NEWSLETTER FILM - SPRING 2004

SPRINGTIME is gorgeous – come explore our rolling, green hills and wildflowers!
With remote beaches, elegant Montecito estates, seventy vineyards, and authentic Spanish architecture, Santa Barbara County has it all!  Just 90 minutes from Los Angeles, we're ideal for filming and photo shoots.

HOT OFF THE PRESSES:  Online Photo Library – 4000 photos fully cross-referenced.
Go to our newly revamped site, www.filmsantabarbara.com - Locations: Location Photo Library.  Yet another dynamite site hosted by the incomparable Marino Pascal!

COMING SOON: Locations Trade Show – check out our prime locations & homegrown pistachios & biscotti.  Booth # 531, 4/16-18, Santa Monica Civic Center, Los Angeles.

LOOKING FOR LODGING? Get a bid! Go to www.filmsantabarbara.com and select Accommodations.  Fill out an RFP - Request For Proposal. We'll email it to all our members, and send you their offers.  You can also check a grid of countywide hotels… or book a room yourself  using Travel Hero.  And don't forget to check Hot Rates & Dates…


PRODUCTION UPDATE:

Features:  Polar Express.  SB editors are cutting this tale, which reunites Tom Hanks and Director Robert Zemeckis (Forest Gump, Cast Away).  A boy's adventure at the North Pole.

Love Clyde, Larry Levinson Prods, shot for 2 weeks in haunting Los Alamos.  Stars Marion Ross (Happy Days), Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction). An ailing granny finds her long-lost grandson.  Fox Searchlight completed Sideways, directed by Alexander Payne, (About Schmidt), a comedy about two bachelors wine-tasting their way across the Santa Ynez Valley's 20,000 acres of vineyards. Cruel Intentions 3 – based at a fictitious SB college (2nd unit shot an SB airport arrival).  Soldiers of God, Anabasis, a religious epic, spent 5 days "crossing the desert" at our coastal Guadalupe Dunes.  Inn Trouble, Waterfall Films, was shot entirely on location at Zaca Lake.  This "coming of age" tale, had Zaca Lake doubling for Vermont and a cast with the likes of Chris Heuisler, Kimberly McCullough, J. Emmet Walsh, and Jeffrey Tambor..  Stills:  Toyota, Chrysler, Chevy, Audi, Orvis, Nordstrom, Kathy Ireland, JC Penney, Ralph Lauren; The Territory Ahead; LL Bean; AGA; Harley Davidson; Dodge; Indigo Palms;  Buell Motorcycles; Money Magazine, Self Magazine, SB Magazine, Backyard Flyer Magazine, US Trust. Commercials:  Honda, Toyota, Kashi, Nike; BMW; Mazda; Cadillac; NY Stock Exchange; Friends of Salud Carbajal, KIA;  TV/Industrials: Ground Force America (BBC), Collegetown, USA (Nat'l Lampoon), The Bachelorette, The Journey of Life (BBC), Food Nation, Salad Shooter.


HOT LOCATIONS:

Reality TV Homes - 24/7:  Lots of film-friendly rooms await you at the Los Alamos 1880 Union Hotel & Victorian Mansion, the Simpson House Inn, and the Dos Pueblos Ranch.

More Cowboys & Horses! On the heels of the Oscar-nominated Seabiscuit comes Hidalgo, directed by local Joe Johnston.  He used our coastal Guadalupe Dunes to match a Moroccan beach for this legendary horse race across the Sahara with Viggo Mortensen.

A Sunday in the Country – bring your production designer and a picnic to these charming, country wineries: Bridlewood, Cottonwood, Fess Parker, Gainey, Kohler, Lafond, Melville, Meridian, Rancho Sisquoc, Rideau, Rusack, Sunstone and Zaca Mesa.

Ancient History:  Aside from 3 authentic missions and 1780's adobes, we also have ancient pygmy mammoth sites, Chumash Indian artifacts, fossils & the world's largest painted cave.

Wild Animal Outposts… Everything from whales (humpback, gray and blue whales) near the Channel Islands, to Little Orphan Hammies (home for orphaned pet pigs), Ostrich Land, Lompoc Horse Sanctuary & Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary, Carpinteria Salt Marsh's bird refuge, & the adorable seal rookeries of Carpinteria and Anacapa Island.

ECONOMIC IMPACT FOR 2004:  651 shooting days, $18.3 million in permits and vendor fees, and a $45 million ripple-down effect for the County.


HOT LOCALS:

A big welcome to Das Williams, our dynamic new film rep on SB City Council.

