Comparing the Inland Empire's film industry to that of the Los Angeles basin is a bit like comparing a boating video to "Titanic." But the margin is closing a bit, thanks to cheap rent, a wide selection of locations and a growing population of filmmakers and film support services in the local area.
Film activities generated $62.5 million in local revenue in 1997, compared to less than $5 million in 1993, according to the Inland Empire Film Commission. Over the same period, the number of completed film projects grew from less than 100 to more than 800 last year.
Moreover, a major studio is thinking about expanding to the Inland Empire, although nothing is set in stone, commission director Sheri Davis said. If a major studio does open a local operation, it will find itself surrounded by a growing pool of film producers, directors, cast, crew and support businesses - and maybe even some home-grown, minor-league competitors.
Davis wouldn't name the company in question, but she said it's looking for cheap land for a possible local studio that could be set up within the next year.
"I'm trying not to get excited," she said. "You never know until they show up."
The studio in question is rumored to be Warner Bros., but officials at the Burbank film giant said they have no plans to expand.
Burbank economic development manager Paul Krueger said the city's top studios - Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Co. and NBC Studios - each still have several million square feet of undeveloped property.
Krueger said he wouldn't be surprised if smaller production houses were shopping around, however.
Burbank is home to 700 film and post-production companies, and office vacancy in the city's media district is running below 3%, he said.
"They're really clamoring for space right now," he said.
At least one firm has already left Burbank for the Inland Empire.
David Bojorquez, a producer and director of multimedia presentations, commercials and documentaries, moved his small production firm, RLA New Media, from Burbank to Riverside two weeks ago after his lease expired. RLA had been in Burbank for 10 years.
"It seemed to make sense from a business perspective," Bojorquez said. By moving, he got cheaper rent, shortened his daily commute from Orange County and moved closer to some possible business partners, he said.
One of those partners is Digital Empire, a Riverside digital animation firm. Digital Empire plans on creating a small film studio with partners Bojorquez and Riverside-based Alchemy Productions, another small film company.
Ralph Megna, president of Digital Empire, calls the pending project a "microstudio," and compares it to a microbrewery. Like a microbrewery, the studio would be small and focus on a narrow niche market, he said.
He wouldn't disclose the name of the studio yet, but said it will focus mostly on U.S.-based Hispanic audiences. Demand and outlets for Spanish-language material are growing, but few studios are providing that material, he said.
Megna, Bojorquez and Alchemy president Dusty Gurza already have two possible products for the studio to complete and distribute. One is a horror/science-fiction feature film already filmed by Gurza called "Chupacabra." The other is "Aztech," an animated superhero story inspired by Aztec mythology, which Digital Empire has been working on.
If the studio is created, it won't necessarily take up a lot of property: Megna said the studio will likely be a "virtual office" existing primarily on computers and the Internet. It would rent sound stages when it needed them.
In that way, Megna's vision differs from that of William and Jaqueline Ashley, a local couple with a Riverside film company called Ashley Productions. They too want to start a studio, but it would be more conventional, starting on a 20-acre lot and funded by proceeds from "Between Friends," a film set to shoot this summer.
Film companies like Ashley or Alchemy aren't unique to Riverside. Independent filmmakers have set up shop all over the Inland Empire.
One, Bloomington-based LHG Entertainment Ink/Crystal Clear Film Productions, is the brainchild of local director Eric Davenport. LHG is preparing to start shooting a $5 million mystery called "Dead Wrong," Davenport said.
"This is actually our first feature film," he said. "But right now we're working on a deal that involves the possibility of having nine of our projects financed."
He said the investor, which he wouldn't name, is an offshore company that is already funding his first two films at $5 million each. If those films are financially successful, the company has offered to finance another seven flicks, he said.
"The hardest hurdle is the distribution hurdle," he said. "Finding the money was actually the easiest part, and we thought it would be the hardest."
Unlike the small and burgeoning local firms that hope to make movies, many of the players in the Inland Empire's film industry are companies best known for their supporting roles in major-league films.
Those who saw a train derail in "Speed," watched a plane crash into a hangar in "Face/Off," or gasped as a smokestack crumpled and collapsed in "Titanic" are already familiar with the work of some Inland Empire effects companies.
There are many such local firms with important roles in mainstream films. Davis of the Inland Empire Film Commission wishes she knew how many there were.
"I would say it's in the hundreds," she said. "We find new ones all the time."
A sampling:
One common trait of these support firms is that they don't have to look for work; they survive on referrals from previous customers and the local film commission.
"Literally, I have not gone out to find work since we opened our doors. I haven't made a phone call to pursue work - ever," Cattle Call partner Lisa Martin said.
Referrals are key, Jack Sessums of Sessums Engineering said. After his company rigged a train crash for "Speed," its director, Jan de Bont, called on him for another flick, "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
"That's how it happens," Sessums said.
An outstanding array of good shooting locations gives a big boost to area location scouts like Victorville-based Cheryl Shubin and Barstow-based Jim and Rhonda Wheelan's Mojave Production Services.
Shubin, who got started in the business as a production assistant on "Broken Arrow," later asked the film commission for tips on being a location scout. She's been busy since.
"The Inland Empire has a lot of large facilities, especially former military facilities, which are attractive to film studios," said Michael Walbrecht, director of studio and production affairs for Warner Bros.
The region's deserts are popular too for otherworldly sci-fi landscapes, recreations of Texas and New Mexico, and automobile commercials, he said.
"I think you're getting (increasingly) more activity out there," Walbrecht said.
Originally published in The Business Press 03/02/98
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