CLAREMORE, Okla. — Rogers State University is out for the summer, but there is still work being done on campus.
Film crews with the FX series "Reservation Dogs" were in Claremore earlier in May.
The series is the first of its kind to feature an almost entirely Indigenous North American cast and production team and the first to be filmed entirely in Oklahoma.
- Previous coverage >>> Reservation Dogs season 3 premiere date announced
A representative with RSU said the idea to film on campus was born out of a relationship with professor Dr. Hugh Foley and Executive Producer Sterlin Harjo. Foley teaches American studies with an emphasis on Oklahoma music and culture, Native American studies, and cinema.
“I coordinate Native American studies classes here (at RSU) and have since 1998,” Foley said. “In that capacity, I invited Sterlin here to show his first feature film – ‘Barking Water’ – here on campus in the auditorium. That’s where I first met him.”
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Since then, the two have remained friends, even making presentations together over the years, so when Harjo had some specific settings in mind for the upcoming season of his series, he reached out to Foley about the possibility of filming at RSU.
“About a month ago, Sterlin’s location manager called me to ask about coming here to shoot some scenes (for ‘Reservation Dogs’),” Foley said. “They sent out a scout with a camera to take pictures of campus. They had very specific settings in mind, and they liked what they saw here. So then, the production designer came out to see if, based on the photographs, those spaces they liked would be appropriate for what they had in mind.
“After that, the artistic team came out. That included the director, Blackhorse Lowe, who directed a couple of episodes of the series, and lastly was the technical team, who worked out the details on where the equipment would go and how to best film the scenes,” he said.
Filming took place at Loshbaugh Hall, the Health Sciences building and Markham Hall. Modifications were made to the buildings' interiors and exteriors to follow the script.
Season three of “Reservation Dogs” premieres Aug. 2.
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