Twin Peaks Location – Close-Ups at Cheap Buckhorn Motel

Looking back at Twin Peaks: The Return, I’m incredibly impressed with how the cast and crew put everything together. They weren’t shooting a television series – the production schedule was like an 18-hour film. The production timeline was aggressive with sometimes having only a day to capture footage in one location before packing up and moving to the next spot. This location article is rather unique as it highlights how the crew used Eat at Rudy’s in California, which was Eat at Judy’s in Twin Peaks Part 18, to also capture close-up shots from the cheap Buckhorn Motel seen in Part 2.

WHERE IS EAT AT JUDY’S LOCATED?

The location used for Eat at Judy’s in Part 18 is actually Eat at Rudy’s, a wonderful restaurant with damn fine coffee located at 558 E Anaheim Street in Wilmington, California.

According to the Behind the Curtain videos from Twin Peaks – From Z to A Collection, exterior and interior shots were captured Monday, October 26 and Tuesday, October 27, 2015. An Eat at Rudy’s waitress said David Lynch and crew location for three days of shooting. The third day could have been spent prepping or cleaning up the location.

MEETING OKIE-DOKIE AND WAITRESS TALES

This story begins with a Twitter exchange between my fellow Bookhouse Boys Ivan Bukta and Travis Black on July 28, 2018 (they are both now on BlueSky). They met Okie-Dokie, the gentleman from the older couple seen during Twin Peaks Part 18.

After retelling the story how Okie-Dokie was saved by the EMTs on set, Ivan mentioned a waitress told them about another scene shot inside the restaurant:

“The waitress also told us they shot another scene there with Kyle waking up in a bed alone which they brought in and made it look like a motel room. ?!?”

Supposedly, they used the cleared area where Richard/Cooper first walks into Eat at Judy’s to film these scenes.

It could explain why this area had no tables and chairs unlike how I found it during my first visit on May 25, 2019.

Ivan continued by explaining he was told the crew was there for three days and was shown where the set was built.

Travis then shared this photo of the spot where the set was constructed. Sadly, I’ve been unable to find any behind-the-scenes photos of a constructed set within a set.

Travis shared additional details about the furniture used in this scene as relayed by the Eat at Judy’s waitress. How I would have loved to see one those bar codes! I wonder where all those props are now.

Travis concluded most likely these scenes were reshoots or perhaps last-minute additions (something Lynch was famous for doing).

At first, I also thought the additional scene was Cooper waking up as Richard. This scene was shot at Pearblossom Motel located an hour and 45-minutes away from Eat at Rudy’s. There is one major challenge – the Cooper and Diane motel scene was shot on December 15, 2015, nearly a month and a half after filming at Eat at Rudy’s. It seems highly unlikely the crew constructed a motel room for a scene that had not yet been filmed.

Based on further research, I believe the scenes captured were close-ups and inserts from the cheap Buckhorn Motel scenes recorded the previous week.

CLOSEUPS FROM THE CHEAP BUCKHORN MOTEL

The Cheap Buckhorn Motel scenes were shot at the Four Aces Movie Ranch in Palmdale, California.

The Behind the Curtain footage from the Twin Peaks – From Z to A Collection places these scenes being shot on Thursday, October 22, 2015. This was the second day of on-location production in Southern California with the first day taking place on October 21 at Carrie Page’s house. Ten days earlier, the crew had wrapped on-location production in Washington State.

For the majority of Twin Peaks: The Return, David Lynch used a two-camera set up for nearly every scene. Cameras A and B offered slightly different angles for each take, thus reducing the amount of time for additional set ups (which can take a very long time).  This simultaneous recording also made for seamless editing in post-production.

For the scene with Mr. C and Darya on the bed, it appears the cameras mostly didn’t move beyond the initial set up shown in the behind-the-scenes footage.

There was one additional set up which required a top-down look from Mr. C’s point-of-view after shooting Darya in the head.

Any additional close-ups or insert shots would have required the crew to completely reset and relight the scene. Since production was on an extremely tight timeline, this meant adding those close-ups to another day’s work. This concept isn’t a strange one to Twin Peaks as separate days for insert shots were scheduled for the first season on November 20, 1989 and later in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on November 1, 1991.

The crew was only at the Four Aces Motel for one day and then relocated to Buella’s Place on Friday, October 23. They may have also captured Mr. C’s dinner party in South Dakota on that Friday. Saturday and Sunday that week were dark days for the production.

Production resumed on Monday, October 26 in Wilmington, California with the exterior Eat At Judy’s scenes. Once they transitioned to the interior, the crew had time to capture the close-up shots from the cheap Buckhorn Motel.

But which shots were captured?

MR. C’S PLAYING CARD

One close-up shot included Mr. C’s Pavilion-brand playing card, which I discussed in this Twin Peaks Blog article. The crew could have easily used the same blue  bedspread and a mattress to film Kyle MacLachlan holding the card.

These pickup shots are most likely what waitress saw but without context for the script or show, she assumed it was “Cooper” waking up in bed alone (as Nicole LaLiberte who played Darya was not on set). Kyle most likely didn’t have the full Mr. C look – only his jacket, shirt and pants. So to the waitress, it looked like Cooper was in bed alone.

They probably also filmed the close-up of Mr. C’s voice recorder. Getting this close-up shot at Four Aces Motel, the crew would have needed to climb above or behind Mr. C. Moving this short pickup shot to Eat at Judy’s saved everyone time.

The next close-up is from scenes of Mr. C accessing Yankton Federal Prison. After retrieving suitcase from the bathroom, Mr. C sets up shop on a small round desk. Look carefully at the open briefcase – there appears to be some kind of flat item leaning against the lid.

The scene cuts to Mr. C’s hands typing on a keyboard. This is a locked-off, close-up shot which doesn’t move for the duration of Mr. C’s typing.

He appears to use a Windows Surface 3 which was released on May 5, 2015 and discontinued in late 2016. Notice the small Windows logo on the right side of the screen. It’s unclear if the images projected in the screen were a movie file or were later inserted post-production (my gut says it was a movie played on screen).

I’ll take a deeper dive into what was projected on Mr. C’s Surface 3 in another article.

As the scene continues, notice how the briefcase was turned from camera. There is a soft white light illuminating Mr. C’s face. This could have been the actual movie playing on the Windows Surface 3, which gave the illusion he was typing and watching in real time. This is most likely from Camera A which provided a medium shot.

The Camera B shot was a slightly closer shot of Mr. C in front of the briefcase with the Windows Surface 3. This follows the same two-camera set up previously used for Mr. C and Darya on the bed – one medium shot and one close-up.

There is one more shot which I believe they captured as a close-up in Eat at Rudy’s. At one point, Mr. C purposely checks his wristwatch. The camera holds on him looking at the time (which looks to be 10-minutes after perhaps four- or five-o’clock).

There are at least two other incidents in Twin Peaks: The Return where characters are seen checking their wristwatch. The first is in Part 3 with the American Girl who checks her Armitron watch.

The second is Deputy Andy Brennan who checks his Rolex watch while waiting for The Farmer in Part 7. It stands to reason the crew could have filmed a close-up of Mr. C’s watch face but the scene was never used.

Granted, without behind-the-scenes footage or published production documentation, it’s difficult to say if this is exactly what happened. After studying this production for more than seven years, I’m confident something was captured at Eat at Rudy’s and these close-ups were most likely filmed.

Thank you to Ivan and Travis for assisting me with parts of this story. After completing it, I’m even more grateful for the work done by an extremely talented crew that gave us an additional 18 magnificent hours of Twin Peaks.