How to make Oakland look like 1987
Location scout Alex Pearcy on how “Freaky Tales” turned back the clock
This may come as a shock if you’re Gen X or older, but 1987 was nearly four decades ago. I was forced to confront this jarring fact after watching “Freaky Tales,” a new film set in Oakland at the tail end of the Ronald Regan-era – or, as the kids call it, “the late 1900s.”
The film is fiction, but several of its key plotlines are based on things that actually happened, like an infamous brawl between punks and Nazi skinheads outside Berkeley punk club 924 Gilman. The on-screen result is a captivating blend of the surreal and authentic, a cinematic urban myth come to life.
“Freaky Tales” was co-directed by Oakland-raised Ryan Fleck, who developed the film as an homage to his boyhood inspirations, including Golden State Warrior all-star Sleepy Floyd and rap legend Too Short, who started his career selling mixtapes on AC Transit. Needless to say, the East Bay has changed quite a bit since 1987, so bringing this rooted-in-reality vision to life required putting together a crew with deep familiarity of the local landscape. Alex Pearcy, who grew up within walking distance of the Grand Lake Theater, was an obvious pick for the role of location scout.
“I’m a child of the 70s and 80s, so when I heard about ‘Freaky Tales’ it felt unreal,” Pearcy told me. “I couldn’t believe so many of the locations in the script were places that I’d grown up going to. The first movie I ever saw was ‘Bambi’ at Grand Lake! This was a dream job.”
Pearcy began his behind-the-scenes film career back in 1999 with an internship working on the Clint Eastwood thriller “True Crime,” in which Eastwood plays a muckraking Oakland Tribune reporter. Since then, he’s worked on productions including Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” (filmed aboard the USS Potomac and at Mare Island) and “Hemingway & Gellhorn” (shot at West Oakland’s 16th Street station), plus countless commercials, promos, and even a few Marvel movies. For period pieces, Pearcy told me that his job involves securing locations that don’t require too much “adjusting,” in order to keep down production costs. For “Freaky Tales,” this meant finding places that look roughly the same now as they did during the 1980s.
A few of the film’s key settings, like the entrance to Grand Lake Theater and ¼ Pound Giant Burger in the Dimond District appear nearly identical to how they looked then. Only a few minor changes were needed to create the illusion - change the titles on the marquee, decrease the menu prices, park some vintage cars out front. Voila! Resurrecting the defunct Loard’s Ice Cream parlor on MacArthur involved reinstalling some vintage signage and painting over graffiti, but the building itself was still intact (despite the fact that a speeding car crashed through the front door in 2014).
Sweet Jimmie’s, the downtown nightclub where MC Hammer filmed his first music video, was another location that didn’t need much work to turn back the clock. Watching the scene where Too Short (portrayed in the film by Symba) battles female rap duo Danger Zone, the venue was instantly recognizable as the current home of New Parish. Last time I caught a show there, the upstairs floor was so sticky, I don’t think they’ve even replaced the carpets since the 1980s.
Although 924 Gilman hasn’t changed much since the days when teenaged Green Day was starting out at the legendary punk club, the surrounding West Berkeley neighborhood has been significantly redeveloped. “In 1987 it was industrial, like an urban wasteland,” Pearcy explained. “Now there’s Tesla charging stations across the street.” To avoid the incongruity of staging the climactic brawl scene in front of a microbrewery, the filmmakers ended up building a Gilman set inside a former plastic warehouse. Local punk documentarian Corbett Redford used the vast photo archive of ubiquitous scene photographer Murray Bowles to help recreate the facsimile, down to the exact graffiti (“EGGPLANT”) and protest posters that covered the walls.
Discussing this meticulous attention to detail, which falls into the category of “production design,” Pearcy said, “They really have to look at everything that goes in front of the camera and make sure it's consistent. If one piece seems out of place for 1987, that can kind of break the whole illusion.”
For Pearcy, his most exciting task for “Freaky Tales” was finding the houses where two of the main characters lived. He picked a modernist home on Skyline Blvd* with a manicured garden and stunning views of the Bay for Sleepy Floyd, the basketball star with a taste for Asian antique art. For “The Guy,” a corrupt Oakland cop, Pearcy spotted “a needle in a haystack” when he discovered a home in the El Cerrito hills that hadn’t been remodeled in nearly half a century. “It was like walking into a time machine,” Pearcy said, describing the vintage carpet, floral wallpaper, and built-in wooden cabinetry of the house that ended up serving as the villain’s lair. [*Editor’s note: After this article was published, Alex sent me a correction: The Sleepy Floyd house was actually shot at a home on a deep backroad of Castro Valley. In the film it’s supposed to be off Skyline. More movie trickery.]
There’s a lot more to being a location scout than just driving around the hills looking for cool buildings. “The less sexy part of it involves permits, parking, bathrooms and stuff like that,” Pearcy explained. At the very least, production crews - which can include dozens of staff - need to be mindful about “not stepping on toes” in communities where they might be filming for several days (and nights) in a row. Sometimes the production team will need to negotiate with neighbors in order to set up lighting rigs or other gear on their property. “It’s quite a bit of commotion,” Pearcy said.
Despite the challenges, Pearcy was thrilled to have the opportunity to work on a feature film based in his hometown. Much of his work these days is for commercials, promotional videos, and similar small-scale projects. Even major Hollywood movies that are “set” in the Bay Area often do most of the filming in less expensive places, like Atlanta. That footage will be edited together with exterior shots of famous landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge to create an illusion of California.
Unfortunately, even though he spent several months on “Freaky Tales,” Pearcy was left out of the theatrical credits. “That really stung. They messed up the credits,” he said. “I reached out to a producer about that. And I wasn't alone… I heard from other people that got left out of the credits.”
Pearcy is hopeful that his name (and the others that are missing) will be added when the release goes to streaming, but in the meantime he’s setting aside the disappointment to focus on the fact that this scrappy, surreal love letter to Oakland made it to the Big Screen. “I was so happy to have my kids see it. I was so happy that my parents see it,” Pearcy said. “It shows that films can get made here, and I hope more of that happens. Something like ‘Freaky Tales’ brings back true Oakland pride.”
East Bay Yesterday events, tours, and news
Boat tours: Tickets are still available for my Oakland/Alameda history boat tours on May 16 and May 30. Check the FAQ page for more details on the route, logistics, etc.
Don’t forget to keep up with the East Bay Yesterday podcast. Since the last newsletter, I’ve released two episodes: An interview with “The Pacific Circuit” author Alexis Madrigal and East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative director Noni Session; and an interview with “Sweet Success” author Barbara Pagni Denton about Crockett’s Italian community and the evolution of it’s famous C&H Sugar Refinery.
Oakland Puzzle Company is producing a new puzzle featuring an image of the Lake Merritt watershed created by local artist Joel Pomerantz. A portion of the sales will go towards funding the “Reflections on Lake Merritt” documentary that I’m developing with filmmaker Brandon Jordan. Click here to pre-order.
Thanks for reading!
Liam
PS: This is unrelated to local history, but on Thursday April 17 from 7-10pm, I’ll be DJing with SF Gate Culture editor Dan Gentile at Couch Date (102 Ogawa Plaza, downtown Oakland). The spot has a “chill unpretentious lounge” vibe, so expect ~downtempo~ but it could get funky if people are feeling it.
Loved this, and was particularly stoked to see the Grandlake Marquee with The Lost Boys on view--that's where I first saw the film when it was released. I hope the film you are talking about will stream somewhere. I'd love to see my hometown back when I was going to Laney.