The Brief

There isn't as much filming going on in Los Angeles right now due to the ongoing actors' strike and only recently resolved writers' strike. But for decades, cities east of downtown L.A. — including Pasadena, South Pasadena and Altadena — have been a big draw for film and TV productions.

Veteran location scout and manager Rick Schuler says the "denas," with their wide variety of single-family homes and tree-lined streets, are most often used as stand-ins for the Midwest or East Coast.

Schuler recently took the How To LA team on a tour of some filming locations, used in movies like Halloween, Back to the Future and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

A small-town feel in L.A. County

The city of South Pasadena, Schuler says, is often a go-to destination when a film crew wants a location that has the feel of a small, Midwestern town.

And interestingly, the city does have a historical connection with the Midwest — the Anglo founders of South Pasadena and Pasadena, back in the 1870s, were from Indiana.

Probably the most well-known filming location in South Pasadena is the “Michael Myers” house at 1000 Mission St., which was featured in the 1978 horror classic Halloween. In the film, and subsequent sequels, it’s the home of the killer, Michael Myers.

The "Michael Myers" house in South Pasadena featured in the 1978 film "Halloween," set in a fictional town in Illinois.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

A still from the 1978 film “Halloween,” written and directed by John Carpenter.

(

Shout! Factory

)

The Victorian-style home, built in 1888, is one of several South Pasadena houses featured in the film and is meant to be the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois.

“But they chose South Pasadena,” Schuler says, because “South Pasadena is like an everywhere American city, basically from the Midwest or the East Coast. And what makes it that are the tree-lined streets, the type of architecture that's here. And it feels like a small town.”

Schuler says there’s also a good number of brick buildings in South Pasadena, which you don’t see too much of in L.A., and lots of big camphor trees that form canopies over streets.

The South Pasadena Public Library is surrounded by trees, including some pesky palms.

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

The only tree that’s a problem? Palm trees — a dead giveaway that you’re in L.A.

“Palm trees can be the bane of our existence,” Schuler says. Or at least, they used to be. “In the age now of CGI and all that kind of stuff, they can quickly now say, ‘Oh, we can remove that.’”

There are other workarounds too that don’t involve computers. For example, near the Pasadena home that Schuler found for the 2005 movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which was set on the East Coast, the film crew disguised the tree trunks of some palm trees that line the street.

“We wrapped them with two semi-cylinder, oak-looking or camphor-tree-looking shells,” Schuler says. “And so we did like 10 feet of that” because only the tree trunks could be seen in the frame.

Being from the Midwest himself though, Schuler says South Pasadena and Pasadena aren’t exact matches for the region.

“I think we've created kind of a movie version of the Midwest with a white picket fence, dormers [on the house] and wood shingles. And that kind of thing does exist there, but there's all kinds of other styles there too.”

Knock, knock. Can we film at your house?

Another big challenge to filming in residential neighborhoods, Schuler says, is getting the support of a homeowner to use a specific house.

The first step is knocking on the door, then explaining why you’re there, but also not giving them too much information too quickly.

“What we would have to do is talk to the people [about] whether they want to do it,” Schuler says, “and then eventually [explain that] yes, we need to move you out into a hotel, we want to take all your stuff out and put it in storage, we want to bring our stuff in…”

And depending on what city you’re in and what time of day or night you want to film, productions also need to get sign off from a certain number of neighbors.

A house in Pasadena featured in the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.

(

20th Century Fox

)

Robbie Leslie shows a photo of his family with actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who filmed “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” in part, at the Leslie’s home. Robbie is on the far left.

(

Claire Fogarty

)

In the case of the Colonial-style Mr. & Mrs. Smith house on San Pascual Avenue in Pasadena, which was only used for outdoor shots, the owners also agreed to let the film crew drive a car up onto their lawn, build a temporary garage in the backyard, and even set off a small explosion.

Robbie Leslie, whose parents own the home, and who was 7 years old at the time of filming, remembers it as a great time.

“We were put up in the Ritz Carlton a couple miles away and I remember putting it to good use,” Leslie says. “I would always go down to the bar after school and ask for a bowl of cereal, which they would always provide. And it was fun.”

“Now it's kind of like every icebreaker thing that I ever need. I can be like, ‘Oh, have you ever seen Mr. & Mrs. Smith? That's our house … [and] no, it didn’t really get blown up.’”

