver. So the real process was that I was looking at the movie. And if you look at the peninsula in First Blood, you can identify two mountain peaks, the Golden Ears peaks. But at this time, I didn’t know the name of these mountains. So what I did as part of my research, I sent screenshots of these mountains from the movie to some rangers offices in the area, and someone wrote to me, “Oh yeah, that’s the Golden Ears peaks.” So because I have two location points, I could proceed by triangulation, and I could in fact isolate what could be the spot. And when you watch the movie, you think that it’s a lake. But in fact, it’s a big river that goes along the Delmore Berry property. And I isolated this spot pretty much, but I could not tell on which shore it was. So when I went to visit this spot, I was in fact one mile away from the exact location of the Delmore Berry property. I shot the scene of the shore, and It was matching. But I was not near the right spot. But Scott Hardy, who was a local over there and knew the area, saw the video and said he was gonna continue the research. And with his father he rented a boat, and from the spot where I was he went down and tried to align. And he found the right spot of the Delmore Berry property by going by boat. So he contacted me, and said, “I found the Delmore Berry property, and everything is there. It’s completely overgrown now.” And I said, “OK, I’m coming back to film the Delmore Berry property.” So it was my second trip.
[Publisher’s Note: The full Delmore Berry property video, featuring Scott Hardy, can be found here]
I always bring with me a screenshot of the movie, and I bring as well the scene of the movie with my smart phone. I just play the movie on my desktop monitor, film it with my phone — and when I’m on site, I can replay the scene with my phone. And to get the same shot, I look at the space between objects. But in the movie, they always use an optical lens to make the background much bigger than it is. For instance, in First Blood, you would be surprised if you watch the video on the opening scene of the Delmore Berry property. When you watch the movie, and Stallone is standing far away to observe the lake, you think that the property is very big — because they use an optical lens to make it much, much bigger. But when you’re on the site, I was very surprised that in fact it’s very small. So usually I bring a screenshot of the film, and I try to adjust. Sometimes I can put my tripod much, much further back, and I will zoom in, in order to make the background look much bigger.
Are there other locations that turned out to be different than viewers might expect?
For Once Upon a Time in the West, 90% of the movie was shot in Almería, Spain. And Sergio Leone said, “Oh, I need to have in this movie something that is an American trademark.” And Sergio Leone of course was a big fan of John Ford movies, and said, “We need to add some shots from Monument Valley to give credibility to the movie.” And that’s why I would say amongst the people who watched all the “Dollars” movies, and the “Once Upon a Time” movies — they think these movies were shot in America. But Sergio Leone was a traditional guy. He was Italian, and he didn’t like to travel. In fact, you know he never came to Monument Valley. He sent his director of photography and assistant to Monument Valley, and said, “Oh, you’re going to shoot this scene. You’re gonna put Claudia Cardinale in this carriage, and you’re gonna get some big, big carriage shots. And that’s it.”
When I went to South Dakota to visit the Dances With Wolves locations, you know those scenes in the movie were shot all over, but you don’t have an exact address. So I contacted the tourism office of South Dakota in Pierre, and I explained my project, and they were very interested. And in fact, they went back to their folders, their newspapers of the time Kevin Costner was there, and they were able to find the address of the ranch that Kevin Costner used. The Triple U Ranch is a buffalo ranch that Kevin Costner used for the buffalo scenes. In fact, the Triple U Ranch raises buffalo meat [for hunting]. It’s a big ranch. So when I contacted them, they were not very excited. They said, “We have work to do. We are a ranch. We don’t have time to take you to the location.” Because Kevin Costner shot the movie in the middle of nowhere, there is no road to the locations. Not even a trail. In fact, the ranch owner took everyone on a jeep or 4X4 car to access the location before. The Triple U Ranch was not very excited that I’d visit, because they have a ranch to run. So I was a little disappointed. So I came back to the office of tourism in Pierre, and I told them. And the office of tourism called the people at the ranch, and they said, “He’s gonna make a video. He’s gonna do a good promotion for the area, and good for everybody.” So they accepted. They were very nice. The exciting part of the ordeal is not only to visit the location, but it’s the communication as well. You meet people. You can put in place a big project, and get more people involved. If I compare Dances With Wolves with First Blood, I was by myself on First Blood. I was with my small camcorder like a tourist. Now I have to involve more people to find locations. So when you’re passionate, I think things get done more quickly. Dances With Wolves is one of my best memories of a location, because nothing had changed over there.
Do people ask you how you find the time and money to travel and film your videos?
