“The Night Crew” begins filming in the Coachella valley

The city of Coachella got the Hollywood treatment Monday for the start of filming of “The Night Crew.” The movie is directed by Coachella Valley local Christian Sesma. “We’re really had them be able to roll out the red carpet for us,” said Sesma. “It’s been really good. It just further shows that the valley is production-ready.”

And ready for Sesma to lead the charge. The Palm Springs high school alumni called the shots for a “Dia de Los Muertos” parade in downtown. It’s one of the large scenes for “The Night Crew.” “Basically, it’s this crazy action movie that has a really trippy-vampire twist,” said Sesma.

The movie stars Danny Trejo, well-known as Machete. Several local extras will also star in this scene of the movie. Many of them look at Sesma as an example. “It makes us proud you know, that people actually go out of town and make something of themselves and come back to give back,” said Maria Jose Rodriguez.

Not only by putting these people in a movie, but putting the valley on the silver screen. “Well, I mean that’d be great, giving the city more attention, other than the whole Coachella fest deal,” said Ramses Lopez.

The valley’s recently made itself more appealing to film makers everywhere. A revised Riverside County ordinance eliminates the film permit fee and waives charges for the use of county facilities. “California’s always been known as a film mecca and so we want to be that,” said Mark Weber, the city of Coachella Economic Development manager. “We don’t want them to film outside of our state, we want them to be here.”

In turn, film crews stay at local hotels, eat at our restaurants and snap photos of the backdrop you might soon see in a lot more movies. “We would love nothing more than to build an infrastructure here in the valley and to really increase production like this,” said Sesma.

“The Night Crew” is scheduled to shoot for the next 18 days in the valley, mostly in Desert Hot Springs.