Amsterdam was the ideal setting for Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. Apart from the fact that it's one of Rob Schneider's favorite cities in the world, it completely met the demands of the story. "It always got back to where was the best place for legal prostitution and semi-legal drugs?" laughs John Schneider.
The producers traveled to Amsterdam for pre-production, location scouting and to hire the film's crew. Director of photography, Marc Felperlaan was the production's first choice, and according to executive producer Glenn S. Gainor, the filmmakers didn't even have to pursue him. "I was impressed by a film called Amsterdamned and how it used the city's canals and various locations and I thought, 'If we could find a cinematographer like that, I would be really happy.'" The film's director of photography Marc Felperlaan, was not only available, but actually approached the producers. "When he got wind of the American production coming to town, he got in touch with us," says Gainor. "We met with him and signed him on immediately."
In the end, the production company utilized 45 locations in and around Amsterdamn, including five days in Malaga, Spain, which stood in for Malibu, California.
With such an ambitious schedule - on some days the company shot at three separate locations - it was important to have a local crew that understood the various practical elements of shooting in Amsterdam (the light, the water, the traffic patterns), and could work around them.
"It's very Dutch to use as much sun as possible," says Gainor. "If you look at the paintings of the Dutch masters, you notice that the sky is always dramatic. The problem, however, is that the sky is constantly changing. We had to push the film every day in order to match the shots. It helped us get through the day without having to unload four trucks full of lights. We were fortunate to have a director of photography who could light in the camera and in the lab."
Shifting light wasn't the only challenge. The summer of 2004, when the film was shot, proved to be the Netherlands' wettest summer in decades. As Rob Schneider put it: "It rained. Oh, my God it rained."
The Dutch members of the crew took it in stride, though. "They have no problem shooting in the rain," observes Gainor. "In Amsterdam, you often have to wait out the rain. You know it's going to rain, you wait for fifteen minutes and you shoot. Quick, get the bounce board."
Then there was the additional challenge of working on the canals in the rain. "We built the Venetian canal, but the water level changed and broke our dock, cracked it in half," says Gainor. "There's just no way you can shoot rain for sun when you can see drops of water in the canals. The best we could do was shoot in the rain with the cameras under umbrellas and try to cheat the angles."
Otherwise, the company took full advantage of the city's scenic beauty. "It was important if you're going to fly thousands of miles to be on location, you should absolutely use every location you can," Gainor continues. "We made a huge point of not using sound stages wherever possible."
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