NEWS
Posted 11 October, 2007 in AZ News
Much of ‘Wild’ was filmed in Arizona
Carrie Watters
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 8, 2007 07:38 AM
Former Glendale resident turned movie producer John J. Kelly said Into the Wild is one of those movies that change your life.
The film weaves the true story of Christoper McCandless, who left behind his material possessions and headed West on a two-year journey to test his strength and find meaning. Much of the film was filmed in Arizona.
“There’s a lot of nice pieces of Arizona you will see in this movie,” Kelly said.
The movie is at times exhilarating, as it depicts the young adventurer’s sense of freedom, and tear-jerking, as he finds triumph and tragedy in Alaska.
Kelly spent more than a year working on the movie with director Sean Penn, who waited more than a decade to get the blessing of the McCandless family.
In the Valley, the movie is only currently being shown at Scottsdale’s Camelview Harkins Theater
As executive producer, Kelly’s role was to help set up camp at various locations, find props and bring the picture in on budget.
That was a challenge for the movie that strived for authenticity. While many movies shoot in three or five locations, Into the Wild was filmed in 36 locations in the U.S. and Mexico, retracing the McCandless’s journey.
The opening sceneshows McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, being dropped off into the Alaskan wilderness. The driver is not an actor, but the actual man who gave the hitch-hiking McCandless a ride.
Hirsch wore McCandless’ own gold watch throughout the movie.
While ending in Alaska, the young man’s journey took him through much of Arizona. Scenes include the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Bullhead City, Parker, Page and Yuma.
The young adventurer had bought a kayak in Page and launched himself into the rapids of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
The film crew even shot a scene of McCandless’s car swept away in an Arizona flash flood a half mile from the actual site.
Although the goal was to deliver authenticity, Kelly said he was pleased to see the final cut include shots of Arizona, such as Hirsch floating under a sign for Topoc Gorge.
“You work on a lot of movies,” Kelly said. “Some are jobs and some are relationships you don’t want to end. Into the Wild was among the latter.”
Posted 23 September, 2007 in Arizona, AZ News
Arizona’s resurgent movie industry competes
Chad Graham
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 16, 2007 12:00 AM
Two Hollywood movies released this month reveal a rebound in Arizona’s film production industry - and show how much farther it has to go.
Universal Pictures’ The Kingdom with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner will hit theaters on Sept. 28 and is the highest-profile project to date attracted by Arizona’s new tax breaks.
Yet Lionsgate passed up the state with an equally high-profile project.
3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale was shot in New Mexico, although director James Mangold reportedly had decided to shoot in Sedona.
The studio overruled that decision when it learned of New Mexico’s generous production refund and its already-constructed Western sets, Arizona film officials said. A spokeswoman for Lionsgate did not return calls seeking comment.
“It came down to economics,” said Harry Tate, director of the Arizona Department of Commerce Film Office. “Studios have basically put out an edict to their producers and companies they work with that says you will look at (states with incentives) first.”
Arizona took that lesson to heart with The Kingdom, promoting its Motion Picture Production Tax Incentives Program, started in 2006.
“The president of production for Universal . . . pointedly made the statement that they were coming to Arizona because of the incentive program,” said Tate, adding that Arizona beat out California for the location.
“They knew that they were going to expense $70-some million on this film, and a good portion of it would be spent in Arizona,” he said. “They would qualify, in the incentive program, for a tax credit of approximately $5 million.”
Last year under the program, the film office received 33 applications, with 18 approved. Those productions anticipated spending $167 million in Arizona.
In 2007, it received 48 applications, with 27 approved. Those productions were expected to pump $206 million into the economy.
“Overall, the dollars are increasing over the years,” said Rob Gerstner, president of the Arizona Production Association. “This incentive is a huge program that is good for our state, even though there are improvements to be done.”
Neighborly competition
States and countries have competed for years by offering production incentives to try to lure film, television and commercial production to an economy.
While some lawmakers argue that strategy benefits only Hollywood, supporters maintain that a single project can employ many locals and pay higher-than-average wages.
It can also provide a tourism boost for any area featured on the big screen, much like 2004’s Sideways did for the wine country in and around Solvang, Calif.
“States have said, ‘Wow this is something, this is an industry growth area,’ ” said Phil Bradstock, Phoenix film commissioner. “A lot of states and cities have come up with their own tax incentives.”
Louisiana, one of the busiest production centers in the United States, saw the industry add nearly $344 million in the form of wages, profits and sales tax in 2005 compared with $7.4 million in 2003, according to its film and video commission.New Mexico became a Hollywood hotspot by offering very different, but generous, incentives that include giving qualified productions a 25 percent rebate on expenses and an interest-free loan of up to $15 million.
Current movies in production in New Mexico include The Burning Plain with Charlize Theron and The Spirit with Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johanson.
“New Mexico is our biggest U.S. competitor now, and they are winning,” said Shelli Hall, director of the Tucson Film Office.
“They are building a sustainable industry because along with the incentives, they also have a workforce-development program, they are investing in studios. All that comes with more production.”
Back from the brink
Arizona’s fight to rebuild its production industry seems surprising given the decades of iconic film, television and commercial shoots across the state.
Countless Westerns have been filmed at Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Old Tucson Studios. That location opened nearly 70 years ago when Columbia Pictures needed an 1860s Western town for the movie Arizona.
The state’s famed shoots include The Bells of St. Mary’s, Psycho, Return of the Jedi and Forrest Gump.
