Hi! I'm a student in the Los Angeles area, producing a 2nd-year grad film in which we need a grocery store as a primary location. I've had no luck with Ralphs, Vons, Albertsons, or other big chains. Does anyone know of any places in Los Angeles county (or Orange, or anywhere within reasonable driving distance) that may be friendly to student filming? We're willing to negotiate a fair rate per hour or day.

Try the independent or smaller grocers. You'll probably have a better chance, just because dealing with corporations can be difficult (as you've discovered). Trader Joe's, Sprouts, Henry's/Boney's...just some ideas. Some of those are corporations, but not as big as the ones you've tried, I think.

You could also try a small market that's the size of a 7-Eleven...maybe you could find a mom-and-pop independent-type place. Depending on how you use your camera, it doesn't have to look like a small store. And, there's always the guerrilla-style of filmmaking where you could shoot the outside of a bigger store anyway for your establishing shots. You'd have to be quick and inconspicuous with your filming and probably not have plans to show your film anywhere big or in festivals that require releases, though, or you could get in a lot of trouble.

The indoor scenes could be shot inside a smaller store where you have permission to shoot and use the camera angles to make it look like it's part of the bigger store. When you put the outside of the bigger store and the inside of the smaller store together, voila, people will believe it's the smaller store if you do it right. I guess that depends upon if it HAS to be a bigger store. Might be easier all around if you could work things in the script to make it a smaller place, since I think you'll have a better chance at getting permission.

Good luck!

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Originally posted by NicoleX:
Hi! I'm a student in the Los Angeles area, producing a 2nd-year grad film in which we need a grocery store as a primary location. I've had no luck with Ralphs, Vons, Albertsons, or other big chains. Does anyone know of any places in Los Angeles county (or Orange, or anywhere within reasonable driving distance) that may be friendly to student filming? We're willing to negotiate a fair rate per hour or day.

Hi Nicole - we're trying to find a good Grocery store location and were wondering where you ended up filming. Did you find a place?