Bring It On filming locations

September 11, 2009September 15, 2009

Kirsten Dunst’s Bring It On House

Well, as Vanessa Williams once sang, I definitely “saved the best for last” regarding my Bring It On posts this week. As you might have already guessed, the BIO filming location I was most excited about stalking was, of course, the ultra-cool, modern-style abode belonging to Kirsten Dunst’s character, Torrance Shipman, in the movie. Fellow stalker Owen found this location by, again, getting a hold of a Bring It On crew member who remembered that the house was located on a cul-de-sac about twenty-five miles north of San Diego in a small beach community named Cardiff-by-the-Sea. Owen got to cyber-stalking and, sure enough, found the house pretty much immediately. So, on our way home from San Diego this past Saturday morning, I dragged my parents out to Cardiff-by-the-Sea to stalk the house. And, let me tell you, the stalking gods were definitely smiling down on me that day, because when we pulled up to the house the owners happened to be standing outside and they ended up giving us a TOUR OF THEIR HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 But I’ll get to that in a minute.

When I first hopped out of the car, camera in hand, and noticed the owners standing outside, I asked them if their house had been used in Bring It On and they said, “You found us!” LOL The owners honestly could NOT have been nicer and literally talked to us for over twenty minutes and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming. They also told us all sorts of cool behind-the-scenes information, like the fact that the movie was originally titled Cheer Fever and that the flick was not expected to be released in theatres, but to instead go straight to DVD. No one had any idea it would turn out to be such a huge hit! The owner, Cindy, also told us that producers were considering three different houses in the area to stand in as Torrance’s home in the movie – hers, one just around the corner, and another in Point Loma. They ended up choosing Cindy’s because they liked the fact that it was located on a cul-de-sac. So interesting! Then, when I asked Cindy if she had gotten to meet Kirsten Dunst during the filming, she said “Hold on a minute!”, ran inside, and grabbed a photo album that she had made of the shoot!!!! It was at that point that I just about keeled over from excitement!!! 🙂

As you can probably imagine, I was absolutely mesmerized by Cindy’s photo album! It contained numerous pictures of the filming, including candid photographs of the actors hanging out on set and getting their make-up done, and photographs of the house being dressed up for the shoot. Cindy told us that producers actually changed the front of her home quite significantly for the filming. In real life, the home has two separate garages – a single car garage on the right hand side and a two car garage on the left. For a reason that she was unsure of, set dressers built a false exterior to cover up the two-car garage, as you can see in the above photograph. They also added a significant amount of foliage in front of that fake exterior, I am guessing to hide that part of the driveway.

One part of the home that was not changed for the movie was the little circular address plaque situated on the front of the single car garage. Yay!! I so loved seeing that! 🙂

Another cool tidbit of information that Cindy told me what that prior to the filming of Bring It On, she did not have a bench in her front porch area. But when producers brought one in for the shoot, Cindy and her husband really liked how it looked and ended up purchasing one to put in the exact same spot where Jesse Bradford sat in the above scene. Love it!

Included in Cindy’s Bring It On scrapbook were pictures of the interior of her home all dressed up for the filming. As I had been under the assumption that all of the interior scenes had taken place on a soundstage, I just about fell over when I found out that they had actually filmed inside of the real house! And it was then that Cindy asked – are you sitting down for this??? – if my mom and I wanted to come inside her home to see the areas that were used in the movie! DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE? DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE? LOL OF COURSE WE DID! 🙂 The area of the home that I was most excited about seeing was the cool spiral staircase located off of the living room, as my fiancé and I have a very similar stairwell in our apartment! 🙂 When I mentioned that fact to Cindy, she insisted that I pose for a picture on the stairs. SO COOL! 🙂 Thank God she did, too, as it was the ONLY photograph I ended up taking inside of the house. 🙁 I was so incredibly overwhelmed at seeing everything in person that I totally forgot to take any pictures! LOL I am such an airhead sometimes, I swear!

Needless to say, the Bring It On house is absolutely beautiful inside. The areas of the home that were used in the filming include the kitchen and the living room, which both look a bit different in real life, as producers changed the color of the walls and brought in all new furnishings for the shoot.

