Paris Las Vegas helps set the mood for Zac Efron movie

When it comes to filming in Las Vegas, the choice of hotels can be pretty random.

"The Real World" famously moved into the Palms only after it was rejected by casinos up and down the Strip. The Michael Douglas-Robert De Niro bachelor party romp "Last Vegas" ended up at Aria because Wynn Las Vegas was booked. And we still have no idea why Steve Wynn wanted the dreadful "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2" anywhere near his high-end properties.

But Max Joseph had some very specific reasons for shooting scenes for "We Are Your Friends" at Paris Las Vegas.

"Even when we were writing it, I was really excited to shoot the Vegas sequence, like, very (cinema) verite. Like French New Wave," the director and co-writer says of his movie that opens Friday. "It was kind of a cheeky decision" to shoot at Paris, he says, because "the French New Wave aspect of it was in character."

In "We Are Your Friends," Zac Efron plays Cole Carter, an up-and-coming DJ who falls for his mentor's girlfriend, Sophie, portrayed by model-turned-actress Emily Ratajkowski. When Cole comes to Las Vegas with his friends for a very Electric Daisy Carnival-like festival, he ditches his buddies and hooks up with Sophie for a night on the Strip: making out by the Flamingo, in front of the High Roller and on the High Roller. They run across the Paris Las Vegas casino floor and dance amid the slot machines before heading upstairs to the hotel's Napoleon Suite. The next morning, they offer ringing endorsements of the hotel's room service pancakes and bacon cheeseburger.

Joseph says he knew early on in the writing process that Las Vegas would play a minor role in the story. "The whole movie is so L.A.-centric: The Valley or Hollywood or Beverly Hills. I wanted there to be kind of this dreamlike bubble where the characters go outside of L.A. … Vegas made the most sense because (with) electronic music culture and DJ culture, obviously Vegas is the epicenter of it."

"We Are Your Friends" had an even earlier tie to the city. Las Vegas-based hospitality executive Richard Silverman sold producers on the idea of a movie about an aspiring DJ and his mentor. An executive producer on the movie who received a "story by" credit, Silverman wasn't available for comment, but he's quoted in the press notes: "My experiences in that world gave me the idea for a story featuring characters living in and around this iconic social movement, and whose lifestyles and passions really exemplify the broad range of music it encompasses."

Joseph, who's best known as the co-host and onscreen cameraman of MTV's "Catfish: The TV Show," fleshed out Silverman's idea with co-writer Meaghan Oppenheimer for what began as an independent film. Warner Bros. didn't step in until after filming was completed.

"We had a very small crew," Joseph says of the Las Vegas filming. "Essentially, it was myself, the (director of photography) and Zac and Emily, just, like, running through Vegas for a couple of hours. Those are my favorite shots in the whole movie, the running through the casino at the Paris hotel. I just love the way that turned out."

The Vegas production was so small, there was a very real chance onlookers were texting their friends saying, "I think Zac Efron's just been catfished."

"The crew size was definitely more akin to 'Catfish' than a normal feature film," Joseph admits. "A lot of that was dictated by our budget, but a lot of that was dictated by the fact that, until this movie, I'd never made a film that had more than a $50,000 budget. … I'm only used to and comfortable with small crews and doing things kind of DIY and low-fi."

"We didn't have a lot of money for this movie, either," he continues. "But I thought that that would work, because we're used to seeing Zac especially in very glossy, slickly shot films. And to kind of watch him in a more documentary-style, with not as much lighting and gauzy slickness, I think adds a level of gritty reality to him."

It also adds a gritty reality to the Strip.

"I've never seen Vegas shot that way." Joseph says. "I've only seen it mostly with gliding shots over the city and that amazing stock shot of the Bellagio fountains. I wanted to do something much more low-fi in that city."

That DIY ethos also was evident during the scenes at what was supposed to be EDC. Despite being set in the world of electronic music, festival organizers wouldn't let the "We Are Your Friends" crew shoot there. So Joseph staged his own concert, instead.

"That was because we wanted to show the boys taking drugs into the festival and taking drugs at the festival, and no festival would allow that. And I understand that," he explains. "And so it became a question of, well, do we want to take that element out of the movie, or do we want to keep that element and remain authentic to, you know, what most people's experiences are at festivals. … Of course, not everyone does that. But these guys would certainly do that. So we decided to be authentic to the characters."

Despite the festival fakery, authenticity was key for Joseph during the local shoot. Unlike other movies that duplicate Strip hotel rooms on soundstages, when Cole and Sophie are in the Napoleon Suite, you can tell they're really in the room. The effect is almost like catching them in an intimate moment. And that, like the use of Paris Las Vegas, was always the plan for Joseph, who describes himself as "a little bit of a Francophile when it comes to music, especially electronic music."

The movie's title, "We Are Your Friends," comes from a remix by the French duo Justice. Pyramid, the producer who created Cole's signature track for the movie, lives in Paris. At one point, the script had Sophie talking about moving to Paris.

"This kind of Parisian undertone was always in the script, whether it was from the music or the story. … There was this theme of French and Parisian style, and obviously some filmmaking style," Joseph says. "We referenced this film 'La Haine,' which is this great French movie that takes place in Paris. So it was perfect to have them go to Vegas and have this sort of fake Parisian holiday within there as a kind of homage to all of these style and musical elements that we were using. And of course the visual of being there under the Eiffel Tower and then having it out the window as they made love was just a fun visual idea."

"You can't fake what that stuff looks like and the energy of that place," he adds. "I'm glad we shot there."

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch