Netflix filming new series in Clinton Twp.
There were big things going on in a little neighborhood in Clinton Township on Monday.
The Netflix series, “Archive 81,” is being filmed at a wooded property off Timber Ridge Road.
David Pipik, rigging grip on the shoot, said Monday that the crew has filmed inside the two-story home six times, although they only needed to film there for three days.
He said sporadic COVID-19 cases among cast and crew members have waylaid shooting.
The bucolic home was likely found by a member of Netflix's location crew who was familiar with the area, as crew members live in the greater Pittsburgh region, Pipik said.
While some homeowners whose properties are being rented by Netflix are sent on vacation or to a hotel while the cast and crew are on-scene, the owner of the Clinton Township home remained on the property, he said.
“If we shoot late, he probably goes to a hotel or stays with family,” Pipik said.
He said the cast and crew during shooting includes about 100 people on and around the property, and an additional crew of about 50 people sets up and tears down each day.
The Netflix crew, which is based in Pittsburgh, usually travels in a 50-mile radius of the city to shoot, Papik said.
He touted the Pittsburgh tax credit that allows crews to shoot near the city without it being cost prohibitive as a good way to keep crews and extras in and around the city employed.Pipik said he loves Pittsburgh, but doesn't mind filming in rural, wooded areas such as Clinton Township.“I like it out here,” Pipik said. “I live in the city, but I grew up in an area like this.”The challenge of feeding such a large crew was accomplished at the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company in Saxonburg, as was hair and makeup preparation for the cast.Chuck Lewis, president of the fire company, said the fire hall grounds served as base camp for Netflix crews once before.Netflix pays the fire department to park their dozens of tractor-trailer trucks, recreational vehicles, food-preparation trucks and other vehicles in the fenced-in area behind the fire hall on Horne Avenue, Lewis said.He said the vehicles are there one day, and a West Coast catering service hired by Netflix starts at 2 or 3 a.m., preparing for breakfast for the cast and crew, which begins at 5 a.m.Lunch is also provided, and employees are bused from the fire hall to the location where shooting is taking place.
Lewis said coronavirus protocols are taken very seriously by Netflix, as the 8-foot tables set up in the fire hall for meals seat only three people, and Plexiglas sheets separate the diners from one another.Plexiglas separates those serving from the cast and crew at the buffet. Netflix also installed portable air scrubbers in the fire hall.While the fire company's tables and chairs are used for meals, food is prepared in a kitchen truck.Refrigerated trucks store the cold ingredients used by the cooks.“They serve a new meal every six hours,” Lewis said.He declined to divulge the amount Netflix paid the fire company for the one-day rental, but said the money will be used to repair a 10-year-old ladder truck and to purchase new equipment.“This has been a really good opportunity to help us out,” Lewis said.He said the fire company also rented a fire truck to Netflix for use in “Archive 81.”“It's a new series based on a podcast,” Lewis said. “It's an archivist who is processing archived tapes and films and becomes involved in some of the things he's archiving. It sounds kind of neat.”He said the fire company may not have seen the last of the Netflix convoy, which used the grounds once before.“I understand there's another date pending,” Lewis said. “I don't know what it is yet.”He said parking the Netflix and catering service vehicles at the fire company will not interfere with Wednesday night fish dinners or bingo.