Wow! Local IMAX producer, Lobo & Associates, received $100 million in independent funding for educational films.  Next up - Island of a Thousand Voices - New Guinea.

Mike deGruy awarded Best Host & TV Presenter by the Missoula Wildlife Film Festival.

The Santa Barbara Zoo hosted The Bachelorette with sea lions, exotic birds, and giraffes.

Fess Parker, a.k.a. Davy Crockett & Daniel Boone, awarded the SBCVB's Tourism Star.  Parker founded Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort & the Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard.

PCPA Theaterfest & acting school (40 years) plans a major revamp of sound & lighting.

Captain Fred Benko's new 75' high-speed catamaran, Condor Express, was a fast, smooth camera platform for surf filmmaker Greg Huglin – shooting tow-in surfers on 20' swells.

Surf is up!  Surf filmmakers like Huglin & Bruce Brown (Endless Summer) make SB their home, thanks to renowned surf spots like Rincon, Jalama, Gaviota, & the Channel Islands.

Barbara Thomas & the Best Western Pepper Tree Inn hosted a surprise champagne reception for their BBC guests, Ground Force America, (doing an SB garden makeover).

Kevin Jones DP'd the horrifying Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.  Kevin owns Alamo Studios and is the film rep for the SBCVB's Board of Directors.

SCAMP's Pacific Media Initiative promotes  fiber connectivity, economic incentives for local production, and IntroNetworks , a countywide, online, business-to-business directory.

Santa Barbara Script Competition closes May 30^th, 2004.   www.santabarbara.script.com

CaféFX of Santa Maria produced VGX Digital Fire for Dark Castle's thriller, Gothic and the digital matte paintings in Peter Weir's Master and Commander.

Animationwerks "Ridden your bike lately?" Jim Clark conceived/shot the 2004 Campaign for Nat. Bike to Work Week.  See it online at animationwerks.com/pages/solo/rideqt.htm.

Eric Smith's new Pan Pilot steadicam covered the Polar Bear Volleyball beach tourney.

Larry Nimmer, Nimmer Pics, producing Lowrider reality videos for the state of California.



SB INT'L FILM FESTIVAL & DIGITAL DAYS!  Celebrity speakers included Peter Jackson, Charlize Theron, Zack Staenberg, & locals Diane Lane, John Cleese, Jeff Bridges.

SBIFF films by local filmmakers:
Day for Nite, Brooks student shoot supervised by local mentors: producer Steve Traxler, (Legally BlondeII); stunt director Mickey Gilbert,(Bruce Almighty); DP Bill Butler, (Jaws).

Woman Thou Art Loosed, made with the help of local "silent" producer Oprah Winfrey.

Sharks At Risk, a revealing documentary by SB oceanographer Jean-Michel Cousteau.

The Aphrodite Project,a cancer doc directed by SB's Jennie Reinish and Justin Rowe.

Being There, by SB director Russ Spencer, on SB's famous landscape artist Dan Horgan.

Mary Anthony:  A Life in Modern Dance, directed by UCSB grad/dancer Tonia Shimin.

The Big Swell, by SB surfing filmmaker Peck Euwer, follows three passionate surfer pals.

Singlefin Yellow, by SB director Jason Baffa, about a longboard's travels around the globe.

Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man, a documentary by SB director Ben Sutherland.


CALENDAR OF FILM EVENTS - See these SB events here

ISFF- Int'l Student Film Festival- April 17, 2004 3-5 pm. Free, Fe Bland Forum, SBCC.

Kid's Fest, SBIFF - April 23-25, 2004.  Fiesta Five Theater, 916 State St, Santa Barbara.

Reel Loud Film Festival – May, UCSB Campbell Hall.  Film shorts by UCSB students.

Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival – Digital Synthesis: 9/30-10/2/04, FP DoubleTree.


UPDATED PERMIT CONTACTS - Please note the following changes:

USFS, Figueroa Mtn. region:  Jill Evans, 805-925-9538, jillevans@fs.fed.us.
USFS, Paradise Rd. region:  Tony Martinez, (new phone ext.) 805-967-3481, x229
Guadalupe:  Carolyn Galloway Cooper, 805-343-1340, x103; kristina@ci.guadelupe.ca.us
Montecito Assn: History Comm T-Th 10-4, 805-969-2026. info@montecitoassociation.org
Solvang: Debbie Elliott, (new phone) 805-688-5575.
Calif. Film Comm: A fond goodbye to Karen Constine, Kayla Thames, Catherine Adamic.