Lights! Camera! Action!

Arizona's Thriving Film Industry A brisk wind blows across a Flagstaff golf course where, under a sun-bright sky, the grass forms an emerald carpet before the towering backdrop of 12,643-foot Humphreys Peak. Atop one of the course's green hillocks, about 80 five-year-olds squirm and squeal, laugh and churn up the turf. As if they weren't capable of making enough racket on their own, each child brandishes a toy that makes animal noises while, behind them, a dozen real farm animals add to the din.

Riding herd on the mob are about 20 intensely professional types: a makeup artist, hair stylists, set designers, electricians, grown-up actors, directors, a producer, soundmen, photographers, caterers, and a cameraman perched on a boom, wearing a bunny suit-clearly an effective way to command the kids' attention.

(PRECEDING PANEL) High-prairie location for The Quick and the Dead: the San Francisco Peaks rise in the background. (INSET, PAGE 38) Director Bob Day and assistant cameraman Ed Giovanni ride a crane for a better photographic angle. (BELOW) A buzz of activity surrounds the movie's players in an interior scene. (RIGHT) Character actor Gerry Potter displays makeup “scars.”

men, photographers, caterers, and a cameraman perched on a boom, wearing a bunny suit-clearly an effective way to command the kids' attention.

This unusual scene is part of a “shoot day” for a national television commercial. Assuming the budget for the advertisement in question is typical, its makers will drop some $100,000 while they are in Arizona. A typical 30-second spot takes one to three days to shoot. During that time, filmmakers shed dollars like a cat sheds fur.

Now, consider the fact that the toy manufacturer that commissioned the 80kid ad filmed the spot in Arizona to save money. Bill Linsman, the commercial's Scottsdale director, says that “an average shoot day in California runs from $50,000 to $70,000; in Arizona, $30,000 to $40,000.” For some very practical reasons-lower labor and production costs and an abundance of desirable locations-a strong young film industry has grown up in Arizona, capable of producing motion pictures, television features and commercials, and industrial and educational films.

Local professionals include directors, producers, actors, technicians, and support crews. While they're happy to work on the movie and television features filmed in Arizona, their bread and butter is advertising.

“Day in and day out, it's the televisioncommercial business that's coming here,” says Phil Hagenah, co-founder of Film House, a Phoenix production company. “On any given day, a lot more money is left in the state through commercials than through features.” Burke Rhind of Film Producer's Warehouse estimates the trade here has quadrupled over the last dozen years. “Work is literally streaming out of Hollywood,” he says. And even economy-minded advertisers spend plenty. “Some commercials have outrageous budgets,” says Rhind's wife and partner, Cherie Rhind. Film Producer's Warehouse once helped a French company shoot a perfume commercial. “Their budget was probably at least half a million dollars,” Cherie recalls, sitting in the bright offices that provide a base-away-fromhome for a largely international clientele.

“It was more than that,” says the company's casting director, Darlene Wyatt. “They had one of the highest-priced directors in the world.” The work was done in Monument Valley, the two explain. The whole crew stayed at the Kayenta Holiday Inn, but the Frenchmen declined the ordinary hotel fare. “They had caterers cook dinner for them,” Cherie continues. “They rented a special room to serve it. And they sent to Page to get cases of wine. The rest of the crew ate in the hotel dining room, but these French guys, every night....” Despite Arizona's diverse filming sites, local filmmakers still must hustle to promote the state back East, where advertising agents hear “Arizona” and imagine sand dunes, cowboys, and ranch houses. Period.

Phil Hagenah came here from Chicago. His partner, director Alex de Paola, came from New York. Both men had long experience in television advertising. When they opened Film House seven years ago, they used their eastern contacts to lift the company off the ground.

“When I'm in New York,” Hagenah reports, “I usually call the agency people and say 'Hi, I'm a production company in Arizona-don't-hang-up! We really do very nice work.' He pauses and laughs. 'They say, 'If you're so good, why are you in Arizona?'” Once he's in the door, he shows them a video portfolio of highly professional commercials that may feature such clients as Doublemint, Kellogg's, United Airlines, Southwest Gas, Sears, and Six Flags-Great America. Then he points out that he can bid a project for substantially less than a typical California firm can.