Production during the 1980s boomed but began to taper off in the 1990s with the advent of reality television, national companies buying local Valley businesses and production moving to foreign countries such as Canada.
The recession that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks further diminished the industry.
“Several years ago, the Legislature cut the funding for the film office and basically sent six people packing,” Tate said. “A couple of legislators saw that we needed a film office and they resurrected it. Since about 2003 we’ve been growing it back up to this point.”
In 2006, the state debuted its incentive program, which includes an income-tax credit equal to 10 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent depending on the investment in production costs.
Productions must spend at least $250,000 in the state and hire a certain percentage of local workers. Lawmakers placed a cap on the total amount of tax credits.
The program was revamped this year to set a time limit for productions to use the incentive and it increases the percentage of tax credits starting in 2008.
It also provides for an additional Department of Commerce employee to monitor the credits and allows companies that build or turn facilities into soundstages to be eligible for the tax credit.
“The goal of any tax credit is that the state gets more money back than is put out,” said Rep. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, who sponsored the latest bill. “We have to see some sort of profit or it’s just some give-away.
“The reason why a lot of people are comfortable with this credit is that you have to put out a pretty substantial amount of money to get something back.”
Coming attractions
From Tate’s perspective, there is more work to be done.
Another 3:10 to Yuma could slip away.
“We have an industry here, and it’s a good industry, but we need a little more of the facilitation for the industry in terms of studio and studio space,” he said.
“That’s part of why (Michele Reagan’s bill) had that infrastructure development in there, to entice people to see that opportunity to build studios here.”
Albuquerque Studios, a $74 million, film and television production facility, opened earlier this year in New Mexico.
“They’re still building. They have six stages up and they have two more coming,” said Lisa Strout, director of the New Mexico Film Office. “Now that they are here, it is making a shift. There are projects that we couldn’t have accommodated (in the past).”
Gerstner of the Arizona Production Association warns that New Mexico’s production industry did not happen overnight.
“It was a very slow road and then it finally got legs underneath it, and it exploded because enough people got behind it,” he said. “Just because New Mexico is doing something doesn’t mean we have to do it.”
Of course, not every production picks Arizona based purely on incentives.
Riva Yares, executive producer of Jolene, said her production used locations in Cave Creek, Prescott and Scottsdale.
Yares hopes to show the film at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It is about a teenage orphan who travels cross-country and features Dermot Mulroney, Chazz Palminteri and Denise Richards.
“Other states have better tax incentives, like New Mexico,” she said.
But, “I wanted to stay in Arizona and I wanted to give (local) people work,” said Yares, who owns art galleries in Scottsdale and Santa Fe. “It’s a great place to film, particularly because of the weather. It was just terrific.”
Reach the reporter at chad.graham@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8577.
Posted 14 August, 2006 in AZ News
Published: Mon, 14 Aug 2006, 16:06:00 GMT
PHOENIX AZ - Aug. 14 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Peter VanWolvelaerd of VanDahl Associates, a service disabled veteran owned film and video company, has helped sponsor an ASU film intern program with the upcoming Universal Studios thriller ‘The Kingdom.’ The film is directed by Peter Berg and stars Jamie Foxx. The plot involves a team of US counterterrorism agents on a mission to track down “evil doers” in an Arab country.
 Four film students were selected by Miguel Valenti the Dean of the ASU School of film for the internship program. Miguel states, “This student internship program is part of the creation of a new film school at ASU, we are hoping to become one of the premier film schools in the country. This internship program is only the beginning, because of the new legislation promoting and providing income-tax credit and sales tax exemption we see a bright future for the film industry in Arizona.”
*(Photo Caption: Peter VanWolvelaerd of VanDahl Associates.)
Asked how he got involved with the ASU internship program Peter VanWolvelaerd states, “When I found out a major Studio was doing a movie in Arizona I knew I needed to get involved. I am proud of my service as an officer in the US Army Corp of Engineers and as a SDVOC film and video company I wanted to be part of this movie. I had a meeting with Miguel Valenti and he gave me the green light to sponsor the Internship program with Universal Studios.”
Working with the Universal Studios production team of Robert West and Don Wygal, VanDahl Associates was able to put the pieces together for the ASU internship program. The program strives to provide opportunities for up-and-coming film professionals by teaching skills, giving exposure to film production and providing a supportive environment of the talent of tomorrow to get a foot in the door of today’s film industry.
Mr. VanWolvelaerd goes on to say, “Universal Studios has opened the door to these young men and women at ASU, the program includes office internships, referrals for feature-film crew positions, learning new skills and making professional contacts. In short, the internship program is tailored to foster the future leaders of the film Community. Additionally the internship program has unforeseen benefits, instead of Googling for future trends or going to Myspace/Youtube, working with these student interns you can tap into the mindset of today’s youth as it happens.”
“These are exciting times for our company,” Peter states. “VanDahl Associates is involved in government and commercial contracts due to our status as sdvoc, Along with new federal government mandate on giving disabled veterans 3% of all contracts, we see a very bright future for our company. In fact we are one of only a few sdvoc film Companies in the entire country.”
VanWolvelaerd is the president and chief shareholder of VanDahl & Associates, a Multi-faceted engineering and production concern he founded in 1986. He holds disabled Veteran status, having served as a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
VanWolvelaerd has turned VanDahl into an extremely successful and growing international concern, now focused on production of broadcast content and film and media and in developing new ways to deliver this content.
The company’s motto is “Can do” which can be found on its website: www.vandahl.com
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