Written by Murray Ashton on Jul 25, 2012. Posted in Interviews

Filming on location at Hawaii’s Parker Ranch with Nahua Guilloz

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Nahua is with Parker Ranch on Hawaii’s Big Island. She’s been with the Ranch for five years and deals with jobs including PR, overseeing IT, Archives (including land archives), visitor activities and special projects. She also takes care of the Board of Directors and Trustees.

What can you tell us about Parker Ranch as a film and TV location?

Parker Ranch is located on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are halfway between Japan and the US mainland, and in close proximity to the airport and resorts. We have 130,000 acres of wide open pasture land on the slopes of one of the largest mountains, Mauna Kea.

Our landscape is diverse and includes mountain pastures, barren old dusty fields, cinder hills and wetlands. The principal locations is our Mana road area that provides a look of green pasture, red dirt road and a few windswept trees with cows and horses in the pasture. Recently the wetlands in Kohala have been used more for the heavy forested look.

What special film-friendly facilities do you have at Parker Ranch?

Parker Ranch does not have any permanent facilities but our location is close to several major towns, which makes bringing in equipment and crews easy, despite the location appearing very remote. Most of the roads are well-maintained and a variety of locations can be filmed within a short distance of each other. Parker Ranch is about 20 minutes from several major resorts that allow crews to also have an enjoyable experience while in the area.

Parker Ranch does not have any permanent facilities but our location is close to several major towns, which makes bringing in equipment and crews easy, despite the location appearing very remote.

Are there any specific technical considerations a production should know about before considering filming at Parker Ranch?

Parker Ranch is an outdoor location, so you will need to bring all of the equipment with you. We are a working cattle ranch and will work to accommodate most requests but it’s always advisable to work with a location scout or producer who’s from the area. These folks are great at making sure all requests are met. There are several we work with and we could provide those names on request. Please keep in mind that we are subject to the elements and rain is frequent. Sometimes we get lots of wind too.

Is your location open every day to filmmakers?

We are open most of the year, but are closed for major holidays such as July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.

What does it cost to shoot at Parker Ranch?

Costs vary depending on what you are doing, the crew size and what is required. Our location fees for filming start at USD2,500 per day and stills photography starts at USD1,000 per day. A price sheet is available on request.

What sort of public limited liability insurance do productions need before they film?

We do require insurance before any filming can take place on Parker Ranch. We require General Liability, Auto Insurance and Worker Compensation insurance. Parker Ranch is owned by Parker Ranch Foundation Trust and insurance coverage is mandatory.

Which productions have visited you recently?

Just in this year we have had No Kitchen Required (The Movie Channel for BBC America), the Travel Channel and a Japanese Documentary Team, Gunwerks and a student film crew. In the past we have had Eddie Bauer LLC, MTV – My Antonio, a Japanese sci-fi film and Toyota Japan.

On our recent hunt with No Kitchen Required the crew needed our hunting guide to run up and down this hill where they had captured the pig earlier. They wanted to get the visual and sound effects of running down this steep hill through the trees.

Our hunting guide is a big guy and the guy with the camera was a little skinny guy. As the guide comes barrelling down the hill the camera guy was in front of him. He tripped on a branch and fell, and he said he almost squished the little guy. It was so funny but what crews do for the shot.

Is there hotel accommodation close by?

The best locations are on the coast in the Waikoloa Resort area. There are many to choose from no matter what your budget is.

Thank you

To find out more about filming at Parker Ranch please contact Nahua here.