Netflix's 'Archive 81' filming in North Side and Downtown Pittsburgh

In November, a random group of visitors walked into The Government Center, an independent record store on Pittsburgh’s North Side, with no interest in making a purchase.

“They came in to search out specific locations,” said owner Josh Cozby, referring to film scouts for Netflix’s production company, looking for spaces to shoot a horror series, “Archive 81.”

According to Netflix, when archivist Dan Turner takes a mysterious job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994, he finds himself reconstructing the work of documentary filmmaker Melody Pendras and her investigation into a dangerous cult.

“Archive 81” is a Netflix original series from James Wan’s Atomic Monster. Rebecca Sonnenshine is executive producer, showrunner and writer. James Wan and Michael Clear are executive producers, and Rob Hackett is co-executive producer for Atomic Monster. Rebecca Thomas serves as executive producer and director for half of the season. The original Archive 81 podcast was created by Marc Sollinger and Daniel Powell, who serve as co-producers, and Paul Harris Boardman developed the original script.

Cast includes Mamoudou Athie, Dina Shihabi, Martin Donovan, Matt McGorry, Julia Chan, Evan Jonigkeit and Ariana Neal.

The show’s staff initially talked about shooting inside the East Ohio Street shop, but changed their minds to do the filming outdoors. They placed props to capture footage from the street, said Cozby, who lives in the neighborhood. Netflix filmed on the North Side and other places in Pittsburgh, including Downtown, last week.

“They set up a track for the camera and they brought a lot of equipment,” said Cozby, who announced their presence on Instagram. “They had a lot of people working.”

He said he noticed there were more people working this shoot than for the filming here for HBO Max’s “American Pickle,” a movie starring Seth Rogan that was also partly shot on the North Side and released last year.

“This was definitely bigger in terms of footprint and how many people were working,” Cozby said.

They set up last Monday and shot on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We had people working on the film come into the store to shop,” said Cozby, whose store was closed from mid-March to the middle of May because of the pandemic.

He said the plan was to have the shop look like a record store in the 1990s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They set up some tables outside and used record bins and hung old posters from that era in the windows.

“They are great at explaining everything they plan to do and they change things as they go along,” he said. “They are great communicators.”

Nearby, Bernie’s Photo Center was transformed into both a hardware store and camera/video shop, said owner Bruce Klein.

“They were extremely very professional and were in-and-out quickly,” he said. “Once they left, you would have never know they were here. They cleaned and put everything back in its place.”

The filming is expected to last about six more weeks, estimates Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.

She said Netflix is employing 500. The company spent some time in production in front of Blaqk House Collections, an art gallery located Downtown.

“We hope that Netflix continues the series and continues to film here in Pittsburgh,” Keezer said. “We love showcasing our city.”

Netflix also plans to shoot “The Chair,” which will star Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh of “Killing Eve” and Emmy award winner Jay Duplass from “Transparent.”

The six-episode dramedy is written by executive producer and showrunner Amanda Peet. The executive producers are Bernie Caulfield, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the team from “Game of Thrones.”