Too quiet on the set?

Petaluma is Hollywood's 'Anytown, USA,' but it's been almost eight years since a large-scale film shoot took place here

February 22, 2006

By DANE GOLDEN and COREY YOUNG
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Sure, you know the names of some big movies that have been shot in Petaluma. "American Graffiti" probably comes to mind first, followed by "Peggy Sue got Married," "Inventing the Abbotts," "Basic Instinct." Oh -- and "Howard the Duck."

Legends of the American cinema have walked, driven or directed these streets on the silver screen. They include George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Kathleen Turner, Jeremy Irons and Nicholas Cage. Even the star of the new NBC show "My Name Is Earl," Jason Lee, came to town when "Mumford" was shot here.

When you start counting them up, it seems that Petaluma has seen all the big names.

But not lately.

Petaluma, while still popular with catalog photographers and makers of TV commercials, has not seen a major film production since 1998, when "Mumford" was shot here.

The Sonoma County Economic Development Board held a meeting earlier this month at the Supper House to determine what could be done in a time of budgetary constraints to bring more motion picture production, and the subsequent revenue, to the county. Petaluma, of course, is one of the highlights of the county when it comes to filming.

Three-dozen county professionals and association representatives attended the Supper House meeting and resolved to form a task force with the goal of bringing more movies to the area.

But why haven't there been any major productions in Petaluma lately? Do we want them back? And if so, what would it take to lure filmmakers back?

The questions have a lot of different answers, depending on who you ask.

The 'Lolita' shoot and other factors

The first reason you hear from both Petalumans and local film professionals alike is not necessarily the most important, but it's the most well known, and it's just one word -- "Lolita."

"Lolita" was a film starring Jeremy Irons, a remake of the film version of Nabokov's story about an adult man and his amorous interest in a very young woman.

"Lolita" was shot in downtown Petaluma in 1996, and caused a bit of a stir. In short, the production company kept streets closed longer than they had previously agreed, angering many merchants.

Afterwards, the Petaluma Downtown Association passed a series of guidelines, which carefully defined the process of shooting films downtown.

However, Petaluma got a bit of a reputation as not being film friendly, a reputation that appears to persist, deservedly or not.

Feature-film production hasn't just left Petaluma recently; it's left California, and to some degree the United States. Nowadays, films are often made in places like Vancouver, Mexico or any of a number of nations that are seeking to lure film business.

"They're being shot in Canada, they're being shot in Mexico, they're being shot in Australia," said Ben Stone, director of the county Economic Development Board.

Technology has enabled filmmakers to create sets and backgrounds on a computer without actually relocating the entire cast and crew to somewhere like Petaluma. This work might be done in Hollywood, out of the country, or perhaps even at George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic in San Francisco.

"A lot of the things they used to have to shoot directly, they can now do in Hollywood," said Stone.

In 2004 the Board of Supervisors eliminated the Sonoma County film commissioner's position due to budgetary constraints, saving about $150,000 a year. Those officials at the recent meeting in Petaluma discussed the possibility of re-funding the position, but experts disagree whether the position is warranted or not.

Cyclical trends

According to Katie Crump, assistant to the Petaluma city manager and the city's point person if there is filming in town, motion picture production "is cyclical, in a way. There's no set pattern."

She said that the city may go months without any filming, and then have several shoots going on at once. But since July 1 of last year, there have been only two commercial shoots. Both were still photography.

In the past few years, still photography has taken off, including work for catalogs, brochures and magazines. The catalog business has now grown into a $130 billion industry, and Sonoma County settings are quite popular.

In the first half of 2005, there were two small independent films shot here, "The Hamiltons" and "Sweet Insanity."

The last feature film shot largely in town, "Mumford," was shot over several weeks in 1998 and released in 1999.

Script and setting

Although there has been some new development downtown, Petaluma continues to be best suited for either a period piece (a movie set sometime in the past, like "Peggy Sue"), or a movie set in small-town America (like "Mumford").

