I was driving past the White House today........

A few days ago I posted some pix of the same subject, but because of some insensitive comments (okay, most of them were mine) the post was poofed. Help me try to keep this one "clean" so it can stay up longer.

A lot of movies are made in my town. The most current, filming now, is "Olympus Has Fallen", a Secret Service thriller starring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhardt, Ashley Judd and others.

A month ago this site was an open field by a parkway. As you can see they have re-created the White House (the front wall, anyway) including lawn, shrubs, iron fence, guard house, etc. Obviously a roof would have been superfluous. Wish I could have had this kind of money to spend on permanent improvements on my place.

Tractors and tractor-like devices were being used on the site.

They will probably just add a roof with CGI effects. I was present when The Postman (Kevin Costner) was made in Pend Oreille County and when The Ward (John Carpenter) was made in Spokane County. It's very interesting to see how the camera tricks you into seeing what they want.

Heard on the Channel 3 news this morning that several streets were either closed due to filming or that movie filming would cause travel delays.

Segment mentioned the "white house" filming and pirotechnics in the surrounding area.

Good thing there is no burn ban in the parish.

Wonder what the "<a href="http://www.hueylong.com/">Kingfish</a>" would think?

Thank you for the pics. external_link ahs stripped the White House of everything, and is working on the rest of us now. Thanks to your congressmen---

James, everybody in this town is by now accustomed to the sound of explosions, gunshots, sirens, flashing red and blue lights, helicopters, screams…..actually, come to think of it, that’s an everyday occurrence here even without the movie people, as you are probably aware.

But yes, you’re right, they go all out when they’re filming. One of the reasons they like to make movies here is that the authorities bend over backward (and forward) to accommodate the film folks. They give them free access to public buildings, close off streets for days/weeks at a time (how many cities would totally shut down an interstate highway ramp for a solid month to make a movie?). People who work downtown have a tough time getting to work and into their parking garages. The street outside my office window in City Hall was closed for two weeks while they filmed the ridiculous “Disaster Movie”. From my chair I was distracted by the sight of cows and smoking meteorites falling from the sky; super heroes (Hulk, Red); and actors in Cinderella/Prince Charming/Juno costumes break-dancing in the streets. Cinderella came up out of an actual manhole wearing her blue gown. I was actually in a scene in the Michael Douglas film, “Beyond A Reasonable Doubt” (which I still haven’t seen), filmed in the government meeting chamber. As I understand it, there will be “Secret Service Agents” with guns atop the Courthouse and federal courthouse for the scenes you referred to.

But hey, they do spend a lot of money when they’re here, and their activity lends a little excitement to the everyday ho-hum.

Just learned today there’s also another movie being filmed here now: don’t know the name but it has Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara.

As far as what the Kingfish would think....I don't know; he was killed three or four years before I was born. Obviously, never met him, but I have met his son Russell.

That's just plain COOL.

The beauty of it is, it isn't MY money or YOUR money they're spending, so they can spend all they want.

It's gotta be a great for local businesses, as long as they "stay humble" because business is going to go back to normal as soon as the movie is filmed.

"It's very interesting to see how the camera tricks you into seeing what they want."

Just like at the real white house!