Facts from a 'Gone Girl' notebook

Notes from Southeast Missourian interviews with the production team for "Gone Girl":

* "Gone Girl" location scout and manager Steve Mapel was armed with a letter of reassurance by Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger to show property owners when he began knocking on doors last spring, looking for the places to set the feature film. Tours of properties with director David Fincher helped solidify the locations chosen for the movie, Mapel said.

* Producer Cean Chaffin said "there just isn't space available like that in L.A.," when speaking of the empty former federal building on Broadway, used by the filmmakers as the North Carthage Police Department.

* The production crew on a movie such as "Gone Girl," according to Mapel, "very rarely" get to work on "films where you can walk out the door at 4 a.m. and be on set 30 seconds later." Most of the time, Mapel said, crews are sitting in Los Angeles traffic "and dealing with many more logistical headaches than we have here in Cape." Crews love how close they can be to work as the entire production moves around to different locations in the city.

* On his first day in Cape Girardeau, Mapel met with Rediger, Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce president John Mehner and Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy, all of whom Mapel said have been very supportive during the filming process, as have the Cape Girardeau Police Department, the public works department and the county parks department. Security, street closures and adjustment of street lighting are just a few of the things that governments and the community have helped with during the production, Mapel said.

* People who live in residential areas and businesses where filming is ongoing nearby have been helpful and accommodating, Chaffin said. "I'm sure people have complaints about us and all the noise we make and room we use, but we sure don't have any about them," she said. "This really couldn't be going any better."

* The production pays for the space it uses, and in instances when no payment for use of space is requested, the production still will often make a donation to an organization, such as to a church for using the church's parking lot.

-- Erin Ragan