Dear Reader
It is late afternoon on a warm afternoon in Pacific City, Oregon. It is early fall, the tourist have gone home for the season. The weather is still perfect, the sky is a deep hue of blue, the waves are slow and lazy, the water temperature is a cold 59 degrees. The locals own the beach, minus an occasional visitor who is trying to stretch their summer.
Back in the summer of 2005 I was at this beach on a car commercial, it was the first time I drove to the Oregon coast. Because of bad directions, most of the crew got lost, fortunately I did not get lost, however I had a couple of anxious moments, it is not easy making a U-Turn in an RV. I met some wonderful people on that shoot and I wanted to return to Pacific City at some point on my own. Fast forward to 2009 and I am back in Pacific City on another car shoot, I arrived a day early to do some exploring and some picture taking. My crew will arrive tonight and at the crack of dawn we will be on the beach tomorrow morning.
Pacific City is about two hours south west of Portland, it is a small community, relying on tourist for its main revenue source and the occasional film shoot. What makes Pacific such an ideal place to shoot is the beach with its rock island a hundred yards out to sea, a two hundred foot sand dune to the west and a killer sunset, filmmakers can not resist this location. There is the Cape Kiwanda Inn adjacent to the beach, which has a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and plenty of rooms for your crew, plus a dump station for your RV's and portable restrooms. There is a small market, a gas station that sells diesel and can accommodate large trucks, though not easily.
If you are tired of the same Los Angeles locations check out Pacific City in Oregon or some of the other coastal cities along the Oregon coast. The best time of the year is from June to the end of September, unless you want an abundance of clouds and rain, late fall to the end of spring is optimal time for such weather.