But regardless, the production will only come if the script calls for a set like Petaluma.

"It's definitely based on a script," said Jim Baldwin, a longtime Marin-based location scout and manager. He is on the board of the Bay Area Film Alliance, whose mission is to encourage filmmaking in the Bay Area.

And there is intense competition for film production dollars from other states that don't have union labor (so-called right-to-work states), where costs are cheaper.

And according to Joe Madalena, another longtime local location manager, each film has what's called a "primary location site," the main setting around which a film revolves.

"All motion picture, TV and still photography go to a distant location to work for the same reason -- the location area has a key site or sites that match the screenplay, script or storyboard," he said.

It's not necessarily the setting the viewer most associates with the movie. For instance, in "Mumford" the psychiatrist's office was a central setting, and was filmed at the Sonoma Development Center near Sonoma. Since Petaluma was nearby, the city was a logical choice for the secondary and tertiary filming sites.

In "Cheaper by the Dozen," the Santa Rosa railroad depot and Santa Rosa's Railroad Square were the primary location sites in the county, and a ranch outside of Petaluma was secondary.

But Petaluma and its surrounding area have great dexterity. In 2004, Madalena was the location manager for a National Association of Realtors commercial where six homes were needed to represent a cross-section of American house styles.

He found four completely different and representational models of American homes in Petaluma alone (and the other two in Tomales). The commercial highlighted the entire nation without leaving the area.

In addition, "Scriptwriters are being asked to script things that are cheaper to produce," said Baldwin, adding that so-called "reality shows" are very cheap to produce compared to the money they make. And these productions don't require expensive actors, or in some cases, even any sets. Although such shows are primarily on television only, the movie "Jackass," based on the TV show, was a hit on the big screen.

Do we want them back?

Do we want film production back in Petaluma? And if so, why? Is it because it brings money to the economy, or simply because of civic pride? These two reasons are a little tricky to pick apart.

Traffic, nuisance and loss of merchant income (and by consequence, sales tax dollars) are seen as the main problems stemming from long-term production.

When it comes to shooting, it's the long-term shoots that cause the major community annoyances, instead of small, one- or two-day productions like commercials.

But although commercials are certainly nice money to have, and unobtrusive, the feature film is the holy grail of big productions, where there is the most significant infusion of money into the local economy, and the highest opportunity for residual tourism.

After all, no one ever visited a city because they liked a commercial that was shot there.

However, Baldwin said, if Petaluma is looking to see the words "Thanks to the city of Petaluma" in the end credits of a major film, that would mean the production company would be "controlling those identifiable landmarks in Petaluma, like the clock tower or Kentucky Street. That means we're affecting people's daily routines."

Are the businesses and citizens willing to be inconvenienced with traffic delays or the inability for customers to get to downtown merchants?

Perhaps temporarily, but if traffic delays due to recent downtown redevelopment are any indication, a six-week production schedule might be more than the city as a whole is willing to bear, whatever the increased dollars that could potentially come from tourism.

Street closures due to filming can definitely cause problems, said Petaluma Realtor Peg King, who enjoys pointing out a couple of locations where movies were shot as she drives potential buyers around town.

"Traffic is greater now" than when previous films were made, King said, and a lot of people can get frustrated (although she said she never minded it in the past).

Pride

Let's face it -- we're proud of our place in cinema lore. In fact, the city will soon be getting its own walk of fame in front of the Boulevard Cinemas on C Street, where "American Graffiti" actors Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins and Paul Le Mat will place their hands in wet cement this spring. Clearly, there's plenty of room for a few more hands in that sidewalk.

"People want to go where movies are made," Baldwin said.

That would seem to be a plus for our tourism business. But what if Petaluma becomes associated with a movie about an unsavory topic? For instance, would anyone want to take a vacation to a spot in New Jersey just because Tony Soprano dumped a body there on the HBO show?

