Costa Mesa Video Producer, White Both Bet on ‘Far Out’

The “Far Out” project that Dave White hopes will return him to the pop limelight also represents a comeback attempt of sorts for Cinema City Studios and its owner, Sandra Simone.

Simone, a former actress and model, started the Costa Mesa video-production company in 1982. A year later, she says, she got the kind of break that can establish a career: a chance to generate script ideas and design video sets and costumes for Jermaine Jackson of the famed Jacksons singing clan.

But instead of bringing an important professional credential, Simone’s Jackson connection turned into a legal fight. In a lawsuit dating back to 1984, she claims that the Jacksons based their video for “Torture,” a song from the 1984 “Victory” album, on a science-fiction script that she submitted for a Jermaine Jackson project. Simone’s suit also contends that she wasn’t credited with designing seven custom guitars, shaped like stars, a butterfly and other exotic objects that the Jacksons used during their 1984 Victory tour.

The Jacksons have countered in court documents that the suit, which is still pending in Orange County Superior Court, is “meritless.” They claim that Simone had no involvement with “Torture” and that the guitar designs Cinema City submitted for the Victory tour were rejected and replaced by other designs. The case has been dormant since September, 1986, but Simone’s lawyer, James Banks, predicted last week that “by summer the fire will be well-fueled.”

Simone, meanwhile, is counting on “Far Out” to bring her the recognition she says eluded her in her previous attempt to break into music video. She launched the project in December, after getting financial backing for her script from Jack Strauss, a Brentwood home builder.

“If you have credits, people come to you instead of you coming to them,” said Simone, who has kept her company afloat by doing commercials and industrial videos. “This is a very important video for me, to show my talent.”