The home’s master bedroom – which we did not get to see – was also used in the movie as Kirsten Dunst’s room. Producers not only had the room painted a mustard yellow color (yuck!) for the filming, but also paid a young girl to decorate the walls with magazine pin-ups, photographs, and cheerleading memorabilia. Oh, how I would have LOVED to have had that job as a kid! LOL So would have been right up my alley. 🙂

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I cannot tell you how cool it was to see the Bring It On house so up close and personal and to get to speak with the real life owners at length about their experiences during the filming. My mom was completely floored, too, and she’s never even seen Bring It On! LOL As I was leaving the house, I texted Owen to let him know the awesome news and he wrote back “How do you always get so darn lucky???” To tell you the truth, I often find myself asking that very same question! LOL Sometimes the stalking stars just align, I guess, but, let me tell you, I often have to pinch myself when thinking about all of the amazingly cool things I’ve gotten to do while stalking! 🙂

A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location. And another BIG THANK YOU to the owners of the Bring It On house for COMPLETELY making my day by inviting my mom and me into their home and spending so much time chatting with us! You guys ROCK! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kirsten Dunst’s house from Bring It On is located at 2002 Bruceala Court in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, just North of San Diego. If you stalk this home, please respect the owners’ privacy and do not trespass, ring the doorbell, or ask to be let inside. My mom and I were extremely lucky to meet the residents and be given a tour of the home, but as this is not common practice, please don’t bother the owners about doing it yourself.

September 10, 2009September 9, 2009

Eliza Dushku’s House from Bring It On

One of the locations I was most excited about seeing this past weekend in San Diego was the La Jolla area residence that was used as the home of siblings Missy Pantone (aka Eliza Dushku) and Cliff Pantone (aka cutie Jesse Bradford) in 2000’s Bring It On. Full credit goes to fellow stalker Owen for tracking down this locale through some painstaking research. A few weeks back, when Owen first set out on his mission to find all of the Bring It On locations, we both decided that the places we were most interested in seeing were the two main homes used in the movie. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, out of all the movie and television locations I’ve stalked, homes always seem to be my favorite! 🙂 Anyway, Owen managed to get ahold of a Bring It On crew member who told him that he remembered exactly two things about Eliza Dushku’s house in the movie. One – it was absolutely GINORMOUS in size, and two – it was located on a cul-de-sac somewhere near La Jolla Village Drive in La Jolla. So, with that information in hand, Owen got to work using Google Maps and, sure enough, it wasn’t long before he had found it! So, this past weekend while vacationing in San Diego, I,of course, immediately dragged my parents right out to stalk the Bring It On house.

As you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On house still looks pretty much the same today as it did back in 2000 when the movie was filmed. And, the crew member Owen spoke with was right – the home is absolutely HUGE! So huge, in fact, that I couldn’t step back far enough to fit the whole thing in my camera lens. LOL

A few minor changes have actually been made to the exterior of the house, though, which shouldn’t be all that surprising, I guess, being that Bring It On was filmed almost a decade ago. Those changes include the two trees flanking each side of the front door, which have grown considerably since the filming;

the wrought-iron stairway railing which has since been removed;

and – what is, in my mind, the strangest alteration of all – the front door, which has been changed from a double door to a single. So odd!

As you can see from the above screen captures and Google Maps aerial view, the backyard still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Bring It On was filmed. The only thing missing is the swing set, which I am fairly certain was just a prop brought in solely for the filming.

Eliza Dushku’s house shows up several times throughout Bring It On, most memorably in the Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Bradford toothbrushing scene that I talked about in Tuesday’s post – one of my most favorite movie scenes ever! So love it! 🙂

Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On house is truly beautiful in person – and, as I mentioned before, absolutely enormous! According to Zillow, the five bedroom, six bathroom home, which was built in 1991, measures a whopping 7,160 square feet!! And, as you can see in the above photograph, also has a FIVE CAR GARAGE!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Eliza Dushku’s Bring It On house is located at 7762 Starlight Drive in La Jolla.

