Residents welcome to try to spot stars during Ogden filming
Snow blankets the sidewalk outside of Grounds for Coffee on Historic 25th Street in Ogden on Thursday. Crews will be filming in the 100 block of the street today and into the early Sunday hours. Area residents are welcome to try to spot stars, as long as they don't impede filming, the producer says. (NICK SHORT/Standard-Examiner)
Tia Mowry
Tori Spelling
Sadie Clifford Gleave talks with Timothy Pattan at Grounds for Coffee on Historic 25th Street in Ogden on Thursday. The establishment has been repainted and will be decorated for Christmas today and into the early Sunday hours for filming of "The Mistle-Tones," which will air on the ABC Family Channel in December. (NICK SHORT/Standard-Examiner)
Customers enjoy their drinks and conversation inside Grounds for Coffee on Historic 25th Street in Ogden on Thursday. The establishment has been repainted and will be decorated for Christmas today and into the early Sunday hours for filming of "The Mistle-Tones," which will air on the ABC Family Channel in December. (NICK SHORT/Standard-Examiner)
OGDEN — For people who always flip to the end of books and fast-forward to the end of movies, this afternoon is your chance to catch a glimpse of the final scenes of “The Mistle-Tones,” an ABC Family Channel Christmas movie that won’t debut until December.
The film will be shooting this afternoon and evening on the 100 block of Ogden’s Historic 25th Street, between Wall and Lincoln avenues, but much of the action, featuring stars Tori Spelling and Tia Mowry, will take place on a closed set inside Grounds for Coffee. It won’t be visible from the street.
“The scenes we shoot in Ogden are for the big finale at the end of the movie and to establish our town,” Utah-based producer Matias Alvarez, who has worked on more than 20 films for Disney and Disney-owned companies, wrote in answering questions submitted by email.
“Yes, the lead actors are in the big finale.”
The one-block section of Historic 25th Street will be closed to traffic all day and into Sunday’s early hours.
People who want to watch the outdoor scenes, then the crew going in and out of Grounds for Coffee as the actors remain inside, are welcome to watch if they keep their distance and don’t interfere with production.
“We are happy to have people watch as long as they’re quiet and respectful of the actors,” Alvarez said.
“For the actors, it’s a job. Production assistants will be happy to show people where to stand for a good view, without being in the way.”
Alvarez said downtown Ogden is well suited for shooting exteriors.
“We picked Ogden because our director thought it was the perfect-size town per the script as it was written,” he said. “It has a nice mix of old and new buildings. And the quaint feel of 25th Street is perfect for the finale of a Christmas movie.”
“The Mistle-Tones” will debut during the ABC Family Channel’s 2012 “25 Days of Christmas.”
Spelling and Mowry star in the story of a holiday choir that gives its last open slot to a bad singer who is a friend of the group leader Marci (Spelling) rather than to the talented Holly (Mowry), whose mother founded the group. So Holly founds her own choral group, the Mistle-Tones.
Holly challenges her group’s rivals to a Christmas Eve sing-off, then finds herself re-examining the real meaning of the holiday.
“People will love the great, new takes on classic Christmas songs, the charming story, and of course the incredibly beautiful locations like Ogden, many of which will be recognizable to locals,” Alvarez said.
“We are shooting from Pleasant Grove to Ogden and at several places in between, along the Wasatch Front.”
But Ogden is the only city that will shoot with nature-made snow.
“We love the snow,” Alvarez said. “We’ve been making our own snow for the first week of this production. We’re so happy it finally snowed, and we want it to keep snowing.
“We would love it to snow all night in Ogden.”
