Jennifer Klide has been living in Cleveland and working in the art, costuming and production departments on film sets here for the past 10 years. She says finding the right items for the film is tough in a city without a lot of film-industry resources, and she has had to beg, borrow and steal props for her set designs. She regularly uses HGR Industrial Surplus to find items she needs, especially larger pieces of equipment. She has been to competitors’ showrooms but says, “They aren’t as organized, don’t have as large of a selection, and usually carry smaller pieces-parts.” Sometimes, she has leased a piece of equipment for a shoot and says, “HGR has been super helpful to us.”
Klide explains that when a movie is being made, usually what happens is an out-of-town entity comes into the area to form an LLC and temporary production company, then it hires talent to fill positions, sometimes locally and sometimes from big cities, such as Los Angeles or New York.
She has some friends who are working on the next in the “Fast & Furious” franchise, “Fast 8,” starring Vin Diesel, started filming in Cleveland in mid-May. Recently, Klide began working on building and setting up a shed and lab for a 1970s-era film based on local artist John Backderf’s graphic novel My Friend Dahmer, which explores the serial killer’s troubled high school years. Filming will begin in Cleveland this summer.
After her films are finished being shot or reshot, she says the production company tries to resell the items at a fire sale, but often does not have the time. She does not like to junk items that have life left in them; so, sometimes, she gives them back to the company where she bought them or gives them to people or companies that can make use of them in order to keep them out of the landfill.