Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026When I'm scouting for period motels for filming and I want to go beyond the usual suspects, one trick I use is to search eBay for "motel post card [city/town name]." Back in the 1950s-70s especially, it seems like every motel made a postcard for guests, and it's a great way -🧵 161
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Something I wish I'd done back when I lived in NYC: my apartment was at 9th and Wythe in Brooklyn, and for whatever reason, that corner was prone to late night fights. And it was really annoying, because it was almost always two drunk guys yelling ridiculous threats --🧵 132
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026I love coming across forgotten neon signs for long-gone businesses, and old Chinese restaurants are among my favorite. This chow mein sign used to hang above a photocopy place (also out of business!) at 823 Nostrand in Brooklyn (now a florist, sign sadly removed). Also -- 120
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Let's do a magic trick. Think of a card, any card. Got it? Good. Now take a trip to Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills... 111
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I've been a location scout for 20+ years and it's funny, whenever I'm at a new place, my mind will notice some little detail and instantly make this sort of Sherlock Holmes-like prediction. Like I just passed this house, and right away --🧵 120
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 16/09/2026And here's why I love NYC: that weird thing you happened to come across? It always turns out to have some sort of interesting history to explain. For example, that tiny magazine shop I wrote about yesterday with the tree growing through it --🧵 120
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026I have this massive folder of pictures from my location scouting days in New York City, of totally random things I'd come across in my travels. Like, this magazine stand on 6th Avenue that appears to magically have a tree growing through the middle of it - 🧵 120
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 14/09/2026The other day, I was out scouting in the middle of the desert when I came something special. I was making my way across unnamed dirt roads when, in the distance, I saw what looked like an abandoned stone house...🧵 141
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Hmm I appear to have stumbled on the lake’s former marina. 030
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I've been scouting this week in the desert, and I keep coming across abandoned boats, which I love because it's such a surreal visual. And given how popular crazy conspiracy theories are these days, I've decided to create a "flat-Earther"-style explanation for their existence -🧵 140
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 10/09/2026One thing I used to love about scouting bigger, pre-war buildings in New York City is when they'd turn out to have inner courtyards I'd otherwise have never known about. One that surprised me most was the Plaza Hotel - 🧵 130
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 09/09/2026As a location scout, I love taking a closer look at older movie locations, so here's the first part of a deep dive I've been working on for you Philly fans: Brian De Palma's Blow Out, comparing 1981 Philadelphia to what it's become 45 years later... 240
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Every time I scout this corporate office park in Irvine, I have to do this. As the architect intended, I'm sure. 050
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I love when businesses near an airport tip their hat to aviation in some way. The all-timer is the Air Line Diner sign at the Jackson Hole a few minutes from LaGuardia (better known as the Goodfellas diner).. 250
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 01/09/2026I recently posted about how Columbia University's wood-paneled lecture hall is THE go-to lecture hall for filming locations; for libraries, it's the Brooklyn Historical Society. As a location scout, you walk in and just go: "OK. We're done." 060
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 31/08/2026I was scouting a liquor store once, and as I was leaving the owner said, "I hope you decide to film here," and shook my hand with a sly wink - and slipped me one of those tiny bottles of Jack Daniels. I sometimes wonder if this was smallest attempted bribe in Hollywood history. 070
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 29/08/2026“It’s Friday night and I’m driving down Alimony Road” sounds like the start to a bad country song…and is also what I’m literally doing right now. 030
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I was scouting an old military fort once to get some creepy tunnel locations for a horror movie...🧵 130
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 26/08/2026I think I love scouting the desert so much because, while it seems like a lot of nothing, there's >always< something interesting to find if you keep looking. Case in point from this morning: nothing, nothing, nothing, wait is that a phone booth under a Joshua tree? 060
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026This is a good example of why it was actually quite hard to scout options for The Neighborhood Where All The Houses Look The Same for filming outside NYC. Because most of those tract developments date to the 40s-60s, restrictions on changes had long since lapsed. So you'd find a🧵 120
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 24/08/2026As a location scout, one of the most dramatic shifts I’ve seen in how a movie location is portrayed on screen in recent years is for The Neighborhood Where All The Houses Look The Same.🧵 140
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Earlier this year, I did some industrial cattle farm scouting, and was surprised to find I could barely get anyone to answer the phone, let alone agree to consider filming. Even after showing my credentials, the response was absolute silence, and it was clear something was up.🧵 110
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 20/08/2026I love the symmetry you get when scouting pool halls. No bad angles. 081
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Had a great time chatting all things scouting on Good Day LA, including a look back at some of the highlight locations from Euphoria S3. Enjoy! www.foxla.com/video/fmc-5c... 030
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Back when I used to scout in New York City, this was one of my favorite public fountains, not so much for its beauty as for the fact that it has the all-time strangest fountain name I think I've ever encountered - 🧵 172
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 17/08/2026As the summer comes to a close and students everywhere head back to school, I sometimes think about New York City's Hudson University - and wonder if the incoming class has any idea they're about to set foot on the most dangerous campus in America.🧵 131