Filmmakers here depend on out-ofstate clients, who provide volume and have fatter budgets than many local businesses. Bill Linsman (whose clients include the likes of Pampers, Mr. Clean, and Fleischmann's Margarine) points out, however, that national advertisers' interest forces local firms to produce work whose quality is competitive with the best ads done in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

“There have been enough jobs that the film business here has grown [over the last decade] from one or two firms to four or five significant commercial production companies,” he says, speaking of the Phoenix area.

Despite the lower wages prevailing, Linsman adds, excellent film people are moving to Arizona from other states. “I

Celebrating Movies in the Sun

In Tucson, members of the film community are founding an annual international film festival, replete with gala events and movie celebrities.

Sponsored by the Arizona Center for the Media Arts and the Tucson Film Festival, Inc., the movie extravaganza will be part of the larger Festival in the Sun, a month-long performing arts event presented by the University of Arizona.

The university's Department of Media Arts and the Arizona Motion Picture Office are also affiliated with the film festival, which will benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson, says organizer Bob Shelton of Old Tucson, A movie set and popular theme park.

The Tucson International Film Festival/1990 will start February 28 with the inauguration of the Arizona West-ern Film Hall of Fame, honoring selected early-day Western actors and feature films.

The next night, an International Cinema Tribute will recognize an individual nation for the contributions of its film industry. Friday evening an outstanding contemporary American actor will be saluted at the historic Temple of Music and Art in Tucson.

Winners of the festival's international competition, divided into six categories of film and video production, will receive Adolph Zukor Awards at a banquet Saturday.

More than 200 films and videos will play at downtown and UofA locations during the five-day event, which will also include seminars for professional, amateur, and student filmmakers.

"One night we'll have a series of film clips of people inducted into the Hall of Fame. Other screenings will be international film premiers, not exclusively Westerns," says Shelton.

The Tucson International Film Festival/1990 runs from February 28 to March 4. For information, telephone (602) 798-3456 (798-FILM).

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Order your calendars today with the attached order card, or write or visit Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. You can place telephone orders by calling (602) 258-1000 or, toll-free within Arizona, 1 (800) 543-5432.

I think they're grateful to be able to live where they can drive an hour and be out in the country. Things are not as intense here. Some of the negative qualities of the business are not here: there aren't a lot of drugs, for example. There aren't a lot of people motivated solely by money. There's still some dedication. There's a lot of caring about quality. Those are things many film people really value."

With growing film activity, a number of Arizonans who might never have thought of themselves as movie folk are finding themselves involved in the industry. Pat and Susan Conley, for example, came to the Grand Canyon as river guides. Eighteen years in the outdoor expedition business suited them as location scouts.

By chance, a London advertising agency came across a Conley flier in 1982. "They called," Pat remembers, "and said, 'Look, it appears from the pictures in your brochure that you have exactly the scenery we want for a particular product-Red Mountain Instant Coffee.'"

Red mountains Conley had. He helped film three commercials near Sedona and then airlifted 44 crew members into the Grand Canyon. "We set up the whole thing, with motorized rafts and paddleboats. They filmed these men and women paddleboating through a major rapid and then coming up to a beach and campfire and enjoying this instant coffee.

"It's evolved by word-of-mouth to where we've had about 14 projects this year," he says. In 1986 Conley spent 10 weeks working on The Quick and The Dead, a Home Box Office movie based on a Louis L'Amour novel. The entire $6 million feature was filmed less than two hours from Flagstaff. In 1987 Midnight Run, starring Robert De Niro, included chase scenes through Sedona, the Navajo Indian Reservation, Globe, and Flagstaff.

Richard Rose, whose Tucson company, Film Creations, Ltd., also depends to a great extent on producing commercials, says advertising most helps "the local creative types," while features benefit hotels, restaurants, and other ancillary services.

"Every week we shoot three or four local and regional spots," he says. "We may only do national spots occasionally." Movie and television features are gravy. "The last feature film I signed up for was Three Amigos. They must have dumped $10 million into Tucson."

Tom Hilderbrand, director of the Tucson Film Office, estimates the film business usually brings his city about $5 million a year. "They buy everything you can think of that a tourist would buy," he remarks. "They stay in hotels and eat at restaurants, and they buy gifts and jewelry and presents for people back home. A tremendous amount goes into lumber because they build sets continually. They hire electricians and carpenters; they rent cars; and they rent motor homes."

