95 Borrasca

[C Glide]

Just published this episode on my location site. http://www.miamivicelocations5.org/page10.html

[miamijimf]

Great Charlie.  How did the Great Blizzard hit you?

[Sonny-Burnett]

Well done C Glide!  Great location shots and the references to earlier eps.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Sonny-Burnett

[C Glide]

Great Charlie.  How did the Great Blizzard hit you?

All is well here thank you. Hard to say how much snow we got with all the drifting but probably close to 2 feet. About seven hours of snow blowing. Thank God for the snow blower and retaining electric power.

[Brother in Arms]

great fantastic, tank you

[Tom]

Great work!

Two remarks: all the interior bar scenes in this ep e.g.during the opening credits were shot at the Paris Moderne which was located at 550 Washington Ave which is the Paris Theater, thus the name of the club. Woody's was not used as location. In many scenes the "Paris Moderne" logo can clearly be seen in the background.

[C Glide]

I suspected the theater might have been used for those scenes but I did not know it was ever a real club. I thought it was fake signs to match up with the dialog.

[C Glide]

Updating my site now. Two questions Tom. The bar scene where Uribe goes looking for info on the ship. That was at the Paris Theater? Second, Uribe's shop looks like it was on the Miami River possibly by where the ship was located. Do you have any info on that?

[C Glide]

Just found the pm you sent me about the Paris Moderne. Sorry bout that. Forgot about it as it has been a while, Sr moment.

[Tom]

Paris Moderne was a real club at that address. The Uribe bar scene looks like studio to me. All the other bar scenes were Paris Moderne. The Uribe shop is unknown to me but I also suspect that it was close to the other locations as everything was clustered in this ep.

[C Glide]

Updated site again today with references to Everybody's in Showbiz and Nude on The Moon.

[Matt5]

As T&S walk out of the Paris Theatre/club used in this episode - they walk into the grounds of what is now the Babylon Garden - nice views to 6th Street and Washington behind the thugs ( and the building we see behind Izzy in "When Irish Eyes Are Crying")

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@25.7758238,-80.1340158,3a,75y,178.81h,90.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6nxmgX7n08uN8nKNJHaCXA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[Matt5]

This is the building Tubbs and Stan meet the dealers - at the far right of the picture outside the Paris and the building next door. The meet would have taken place where the slanted roof is today (far right).

[Matt5]

Airtommy has been posting about Espanola Way a little of late - here is the part seen the opening of the "Borrasca" teaser from Season 5. I took these in 2014.

Edited August 7, 2018 by Matt5

[Tom]

LAST UNKNOWN LOCATION: THE CARPENTER BUSINESS OF ARTURO ORIBE

Very tough nut left.

Going by the pictures (key is the outside shot, adaptive lighting massively enhanced digitally), I would say this is a downtown location in a similar neigborhood as the Milk Run drug lab was. Likely close to other downtown locations in that ep (only NW22 Ave Miami River bridge as far as I know). Does not look like Miami Beach....

There is no number on the building, but a unique surface on the building itself and the wooden roof. Most likely, this building does not exist anymore...

 

[Tom]

UNKNOWN BAR "MOLINO ROJO" (RED WINDMILL)

@C Glidewondered on his location site whether they used the Molino Rojo Bar at 446 SW 8 Street, Miami as establishing shot.

I don´t think so. The bar at Calle Ocho does not match neither for the exterior shot nor for the interior.

Exterior: the sign is to high on the building or the frame on the building´s edge is missing (where the neon lights are). There is a red windmill on the establishing shot (this is a real film , not a still, as the tree on the right is swinging in the wind)

Interior: this was not a studio location and could have been filmed in or near the missing carpenter location, but it looks like a L-shaped room (a narrower part with the concrete wall in the background and a bigger part on the right of the camera. This does not match with the interior of Molino Rojo that was a rectangular bar. I say was, because it closed in 2017 after several infamous shootings and crimes going on there. The most famous incident there was the river cops scandal in 1986 that started in hat bar where the cops hammered out their plan how to steal 350 kilos and that later inspired "Badge of dishonor" (see also article from WP: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/01/12/miami-virtue-or-vicedecorated-officers-fight-felony-charges/ea81ce1b-8af4-48e2-873a-406d30d3b0d6/)

I found a Molino Rojo in Fresno at 481 N. Fresno. It does not have the windmill and the thicker edges either but matches better in height than the Miami counterpart (the higher part of facade facing the street was removed, my older picture still shows the higher part on the left of picture).

