Where is this Los Angeles Ray Donovan location?

Jellyfish

Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone here can help me with my nerdy request. Ray Donovan is one of my favourite TV shows, and I've been finding some of the Los Angeles landmarks on Google Earth, Street View etc. I'm looking for the place in the picture below, but haven't come up with anything. Does anyone recognise it? There are two buildings with illuminated blue signs but I can't find them. Thanks to anyone who can help.

lilusako

I've never seen the show... but what episode is this in? By the looks of the buildings and trees, it's definitely not in Downtown Los Angeles.

Jellyfish

lilusako wrote:

I've never seen the show... but what episode is this in? By the looks of the buildings and trees, it's definitely not in Downtown Los Angeles.

I'd recommend the show; it's a bit hit and miss sometimes but worth watching overall, especially for Jon Voight's character, Ray's father.

The shot above is actually from the DVD menu of the first series. The locations in the actual episodes have already been discussed online, so are no problem to find, but now I'm interested in this bit. I said in my first post it's a nerdy request! I think the building with the blue sign at the top, with what looks like a logo next to it, would be recognisable to someone familiar with it.

Mr Martini

Jellyfish wrote:

lilusako wrote:

I've never seen the show... but what episode is this in? By the looks of the buildings and trees, it's definitely not in Downtown Los Angeles.

I'd recommend the show; it's a bit hit and miss sometimes but worth watching overall, especially for Jon Voight's character, Ray's father.

The shot above is actually from the DVD menu of the first series. The locations in the actual episodes have already been discussed online, so are no problem to find, but now I'm interested in this bit. I said in my first post it's a nerdy request! I think the building with the blue sign at the top, with what looks like a logo next to it, would be recognisable to someone familiar with it.

Even when zoomed in, the picture is to grainy to see the logo. Just curious, does the whole show take place in Los Angelas? Or are there other locations around the United States or World Ray Donnovann takes place in?

lilusako

I'll have to add it to my list of things to watch.

As for the building in the middle with the blue sign and symbol, I'm pretty sure it's a Bank of America sign. But there are tons of tall buildings spread out through out Los Angeles and greater Southern California that could have a Bank of America sign on it. ) Hence asking if it came from an episode.

Gaging from the palm trees -- my guts tell me its somewhere in the greater LA area, maybe Culver city, or Studio City... though Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena also came to mind.

Mr Martini

lilusako wrote:

As for the building in the middle with the blue sign and symbol, I'm pretty sure it's a Bank of America sign. But there are tons of tall buildings spread out through out Los Angeles and greater Southern California that could have a Bank of America sign on it. ) Hence asking if it came from an episode.

Gaging from the palm trees -- my guts tell me its somewhere in the greater LA area, maybe Culver city, or Studio City... though Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena also came to mind.

I also thought it was Bank of America, but did a quick google search of their buildings and the design of the L.A. BofA building is more square and the windows are different. Thats why I asked if theres different locations for this show across the U.S.A.

lilusako

Mr Martini wrote:

I also thought it was Bank of America, but did a quick google search of their buildings and the design of the L.A. BofA building is more square and the windows are different. Thats why I asked if theres different locations for this show across the U.S.A.

Judging from the list of locations per episode on other websites -- they all seem to be based here in Southern California, not wandering too far away from the film studios. I don't think they would have travelled across the US, but the photo itself looks very Californian. )

Jellyfish

Thanks for your help, Lilusako and Mr Martini, you gave me some good tips: the Bank of America logo, which I didn't know (I'm in the United Kingdom but have always been fascinated by the USA), and the possibility of it being in other locations. Part of the first series is set in Boston, so I've had a look there, but not come up with anything. I've spent an annoying amount of time zooming through Google Earth from one place to another! I think I'll give up-it's not a problem not knowing where it is, just a bit irritating. Thank you again for your help.

Westward_Drift

What episode is the picture from?

Mr Martini

There could also be a lot of post-production magic going on to. Building shapes may be changed, the palm trees might have been added in Post Production. It would help you a lot if you knew what episode it came from, if it does come from one episode. The only other suggestion I could make is, take note of driving scenes. Where are they coming from and where are they going. Then check those buildings on a route. If you already have addresses of filming locations, you could see what route Google maps provides from i.e. 123 Main Street to 456 1st street.

