Colusa Film Commission attracts 1st production
Arts university students use rice field as movie backdrop
Friday, Aug 6 2010, 6:39 pm
By Susan Meeker/Tri-County Newspapers
When it comes to getting a movie filmed in Colusa County, incentives are everything.
It also doesn't hurt to have friends in high places.
That is what Colusa County Film Commission chairwoman Marilyn Kennedy said about bringing the group's first film crew to town since the independent group was formed in June.
Students from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco used a Colusa rice field this week as the backdrop for a short movie called, "I Am Not Vietnamese," based on the poem by Jennifer Vo Le.
It didn't hurt that Kennedy's longtime friend is television and film star Diane Baker ("Diary of Anne Frank," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Marnie," "The Net," "The Cable Guy"), who, since 2004, has been the director of acting at the university's School of Motion Pictures and Television.
Baker is also teaching the film class for the summer.
"It was meant to be," Baker said Thursday, at the site of the film, just west of Hunter Road in Colusa. "Marilyn's call came out of the blue."
On Kennedy's invitation, Baker and her summer class jumped at the opportunity to film at a location that evokes a strong image of southeast Asia. Colusa County rice fields were common backdrops for such films as "Dragon Seed," in 1944, staring Katherine Hepburn, a war drama set in China and based on the popular book by Pearl S. Buck.
"It's perfect," said Vo Le, on which her struggle with understanding her Vietnamese heritage is the basis of the film.
Waving her hand to motion the area — a flooded, dark green paddy field, surrounded by rabbit brush and tules and a well-rutted dirt road — Vo Le is instantly reminded of the rural area in Vietnam she visited a year ago.
"It looks very much the same," she said.
What doesn't fit will be wiped away by the magic of movie technology.
"There will be a lot of visual effects," said Kevin Hahn, first assistant camera man, who also plays Vo Le's grandfather in the film. "What doesn't look like Vietnam, will look like Vietnam when we are done. It will be amazing."
When it comes to art, Kennedy and Baker are of the same mind.
"Creativity gives strength and comfort to the human sole," said Kennedy, a former actress, nun and a working psychologist for more than 50 years.
When it comes to the economy, Kennedy and Baker understand that cold, hard cash is what drives business and prosperity.
"When I see a town that can't afford to pave its streets, it breaks my heart," Baker said.
It was enough to set the wheels of Baker's head in motion, envisioning the Sacramento River and Colusa's old Chinatown as potential locations for future work.
In that, the old friends are in agreement.
"My vision is to bring more people to town," Kennedy said. "While they are here, they will eat our food, buy gas, water and ice, and stay in our hotels."
Not since "Huckleberry Finn" and "Trouble Comes to Town," both filmed in Colusa more than 30 years ago, has Hollywood had such an interest in Colusa County.
For the most part, California's film industry has gone to "right to work" states like New York and Arkansas or north to Canada, which offered big tax incentives as enticement, Baker said.
"Incentives have been the name of the game for some time," she added, quoting Oakland Film Commissioner Amy Zims, another of her friends.
Now California is trying to play catch up and filmmakers are once again looking for ideal locations — from San Diego to the Oregon border — for movies, television and documentaries.
On July 30, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that the film and television incentives, which were part of last year's budget agreements, achieved its desired goal of keeping scores of film and television productions in California — creating and retaining tens of thousands of jobs and generating about $2 billion in direct spending.
Since 2009, the California Film Commission, now a regional partner with the Colusa County Film Commission, allocated $200 million in tax credits to 77 projects, and another 30 projects are set to receive an additional $100 million in tax credit allocations in 2010, the governor said in a statement.
Together, they are estimated to bring another $2 billion in direct spending to California communities, which includes $736 million in wages paid to "below-the-line" crew members (electricians, grips, drivers, costumers), according to data compiled by the California Film Commission.
"It is the private sector that will bring California's economy back, and our tax incentives are clearly helping employers along the way," Schwarzenegger said. "That's why it's important that we continue to be a partner to employers and not a roadblock."
California Film Commission Executive Director Amy Lemisch believes the program will keep California filmmakers working throughout the state for some time to come.
"The enormous interest in our tax credit program shows that a targeted incentive can keep tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in California," Lemisch said, in a statement. "I am thrilled with how effective this program has been."
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