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 14/08/2026In Burbank, I often drive by this park where, last year, Ron Howard and wife Cheryl made a very sweet donation on their 50th anniversary: this "kissing chair," two beautifully engraved bronze chairs reversed so a couple can sit and face each other. There's only one problem - 2221949
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Some locations set such a high bar for filming, you might as well give up on on hoping to scout anything else as good. Case in point: this lecture hall at Columbia University, which has been in so many movies and TV shows, you'd assume all college lecture halls are like this. 130
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Me chatting with LAX about airport filming: Me: So can we film at X location? Rep: No, absolutely not. Me: How about at Y? Or Z? Rep: Certainly not. Me: OK. How about if you just let me know where filming is allowed? Rep: That's not how it works. 110
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Sitting here waiting for the director van to arrive for a scout, and a stray kitten just came up and appears to be projecting all his cuteness at me for a part in the movie. It’s working. 🧵 161
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Just a guy and a girl hitting it off at sunset, high above LA on a decommissioned Nike missile tower, with no one else around for miles… (Except an annoying movie location scout who was sent to take magic hour pictures and is totally killing the mood. Sorry guys...) 051
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Once back in my NYC scouting days, I was working on a TV show that was planning to shoot at a cemetery in Brooklyn. As we were scouting it with the director, an apartment scene was abruptly added to the day's work, and I was given an hour to find a cleared option for them to see.🧵 121
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 31/07/2026One thing I love about scouting on crime shows is when they'll ask the locations department for fresh ideas on where to stage a murder. I've always thought the maze of tires you find at mom-and-pop auto repair shops could make a pretty solid option... 050
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Iconic LA Filming Location #542: Hillcrest Road @ Carmelita. Single-handedly responsible for making movie-goers around the world think this is what all LA streets must look like. 030
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Here's another example of how hard it is to shut off the location scout part of my brain when watching old movies. I'm watching Pickup on South Street, the 1950s noir I mentioned yesterday. Set in NYC, it was actually filmed in LA, as seen in this shot staged on Grand... 🧵 140
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Whenever I watch an old movie that was shot on location, it’s really hard to stop the location scout side of my brain from constantly trying to figure out how people did my job 70+ years ago. Here’s an example from a 1953 noir called Pickup on South Street…. 140
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 26/07/2026The LA parks dept “no alcohol” signs serve as a much needed reminder that if you’re going to drink in public, please up your game with long stem martinis 020
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 24/07/2026People always ask, "so what big actors have you met as a location scout?" And I'll always lie and drop a few big names, because that's obviously what they want to hear. But what I'm actually thinking about are moments like the time I was scouting a nice midcentury house outside Los Angeles... 120
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 23/07/2026As a location scout, I love places that, in a single image, instantly communicate exactly where they are in the universe. Saw such a place yesterday when scouting apartments: palm trees, stucco, Spanish accents, courtyard pond with statuary... Quintessential LA. 130
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Once, I was scouting an abandoned hospital building for a movie. I started to go into a large common room, and my guide said, "Oh, don't go in there." I asked why and he said, "because that floor is severely water damaged, and you'll fall through into the basement."🧵 130
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 20/07/2026One of the most hauntingly beautiful properties I've ever scouted is this abandoned chapel, located just north of NYC...🧵 140
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 17/07/2026When I first moved to LA from NYC to continue my scouting career, I assumed it would be the major differences that would be hardest to get used to. But in fact, it’s the elements that are sort of similar, yet VERY different, that still hit me as strange. One example: Patriotic Hall...🧵 100
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Nothing like scouting a creepy abandoned property... No power, lights out... World is silent except for your footsteps... Step into what was once a child's bedroom... AND THEN TWO BIRDS LEAP UP SQUAWKING CRAZILY AND FLAIL OUT THE BROKEN WINDOWS. 100
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Once upon a time back in my NYC days, I held a contest on April Fools asking readers to guess where I went on vacation from a series of pictures. The answer: the American Museum of History! 🧵 110
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Contest time! Guess where I went on my big vacation, and every correct reply will be entered for a chance to win the first 3 issues of my zine, Scout Stories. Deadline is tomorrow at noon pacific. Good luck! (Hint: reminder that I used to be a location scout in New York City...) 011
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 13/07/2026I once had the opportunity to scout a Brooklyn apartment I'd always loved called The Astral, built in 1885. Later, as I was doing some research, I learned that a kindergarten had once been located on the corner where a coffee shop now was, and found a class photo taken in 1895.🧵 131
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 10/07/2026I might be biased, but I def thought the show looked pretty darn good this season... Congrats to the entire production team for making this possible! 030
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 09/07/2026In Los Feliz, there's a place called the Harvard House Motel, and I like to think that at least once in its 79-year existence, someone booked a room believing it to have some association with the university, if only in grandeur. And I would pay quite a bit to see that check-in. 021
Nick Carr @nickcarr.bsky.social · 08/07/2026A while back, I was in the middle of taking scout pictures of an office building lobby when I suddenly noticed something: a security guard staring at me from his booth in the back, arms crossed, clearly not happy with what I was up to.🧵 131