Below you see a series of pics from both sites (first three Miami, then Fresno/CA). There is no third one (one Windmill bar in Tujuana does not match and other restaurants in Texas and elsewhere neither....). 

I say we have no clear match.

What do you think?

 

 

[Tom]

REAL "MOLINO ROJO" BAR FOUND?      3084 NW 7 STREET

I think I have found the real Molino Rojo bar now. The one at SW 8 Street (see above) was not the Molino rojo where the famous River cops scandal started in 1985/86 - it is a successor bar with the same name at a different location. As we see a swinging bush or tree on the far rght side of the establishing shot and I have not found any other fitting Molino rojos in Calfornia or elsewhere, this seems to be the real bar exterior, not stock footage.

I found a Village Voice article from 1986 that clearly described that the Molino Rojo bar was at 3084 NW 7 Street. next to all details of the River cops scandal that inspired "Badge of dishonor". https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/09/03/white-line-fever/

The bar is gone now and a different business (beauty salon, thus it has a broad window front now as opposed the smaller bar entry in the 80s). Although no 100% proof many signs speak in favor of that bar as the location of the exterior and interior filming in Borrasca.

• the details of the sign on the facade match (vertical distance between the wire attachment, width of the sign) and do not match with the SW 8th bar
• the shape (slim square), measure (approx. 7x15m) and other details of the bar (no windows). It has the same length, width and no windows as on TV
• the brick wall and its length behind Arturo Oribe speaks against a studio set (they generally used no studio sets in season 5 anymore for cost reasons except for OCB/police station/morgue scenes)
• it is only 2km (1.3mi) from the location of Borrasca´s freighter at NW 22 Ave/Miami River

Our experience indicates that the carpenter shop of Castillo´s friend in this episode is also near the river and these two other locations. I have a very clear search pattern for that carpentry now as I found many more clues in the episode. If we find it near then the Molino Rojo will be finally proven too.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

ARTURO URIBE`S CARPENTRY

Haven´t found it yet anywhere in downtown or at Miami River despite lots of clues.

Most important:

• 3 buildings in a row
• carpentry is a 2-story stone building with wooden gabled roof with a single door backdoor on south side and street access from the north or the east (two vans fit inside as we see)
• the alley with the backdoor is not paved, with grass and bushes and has quite a sloping ground near the camera of 1m+ within 5 meters distance. Very rare in flat Greater Miami and usually an indication for near a river bank.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Tom

[airtommy]

On 7/15/2020 at 5:30 AM, Tom said:

LAST UNKNOWN LOCATION: THE CARPENTER BUSINESS OF ARTURO ORIBE

Very tough nut left.

Going by the pictures (key is the outside shot, adaptive lighting massively enhanced digitally), I would say this is a downtown location in a similar neigborhood as the Milk Run drug lab was. Likely close to other downtown locations in that ep (only NW22 Ave Miami River bridge as far as I know). Does not look like Miami Beach....

There is no number on the building, but a unique surface on the building itself and the wooden roof. Most likely, this building does not exist anymore...

 

This slope is a clue.  Miami is mostly flat.  Does this mean it's close to the river?

[Tom]

vor 7 Stunden schrieb airtommy:

This slope is a clue.  Miami is mostly flat.  Does this mean it's close to the river?

That’s what I suspected in my latest post. But after long fruitless searches across Miami and all rivers in that area I have realized that the biggest clue in reality is that there are 3 (at least) stone wall buildings with gabled roof directly attached to each other and at least another one with gable roof on the other side of the small grassy alley. That combination is unique (all these kind of buildings in industrial areas have a flat roof, except a few shipyards near the River, but these are no stone wall buildings, just metal frames). The type of tools and machinery visible inside on TV (big drilling machine, very small hammers, slim files, screw drivers) seem to be genuine and perfectly fit to a carpentry. It could be set dressing, of course, but I could not imagine any other craftsman type (e.g. plumber, electrician, painter, artist, ....) selecting to work in that type of 2 story building as it appears on TV.