September 9, 2009September 8, 2009

Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites from Bring It On

The second item on my Bring It On stalking agenda from last weekend was a little hotel named Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites, which is also located on San Diego’s Shelter Island, just down the street from the Marlin Club which I blogged about yesterday. This is one location that I actually hadn’t planned on stalking when I first headed down to San Diego last Friday. But – thanks to fellow stalker Owen – I had the address written down in my trusty stalking notebook, so when my dad mentioned that he wanted to look at a boat store that was in the same area as Humphrey’s, I asked if he would be so kind as to also take me by the hotel. Well, as you can probably imagine, that request did NOT go over well AT ALL! My dad promptly reminded me that I had originally promised I would only be dragging him to two stalking locations that weekend. He was more than just slightly peeved that I was all of a sudden adding previously unmentioned locales to the list. In his defense, though, he hadn’t really been feeling well all weekend and, being that he just barely tolerates my stalking habit on a good day, perhaps this is one request I shouldn’t have made. But since we were going to be in the area, I just HAD to ask. Well, my dad did end up – very relunctantly – taking me by the hotel and, as fate would have it, as soon as we got there he absolutely fell in love with the place! He took about a million pictures, walked the entire hotel grounds, and even suggested to my mom that they stay there during their next San Diego trip. LOL LOL LOL See, as I’ve always said, good things come to those who stalk!! 🙂 You simply just never know what cool spot is waiting right around the corner for you to discover!

I’m actually not at all surprised that my dad was so taken with Humphrey’s, as it is a really beautiful hotel which boasts a private marina, picturesque ocean views, a fitness center, a heated pool and jacuzzi complete with a poolside bar, a putting green, a spa, large lawns, meandering ponds, and a waterfront restaurant which was recently named “San Diego’s Finest Restaurant with Live Music Venue” by the California Restaurant Association.

Humphrey’s also has quite a large celebrity connection. Besides being a favorite of television star John Stamos, whose E! True Hollywood Story was filmed in part at the hotel, each summer Humphrey’s is also the site of a very successful outdoor concert series named Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay. I literally almost fell over when I read a list of the many famous names who had recently graced Humphrey’s stage. Those names include The Soup’s Joel McHale (so LOVE him!), Joe Cocker, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, LeAnn Rimes, Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls, Tori Amos, Jewel, Chicago, Tears for Fears, the Moody Blues, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Lyle Lovett, Tracy Chapman, Tower of Power, Dave Koz, Sinbad, Air Supply, Christopher Cross, Wanda Sykes, the Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Loggins & Messina, and Chris Botti. Whew! What a lineup!

Ironically enough, while my parents and I were perusing the hotel grounds (before we had learned about Humphrey’s A-List concert series), we happened upon a rock group setting up in a backstage area. As we were walking by, one of the band members put his arm out to block my path and said “Hey, are you with the band?” I was a bit taken aback at the man’s rude tone and said “No, I’m sorry, I’m actually not with the band. Am I not supposed to be walking through here?” The guy laughed and said “Aw, I’m just joking with you. Unless, of course, you want to volunteer to help these guys set up the stage.” To which I said, “If you make me the star of your next music video, I might stick around to help.” LOL Well, the guy just laughed at me and that was that. Until a few minutes later when I noticed a large crate with the words “RatDog” and “Grateful Dead” stenciled across the front. I immediately grabbed my mom and said “Oh my God, I think we were just talking to members of the Grateful Dead!” She looked at me like I was absolutely crazy and said “No, Lindsay, trust me, the Grateful Dead would not be playing here.” Well, come to find out, former Dead guitarist Bob Weir and his band, RatDog, were, in fact, playing at Humphrey’s that night and not only had we walked right past some of the band members, but I had actually unknowingly spoken with one and asked him to put me in his next music video! LOL LOL LOL When we went back later to ask the band if they’d take a picture with me, they were, unfortunately, nowhere to be found. 🙁

In Bring It On, Humphrey’s stood in for the Daytona Beach Tiki Adventure Suites hotel where Kirsten Dunst and the rest of the Toros stayed during the Universal Cheer Association Nationals Competition towards the end of the movie. I’m actually quite surprised that producers chose to use Humphrey’s to represent a Florida area hotel, as the place looks more like it belongs in Waikiki than Daytona Beach. Although its close proximity to the Marlin Club must have made it the easy choice for filming.

