The San Francisco Chronicle went along to the set of the movie adaptation of "Rent" recently where a recreation of 1983 New Year's Eve in New York's Times Square was taking place. They've gone into detail about the changes the production has made to make San Francisco exteriors look like New York City.

"Rent" is an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical about struggling young artists in New York's East Village. Because of its East Coast locale, it didn't seem an obvious fit for San Francisco but they've utilised soundstages at Treasure Island for interior scenes and have dressed up Sixth and Jessie streets to look like Lower Manhattan.

Teamsters spent months accumulating so-called clean 'rubbish' from Dumpsters and garbage cans outside garment stores along Jessie. Additional graffiti was painted on a brick wall papered with ads for bogus New York clubs. Club Six underwent the biggest metamorphosis, turning into the Cat Scratch Club, which, in the script, has a raunchy clientele attracted to the idea of S&M, if not the actual acts. On Wednesday, extras waiting for the club scene to be shot lined up wearing an array of bizarre outfits, which most had assembled themselves.

Lots more details about the shoot including pics can be found up at SFGate.

Thanks to 'Jediyuth'