Hannah Montana The Movie shooting in Tennessee, Beverly Hills, Paradise Cove, the Santa Monica

After 10 weeks of shooting in Tennessee, cast and crew moved to Los Angeles in July 2008 to film exterior scenes in Beverly Hills, Paradise Cove, the Santa Monica Pier and the Forum stadium.

Paradise Cove, a private beach at the northern end of Malibu, served as the backdrop for filming a music video and dream sequence within the film. Hanania and costume designer Christopher Lawrence created a playful retro look in the sequences, filling them with colorful vintage swimsuits and surfboards, a classic woodie surf wagon and a chiseled lifeguard surveying the beach party from his lifeguard perch.
In another example of reality blurring fiction in the film, while Los Angeles-based paparazzi clamored at the perimeter to get shots of Miley, dressed as Hannah Montana, a group of extras, pretending to be paparazzi, chased and shot the pop star for the scene.

In Beverly Hills, cast and crew literally stopped traffic when Miley and Vanessa Williams walked down Rodeo Drive to film the exterior location for the film’s shoe-fight sequence with Tyra Banks (the interior of the store, where the fight ensues, was shot previously in a department store in Tennessee). Stopping traffic in Beverly Hills was nothing when compared to the anticipated challenges of filming on the Santa Monica Pier. Filmmakers admit it was the location they were most concerned about in terms of media and crowds. The pier was also challenging because there was a lot to be filmed in a short period of time, including a skateboard stunt sequence with Lilly, a special effects-rigged exploding birthday cake, Miley’s late entrance dressed as Hannah, several live musical numbers and coverage of all the main cast. However, when the days actually arrived, filming went very well and the crowds of fans and onlookers presented no problems.

Production on the film concluded with several days of shooting at the Forum in Inglewood, California, the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers and L.A. Kings as well as the location of hundreds of concerts. There, the movie’s opening concert sequence was filmed with Hannah Montana performing a couple of her revamped biggest hits for the 1,000 extras on hand. It was also the site for Miley and Lilly’s mad dash on a golf cart, with security guard in pursuit, when Hannah Montana is almost late for her own concert.

In conclusion, Millar says: “Fans who see the movie will know that Hannah is growing up, her music is growing up. This is not the same girl who began on the TV show. Like her character, Miley is a girl from a small town who gets to follow her dream and make it happen. In this film, you’ll see how she’s matured and how she’s growing up, much like her fans.”

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