Lights, camera, action: How a former driving range became a movie set near Philipsburg
When you think about Philipsburg, the first things that may come to mind are Cold Stream or Slabtown parks, the town’s many historic buildings or the nearby Black Moshannon State Park, but what likely doesn’t come to mind are movie sets and cinematography.
But Pat Romano, the owner of the Philipsburg motel We Are Inn, a Rush Township supervisor and a movie enthusiast, is trying to change that.
On his new movie set in Rush Township, Romano helped produce “Deadlock,” which wrapped up filming in late October, and has plans to shoot more films at the location.
The set is located on 32 acres of land alongside U.S. Route 322 between Philipsburg and State College — about a mile up the highway from the Philipsburg Elks Lodge and Country Club — that had formerly been a driving range. Romano purchased the property 2023.
He sees it as an ideal location for a set, using the old driving range’s old clubhouse as place for the film crew to eat, rest and converse between scenes.
“It’s been such a crucial asset to have this property on-hand and ready to use,” Romano said. “The set was built down over the hill away from the highway to keep the noise of the vehicles away from the cameras, and truthfully, it’s just the perfect spot. It’s close to the (We Are) Inn where everyone’s staying, so if anyone forgets anything for the day’s work, we can just go back and get it in about five minutes. It’s an outstanding convenience to have.”
“Deadlock” director Dustin Fairbanks agreed with Romano’s assessment, calling the movie set “perfect for period pieces like this one.”
The film takes place during the Revolutionary War, and the set — which was still up last week, shortly after filming ended — consisted of a small log cabin, several wooden barrels, fur pelts and mason jars filled with rations. Some parts of the film were also shot in the woods and stream nearby.
In early September, a month before filming started, Romano and his crew headed to the woods to timber some trees for construction, and within a few weeks, they’d constructed a one-room log cabin, complete with breakaway windows, a front door, a storage space overhead, a fireplace, a bed and a table and chairs.
As for the rest of the props on the set that weren’t handmade, Romano said they were brought in from community members looking to be a part of the movie’s success.
“I reached out to a few local businesses and people that I know in the area for stuff like the barrels and wagon wheels around outside of the set, the pelts that the trapper has around the cabin and the prop weapons that were used, and it all just sort of came together,” he said. “I even had about 200 calls from locals in the area asking to be an extra in the film — it was great stuff.”
The movie includes a cast of nine, and follows the story of a trapper who stumbles upon a man who has fallen injured in the woods.
The trapper brings him back to his cabin and finds out that the man is being hunted by British soldiers, and eventually, a standoff occurs between the two parties, which inspired the name of the movie, “Deadlock.”
The film features Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey, Kamilo Alonzo, Vince Eisenson, R. Keith Harris, Kirsten Kendall, Conor Kowalski, PJ Marshall, John Potvin and DJ Qualls, according to the movie’s IMDb page.
Now that the filming of the movie is finished, post-production is underway, and Romano expects a release date for the movie to fall sometime during the spring or summer of 2025.
After this project is finished, Romano intends on using the set once again to shoot a short film taking place during the Civil War with help from several Penn State film students, some of which helped film “Deadlock.”
Once the short film is finished, he hopes that the funds raised from it will be enough to turn the short film into a full-length piece, although no timeline was provided for that project.
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 1:47 PM.