Sartaj Singh
With director Ned Benson at the helm, ‘The Greatest Hits’ narrates the story of a young woman who loses her boyfriend in an accident and travels to the past every time she listens to a song connected to a memory. Harriet becomes obsessed with finding the right song that will take her to the exact moment in time to prevent her boyfriend Max’s accident. She wears noise-canceling headphones when out in public to avoid accidental time travel, but she has poignant reunions with Max after returning home.
The ordeal begins to weigh on her, and she joins a support group where she meets the sweet and handsome David. Harriet begins to rediscover the present with David, leading to a burgeoning romance. However, she is still hellbent on finding the right song to save Max, leaving her in limbo between two times. The romantic drama film accentuates its themes with settings that are both nostalgic and have a sense of discovery to them, from palm-lined streets to music stores and a silent disco on a rooftop.
The Greatest Hits Was Filmed in California
‘The Greatest Hits’ was filmed on location in Los Angeles County, California. Principal photography began in late August 2022 and was wrapped up by October 2022. During this time, the production team traveled to more than 36 different filming locations across the city. An alert member of the audience can spot several prominent filming sites and locales in the movie.
Los Angeles County, California
Filming for ‘The Greatest Hits’ took place across the eclectic neighborhoods of Los Angeles County. Director Benson wanted to present a rarely explored side of Los Angeles through its filming sites and employed unconventional methods to do so. Along with location manager Justin Hill, he cold-scouted every single location seen in the film, using their knowledge of the city and knocking on doors when they found someplace suitable.
However, shooting in uncommon sites comes with its own set of problems. While filming in Silver Lake and Echo Park, the team faced the logistical challenge of finding parking for their 150 to 200-person crew as the roads were hilly and narrow. They would be walking ten minutes to their filming sites from where their trucks would halt. The Silver Lake neighborhood in Los Angeles may have been well worth the trouble though, with its laid-back atmosphere, street art and graffiti-lined walls, and chic cafes. Adjacent to Silver Lake, Echo Park boasts a natural oasis with Echo Park Lake in the midst of its urban sprawl.
Another unique and striking setting of the film was the rooftop silent disco. This sequence was filmed in the Boyle Heights neighborhood resting on the eastern bank of the Los Angeles River. The crew found an abandoned Sears building and set up the memorable sequence. “Because much of the landscape of the city is pretty flat, when you’re high up, you can see such a vast expanse,” said actress Lucy Boynton in the film’s production notes. “And at nighttime, when the city is lit up, it is incredibly romantic and otherworldly. We had this amazing silent disco scene, and it was really moving. I think it just sets a cinematic tone and creates a rich tapestry for the film to take place in.”
A boutique on Sunset Boulevard stood in for David’s antique shop seen in the movie. The shooting site presented an unexpected challenge to the production team, as the police did not allow them to close off roads in lieu of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2022 baseball playoff series taking place close by. However, they were given permission at the last minute when the LAPD realized their shooting site was too far away from the stadium to hinder traffic.
Some of the other neighborhoods seen in the film’s backdrops include Santa Clarita, San Pedro, Downtown, Chinatown, Highland Park, Venice Beach and Agua Dulce adjacent to Vasquez Rocks. “We really wanted to get the fabric and scale of the city because L.A. is so big and there are so many different amazing pockets,” said Ned Benson in the aforementioned notes. “The mountains are behind it and the palms are swaying. I find it to be really spectacular and beautiful and moody and wonderful in such an interesting way.”
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