Growing a film industry in Southwest Washington

Local nonprofit Vancouver Filmworks works to put Southwest Washington on film industry’s radar

Jeff Waters

In the not too distant future, passengers descending into the Portland International Airport could look out past the north-facing wing and see 45-foot tall white letters spelling out V-A-N-C-O-U-V-E-R along the hillside just east of the Grand Central Fred Meyer.

In reality, it may not be that dramatic but, if Vancouver Filmworks has their say, the North Bank just might be the next Hollywood.

“Our long-term goal is to build a 17,000 to 20,000-square-foot sound stage including post-production, sound and editing,” said Vancouver Filmworks’ founder and executive director, Jeff Waters. “[There’ll be] no reason to send post-production back to L.A. – no reason for anyone in the industry to have to go back to L.A. or stay in L.A. to work, if we can build a robust film industry here.”

Vancouver Filmworks is a 501(c)3 nonprofit film production company. Since its 2013 inception, Waters, along with his wife Kristin, have recruited Hollywood heavy-hitters beginning with actor Percival Scott. Peter Kuran, Jonathan Weiss and Colin Michael Kitchens round out the production team. Weiss brings his assistant director skills from such popular sitcoms as “Anger Management,” “Spin City” and “Growing Pains.” Production coordinator, Kitchens, contributes talents honed on “Star Wars: Episode IV,” “Apocalypse Now” and “James and the Giant Peach,” to name a few. Kuran is a director, producer and visual effects artist with notable works including “Star Wars,” “Edward Scissorhands” and “Men in Black.” He is also the owner of Vancouver-based VCE Films (Visual Concept Entertainment) and won a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award in 2002.

Currently, the 2016 Vancouver Filmworks Screenplay Competition is in full swing with a deadline of April 6. They also have a slate of five films that are ready to be produced. Community support and sustaining investors to fund those projects are critical.

As all the pieces fit together, Vancouver Filmworks will be a place for aspiring filmmakers aged 13 and over to enroll in apprenticeship programs; high school students looking for an alternative to an associate’s degree; and film school graduates excited to apply their working knowledge with hands-on application of making feature-length films under the guidance of skilled professionals. Waters also sees Vancouver Filmworks as an avenue for displaced workers to retrain. For instance, electricians can be retrained to become gaffers and those in the construction trade can now work on the sound stage building sets.

“We’re seeing a lot of exciting energy surrounding the emerging tech sector and the creative culture that helps fuel it,” said Mike Bomar, president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council (CREDC). “Moving forward, there is a lot of opportunity in such STEM-related industries, but our community’s future success is dependent on our ability to interweave art and culture with the technical expertise required in these fields. Clark County is a great place for this intersection to occur, and entities such as Vancouver Filmworks can be important players in this mix.”

As Waters shared, the film industry generates a tremendous amount of income in areas where production occurs. The Motion Picture Incentive Program – a program that provides rebates to filmmakers based on set criteria – has identified that for every $1 given out to shoot in the state of Washington, $10 is brought back to the community via indirect spending. The industry itself brings money into the community through an ancillary workforce of attorneys, accountants, restaurants through crew catering, cloth and material to create costumes and set construction, equipment rentals, housing and so on.

“Tourism increases the more the nation knows a film is shot in a community,” said Waters. “It gets people to come visit to see why actors love to live in Vancouver as opposed to living in L.A. It’s a perfect time of growth for what we’re doing.”

Check out Vancouver Filmworks online at www.vancouverfilmworks.org.

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