Yeah, I read a lot of comments like, “How can you finance this? How do you find the time for this?” I’m very organized. In fact, when I visit an area, I can feel the plot of the movie I will do next year. For instance, I shot the Stand By Me project last year. I went to Oregon, and I shot part of Stand By Me. And then while I was in Oregon, I did as well Animal House and The Goonies. But vacations, I usually go two times a year for like a one-week trip. I’m more interested in visiting an area. For instance, I had never been to Chicago, and I was thinking, “Oh, I would like to visit Chicago. Which movies I love were shot in the Chicago area?” And of course, there’s The Blues Brothers, The Untouchables and Home Alone. So I have a list of movies I’d like to visit. And I do a road map, and I put all the sites on the map so I can visualize exactly what area of Chicago I can visit on which day. And in fact, I will optimize my trip like this. So when you watch the videos, and you ask yourself, “How can he do all these videos?” In fact, I’m very organized. I can visit like 4-5 movie locations in one week. And all the scenery between each location is very recognizable. And when I build a road map on paper, I know exactly what time I must leave my hotel, how long for driving, how long I must spend on the site. And I have a very accurate idea of the planning of the day. In fact, I would say that my day is so well-planned, that I know exactly at what time of the day where I will be. If I didn’t do that, I would be completely losing time, and I would not complete all the locations I visit.
Part of my vacation with my parents, I planned a long trip around Las Vegas. And that’s the time where I visited Monument Valley, and I visited the Grand Canyon. So I did all my research in this area, and where the Planet of the Apes spaceship in Lake Powell was shot. So I rented a boat. My parents were with me. And when I was swimming in the water, my dad was holding the camera. So we were on the boat, and the boat was really moving. But in post-production, I stabilized the shot.
How long does your post-production process take?
It all depends on how big are the special effects I’m gonna have. I spent a lot of time on Close Encounters of the Third Kind with special effects. It’s one of my favorite videos. If I looked back on all the videos I’ve done, then Close Encounters of the Third Kind is probably at the top of the list of my favorite videos. Someone who was watching my videos was a big fan, contacted me and said, “Do you plan to do Close Encounters of the Third Kind?” It was funny, because I was planning to do Close Encounters. I was even starting the project, planning my trip to visit. And he said, “I know Joe Alves, the production designer.” This guy was a music composer. He said, “I know him very well too. He’s a friend of mine. And if you want, I can put you in contact with him.” So I said, “Yeah, I’d like to meet Joe Alves.” So I called Joe Alves, and in fact it was funny, because he talked to me and said, “Oh yeah, I’m watching your Once Upon a Time in the West video. I like that. It’s one of my favorite movies.” He asked me what I wanted, and I said, “I’d like to eventually meet you. I want to ask you a bunch of questions. Because like I did for Once Upon a Time in the West, I’m doing the same for Close Encounters.” So he was excited. Because Joe Alves is the guy who found all the locations, who found the Devil’s Tower. He was the production designer, and for me he was one of the most important key contributors of the Close Encounters movie. So Joe Alves said, “Yeah, come over.”
How important are locations to one’s enjoyment of a film?
It depends on the movie, and it depends on the scene of the movie. If you take Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when you look at it, and you remember the Devil’s Tower — for me I see the Devil’s Tower as one of the characters in the movie. So the location, yes, sometimes it’s the trademark of the movie. I will not say for all of the movies, but Close Encounters is one especially where the locations are very important.
Have you ever considered filming On The Set videos on commission as DVD extras?
I think now there is a big switch in the movie industry. I think in the short future nobody will own anymore DVD discs. Everything’s gonna be on-demand. I mean, you can see that with Netflix. People prefer more to stream the movie they are seeing. In fact, that explains why the Blu-ray market is decreasing now. Because nobody buys DVD discs anymore. So I would say that 2-3 years ago, yeah, I could have been contacted by studios to add an extra on their new release or Blu-ray — but now, no. In fact, I was thinking to contact studios. But I don’t think that they would. In fact, I was in contact with someone who worked with Brian De Palma, who used to be his first assistant. And he contacted me, because I was planning to do Scarface. And he told me when studios release extras on DVDs, they don’t pay well. He told me “If you really want to go into this business, don’t expect to become rich.” So I can say it’s a hobby. For instance, if you say, “We’re gonna release an extra for this movie. And we watched your videos, and we love you because you’re very professional, and you pay attention to all of the details. Would you make a film location video?” I will say, “I must love the movie to do it.” I cannot fake it. If I don’t care about the movie, I will not do it. It’s not about the money.