Shooting stars
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 10, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Daily Bruin File Photo Cast and crew members of "Buffy
the Vampire Slayer" filmed episodes of the popular TV series at
UCLA, turning the campus into "UC Sunnydale" during August
1999.
By Suneal Kolluri
Daily Bruin Senior Staff A few years ago, surprised students looked
on as aliens and vampires wreaked havoc on the UCLA campus.
Luckily, Mulder, Scully and Buffy were there to take care of the
situation. UCLA students often get the chance to see their favorite
actors in action as movie and television scenes are regularly
filmed on the campus. For many UCLA students, seeing film crews and
actors at their school has become almost as normal as attending
class itself. “It’s interesting when they’re
here, because you get to see the different movies being made, but
it gets normal after a while,” said Dawn Hoover, a graduate
student in education. UCLA is located a few miles west of
Hollywood, home to many of the motion picture and television
production companies in the United States, making it a convenient
location for filmmakers to shoot movies. “UCLA is located in
Los Angeles, the same place as the American motion picture
industry,” said UCLA visiting professor of film and
television Jonathan Kuntz. “So we’re convenient for
(almost) all of the movie companies, TV production companies,
commercial companies and so on. We’re right where the action
is.”
 The filming of the movie “Legally Blonde”
took place on the UCLA campus in January 2001. The excellent
weather also makes UCLA an ideal location for shooting films.
“The traditional virtues of Southern California are also
existent, which means sunny days almost every day of the
year,” Kuntz said. “You’re probably not going to
run into too many days when there is snow or rain here.” The
university also has a distinctive college feel that many other West
Coast campuses lack. The brick buildings, old architecture and huge
grass fields make UCLA appear to be what most people expect a
college to look like. “UCLA itself looks like a university,
particularly the center of campus that was built originally in the
1920s and early 30s,” Kuntz said. “It’s extremely
photogenic and looks exactly like our idea of a classic university
on the East Coast or West Coast.” UCLA gets so many requests
for on-campus film shoots that it has a specific office partially
dedicated to arranging such shoots. The UCLA Events Office works
with location managers of production companies and determines
whether or not to allow a film or television show to be shot on
campus. “We work with (filmmakers) for months to check
availability, different locations, and (to) find out what’s
going on on campus,” said Jack Raab, director of the UCLA
Events Office. One of the main goals of the Events Office is to
align film shoots in such a way as to avoid interfering with the
normal business of the university. “Normally we don’t
shoot during the week during session,” Raab said. “On
occasion we do but it’s usually by special circumstances. We
try not to impact the campus and the normal operations.” Many
campus locations, however, are off limits to film producers. UCLA
does not want to endorse any of the films that decide to shoot on
the campus. The Bruin Bear, parts of Royce Hall, Kerckhoff Hall,
and other locations are off limits. “Anything that would
effectively identify the location as UCLA cannot be filmed,”
Rabb said. Although the events office aims to keep the filming out
of the students’ way by scheduling shoots on weekends and
during breaks, students often get a chance to see their favorite
actors being filmed on campus.
 Actor Jerry O’Connell sits through an interview
between filming scenes of the movie “Tomcats” at UCLA
in July 2000.
“Pretty much anything we film is out in the open,”
Raab said. “Anybody walking by can see it.” Scenes from
each of the following movies and television shows have all been
shot on the UCLA campus.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” For a few days in the
summer of 1999, UCLA briefly turned into UC Sunnydale, and the
vampire slayer herself decided to attend. “When Buffy was
here, there was quite a following,” Rabb said. “It was
on a weekend, but word got out, and there were a lot of people that
wanted to see Sarah Michelle Gellar. A lot of the kids got to meet
her.” When Buffy went off to college, they needed a
college-looking setting for the episodes. The show filmed parts of
Bruin Walk, Powell Library and the exterior of Franz Hall. Franz
Hall was used as Buffy’s dormitory.
“The Nutty Professor” and “The Nutty Professor
II” Although many students may claim that UCLA already has
enough eccentric instructors, yet another nutty professor came to
teach classes on the UCLA campus in April 2000. Both the
“Nutty Professor” movies were almost completely filmed
on the UCLA campus. The producers wanted an East Coast college feel
with many photogenic buildings. According to Rabb, the movies and
Eddie Murphy were a pretty big deal for the students of UCLA.
“”˜Nutty Professor’ was very popular,” he
said. “That was during the break but we still had a lot of
people hanging around because of Eddie Murphy.” The movie
used scenes on Bruin Walk, Powell Library, Royce Quad, and many of
the other more attractive buildings on the campus. Moore Hall was
used as the professor’s classroom.
“Erin Brockovich” Julia Roberts paid the UCLA campus
a visit in May 1999 when filming her Academy Award winning movie
“Erin Brockovich.” The movie is based on the true story
of a woman who gets a job with a law firm and aims to win a massive
settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric for the presence of
poisonous Chromium-6 in the water supply of certain areas near Los
Angeles. For a few scenes in the movie, Brockovich visits a college
campus to talk with a professor about Chromium-6. Some of the more
picturesque buildings on the UCLA campus, such as Powell Library,
can be seen in the background as Erin and the professor walk out of
his office.
“How High” UCLA’s East Coast campus look
brought producers over to film “How High,” a movie
starring rappers Method Man and Redman. In order to create the
setting of Harvard University, the crew brought a Harvard sign and
a famous Harvard statue. Many students were excited to see Method
Man and Redman on the campus and many even got the chance to
interact with the rap superstars. “Method Man was filming
something, and they already closed the set for the night,”
said first-year undeclared student, Nathan Waxer. “The girl
scouts were on Bruin Walk selling cookies … I walked by and
Method Man was peddling girl scout cookies.” Other films and
television shows that have been shot on campus include both of the
“Scream” movies, “Tomcats,”
“X-files” and “Felicity.” Although many
students enjoy seeing celebrities on campus, a few students run
into problems with the film crews. “Me and a friend were
talking and we didn’t know if we were in the shot or
not,” said Peter Ton, a second year biology student.
“The film guy said, “˜Why don’t you guys move
along; your parents are spending good money on you.’ It was
really offensive … they shouldn’t be able to tell us where
to go.” Nonetheless, for the most part students enjoy having
the excitement of a film shoot take place on their campus. Raab,
however, recognizes that filming movies on campus is not one of the
primary goals of the university. “If it were up to the
students, we’d have movie stars here every day,” he
said. “But we can’t do that. Mom and Dad are paying for
you to go to school, not to watch movie stars.”
