NEED HELP WITH A LOCATION!! Need a gas station in LA area.

[Michael Chase Gordon]

Hey guys I really need help finding a low key gas station that will let us shoot there for free or is super cheap. I need it for a day and only need to shoot the outside of the gas station. It needs to be close to to Los Angeles or at most a couple hours away.
If anyone has in info or even links to pics of places you have used then by all means send then to me in a private message or just reply to the thread.
Thanks
MCG

 

[Sarah C.]

Hey Michael.. big size/big company or little/privately owned one? These have very different looks to them.

 

[Noah Kadner]

free/cheap location in L.A.? good luck.... I'd try up somewhere in Lancaster maybe or down on the way towards San Diego. But no one is going to shut down their gas pump for free.

Noah

 

[Michael Chase Gordon]

Thanks guys we are looking more for like a smaller type gas station and all the dialogue is by the gas pump and a scene by one of the bathrooms on the side, which we can cheat if there is really no bathroom.
Basically a private owned type place but if we have to we will go farther outside LA.

 

[Michael Chase Gordon]

Ohh and also the scene by the gas pumps is literally a few sentences and all in one shot so no need to have to shut the pumps down or really block off the area. Its all on a shoulder rig.
The other scene is 2 characters outside the bathroom area or hopefully where a message board is. We have no scenes inside or directly outside the front entrance.

 

[DCC Erickson]

Ohh and also the scene by the gas pumps is literally a few sentences and all in one shot so no need to have to shut the pumps down or really block off the area. Its all on a shoulder rig.
The other scene is 2 characters outside the bathroom area or hopefully where a message board is. We have no scenes inside or directly outside the front entrance.

Pull up on an outside pump at a busy freeway gas station, find a spot where the view from the main building is blocked by adjacent cars. Run and gun...

 

[Sarah C.]

I'm no location scout.. but maybe check into the little gas station across from the Chumash Casino up in Santa Ynez. It's a very humble little station. Located at the main entrance to old town S.Y. It's small, privately owned* room for production trucks in a lot next to it, multiple coffee and food within walking distance.

*For years it was privately owned by a local family, but driving past the other day I see it has been relabeled as Chumash-owned.

SYV is roughly 1.5-2 hours out of LA but a nice drive and area to visit. There is also a Chevron station within old town Santa Ynez, but though smaller than most, it still has a commercial look to it.

Closer to LA.. I currently live in Eagle Rock and there are numerous older gas stations out here on Colorado Ave. that don't look busy at all hours of the day.

 

[Michael Chase Gordon]

Thanks so much Sarah, yeah we are basically try to come as close to stealing the shots for this scene as we can. It will not be a full grip truck hanging around or stuff like that. Maybe the actors, and very small crew to get the shots all in natural daylight.
But Im not gona lie for a few hours of being there with no hassel, it would be cool if we only had to pay a few hundred bucks. I will check out these places you mentioned.

 

[Cody Cuellar]

Go up to Palmdale, Bakersfield, somewhere like that. I shot in a little gas station and even had prop guns and stuff for like $100 an hour at a gas station in Bakersfield. Here's a link to the music video: http://vimeo.com/5848943 The gas station was at the beginning and end. Just get on the phone and start calling and begging. Took me about 5 different places before I got one that was willing to work with us. They were really lenient, and it worked out great.