A variety of architectural styles

Another draw for film location scouts are the variety of homes in the “denas.”

Just down the street from the main Mr. & Mrs. Smith house is a Tudor-style house that was also used for a short scene.

A house in Pasadena featured in the film "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

A still from the 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” directed by Doug Liman.

(

20th Century Fox

)

And it’s just a short drive across the city to the iconic Craftsman Back to the Future home (or Gamble House) which is a popular tourist destination with architecture buffs and film-lovers alike. It was designed by the renowned architectural firm Greene and Greene.

The Gamble House in Pasadena which was featured in "Back to the Future."

(

Samanta Helou Hernandez

/

LAist

)

Though, in the case of the Gamble House, Schuler says it now may be too well known now to use in other films. “Not so much because it’s the Gamble House, but more because it was in Back to the Future.”

And even though having a house become somewhat “off limits” isn’t a great thing for location scouts like him, Schuler says: “in some sense that's good, because we showcase certain things that people sort of get interested in preserving.”

On a tour of Orange County’s voting headquarters on Wednesday, Registrar Bob Page demonstrated the careful, multi-step process through which voters’ ballots are validated and counted.

As the federal government raises the specter of unsubstantiated voter fraud, Page’s message was clear: “ I want voters to know that we're doing everything we can to make sure they can vote safely and securely."

More than 380,000 Orange County ballots have been returned as of Oct. 27, Page said. That’s about 80,000 more ballots than was received around the same time in 2022, the last mid-term elections.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page addresses the media and other members of the public in attendance as part of a tour of the voting operations on Wednesday, less than one week before Election Day.

(

Kavish Harjai

/

LAist.com

)

The journey of a ballot in Orange County

Collecting, and counting, all those ballots takes time. Page explained that two-person teams are dispatched to collect dropped-off ballots every day during election season.

The ballot drop-off boxes in Orange County are made of steel, weigh more than 1,000 pounds and are bolted to the concrete, Page said.

The ballot retrieval duos are required to follow a strict process to ensure the chain of custody remains secure, including taking photos showing they’ve picked up the ballots, properly locked the retrieval door and that the internal fire suppression canister is intact.

The locations of the two-person teams are GPS-tracked by separate teams, which also review the photo evidence before giving the ballot retrieval duos the green light to go to their next stops.

An overhead camera shows the process that occurs after the signatures on a ballot have been verified and the ballot is then ready to be counted.

(

Kavish Harjai

/

LAist.com

)

Signature verification

Once a ballot reaches the Registrar of Voters’ office, the next step is ensuring the signature on the envelope matches the voter's signatures in their registration file.

“If we do challenge [a signature], we’re required under state law to send a first-class letter notice to that voter,” Page said, adding that state statute affords voters until the day before Thanksgiving this year to correct errant signatures.

Page said three election workers must agree that enough of a discrepancy exists before the decision to challenge a signature is made.

Around 1.9% of the nearly 718,000 vote-by-mail ballots returned in the June primary election in Orange County were rejected, largely due to signature mismatch or because they weren’t received in time, according to the California Secretary of State.

Verified ballots are then separated from their envelopes and sorted before they’re prepared to be scanned and, finally, counted. The equipment used to tally votes isn’t connected to the internet, and access to the room the equipment is housed in is limited, according to Page.

Threats from the federal government

On Wednesday evening, a federal judge denied an emergency request from the Department of Justice to segregate 20,000 ballots across California that the federal government said were sent to “likely” noncitizens.

More than 1,750 of those people identified were in Orange County, according to a letter Bill Essayli, top federal prosecutor for the Central District of California, delivered to the county registrar’s office Monday.

The Department of Justice said it will appeal the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, who, in his decision, said the federal government’s attempted move could “wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway.”

California Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta called the ruling an “important victory,” but warned “the fight is not over.”

On Wednesday, before the ruling came down, Bonta released resources about election integrity in the state, including guidance for local election officials if law enforcement attempts to “access election sites where ballots are cast, processed, or counted.”

Page said he’s fielded more questions from the public this year about the potential for law enforcement to interfere in the election. He said he will have open lines of communication with partners with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and  Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center should the threat arise.

What’s on your ballot?

