HBO Max’s “Holiday Harmony” Directed by Sean Paul Piccinino, is a romantic comedy that revolves around a singer who lives in her van and wants to be heard on iHeartRadio in Los Angeles. Gail, a singer-songwriter, wins the chance to compete for a unique opportunity to make it big as she travels across the country before her car breaks down in Harmony Springs, Oklahoma.
Taking the advice of local know-it-all Jeremy, she takes on a bunch of underage kids who want to play their own Christmas Eve gala with just two weeks to go until their dream iHeartRadio Christmas Eve performance.
Gail and Jeremy fall in love; However, Gail must make a life decision and choose between her lifelong dream or her Jeremy and the town she has come to love.
Impressive performances from a talented ensemble and the setting of the fictional Harmony Springs against the backdrop of snow-covered roads and streets complement the romantic narrative. All of this will certainly make you curious about the actual shooting locations of the Holiday Harmony Christmas movie.
Where Was Holiday Harmony Movie Filmed?
“Holiday Harmony” was shot completely in California, particularly in Petaluma. Principal photography on the romantic comedy began in early April 2022 and wrapped over four weeks on April 29 of the same month.
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All of the pivotal scenes for “Holiday Harmony” took place in and around producer Ali Afshar’s hometown of Petaluma. Set in the fictional Oklahoma town of Harmony Springs, Petaluma does a great job of masking the Oklahoma vibe with its beautiful small-town setting.
Lauren Swickard, one of the actors and co-writers, commented on the location and her emotions toward it. She said, “My job was to make the movie work for us and work for Petaluma, representing Oklahoma and many other places along the way.”
Lauren added: “I hope to bring all my films here. It doesn’t matter where the story takes place. Petaluma can be the East Coast because the streets can have an East Coast vibe if you shoot them right. In the last film, we made parts of it in San Francisco.
You can find little pockets of Petaluma or Santa Rosa that look like anything you want. it’s pretty cool. It’s miraculous.” The scene where Gail is seen performing while Van (Brooke Shields) tapes the performance was filmed at Petaluma’s Women’s Club.
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Pointing to the women’s club building, Swickard revealed that they had used rooms in the Petaluma Veteran’s Hall as classrooms. The clubhouse’s exterior was filmed as an elementary school’s exterior. Producer Afshar’s property on the east side served as a backdrop for several sequences.
Swickard emphasized, “We used Ali’s barn as a sound stage. We built three different bar areas inside that one barn. If you watch the movie, you’ll see this montage where Gail is on her road in the same van, singing in bars from Miami, Florida to Los Angeles, California.”
“He took the sets off and put his cars back in,” confirmed Swickard, adding that multiple interior sets weren’t the only way Afshar’s ranch played a role in the making of the film. She revealed: “Our main character Jeremy is building a house for his parents in the Holiday Harmony film.
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We weren’t sure if we could find a house that was already half built in Petaluma, and finally, Ali said, ‘You know, I’d like to have a little condo on my property.’ So he’s building a house. little house on his ranch, and that’s what we use for the construction scenes in the Holiday Harmony movie.”
Other scenes of the Holiday Harmony film were shot at Petaluma’s The Big Easy and Willow Creek Ale House and fake barn bars. The backdrop for the soup kitchen scene with Swickard portraying the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem was filmed at Hermann Sons Hall on Western Avenue.
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Additional sequences were shot on city streets and at the Keller Street CoWork. In an interview with the Argus-Courier, director Piccinino was asked about the difficulty of disguising Petaluma as Oklahoma. He revealed, “Well, Oklahoma is pretty flat. And Petaluma isn’t super flat, I don’t know if you’ve noticed.”
Piccinino added, “So they both present their challenges, but downtown Petaluma is so quaint, cute, and charming that it just screams ‘small town,’ and that lends itself to playing a small town almost anywhere in America.”. I guess we could have filmed in Oklahoma, but this is Ali’s home and we love filming here.”