It’s been a difficult year for state and local film commissioners throughout the U.S. As chronicled in SHOOT, many state and municipal budgets have been hit by huge shortfalls, translating into significant cuts in the film commission sector.
Film commissions in Boston, St. Louis and Dallas/Ft. Worth closed up shop. In July, the Massachusetts Film Office shut down—though subsequently, a private sector fundraising effort emerged to form at least an interim film commission, tentatively called the Massachusetts Film Bureau (SHOOT, 10/18, p. 1). Organizers hope to maintain the Massachusetts Film Bureau for a year or longer, buying time so that the state can once again subsidize a full-fledged film commission—or perhaps team with a privately run operation to create a broader based entity designed to promote and support lensing in Massachusetts.
As earlier reported (SHOOT, 9/20, p. 4), Wendol Jarvis exited his post as director of the Iowa Film Office, an entity that he helped create in 1984. Jarvis opted to step down when the film commission’s budget was pared in half. He contended that the cutback—which meant the loss of two assistants—left the film office without the tools necessary to do its perennially high-standard job of bringing lensing business into the state.
However, enduring and persevering through significant cuts in staff and budget has been Linda Peterson Warren, who’s been director of the Arizona Film Commission for the past eight-and-a-half years. About a year ago, before budgetary problems escalated, Warren decided that she would resign at the end of 2002. She reasoned that it made sense to do so in that Gov. Jane Dee Hull’s administration would end in January ’03 due to term limits.
When state budget woes hit the fan in early ’02, the easy way out would have been for Warren to hasten her planned timetable for departure—but she didn’t. Warren was determined to serve out her commitment to Gov. Hull and the industry. This year, Warren has seen the Arizona Film Office’s budget decrease 58 percent, and the size of her office staff cut in half.
Nonetheless, she’s made due within tight financial constraints. "Linda has done a tremendous job for the film community—particularly in the face of a huge budget crunch," assessed Phil Hagenah, a member of the Arizona Governor’s advisory board.
"Linda has maintained her commitment to help promote filming in Arizona even though she’s had to buck against incredibly difficult times, with no money for marketing," continued Hagenah, an ad industry veteran who is principal/executive producer at longstanding Phoenix commercial production company, Film House.
Hagenah noted that Warren has been a strong advocate of commercialmaking, referring to it as the bread and butter of Arizona’s film economy. Warren and Hull were especially active in trying to keep and attract more spot production in Arizona.
Now Warren is slated to step down from her post effective Dec. 31. At press time, a successor had not yet been named. As for her immediate plans, Warren said she has a private sector venture in the offing, which will keep her involved in the film business. And she remains a big believer in the value of filming to the health of local, state and national economies.
Now if only that same realization could be engendered among the powers that be in local, state and national government. Even a basic sense of economics would be welcome. You don’t cut or eliminate an income producer when financial times are tough. But ironically film commissions face cutbacks, if not extinction, even through they often generate revenue that dwarfs their operating budgets.