Another huge clue is the N/S orientation (the back door with the slope is pointing south). This means that the slope is behind and at the SE-corner of the building. Given the building on the other side of the small alley there cannot be a river directly behind the building, but only on the SE-or E-side of it. The access road where they drove the police cars into the building must be on the north side (on the interior shot with the cars we don´t see any entrance gates on the E-side and it would be impossible for the cars to take that 90 degree angled curve even if there were some). That limits the possibilites for a river nearby if there was any at all. The only other slope of that kind I remember was the one at the Hackman hideaway in Deliver us from evil that turned out as the Department of solid waste at NW 20 Street with no river around anywhere. I also checked this area on historic aerials of course but no find.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

Still trying to find the unknown carpentry and finally found at least a similar site in Greater Miami, but it has to be ruled out.

The back alley, running parallel to Commerce Street, of the St David Court hotel (Ramrod) has a row of houses, with one matching the size of the carpentry and having a gabled roof. Also there is an antenna mast which could explain the metal vertical parts we see on the facade in Borrasca.

BUT (red marks indicate KNOCK OUTs): there is no vis a vis house and no house in the distance as we see on TV. Also the back alley is not green/bushy enough (T&S walk clearly on a grassy back alley, not a paved one). As the aerial is from mid 86, it must be ruled out that this would have changed between 86 and 1988.

The search continues ...

 

[Tom]

Here is a very close match to the carpentry, but still a knock-out case. I present it here, as it shows that this location must be findable with all the clues and the correct sketch we have and, of course, I hope that someone can help to find it as it is driving me nuts despite lots of searches 

@airtommy @Dadrian@miamijimf@daytona365@Crockettt

What is a full match here:

• Location close to the NW22 Ave bridge/Miami river location used (NW 24 Ave/21 Terrace)
• The overall configuration with houses in a row and the alley behind the houses to the south (indicated by the sunlight angle through the windows in the episode)
• the big yard with at least some grassy look to it
• the small alley between the carpentry and the house  behind it (left in the episode still)
• the wooden house in the background is there and has a gabled roof in the right direction (descending north and south)

What is a No-Go (knock out criteria, marked in red):

• the roof of the carpentry is wrong (flat roof instead of gabled descending parallel to the alley)
• the roof of the house behind it is wrong (not gabled and not showing descending towards the alley)
• the position of the house in the background is wrong (the episode shows that the violett looking wooden house must be in the same axis as the house vis a vis the carpentry or even a bit further north)
• The row of houses is too long (in the episode there are 3 houses and a car is parked behind the last house/behind T&S with its lights on)

This was only the second location at all that I found that comes close and has at least a similar overall configuration with 3+ houses in a row looking to the south. I hope the third case will be the right one! The looks of the scene and the wooden background house clearly yells "Overtown" to me, but there is no such config anywhere!

P.S. my daughter even found both supporting actors in that scene, Carlos Cesteros and Rocky Mandara (the young boy) on Facebook and asked them if they remembered anything about the area of the carpentry, but they did not respond.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Tom

[Tom]

Paris Theater in the early 80s, most likely before VICE

source: https://thebigbubblemiami.com/2021/10/14/high-res-photos-of-a-1980s-miami-beach-show-decaying-art-deco-glamour-before-its-big-comeback/

 

[Tom]

NEW LOCATION FOUND: the beach where Ramos is whacked was not on Miami Beach - the beach, the distance of the palm trees to the water and the cabanas always looked odd to me.  

Through a friend I found someone who has some pages of the Borrasca call sheets and the location of the beach scenes was at Crandon Beach Park in Key Biscayne (red box on location sheet and red arrow on map, the address 4000 Crandon Bvd is in fact the marina with parking lot on the northwest end of Key BIscayne). This makes sense from the distance of palm trees and the look (see 3 pics how this beach looks like in reality today), but raises the question why they moved production to Key Biscayne only for these two small scenes. There are no other locations on KB in this ep.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Tom

[Tom]

Here is another daily production call sheet for this episode, for Tuesday 18th October 1988. No news on this day for us location-wise. This was the first day and they filmed the teaser shooting and aftermath after which Tubbs´ beard is gone. It was obvious that this scene was filmed first.

The only unknown location of this ep is Art´s Store which was filmed on Wednesday 19th October (see red box at the bottom in the overview for next day section), but unfortunately my friend did not have the sheet for that next day, so Art´s shop location is still unknown. 

Some hint (not new to me) is that they also planned to film the interior of the Molino Rojo bar and the interior of the ship (Scene 141 cocaine testing of Tubbs) on the next day, so these two known locations should not be far away.

P.S. usually episodes have around 50 script pages and 150 scenes respectively, they film around 8 pages per day on average to be on plan=6 days of filming, a seventh day is usually planned as back up or for 2nd unit filming.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Tom