Residents Urged to Attend ‘Film Scene’

Residents interested in opening their homes and gardens to the film industry have been invited to Saturday’s Simi Valley Film Scene.

Local business owners organizing the event hope to sign up as many residents as possible. Those signing up will have their names placed in a film guide that the Simi Valley Film Council plans to publish and distribute at show business conventions.

Leigh Engdahl, executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce, said it’s hoped people working in the industry who have not networked locally will show up. Engdahl created film guides and put on similar events in Palmdale and Santa Clarita.

Residents are invited to sign up from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the five tents set up in the Civic Center Plaza at Alamo Street and Tapo Canyon Road. Information on extras, actors and services such as catering and mobile dressing rooms will also be collected.

Filming is hardly new to Simi Valley. Films ranging from “Poltergeist” to “Twister” have made use of the city’s streets and film ranches.

About 30 people, many of them volunteers with the Simi Valley Film Council, will staff the booths. The casting booth will be run by professional casting agents. The film guide will debut at a film industry conference in June.