A Look Back : Lively Year in the Arts : 1991: Lancaster gets a new concert hall, Grove School of Music is still afloat and a Hollywood cash calf grows up. : STAR LOCATION

Last spring, John Polcyn began spending $300,000 to make his 720-acre ranch west of Acton a suitable replacement for Indian Dunes, the popular location where TV and movie projects such as “China Beach,” “Call to Glory” and “The Color Purple” were filmed. Last winter, Indian Dunes, owned by the Newhall Land & Farming Co., was converted to farmland.

“It’s been better than I ever expected,” said Polcyn, owner of Polsa Rosa Ranch. “We’ve been pretty busy.”

Among the projects that have filmed at his property are some episodes of the NBC-TV series “Quantum Leap” and part of a scene in Michael Jackson’s controversial new “Black or White” video. Reed Shane, the video’s line producer, said about 20 seconds of the video was shot at the Polsa Rosa during one day of filming. The footage shows lions against a backdrop of mountains.

“It was chosen to simulate Africa, and with its tall brush and yellow coloring, it was the closest thing we could find,” Shane said.

Shane said actor George Wendt came to the ranch for one of his scenes, though Jackson wasn’t required to appear.

Polcyn, however, is just one of several dozen Santa Clarita Valley homeowners who offered their homes and ranches last spring to Hollywood production companies as film locations. So far it’s too early to measure their success, said Cheryl Adams, who serves as Santa Clarita Valley’s liaison between residents and the entertainment industry.

In the last two months, however, Adams said there has been a slight increase in the number of permits requested by film companies to shoot footage in the valley.