Jellyfish

As far as I'm aware, the shot isn't from a particular episode; instead, it's from the DVD menu and appears when you are going from the main screen to an episode, special features etc., and it's just a static shot with moving traffic shown for a couple of seconds. This is why I've not found it on any of the online episode guides. The Bank of America suggestion prompted me to look at different Bank of America building locations on Google Earth to find one that matched, but I haven't come across anything, despite spending quite a bit of time on it!

lilusako

Based on how TV shows are normally filmed around here... if most of the episodes are filmed in Southern California, its pretty high chance that it's all filmed down there. Rarely do they ever go outside of that mostly due to budget.

The unfortunate thing about searching for a 'Bank of America' building is sometimes these larger buildings might lose/end their lease and another company will take over. Things are constantly changing here in Southern California, nothing is ever the same ) I'll try look when I've got some free time again... I'm sure it'll turn up eventually.

JTullock23

If you can get in touch with Harris Thomas he might know. He was a fan of the show and has been to quite a few RD locations. I think he is friends with the costume designer too.

Mr Martini

lilusako wrote:

Based on how TV shows are normally filmed around here... if most of the episodes are filmed in Southern California, its pretty high chance that it's all filmed down there. Rarely do they ever go outside of that mostly due to budget.

The unfortunate thing about searching for a 'Bank of America' building is sometimes these larger buildings might lose/end their lease and another company will take over. Things are constantly changing here in Southern California, nothing is ever the same ) I'll try look when I've got some free time again... I'm sure it'll turn up eventually.

From what I can tell, the Bank of America building in Los Angeles has been a BofA building since 1992. Plus, the BofA building in L.A. looks nothing like the building in the photo.

While the sign on the building resembles BofA, my gut tells me it's not a BofA building. Doing a quick overhead Google map search of L.A., I don't see any buildings that might look like the one in the photo. If its not L.A., maybe a city close by?

Jellyfish

lilusako wrote:

Based on how TV shows are normally filmed around here... if most of the episodes are filmed in Southern California, its pretty high chance that it's all filmed down there. Rarely do they ever go outside of that mostly due to budget.

The unfortunate thing about searching for a 'Bank of America' building is sometimes these larger buildings might lose/end their lease and another company will take over. Things are constantly changing here in Southern California, nothing is ever the same ) I'll try look when I've got some free time again... I'm sure it'll turn up eventually.

Lilusako, I think you're falling into the same trap that I have! What starts off with one screenshot of a location, that as far as I am aware doesn't actually feature in an episode, becomes a compelling hunt! I've been spending a lot of time zooming around Los Angeles and the nearby area on Google Earth so much so that it all seems to blur together. As for the building lease changing, the series started in 2013, so plenty of time for things to change. Thank you for you help with this, but please don't spend too much time on it!

JTullock23 wrote:

If you can get in touch with Harris Thomas he might know. He was a fan of the show and has been to quite a few RD locations. I think he is friends with the costume designer too.

Thank you for the suggestion, I have previously contacted Harris on here about Ray Donovan.

Mr Martini wrote:

From what I can tell, the Bank of America building in Los Angeles has been a BofA building since 1992. Plus, the BofA building in L.A. looks nothing like the building in the photo.

While the sign on the building resembles BofA, my gut tells me it's not a BofA building. Doing a quick overhead Google map search of L.A., I don't see any buildings that might look like the one in the photo. If its not L.A., maybe a city close by?

It's not definite that it is a Bank of America building-it was suggested here the logo looks similar, but it might be something else, which makes the task even harder!

Jellyfish

Thank you to everyone who has responded to this thread! This must be how the Bond prop collectors feel when trying to identify a particular baseball cap from two seconds of No Time To Die footage.

In case anyone is interested, this is the music that plays in the few seconds the location appears on screen (when going between the DVD menus, starting an episode etc.). It's a nice couple of minutes of music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14z6xhdvnyk

Mr Martini

Just curious about a few things.

1) How many DVD menus are there?

2) Do these other DVD menu feature things from the show?

3) Does the DVD packaging have any booklets in it?

4) If it does have booklets, have you read any of the small print in the books? I'm thinking maybe theres something in the booklets that might mention a company name i.e. Thanks to (insert company name here) for use of their logo or use of their building.