"You'd be surprised," said Baldwin, citing New York's "Gangland" tours that are popular with tourists.

Tourism and indirect dollars

Have you ever seen a movie, recognized the setting and then visited that place on vacation, bringing money to that local economy?

Jessica Vann Gardner, executive director of the Petaluma Visitors Program, said that Petaluma's history as a film backdrop is still a draw for tourists.

"Without a doubt," she said. "The element of creating a sense of place and dedication that people remember from the movies comes up time and time again." And those visits, in turn, bring sales tax and hotel-tax dollars to the city.

One film cited by attendees at the Economic Development Board meeting that created a tourism success story was "Sideways," a 2004 film about the misadventures of two friends who go wine tasting in the Santa Barbara region.

"The whole Santa Barbara area has exploded with tourism, and Pinot sales are through the roof," Baldwin said. "And people have always thought of Northern California as wine country."

In the film, the lead character extols the virtues of the temperamental Pinot grape, and the film did spark a surge in Pinot Noir sales nationwide, according to Wine International magazine. In early 2005, shortly after the film came out, Pinot sales rose 22 percent nationwide from the same month the previous year. And sales of Pinot have remained steady.

On the other hand, sales of Merlot, which was denigrated in the film, have seen only moderate increases since the film's release. So it wasn't a boon for all wine sales.

Another local indirect result of movies made in Petaluma was the Petaluma Boys and Girls Club's "Cruisin' the Boulevard" fund-raiser last year, which garnered $105,000 for the organization. It's hard to imagine that the fund-raiser would have lured the same level of participation without Petaluma's connection with the cruiser cars of "American Graffiti."

But there's no guarantee that a movie filmed locally will be a success, or that any success it does have will translate into tourism for Petaluma.

As the Economic Development Board's Stone said, "Of the movies that have been filmed here, I don't know of anyone who came here because of 'Mumford.' Or 'Bandits,' or 'The Animal,' or 'Cheaper by the Dozen,'" other movies that have been filmed in Sonoma County over the last half-dozen years.

Stone also pointed out that while motion picture production has been known to bring in $1-3 million during filming, there are other, much larger industries in the county, including, tourism, tech, health and retail, each at about $1 billion.

Direct dollars

"What most cities and states and nations have discovered is that filming is a very lucrative, low-impact way of bringing revenue into the main body of the community," Baldwin said.

In addition, he cited the "multiplier effect" from the 1999 Monitor study, which said that each dollar of motion picture production money spent created between three and four total dollars for local economies, because cash that comes into the community has a greater influence than its direct dollars.

So a film that infused between $1 million and $3 million in a local economy could have a multiplied effect of having a direct infusion of between $3 million and $12 million.

The Bay Area Film Alliance points out that crews and production personnel stay in hotels and eat at local restaurants, and that hardware stores enjoy increased sales when crew members purchase lumber, paint, and other materials used on the set.

"It's a clean industry," former Film Commissioner Catherine DePrima said. "They come in, they spend money, and they leave."

What would it take to lure filmmakers back?

Assuming that the above math works out, what would need to happen to get filmmakers back to Petaluma? Well, a lot of things. But, unfortunately, there's no guarantee that any of them would work. But ideas include the following:

Create a strategy

The three-dozen local government, tourism and film industry professionals who met at the Economic Development Board meeting formed a task force of chambers of commerce, cities and some industry leaders to find a way to bring in more production companies and how to improve the county's program with limited resources.

Baldwin called the effort "a very good start." He said that some of the things Petaluma could do involve increasing public awareness of the economic benefits, increasing the area's profile in the eyes of the industry and creating direct economic incentives.

Lure the scouts and change filmmakers' perceptions

"Over the years Petaluma has gained a reputation for being not as friendly as it used to be," Baldwin said.

