‘All American’: Rigging and set dressing taking place on campus for CW show

By Delfino Camacho|October 13, 2022

A prop display column for the show All American sits in front of the El Camino College Administration Building as production workers hurry to get the campus set dressed on Thursday, Oct.13. (Delfino Camacho | The Union)

A Warner Brothers production crew was seen rigging cables, lights and set dressing portions of The El Camino College campus in preparation to film scenes for the CW television show All American on Oct. 13.

A mass email sent out from the Office of Marketing and Communications said that preparation work for film production would be taking place today with filming set to begin shooting tomorrow, Friday, Oct 14.

Portions of the Administration Building will be temporarily closed from 12-1 p.m. due to Friday’s filming.

These portions will include the front entrance of the building, the quad as well as the board room and conference room, according to the email.

The south stairwell of the Humanities Building will also be temporarily closed on Friday, with filming taking place from 2-3 p.m.

Two production workers attach Golden Angeles University prop banners in an effort to transform El Camino College into the set for the television show All American on Thursday, Oct. 13. (Delfino Camacho | The Union)

Director of Events and Facility Rentals Bridget Delahunt confirmed with The Union that the filming is for the CW show All American.

“Today is set up and install. Tomorrow is a filming day,” read a statement from Delahunt to The Union. “It’s a big production.”

The show All American centers around the character of Spencer James a student from South Crenshaw who dreams of making it big as a football player and is inspired by a true story.

Actor Daniel Ezra portrays the lead actor in the show with other main characters portrayed by actors Samantha Logan and Taye Diggs.

The El Camino Campus has previously stood in for the fictional Golden Angeles University, a college that characters attend and the home of the fictional Condors Football team.

Donald Fish, a rigging gaffer for the production said that his crew started working at 6 a.m. in the Warner Brothers studios.

A dolly of production equipment sits in front of the El Camino College Administration Building on Thursday, Oct 13. The CW show All American uses the El Camino campus as a set. (Delfino Camacho | The Union)

The crew then drove their trucks or got shuttled into El Camino around 8 a.m., when work began on campus.

“Today we’re just prepping. We’re’ laying cable, we’re laying out all the power for the crew to film tomorrow,” Fish said.

Fish also said that while his team consists of eight people, he estimates as many as 20 more production staff members were working on campus to get everything ready.

Fish and his team will be on campus on Oct. 14 and they are scheduled to tear the set production down on Oct. 17.

“[We’ve filmed] a couple times here. I think we started here maybe season four, because [the characters] were in high school and then they graduated and now this is one of their college campuses,” Fish said.

A production truck from Warners Brothers parked in front of the main entrance to the El Camino College Administration Building on Thursday, Oct. 13. Production staff for the CW show All American prepare for a film shoot scheduled for the next day, Friday, Oct 14. (Delfino Camacho | The Union)

The show’s fifth season started airing on Oct. 10. Season five will consist of 20 episodes in total with new episodes airing every Monday on The CW network.

El Camino student Catalina Lopez, 18, was surprised by the “unexpected’ filming on campus and excited by the novelty of having a production crew on campus.

While Lopez had not heard of the show before, she said that she would seek it out to start watching it.

“I actually will [watch it] like right now, when I get home from school,” Lopez said with a laugh.