Countywide : Talks to Continue on County Film Panel

The Board of Supervisors moved ahead Tuesday on discussions with the Chamber of Commerce to establish a countywide commission to lure more movie and television crews to Orange County.

“I think it’s apparent there is an opportunity here” to lure film crews and potentially millions of dollars to the county’s diverse locations, said Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez after board members voted for the county’s Environmental Management Agency to work with the Orange County Chamber of Commerce to establish the film office.

The county’s “fragmented structure” of county and city governments, many with their own set of location regulations, has often resulted in film executives and their money going elsewhere, according to an Environmental Management Agency report released last week.

A countywide film agency, by uniting cities and county government, could create a more “film-friendly environment” for feature film, television and commercial productions, the report said.

Vasquez said he hopes the commission will be operating by January. But officials first have to figure out where they will find money for the project, which could cost an estimated $200,000 annually, said Clare Fletcher, the project development manager for the Environmental Management Agency.

It is also unclear who would be picked to head the commission, Fletcher said.

Under the commission, each city would maintain control over where they would allow filming, but the entire process to obtain permits would be streamlined, Fletcher said.

“Ideally, we would like for the countywide office to be able to, with the cities’ permission, issue permits,” Fletcher said.

A countywide film commission would replace the Orange County Film Program, begun by the Board of Supervisors in 1988.

Currently, one Environmental Management Agency staffer works only a few hours weekly on the program and minimal staff time is spent on promoting increased film production, county officials said.

“We want to be more aggressive,” said Ken Moore, the president and chief executive officer of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

“In the past we have waited for them to come to us. . . . We’re going to have to work hard, but I think we can be competitive” with film commissions in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, he said.

The latest survey conducted by Orange County found that film companies spent about $378,000 here in 1991, compared to San Diego County, which took in about $27 million last year, officials said.

Orange County officials “have to understand the needs of the (film) industry” to be competitive, said Wally Schlotter, the film commissioner in San Diego County. Being competitive means “moving fast” to set up film locations, he said.

“You have to give them a reasonable answer right away” or they will go elsewhere, Schlotter said.