Making a Sound Pitch for Anywhere but Here
While the possibility of strikes this year by screen actors and writers clouds Los Angeles’ and U.S. prospects for film work, some foreign countries say they are eager to scoop up the business and they came to Los Angeles Friday to make their pitch.
“We have no restrictions like other countries, no union headaches,” said Chandra Pandula, who spent Friday talking up a 2-year-old production complex near Hyderbad, India. It’s complete with 150 gardens, 150 tailors and costume artists and a replica of the Taj Mahal. “We can recreate any period set from the Midwest to Spanish Colonial to British Europe.”
South Africa tripled its presence at this year’s 16th Annual Locations Global Expo sponsored by the Assn. of Film Commissioners International. Representatives of South Africa’s nascent film industry were hungry for word on a strike.
“It means more work for our people, that’s why we are here in such big numbers,” said Eddie Khalipha Mbalo of the South African National Film and Video Foundation. “We’re encouraging local producers to come on over. You can work in South Africa--and you get value for your money.”
Location managers, producers and two crews scouting for venues for “reality” television shows milled around the convention hall, browsing through books of photos.
More than 20 countries, 50 states and dozens of California counties were represented at the trade show, which concludes today.
Some foreign exhibitors said they knew little about a potential strike; others preferred not to discuss it.
Canadian and Mexican representatives said strikes would mean fewer shoots everywhere--not just in the U.S. And film offices from South Carolina to South Dakota are already bracing for the worst.
“I don’t think people realize the gravity of the situation,” said Mary Morgan-Kerlagon, director of South Carolina’s film office and a location manager for 17 years, who did work on “Forrest Gump” and helped coordinate location shots for Mel Gibson’s recent film, “The Patriot.”
“It’s going to push even more films out the door and overseas,” Morgan-Kerlagon said. “We are fighting runaway production on a daily basis and it’s never been as critical as right now.”
Morgan-Kerlagon said she didn’t begrudge the Europeans, Australians or Icelanders for hawking their scenery at the expo. “Who’s going to blame them? It’s the goose that laid the golden egg.”
Alan Porter, business agent for the General Teamsters Local 362 in Calgary, Canada, said, “The Canadian producers have been sitting waiting for the Americans to go on strike. There will be work for Canadians, but we think it will be down overall.”
Oli Laperal Jr., a director of his own film company, represented the Philippines at the expo. He said talk of a strike has consumed his U.S.-based colleagues for weeks.
“I’m on the other side of the world and it reaches me,” Laperal said. “People are asking ‘Are the Screen Actors Guild people over there?’ My producer friends, they want to get as far away from the states as they can when the strike begins. They’re saying, ‘If you don’t want our business in L.A. or in the States, then we will go somewhere where we are welcome.’ ”
Locations in the U.S. looking for business are concerned too.
“I’m definitely a little bit worried,” said Jensen Rufe, Northern California’s Humboldt County’s film commissioner. “I’ve noticed a distinct slowdown in inquiries, probably about 33% fewer inquiries this year. People are pushing to get things done before the strike and they’re apprehensive to start anything new until after a strike is over.”
Some exhibitors at the expo said they are still trying to recover after production companies headed for Canada. Western states such as Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and the Dakotas watched many of their feature film locations dry up, said Chris Hull, manager of South Dakota’s film office, which opened after “Dances With Wolves” put the state on the map.
“We’re down compared to 10 years ago,” Hull said. “Before the whole Canadian thing we were averaging a feature film every couple of years. And now people are realizing about this strike. They’re calling up and saying, ‘What are you going to do?’ ”
States such as South Dakota are scrambling to become back-drops for wildlife shows and car and truck commercials, which bounced back after last year’s strikes. “That’s our bread and butter,” Hull said.
Hull also pitched lower production costs than Southern California.
Fear of a strike steered a little business to South Dakota, Hull said. “I had been talking to a couple of film producers and they were lukewarm on coming, and then they called up and said, ‘We’ve got to get these done before the strike.’ ”
