Lights! Camera! Aktion!

A couple of weeks ago, Houstonist was downtown and noticed a film crew setting up lights, cameras — and, presumably, action — at the corner of Louisiana and Rusk. We wondered in passing what was going on, but we figured it was just Time Warner shooting another of its asinine commercials with a guy in a space suit or a businessman who says "Click! Boom!" for half an hour. In reality, though, what we were seeing was the filming of a commercial for a German wireless device. And it wasn't the only foreign commercial being filmed in Houston, which the Chronicle reports is quite the hot spot for European advertising.

"A lot of European companies like to use Houston because it has a new and old look to it," Weygandt said. "It's just a variety of looks."

Houston Film Commission executive director Rick Ferguson said many European companies want to film here because of the the uncluttered skyline and architecture.

A German-language BMW commercial was filmed in Houston in April. Auto companies, in particular, love filming commercials in Houston, Ferguson said. That's because the city has "so many high-tech and modern buildings that have reflective surfaces." The good lighting off the buildings can make the car look great from all angles.

Well, that makes sense — even our 1983 Diatribe looks sorta new when we drive it between the glassy skyscrapers downtown. Turns out about half the commercials filmed in Houston in the past three years have been for European or Asian products because directors like the city's versatility, local officials' cooperation and "the way the downtown skyline looks from Allen Parkway or Memorial Drive at the 'magic hour' — right before dusk when the lighting is perfect." (As Kuff notes, who doesn't like that view of the skyline?)

In case you were wondering, commercials aren't the only things being filmed in Houston: Between 2004 and 2006, about 500 films, TV programs, music videos and documentaries were taped here.
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Photo: flickr user cybertoad