Borger, Big Spring or Odessa? - Potential Film Locations (Wichita Falls: clubs, oil refinery)

[Slant-6-Dodge]

I have an interest in visiting an oil-patch town with a flat, treeless, barren, hot, dry, dusty, ugly landscape. I am scouting locations for an independent filmmaker friend. I am not at all familiar with the Panhandle of Texas or the Permian Basin, but I agreed to assist my friend in choosing a location to shoot his film.

The story behind the film is about a guy working either as an oilfield roustabout or oil refinery laborer in a Texas backwater town. The surrounding landscape needs to be flat, treeless - completely devoid of greenery or any large body of water - hot, dry, dusty and strewn with oil derricks. The town needs to be rough, tough, dirty, smelly, run-down and low-rent in appearance. The main character is meant to be a hard drinking, bar brawling alcoholic who frequents strip clubs and raises hell everywhere he goes. Therefore, the town needs a bar or two and a strip joint would help too.

I've been told that three cities out that way would match everything this film requires. I was told that Borger, Big Spring or Odessa would be perfect matches.

I would much appreciate any input you all may have on any of these three localities, particularly with regard to how they match the film location's requirements.

Thanks!

[joqua]

Originally Posted by Slant-6-Dodge

... hot, dry, dusty and strewn with oil derricks.

Oil derricks were long ago replaced by these:


They're generally referred to as "pump jacks" in the industry.

If it were me, I'd look at small towns rather than larger cities for compliance with "treeless" where oil and gas are the main industry. Places like Snyder, Wink, Andrews, Kermit etc. in the Permian Basin area.

Borger would do for a refinery town, but there aren't too many oil and gas wells in that area. Wichita Falls is not a fit at all! And Odessa is a bustling city, not a town, as is Midland.

[ChristieP]

Big Lake would work.

[Slant-6-Dodge]

Originally Posted by joqua

Oil derricks were long ago replaced by these:


They're generally referred to as "pump jacks" in the industry.

If it were me, I'd look at small towns rather than larger cities for compliance with "treeless" where oil and gas are the main industry. Places like Snyder, Wink, Andrews, Kermit etc. in the Permian Basin area.

Borger would do for a refinery town, but there aren't too many oil and gas wells in that area. Wichita Falls is not a fit at all! And Odessa is a bustling city, not a town, as is Midland.

Does the air in Borger stink like a refinery town? Oil derricks aren't a necessity for a backdrop, and a refinery town would do just as well for our filming purposes as an oil drilling town. I didn't mention Wichita Falls, but thanks for the advice. What about Big Spring, Texas (Refinery town near Midland)? Does it match the criteria I laid out above?

We want a dry, dusty, flat, treeless plain for a surrounding landscape and a town that's pretty beat-up. A hot smelly oil refinery town would be perfect, especially one with fire breathing cracking towers and smoke belching stacks, but an oil drilling town would work too.

[ChristieP]

Again, you just described Big Lake. It's quite "beat up" and flat, and there's a stinky gas compressor station.

[CptnRn]

If you are not aware of it, you can scout locations in Google maps street view and see what they look like. Such as the refineries around Borger https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6923...8i1664!6m1!1e1

[Slant-6-Dodge]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

If you are not aware of it, you can scout locations in Google maps street view and see what they look like. Such as the refineries around Borger https://www.google.com/maps/@35.6923...8i1664!6m1!1e1

Yeah, I know, thanks. It helps visually to some degree, but you can't smell the sulfur-like stink of refinery stench through Google street view. And you can't really get a feel if a town is trashy and redneck enough for what we're looking for, either, unless I get first hand accounts from people who know the territory.

Thanks again.

[Mark Senior]

It's usually hard for people on here to "recommend" places you are looking for. It generally goes against out boasting "rites" of passage. lol

[ToddATX]

Big Spring actually has some hills and such, so isn't flat. It also is a giant *%$& stain on the state, and is unsafe. I wouldn't choose it at all.

[OutdoorTexan]

This topic seems fishy.

Why a need for 'smelly' or 'stink' if for a film??? Last I checked, my TV didn't produce that sense for me. Good actors can 'act' like something smells, kinda like I'm acting now!