Our LAist Voter Game Plan is here to help guide you through the Nov. 3 election with guides to races across Los Angeles and Orange counties — and that long list of state propositions — to help you cast a ballot that’s in line with your own personal beliefs and values.

But the one thing we don’t do? We don’t tell you how to vote. That part is left up to you.

You can find it all at LAist.com/Vote.

The U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas to California officials in an escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration.

The Associated Press obtained copies of three subpoenas sent Oct. 21 to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, ordering them to appear in court on Nov. 4, the day after the election. The documents request any records, documents and communications related to letters sent in July and October by federal officials to state election officials outlining allegations of noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The subpoenas also seek information relating to the office’s “methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens” and anything about efforts to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted.

The subpoenas were being issued by all four U.S. attorneys in California, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar, said, “threats and intimidated have no place in elections.”

Subpoenas come amid ongoing court battle

The Trump administration has sued to force California to set aside up to 20,000 ballots it suspects went to noncitizens and not count them until citizenship can be verified. A district court judge on Tuesday rejected that request, then on Thursday appointed a special master to evaluate the administration’s claims.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter did not specify the exact scope of special master Daniel B. Garrie’s responsibilities, but said he would be tasked with “developing the factual record” for the court.

In a Tuesday court hearing, Carter said he wanted to vet the federal government’s list of over 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters since there has been extensive debate over its reliability and both sides have agreed that it includes an unspecified number of citizens.

null

Carter also said at the hearing that a special master could investigate California’s claims that it cannot logistically separate the ballots in time for the county election certification deadline on Dec. 3. The federal government has contested that assertion.

It is not clear what would happen if a special master did find a substantial number of noncitizen voters on the federal government’s list or whether it would affect the certification of California’s election results. The 20,000 people on the DOJ’s list constitute only a small fraction of California’s 23 million voters.

Trump administration appeals to higher court

Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to quickly weigh in.

The Justice Department said in a late Wednesday filing that it’s essential the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issue a ruling as soon as possible due to “irreversible ballot processing occurring on an ongoing basis.”

Carter’s decision was the latest legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to expand federal control over state-run elections in the midterms that will decide control of Congress for the rest of his term. The Justice Department has made similar demands in other states, including Washington. Noncitizen voting has been a central focus of Trump’s political messaging for years, although available data indicates it is exceedingly rare.

Trump blasted Carter’s ruling against the federal government on Thursday morning before heading to a campaign rally in South Carolina.

“California is very corrupt. The elections are extremely corrupt. The judge should not have done that but we’ll appeal that, of course,” he told reporters. Trump added without evidence that there are “hundreds of thousands” and then amended it to “millions, in my opinion” of “bad ballots” in California.

Carter, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, argued that the Justice Department’s demands were a clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits changes to voter rolls or election procedure within 90 days of an election.

A number of US citizens were included in the Justice Department’s list of names

Both sides agree that an unspecified number of citizens were inadvertently included. Carter argued that separating the ballots at this point would risk disenfranchising citizens and “wreak havoc” on the election certification process.

Over 500,000 votes have already been processed in Los Angeles County alone, according to court filings. The system also protects voter privacy: Once a vote is processed, it cannot be traced back to the person who cast it.

Carter is to rule on the government’s renewed request for a preliminary injunction, which would bar the state from counting the ballots until the litigation is resolved. He said he will do so after a Nov. 13 evidentiary hearing with input from the special master.

He said that if the federal government suspected noncitizens were voting, it could continue to prosecute those cases criminally. Federal authorities have charged over two dozen foreign nationals in California as part of a statewide sweep targeting people officials allege have illegally registered or voted in U.S. elections.

Appeals panel judges have said they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots this close to midterms

The appeal will be the second time that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the case.

The first time was just last week when the Justice Department argued before an appeals court panel that a fast ruling on its request was needed to stop any counting of the ballots.

Although the panel ruled it was premature for an appeals court to get involved before a lower-court ruling, two of the three judges wrote separate concurrences making it clear they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots at this late date. They questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s list of alleged noncitizen voters and argued that to set aside votes risks disenfranchising citizens.

One judge dissented, arguing that federal law bars noncitizens from voting and requires California to vet the potentially illegal ballots before counting them. The failure to do so, he wrote, would cause irreparable harm to the election.