Officials Discuss Creating Film Agency

Hoping to heighten Ventura County’s attraction to filmmakers, officials from several cities and county government met Monday to discuss setting up a county film commission.

Pamela Powell, deputy director of the California Film Commission, urged officials to unite their efforts and form a countywide organization aimed at attracting the movie industry.

“Film as an entity is just expanding rapidly. It’s a huge business,” Powell said. “And we would like Ventura County to have more of that business.”

The meeting was sponsored by the Oxnard Monday Club, a women’s organization that focuses on influencing women’s issues.

Club president Etta Lanouette invited Powell to speak because “it’s about time the county has a film commission. And we want to show that we support a film commission.”

Lanouette said she also invited the mayors and city managers of the county’s 10 cities, as well as county officials. Although there were few elected officials at the meeting, several cities and chambers of commerce sent staff representatives.

“We definitely favor a film commission,” said David Kleitsch, Ventura’s economic development manager. “It’s critical to our city manager that we are film-friendly and that we increase the number of productions in Ventura.”

During the meeting, Wendy Basil--who co-owns Halstead Communications, a Ventura public relations firm--told the audience about the Ventura County Film Commission, a nonprofit organization that she and her company are trying to put together.

Basil said that once the organization attains nonprofit status, possibly within the next two weeks, it will launch a membership drive.

Powell emphasized, however, that the only way the state commission would support a countywide agency is to put it under the umbrella of a public entity such as a chamber of commerce.