Jellyfish

Mr Martini wrote:

Just curious about a few things.

1) How many DVD menus are there?

2) Do these other DVD menu feature things from the show?

3) Does the DVD packaging have any booklets in it?

4) If it does have booklets, have you read any of the small print in the books? I'm thinking maybe theres something in the booklets that might mention a company name i.e. Thanks to (insert company name here) for use of their logo or use of their building.

The same picture is used throughout the DVD menus, and there are no booklets with it.

Jellyfish

Here's an update on this (and I thought I'd given up hope!):
I e-mailed the Los Angeles tourism board a few days ago. I have not had a reply.
I ordered the Blu-Ray from Ebay, thinking the building signs may be more legible. It arrived today. However, while the picture above, that started the hunt, is on the menu, it's even worse! There's a big picture of Ray Donovan right over it, so the building signs are hidden!
At this point I think I've had it, and am somewhat resigned to never knowing, unless someone suddenly recognises it. After all, it's only a picture on a DVD menu; plenty of worse things in the world to worry about at the moment. But I reread some of the messages on this thread, and Lilusako's comment about leases changing prompted me to do a Google Images search on my phone. And now I think I've found the building in the picture! I'm afraid I'm going to keep you in suspense a little while longer until I can get on my computer and have a proper look, but the one I have found looks promising, and the surrounding area (or what I can see from the images) looks similar too. I'll let you know more when I can!

Mr Martini

I thought I had found the building myself at one point. I'm not just looking for one building, I'm also looking for the building behind. It appears to be a black building with a white top floor. I thought I had it narrowed down to the area of Wilshire Blvd, 7th street Francisco Street. I thought it may have been the Ernest and Young building. With a small portion of 1000 Wilshire (Wedbush Center?). But I don't think thats it either.

lilusako

Hope you've been able to find the building! I was kind of wondering as I poked around for fun today. What episodes are on the DVD? maybe they took a photo along the way when they were filming? I looked at the extensive list for the show and all of it is set in Southern California... so I thought maybe if I narrow down the episodes, I can at least start there with the locations list and wander around... )

Jellyfish

I have found the location!
Thanks to Lilusako, who pointed me in the right direction; I did a Google Images search for 'Bank of America lease', and while going through the results, found this picture:

https://images1.loopnet.com/i2/yREzItCFG6q2fICqmB0TyGom8BWROJ0dEbSBBKu3N1w/112/image.jpg

The Bank of America building in the centre matches the one in the original screenshot. The building on the right also matches the one at the side of the picture; it's a Regions bank building. I was getting very excited by this picture-have I finally found where we've been looking for all along? The address of the picture is 101 E Kennedy Blvd, in Tampa. That's Tampa in Florida. Which is on the other side of the continent. According to Google, 2162 miles from Los Angeles. No wonder we couldn't find it when we were looking in Los Angeles! I am completely baffled why this location was used, as none of the series is set in Florida, and there would be plenty of places you could get a nice shot for a DVD menu background. Perhaps they used stock footage?
Here's a Google Maps 3D picture of the two buildings:



I think this is roughly the location where the image was taken:



You can see the curved building on the left matches the one in the picture, and you can follow the curve of the road.

Here's a Google Street View image that more or less matches the original screenshot:



It's a view from Bayshore Blvd, which is on the opposite side of the Hillsborough River from the Bank of America building. It looks like a lovely place, but nowhere near Los Angeles! I'm glad that I have found where I was looking for, and thank you to everyone who commented on this thread and helped out or took their own time to look, particularly Lilusako and Mr Martini.

Images above taken from Google.

The Domino Effect

A perfect ending to a great hunt. Thanks for taking us along and thanks to the AJB community for the answer. I thoroughly enjoyed that bit of cyber sleuthing.

Mr Martini

Always glad to help. These internet treasure hunts are fun. I did poke around a bit to see if there was a tenant list for the BofA building. I haven't found one, at least not yet. I did stumble upon the buildings website:

https://boaplazatampa.com

Lots of good looking pictures in there.

lilusako

I was away from AJB for a while (busy December ) ) but amazing that you were able to find the answer! Some great detective work there! So glad you were able to find an answer!

I have no idea why they would use such an image for their DVD menu. Perhaps it was random stock photos they had access to ?:) well done!