When it came time to shoot scenes set in John O’Leary’s boyhood home, the makers of “Soul on Fire” had one obvious location in mind: the real home where the story happened.
“They actually shot it at John’s parents’ house,” says Ron Durham, who was the film’s location manager.
A film’s location manager runs the department that looks for suitable places to shoot movies. Usually, they look for places that have the right ambience, or can easily handle the space requirements of a film crew. When telling true stories, they search for places that express the same feel as the original locations.
“Soul on Fire,” which opens Oct. 10, was easier than that. O’Leary’s parents offered the Kirkwood home where they still lived (his father Denny died earlier this year). Director Sean McNamara accepted their offer — “it just seemed to make sense,” Durham says — and that was that.
“Soul on Fire” is the story of motivational speaker O’Leary, who was severely burned when he was 9 years old, in a fire of his own making. With endless encouragement and love from his family and even strangers, he managed to survive and eventually to thrive despite amputated fingers and scars across nearly his entire body.
The fire burned down the family garage and part of the house, but the home was repaired long ago. For the filming, the older O’Learys moved out for a week or more as the film crew decorated it for the 1980s and shot scenes inside for five days.
The movie was filmed over 19 days in November and December of 2023, all in the St. Louis area. Many of the locations secured by Durham and his crew were, like O’Leary’s childhood home, where the events actually took place.
A couple of important scenes were shot at Busch Stadium, and they couldn’t have been filmed anywhere else. You just can’t fake Busch Stadium, even though the scenes were shot in December. Extras filled some of the seats, and the rest of the crowds were filled in with special effects created on a computer.
Other scenes were shot at St. Louis University, where O’Leary went to college, including a scene at the West Pine Mall. They also used the school’s Salus Center, the former Compton Heights Hospital, for the hospital scenes.
The Chaifetz Arena, which is also part of SLU, stands in for a Las Vegas arena where O’Leary gives an impassioned motivational speech. And a scene that takes place in an orthopedic center was also shot at Chaifetz, in a training room.
“We were able to squeeze that scene in at a time when it wasn’t being used,” Durham says.
The wedding scene was shot in the Shrine of St. Joseph, where O’Leary and his wife, Beth, were married.
“The director tried to get authentic locations to John’s story. Some of them worked, and some had to be changed for logistical reasons,” Durham says.
The first three days of filming, for instance, were all in the Maplewood area as a matter of convenience.
The director loved the vintage feel of Saratoga Lanes, so that became the starting point of the Maplewood locations. They also used the Crow’s Nest restaurant and bar and Tiffany’s diner for additional scenes.
Durham started as a production assistant, but has exclusively worked in locations for 21 years. His resumé includes “Gone Girl,” the St. Louis-shot “Up in the Air,” “The Informant” and, most recently, “The Alto Knights,” with Robert DeNiro.
Though he will travel for the job, he is based in St. Louis and says he appreciates making movies in the Midwest.
“We had a lot of people who were pretty willing and agreeable. That’s how it usually goes in St. Louis. It’s not like L.A. The novelty of filming has worn off (there),” he says.
Daniel Neman – 314-340-8133 dneman@post-dispatch.com
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Daniel Neman | Post-Dispatch
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