Tucson has been virtually a Hollywood back lot since 1959, when Bob Shelton reactivated Old Tucson, initially constructed for the movie Arizona in 1939. (For the history of movie making in Arizona, see the September 1981 Arizona Highways.) As Hilderbrand spoke, four films were under way in Tucson: Highway to Heaven, Stones for Ibarra, Ghost Town, and a remake of Red River. Can't Buy Me Love had recently finished production. The presence of a film industry nurtured by advertising encourages entertainment people to bring their business here because there is a talent pool from which they can hire.

More glimpses of the same company. (CLOCKWISE, FROM LEFT) Trailers, trucks, and mobile homes house crew and equipment in open country near Flagstaff; Josh Bliebtrau and Hardy James carry camera gear; authentic-looking homesteaders on the move near Sedona.

Moviemakers have always liked the state's look. From Araby to arctic tundra, almost any spot in the world can be simulated somewhere in Arizona. Or any spot out of this world: parts of Return of the Jedi were shot here, as were scenes in Planet of the Apes, Spaceballs, and My Science Project.

Several decades ago, the San Rafael Valley struck producers as more authentically "Oklahoma" than Oklahoma itself; employing portable cornfields, they filmed the famous musical there. More recently Arizona has impersonated locales as diverse as the Holy Land, Canada, and South Africa. Prescott is Everytown. Monument Valley has been Joe Moviegoer's idea of the American West since John Ford discovered it. And Phoenix, with its tendency toward architectural blandness, delights ad producers: find a brick house with no palm trees, cacti, or citrus in the front yard, and you could be in Miami, Minneapolis or Montreal. (For more geographical look-alikes, see the December 1984 Arizona Highways.)

No impetus has helped the local indus-

try more than the concerted effort by business organizations and the state government to sell out-of-state filmmakers on Arizona. In 1971 the Arizona Motion Picture Office was established as an arm of the Department of Commerce. An active Governor's Motion Picture Board, headed by old Hollywood hand Arthur Loew, voluntarily provides advice and participates in the international film commissioners' association. And many cities and towns have local film offices or volunteer committees who smooth the way for visiting producers.

Bill MacCallum, a veteran of years in the motion picture industry, directs the three-person state office. "Our primary target," he says, "is Hollywood because they spend the most money."

In its first 16 years, the state motion picture office invested 2.5 million dollars to attract worldwide movie and television production. Filmmakers bought the pitch. They brought their business to Arizona, purchasing goods and services and hiring local talent to the tune of $193.3 million. The return was almost 80 times the investment.

Competition for this lucrative business, however, is fierce. "Colorado formed the first film commissioner's office," says MacCallum. "By 1972 there were five or six. Now there are 110 film commissions in North America. All the states, Puerto Rico, the Canadian provinces. Many cities have formed film commissions as part of their economic development programs." While MacCallum and his aides, Bill Kirkpatrick and Sharon Davenport, advertise Arizona in print, by videotape, and in person around the country, they're also promoting the film industry with local businessmen and officials. The response has been overwhelmingly friendly.

Television producer Steve Caldwell remarks on the cooperation his company, Westland Productions, received when they came to Phoenix to film Asimov's Probe.

"The city really extended itself," he says. "The [Phoenix] film office and the state for locations and everything else were really great to us. We'll certainly try to return the favor."

"We've had a full-length film made in Prescott each of the last couple of years," says Mary Baker, manager of that town's chamber of commerce. "Nobody's Fool and The Zoo Gang both spent around two million dollars. That's their budget here; drivers, secretaries, employees they hire a lot of people locally; then there's equipment, accommodations, meals. It has a definite economic impact." Joan Nevills-Stavely, chairman of the Page-Lake Powell Film Commission, agrees. When Million-Dollar Mystery was filmed there, Wahweap Marina turned its first off-season profit. Murphy's Romance, which snared James Garner's first Academy Award nomination, was filmed in Florence, where natives saw it as something more than a money-maker. "One of our main concerns is to get our name on the map," says City Manager Ken Buchanen. Murphy's Romance did that: Sally Field and James Garner were interviewed in Florence for Entertainment Tonight. "When you're nationally televised," Buchanen remarks, "now that's cheap publicity!" Tourists still visit Florence to have their picture taken near "that little tree in front of Murphy's."

Phil Hagenah concludes: "It's a strange business. But it's basically a clean industry; and before you know it, they're gone, you have some money left that you didn't have before, and you have some great stories to tell."

Vicky Hay is associate editor of Arizona Highways. She wrote about historic movie theaters for the June 1989 issue.

Val Stannard worked as an independent photographer on location during filming of The Quick and the Dead.