One key component of getting film production in the area, according to DePrima, is maintaining strong relationships with location managers, because of their impact on the decision about where a film is made.

She did a lot of outreach to location managers throughout the world through her efforts with the California Film Commission board and Association of Film Commissioners International.

"She was so good at promotion," Baldwin said.

Cut the red tape and fees

Marie McCusker, executive director of the Petaluma Downtown Association, regularly receives requests from location scouts.

"It's something we're all interested in," she said of attracting more filming. "Petaluma is a wonderful place to film a movie. It's knowing how to stimulate that market again."

She said that the association's guidelines are not meant to discourage movies from being made in the downtown core and that no filming has been turned down. But although no one interviewed said the Petaluma Downtown Association filming guidelines were too prohibitive, some said they were extremely specific.

The guidelines state that if filming is intended in the popular downtown area, film companies will need to gain clearance from both the Downtown Association and the city concurrently, instead of just one authority. The Downtown Association is designated the liaison for all approvals with City Hall.

Other guidelines allow limit filming from Monday to Thursday. Street closures are limited to three minutes at a time, with no more than 30 minutes per hour. No closures are permitted from 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. All filming must be approved in writing by 70 percent of businesses within a block of any affected changes to parking, street or sidewalk closures.

The guidelines were put in place after the "Lolita" controversy and last updated in January 2004.

They are in place "to take care of both sides of the equation" -- the filmmakers' needs and the needs of the community, Vann Gardner said.

Get a new film commissioner

There was general agreement at the Economic Development Board meeting that a new film commissioner would be a big plus, but there was no agreement on how to fund the position.

"Having someone in that position is absolutely key," Baldwin said. "This is an industry that needs at least a person."

Vann Gardner, of the visitors center, said the Sonoma County film commissioner role can be very helpful in proactively marketing Sonoma County as a potential filming or photography location.

"We really have depended on the Sonoma County film commissioner's office for that function," she said. "We need a proactive film commissioner if Sonoma County is going to stay competitive as a premier location for filming."

A successful anecdote took place with the movie "Inventing the Abbotts." The film commissioner was able to help bring members of various agencies together for a key meeting, and the film's location scout was able to get answers to 20 out of their 30 shot requests in a single sit-down.

"From there, he was so sold that he wanted to go out and get permits for these locations," said Vann Gardner.

But location manager Madalena didn't think the position should be restored.

"Past history has also demonstrated that a film commissioner does not have the power to bring filming and photo shoots here on their own initiative by attending film marketing venues," he said. He said the best way to bring filming and still photography "is for qualified local location managers and location scouts to have a direct link with all location site inquiries that come into the Sonoma County film department."

Whatever approach is taken, those who promote Petaluma see continued film shoots as a benefit.

"We're still getting residual fame from these movies," McCusker said, citing the recent car show honoring "American Graffiti."

"Petaluma is still a film-friendly town," Vann Gardner said. "I think films leave an impression for people, who say, 'Hey, I want to go there.'"

(Contact the authors at argus@arguscourier.com)

SOME PETALUMA DOWNTOWN ASSOCIATION GUIDELINES (SUMMARY)

For filming in downtown core:

1) Production company must get concurrent approval from both the city and PDA.

2) PDA is designated liaison between city and production company.

3) Filming only Mon-Thu.

4) No street closures longer than three minutes and no more than 30 minutes per hour.

5) At least 70 percent of PDA members within a block of parking, street or sidewalk closures must approve the filming in writing.

RELATED WEB SITES

Sonoma County Film Office:

www.sonomacountyfilm.com

California Film Commission:

www.film.ca.gov

Santa Barbara Film Commission:

www.filmsantabarbara.com

Bay Area Film Alliance:

www.filmbayarea.org

Joe Madalena's location mgr. Web site:

www.primefilmsites.com

Jim Baldwin's location mgr. Web site:

www.baldwinproductions.com

Association of Film Commissioners International:

www.afci.org