Several areas of the hotel were featured in Bring It On, including the front entrance;

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the exterior of some of the rooms,

the pool area,

and the interior of one of the rooms.

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Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites is a really beautiful place and I highly recommend stalking it! I am very much looking forward to my parent’s next trip down to San Diego, as it looks like they will most likely be staying at Humphrey’s, so you can bet I’ll be tagging along with them once again!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bring It On hotel, aka Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites, is located at 2303 Shelter Island Drive on Shelter Island, just outside of Point Loma, in San Diego. You can visit their website here. Humphrey’s is located just down the street from another Bring It On location – the Marlin Club – which can be found at 2445 Shelter Island Drive.

September 8, 2009September 8, 2009

The Marlin Club from “Bring It On”

A few weeks ago, my parents, my fiance, and I went down to San Diego for a few days for a short little summer vacay. When I told fellow stalker Owen where I was headed, he set out on a mission to find pretty much every single location used in 2000’s Bring It On, a teen comedy which was filmed in its entirety in the beachside city. Well, imagine my disappointment when I received an email from Owen listing ALL of the Bring It On locations – including the two main houses featured in the movie! – a few days later while in the car on the way home from that trip! Being that we were already outside the city limits by the time I read his email, and being that my parents outright refused to turn the car around (I know, the nerve!), there was no way I would be able stalk the Bring It On locales that day. Needless to say, I could NOT have been more disappointed!!! 🙁 The only silver lining to the whole situation was the fact that since I find myself in the San Diego area at least once a month, I knew I would be able to stalk the locations in the very near future. So, last week, when my parents announced that they would be traveling to San Diego for a few days, I just about had a heart attack and told them that, like it or not, I would be joining them on their trip. 🙂 So, bright and early Friday morning, I headed down to sunny San Diego. The first item on my Bring It On stalking agenda? The Shelter Island Marlin Club, where the brief, but memorable bikini car wash scene took place. 🙂

In Bring It On, the Rancho Carne Toros Cheeleading Team decides to host a massive car wash event at the Marlin Club in order to raise money to hire a professional choreographer who will hopefully give them the leg up at their upcoming regional competition. To attract potential car wash clients, the team, which includes cheerleaders Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku, conducts the entire event in their bathing suits, which is perhaps why this particular scene has become the most well-known out of the entire movie. Well, amongst males anyway. My personal favorite scene is, of course, Jesse Bradford and Kirsten Dunst’s toothbrushing scene, which has got to be one of the best movie scenes of all time!!! So, darn cute! 🙂 And if you don’t happen to know the scene of which I am speaking, obviously you have yet to see Bring It On, in which case you must go out and rent it RIGHT NOW! 🙂 But, I digress.

In actuality, the Marlin Club is not a car wash at all, but a fishing club and free, certified fish weighing station located on a tiny peninsula in San Diego known as Shelter Island. The Club, which was started on September 15, 1931, is open year-round for local and visiting fisherman who want to get their recent catches weighed for free. In 1952, the Marlin Club built their clubhouse, which can be seen in the background of the above screen capture and photograph. And in 1958, the Club became incorporated as a non-profit organization. The Marlin Club now boasts several hundred members, each paying annual dues which go to help support the free weighings provided to the public. According to their website, they invite any and all fishing enthusiasts to “drop in and share a fish story” anytime.

Ironically enough, a Marlin can even be seen hanging in the background of the car wash scene in Bring It On, although the camera moved far too fast for me to get a good screen capture of it.

Because the Marlin Club is, in essence, a large parking lot with a gorgeous view, it’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use it for the Bring It On car wash scene. And I am very happy to report that the Club still looks pretty much identical to how it appeared onscreen almost a full decade ago. And, even though, it’s really “just” a parking lot, it is still very easily recognizable from the movie.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Marlin Club from Bring It On can be found at 2445 Shelter Island Drive on Shelter Island, which is located just outside of Point Loma, in San Diego. You can visit the Marlin Club’s website here.