An official with regional tourism agency Visit Santa Cruz County recently attended the Association of Film of Commissioners International week in Los Angeles to promote the county as a destination for filmmaking.
Christina Glynn, the organization’s director of communications and leader of its Santa Cruz County Film Commission, represented the area at the industry event designed to pair government agencies, production and studio executives, independent producers and location managers with film commissioners worldwide. More than 30 countries were represented, along with 178 film liaisons and commissioners and 200 location managers and studio executives. The week ended with studio tours of Warner Brothers Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and an industry reception hosted by Amazon Studios.
In a release, Visit Santa Cruz County said the region’s “strengths as a film destination lie in its natural beauty, easy access to scenic spots and reasonable permitting fees,” along with “unique backdrops and locations such as the iconic Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the legendary Highway 1 on the county’s north coast, redwood forests, scenic beaches, windy Highway 9 through the Santa Cruz Mountains, and bespoke private homes” that have been the setting for many feature films, commercial shoots and still photo shoots in the past.
The agency said that in 2018, Paramount Pictures’ “Bumblebee” and Netflix’s “Bird Box,” filmed locally, brought more than $1.8 million to the local economy, with $625,000 spent on local hotels to house crew and talent for more than 2,700 room nights between the two productions.
In addition to film production, Santa Cruz County has hosted a “steady stream of commercial shoots, campaigns, and corporate projects,” including recently by Tesla, Audi, New Balance, California State Parks Foundation, Range Rover and Purina.
Have news that should be in Lookout Briefs? Send your press releases, including contact information, to news@lookoutlocal.com.
