The shift in venue this year from the cavernous Los Angeles Convention Center to the more cozy Santa Monica Civic Auditorium signals more than just new accommodations for the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) 17th annual Locations trade show. The three-day event runs through this weekend (4/12-14). In several respects, the site change reflects the current climate of the film commission community, which has been impacted by a sluggish economy and 9/11. According to AFCI organizers, there also seems to be a growing real-ization of the need for film commissions to share info and resources in order to better promote the benefits that filming can bring to a neighborhood, city, county, state and nation—as well as to the world.
"In this day and age, extravagance and glitz do not represent the tone we want to convey to the industry," relates Bill Lindstrom, who was recently named AFCI’s CEO. "I think this year you will see a tighter, more efficient feel to Locations. Yes, there will be smaller booths due to space limitations, but the need to do more with less is an outgrowth of an overall marketplace in which budgets have been cut, travel has been reduced and people generally are looking for all kinds of efficiencies. We want to create an environment where attendees, film commissioners and location service providers can get down to business, with fewer distractions."
Lindstrom observes that over the course of Locations history, the show has gotten progressively bigger, marked mostly by the size and extravagance of the booths. The one-upmanship among film commissions to generate attention and attendees traffic had been a way of exhibitor life, replete with elaborate booths and offbeat attractions. While this was useful in helping to create identity in a crowded field and to gain some consumer press coverage, Lindstrom says that it isn’t all that apropos today.
The film commission community is dealing with a host of financial struggles—perhaps most notably with municipal and state budget crunches that could put the squeeze on allocations for a number of local and state film commissions in the U.S. this coming fiscal year. As earlier reported (SHOOT, 1/11, p. 1), an expected $1.2 billion shortfall in the Washington State budget has jeopardized funding for the Washington State Film Office in 2002-’03. Gov. Gary Locke (D-Wash.) has proposed that the Washington State Film Office be shut down on June 30.
The elimination of the Washington State Film Office would be penny-wise and pound-foolish. The immediate savings would be the office’s relatively modest annual budget of approximately $375,000.
By contrast, it’s estimated that during the past fiscal year the film industry spent some $55 million in the State of Washington. And for every dollar in its budget, the Washington State Film Office has generated in excess of $100 on average over the past 10 years, as computed by the state Office of Trade and Economic Development (OTED). Additionally, the state OTED estimated that the closing of the Washington State Film Office could eliminate 1,500 to 2,000 jobs statewide for caterers, truck drivers, technicians, retail clerks, hotel employees, waiters, bankers, accountants, lawyers and actors, among others.
Lindstrom says that a limited number of film commissions may not exhibit at Locations 2002, due to state budget constraints. "But for the most part, even in belt-tightening times, [AFCI] membership has always considered the Locations trade show to be the most important event for them from a marketing standpoint." The Washington State Film Office, for example, is slated to be one of the exhibitors at Locations this weekend. And despite the situation that’s still to be resolved in the State of Washington, Lindstrom believes that most local and state governments realize the importance of film commissions and of generating lensing revenue.
In this vein, even in the face of—and perhaps in intelligent response to—a sluggish economy, municipalities and states are proposing and/or implementing incentive programs to try to attract filming (see separate story, p. 1).
It behooves the film commission community to help muster support for progressive incentives and to get other key filming advocacy messages across to the body politic and the public in general, Lindstrom relates. "We’ve seen a progression where film commissions are understanding and exploring the importance of relationships among themselves," says Lindstrom, former director of the Wyoming Film Office. "There’s more networking and sharing of information."
This sharing orientation will also be reflected on the Locations exhibit floor, Lindstrom continues. "Cities and counties, cities and states, sites and provinces from all over the world are getting together in networked booth space. There’s a growing cooperative effort to advance filming prospects everywhere."
At press time, nearly 300 film commissions and location service providers from 30-plus countries were set to exhibit at Locations. While these numbers are pretty much on a par with last year’s show, they’re spread over a smaller number of booths—a little more than 200—which underscores Lindstrom’s point about shared, cooperative space.
Lindstrom and AFCI president Ward Emling, director of the Mississippi Film Office, expect a larger turnout from the production community, due in part to the show’s venue, which is where Locations began some 17 years ago. "Returning to Santa Monica makes it easier for production personnel to reach us," says Emling. "For three days in April, the world of locations will be in one town, in one place. We’ve always been about making it easier to film on location—any location—from Pasadena to Paris, from Miami to Melbourne, from South Dakota to South Africa."
Lindstrom picks up on the convenience of Locations being situated in Santa Monica, which is home to assorted commercial production houses and advertising agencies. "We’re definitely anticipating a larger turnout this year from the commercialmaking sector," says Lindstrom. "We’ve had great conversations with the AICP [the Association of Independent Commercial Producers], which is getting word out to its membership about the show."
This year, Locations will not have any formal panel discussions, as the AFCI has opted to focus fully on generating meaningful dialogue on the exhibit floor, getting feedback from and being responsive to a cross-section of attendees that will include producers, directors, location scouts and industry executives.
Locations exhibitors include film office representatives from such countries as the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Costa Rica, Fiji, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, Spain, St. Lucia and Wales. As alluded to earlier, various entities are sharing booth space and combining resources—perhaps the highest-profile example being California, which has set up an array of booths, dubbed the California Pavilion, with more than 30 representatives from regional film commissions throughout the state.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Lindstrom heads an AFCI staff management team that also consists of Lonie Stimac as COO and Sue Clark-Jones as director of meetings and events. Like Lindstrom, Stimac is a former state film commission director, having served in that capacity for the Montana Film Office. Clark-Jones is a certified meeting planner. The AFCI recently hired Lindstrom, Stimac and Clark-Jones, reasoning that full-time staff leadership was needed to follow through on the agenda set by the organization’s elected board.
Emling describes the management team as consisting of "people who can help us do our jobs better as an association." He notes that Lindstrom and Stimac "have the insights of having run film commissions. They are people with reputations in Hollywood and throughout the film commission community already. They have track records of working well with the industry."
Emling explains that before these staffers were hired, "the nature of [AFCI] board meetings was, we would come up with ideas and half of them wouldn’t get acted upon because we all had full-time jobs. Our ideas and initiatives would get lost in a budget hearing or a production when I got home. But with a management team, we know that the things we think about, dream about and hope to get done will be followed through on. And that, ultimately, will make it easier for film commissions and filmmakers to do their jobs as more goes beyond the boardroom and makes its way into practice."
Staff management can also help address and create an awareness of major issues, including the aforementioned situation facing the Washington State Film Office.
Lindstrom believes that generally "there’s a deep understanding that having a film commission helps to develop resources, helps create and retain jobs. The AFCI is about creating the right environment to help people be gainfully employed."
The Locations trade show in a sense represents part of an AFCI reach-out program, which also includes meetings with different industry sectors. "We’ll spend some time over the next several months going to the various guilds, unions and organizations—building relationships and, in some cases, rebuilding relationships," states Lindstrom. "It’s key for us to reach out to those people in the production world and say, ‘We’re your partners.’ "
