READING, Pa. – The Reading Film Office hosted a tour of locations for film and media executives to get an up close and personal look at some potential sites to use for filming in the region.
“I’m always looking for something that’s unique and cool that can work on large and small-scale films,” said Scott Currie, a partner of Phillylocations.com.
“The purpose of today is to just give them an experience to showcase everything that we have to offer in terms of the buildings, the architecture, the scenery,” said Cammie Harris, Reading Film Office executive director. “You can go from like urban to rural in just a very short period of time, so that’s really important when you’re looking for sites to do film and TV shoots in.”
This is the first year the Reading Film Office is doing a physical tour of the locations they’re showcasing.
The tour included locations like the bank building at 5th and Penn, the Santander Performing Arts Center, Reading High School, the Pagoda, and Reading Regional Airport. On Thursday, they plan to visit some local farms.
“They’re looking for certain specific things, so we talk to them about what they might be doing and what they might need for their next project. And based on that, that’s how we picked the locations,” said Harris.
“There’s so much history here that no one knows about, and people don’t see very often,” said Currie, who’s been to Reading many times to scout locations and has been a part of some shoots here.
“I’m super excited to try to get the word out to Hollywood that here’s a place that you can come to and it’s unique. You’re not going to find things elsewhere that are exactly like this and have the ability to film there,” said Currie.
“It’s an economic benefit to the county, to the city, when a film comes here,” said Harris. “60-65% of a film’s budget is spent in the area where they’re filming.”