By STACY LEE, Daily News Staff WriterPittsburgh Film Office Director Dawn Keeser said location scouts searched the Pittsburgh area for the perfect house for the new Summit Entertainment horror film.
They found it at the Munhall home of Joseph and Rose Karichko.
"Sorority Row" will begin shooting today along Eleventh Avenue, using the Karichkos' house.
House Row Productions, LLC, which was created for the movie, also is shooting interior scenes in the Carnegie Library of Homestead's basement. Exterior scenes will be shot of several other area houses and in Park Square.
The rest is being done on set," Rose Karichko said."Sorority Row" is about five sorority girls who cause the murder of one of their sorority sisters when a prank goes wrong. They agree never to talk about it again. But after graduation, a killer begins targeting the girls and anyone else who knows about the murder.
"We're thrilled about Summit Entertainment filming here," Keeser said. "We did a lot of work to get them here. We're hoping 'Sorority Row' will be the first of many Summit Entertainment productions in the region."
She said the production company has hired many local residents for the film.
The Karichkos' third-floor office was transformed into a women's dorm room and the front parlor was turned into a men's dorm room.
"They're taking the furniture out of those rooms along with nearby rooms and hallways to make room for the cameras," Rose Karichko said. "They have cardboard all over the house to protect the walls and floors. They're more worried about things being damaged than I am."
The production company is bringing in its own furniture for the film.
Shots will also be taken of an approximate 1,500-square-foot add-on to the back of the 502 E. Eleventh Ave. house.
"The house needs to look bigger," Joseph Karichko said. "So they put a facade in the back."
He said crews are hanging Greek letters and banners on nearby homes to make them look like sorority and fraternity houses.
The couple has been living in their house for the past three weeks while crews prepared the home for the movie.
Rose Karichko said crews worked on the outside of the house until last week.
"They packed everything," she said. "They said they'd put the books back in the exact order in which they were on the shelf. If we need to read one, they know the exact box it's in."
Rose Karichko said the crew took pictures of the areas before they changed them so that they can restore them when filming is completed.
She said the crew worked 12-hour days to get ready for the film.
Joseph Karichko said the film crew did much of the landscaping in his backyard that he had planned to do, but hadn't had time.
The production company lodged the Karichkos at the Shadyside Inn for the 10 days that the film will be shot in their home.
"They will be doing a lot of night shooting," Joseph Karichko said. "There could be 300 to 400 people on the block."
The couple is being paid for the use of their home. They declined to name the exact amount, but said it is well worth it.
"It's crazy Hollywood money," Joseph Karichko said. "It's a decent chunk of change."
