Filming of LHOP (inside)

From what I've read and seen in a couple of pictures, inside shots were done elsewhere but does anyone know where that was and how far they had to travel to do both?
I wondered if that was why sometimes clothes seemed different because the outside shot of lets say, Baby Grace was done one day and the inside shot was done another and they forgot to put the hat on or shoes, etc.

The Mercantile always seemed to be shot there, you could see the outside of the porch and other buildings, and the post office, but the church seemed to have the scene cut when they get by the door and then you see them descend the stairs..but I don't know about every show.

I always found it interesting how they filmed which is why I like the behind the scenes pictures. I was envious in one of the Michael Landon fan stories in another post, the fan that snuck into the Simi Valley site (although now she is shocked by it) and went by the No Trespassing signs to see the town and the cameras filming. They were kind to her, which was nice, but I would have been happy just sitting on the hill or in a prop building watching them do their magic for a while. : )

I wish, but alas they never did, the producers made a book as other TV shows have, on putting together LHOP with pics, bios, etc. It would have been nice.
I've gotten some from other long running shows, Law and Order is one.

Interior shots were made on soundstages at Paramount Studios on Melrose in Los Angeles.
Later in the series they were at MGM studios in Culver City. Simi Valley is approximately 40 minutes away from Los Angeles in Ventura County. There were interiors shot at Simi such as the Barn and loft shots, some mercantile shots, but most interiors were shot on soundstages in Los Angeles including the Mercantile and Church and Nellies Restaurant. A lot of the exteriors when they were traveling were shot at Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona and south of Tucson in Mescal and Patagonia.

Exteriors of Winoka were at Paramount, Sleepy Eye Exteriors were mostly at Old Tucson, Chicago exteriors were Paramount. They also shot exteriors up in Sonora California and Clark Fork River in the Stanislaus National Forset in California. That's where you see a lot of the heavily wooded area and river shots like you saw in Men Will Be Boys and The Campout and The Lord is My Shepherd and currently the pics on top of this page. Some exteriors were also shot at Williams Ranch in California where many Bonanza's were shot. Murphy's Ranch in California was also one of the exterior filming locations pictured below.

If you want filming locations for every episode, visit the following site. Rick is a knowledgeable guy and there is lots of good background info there..................
http://www.voy.com/192871/

Here's part of my interview with Kent McCray on shooting too. He's a real wealth of information--like our Dave, here--and Kent's a great storyteller.

C: Shooting in two different locations, how did this impact your shooting schedule? Did you shoot scenes from a variety of episodes at one location and then move the cast and crew to the other location for different scenes?

K: You try to shoot each episode complete, as much as possible, because of the cost. Your permanent cast is on salary regardless of where you shoot. You can shoot out of continuity show by show as long as they are paid for every show. But your guest actors, you’re required to keep them on salary once you start them until you finish them. So, we would try to start a show in Los Angeles shooting Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

We would travel to location Saturday and Sunday. We’d finish the show on location. The next show would be all on location. The third show would start on location and would finish back in the studio.

Some of the scenes where we only had permanent cast--Michael, the kids, and whoever--if we had a scene for a show down the road that I knew about, I would always try to work that in so we could get that done on location.

Once the show was a success, NBC would give us a pickup before Christmas for the next year. Which meant that Michael could already start working on shows with our outside writers for the following season. So, when the season started in May, I really had 15 to 18 scripts in my hand that I knew what was going to happen. I had 15 to 18 scripts and I would lay them out on what we call breakdown boards and I almost had them all scheduled, so if I saw a scene that I felt would work real well out in Sonora, I’d pull that out and shoot it out of context.

Thanks, a lot of info to look at...it certainly wasn't as easy as doing it all together as some do on a set.
The only good thing about the indoor shots in the summer was it must have been cooler. They really baked in those clothes when it was warm.

Considering they had to match scenes up from 2 locations, they didn't have too many gaffes. I remember one person saying a dress changed once, maybe it was when they did a scene ahead of time.

Davetucson wrote:

Super cool info! I think one of the things that throws people is the out of sequence shooting. They may have shot scenes from 5 episodes in one location.......and then moved on.........great info!
Dave

I found it fascinating too. I never would of thought of it being done this way.

I've read that some shows were done in this way...But surely it's amazing!

Vanesa.

I know movies are many times, they will do an end scene first because of availability of a place or person. It must make the scenes not flow as well to the actor, being emotional about a death and then the person is 'alive" in your next scene, but that's what being a good actor is partly about.

I thought this was funny re Steven Spielberg when talking about errors in filming because of how they film, it doesn't matter if it's a movie or TV.

Director Steven Spielberg accidentally stepped into the frame of one of his first movies, a made-for-television production called Duel. When the film was released on DVD, Spielberg left the mistake in to remind him of the imprecise nature of film making. Other famous movie mistakes include the miraculously self-recovering hubcaps in Bullitt, the clear shadow of a modern movie camera in Stagecoach, and the door-challenged Storm Trooper in the original Star Wars.

Why do such movie mistakes occur? Quite often the answer lies in the high pressure world of commercial film making. Directors generally work under tight budget and time restraints, and re-shooting scenes can be a logistical nightmare. If an occasional movie slip-up manages to sneak into the final cut of a film, it may be best to leave it in rather than arrange for an expensive re-shoot or other post-production fix.

Some movie mistakes are caused by the standard practice of shooting out of sequence. Very few movies are filmed in a linear progression according to the script. The producers may only have access to a particular location for a short amount of time, so the director and actors must shoot all of the scenes based at that location at one time, regardless of where the scenes fit in the overall narrative. This leads to continuity errors, such as having a dirty costume suddenly appear clean again. Shooting out of sequence can also lead to inconsistencies in an actor's appearance or use of certain props.

2 quick examples of "sequencing" errors from another site:

From the last show:At the end, when Lars Hanson hears the church bell ringing, he gets up from his bed and goes to look out the window. When he first gets up, his hair is completely tousled - definite "bed head." The shot changes to show him leaning out the window, and his hair is neatly combed. When the shot returns to the inside of the room, his hair is once again rumpled and untidy.
A Wiser Heart:
When Laura pushes Mrs. Pierce, she lands in a pail of water on her buttocks, and her hair remains dry. The next shot is of Laura saying something, then in the very next shot we see Mrs. Pierce still sitting in the bucket, only now her hair is soaked. Since she landed on her behind, her hair should not have been soaked, and there was no time for anyone to pour water on her head between the shots.

littlehouselover wrote:

2 quick examples of "sequencing" errors from another site:

From the last show:At the end, when Lars Hanson hears the church bell ringing, he gets up from his bed and goes to look out the window. When he first gets up, his hair is completely tousled - definite "bed head." The shot changes to show him leaning out the window, and his hair is neatly combed. When the shot returns to the inside of the room, his hair is once again rumpled and untidy.
A Wiser Heart:
When Laura pushes Mrs. Pierce, she lands in a pail of water on her buttocks, and her hair remains dry. The next shot is of Laura saying something, then in the very next shot we see Mrs. Pierce still sitting in the bucket, only now her hair is soaked. Since she landed on her behind, her hair should not have been soaked, and there was no time for anyone to pour water on her head between the shots.

I've never noticed those before...But now that I think about them I remember those bloopers very well.

Vanesa.