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House of Cards Spotted Filming Around Washington, D.C.

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By Curbed Staff
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This Monday, the House of Cards film crew was spotted in various locations around Washington, D.C., shooting for the third season, which is expected to premiere February 2015. The locations included the National Mall, University Yard in George Washington University, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the National Headquarters for the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Constitution Hall, and the corner of Connecticut Ave. and 17th Street. DCist has a great roundup of photos and social media postings from Monday.

The D.C. Office of Motion Picture and Television Development confirmed that one of the locations filmed included the famed concert venue, DAR Constitution Hall. Netflix didn't comment on the project due to company policy. The Washington Post predicts that the location was chosen for Kevin Spacey to sing a few musical numbers. This prediction is stemmed from Spacey singing the awards show blues at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington last September.

You may be surprised to know that most of the filming for House of Cards isn't actually filmed in Washington despite the poli-drama being set here. Instead, it's almost always filmed in Baltimore, Maryland. The reason for this is because of a history of frustrations the film crew had while filming in the Capital last year. The last time House of Cards filmed in Washington was August 9, 2014 for "b-roll footage," or stock video. Politico has a full list of the locations filmed on this date. No issues were reported for this film shooting, but the previous attempt on August 3, 2013 is cited to be the reason as to why Washington, D.C. tends to be avoided for film crews.

In an article published August 21, 2013, the Washington Business Journal reported that the Metropolitan Police Department approved the motorcade for the HBO show. Regardless, Police Chief Cathy Lanier pulled the permits the morning of the shooting, saying, "The Metropolitan Police Department is not the lead agency on presidential motorcades, and we did not want to portray ourselves as such." Filming for House of Cards later resumed as Lanier went back and forth on whether or not to approve the motorcade, whether for a fictional show or not. The motorcade could only be filmed in segments and several thousand dollars had to be used to line up 10 D.C. police officers for "safety concerns." The film crew eventually had to acquire a permission slip from the U.S. Secret Service, which is such unnecessary overkill that it's funny. Eventually, the show had to utilize the City of Baltimore to pull together the resources for the shoot.

· House Of Cards spotted filming In D.C. [DCist]
· 'House of Cards' filming comes to D.C. [Politico]
· The 'House of Cards' crew spotted filming in D.C. yesterday [Washington Post]
· Actor Kevin Spacey comes to Washington — to sing [Washington Post]
· D.C. police nix Netflix's 'House of Cards' motorcade shoot [Washington Business Journal]
· 'House of Cards' season 3 Netflix release date, spoilers, & cast updates, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova joining show [Hallels]
· See what Washington looks like when it moves to Baltimore [Curbed]
· No Cameo for the D.C. police in House of Cards [Curbed]
- Michelle Goldchain

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