TV Series: Mark your calendars! Wednesday, Sept. 8 at 10 p.m., tune into the FX Network to see our new series called “Terriers” starring Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James. It is a comedic drama shot by Twentieth Century Fox and the story is set in our very own Ocean Beach. Hank Dolworth is an ex-cop who partners with his best friend Britt Pollack to launch a private investigation business. Sound familiar? It is like an updated Simon & Simon. The two characters struggle with maturity issues, crimes and avoiding danger. To view previews of the show visit the FX website at http://vod.fxnetworks.com/watch/terriers. • Discovery Communications sent a production team to San Diego to film part of a new Web series for AnimalPlanet.com called “Small Dogs, Big Jobs.” Each episode features dog owners and their pets with unique talents. While in San Diego, the crew filmed a local fitness instructor with her terrier at Morley Field. Commercials: Method Films was recently in San Diego filming a short for Red Bull. Ian Walsh, a well-known big wave surfer, was featured in the short. He taught a couple of models how to surf at Blacks Beach. • Qualcomm hired a local production company to film a TV commercial featuring their latest products and new technology. The crew filmed along downtown public sidewalks as well as in Balboa Park. San Diego has many experienced commercial and film production companies that hire local people. It’s good for our local economy to see local companies hiring production teams to film their projects. • A Los Angeles production company filmed a suicide prevention PSA at the Nobel Recreation Center. The production company hired a local crew and talent, and also booked 43 room nights in Rancho Bernardo. Independent feature film: A locally produced independent feature film shot for a day in Normal Heights, including the hiring of local crew and talent. San Diego Film & Video Resource Guide: Our annual publication is presently being laid out for printing. It is all done in-house to save funds and our editor, Lynn Reizer-Heftmann, has done a great job keeping the timeline in place and handling all the issues that arise with any publication. We will premiere the 2011 Guide in November. Reality Shows: MSN’s “Appetite for Life” was in San Diego filming at the San Diego Zoo. Andrew Zimmern, host from Bizarre Foods, was the talent for the show. They filmed several segments around the county. At the zoo, Andrew helped the pandas celebrate their birthday. You will have to watch the show to find out what they did • MTV’s “Made” began filming another segment of their reality show in San Diego. This time they are featuring a local young girl who wants to learn how to be a surfer. When they wrap on this segment, they will have booked approximately 75 room nights at a local hotel and spent additional money in local restaurants and supply vendors. • Bravo’s popular reality series “Real Housewives of Orange County” recently began filming their sixth season, including a trip to San Diego. While in town, the women visited locations in La Jolla and the Gaslamp Quarter, and booked 21 hotel room nights in Rancho Bernardo. The new season is scheduled to begin airing in January. Travel Show: A local production company is continuing to film segments for a travel video. Their most recent segments were filmed in Mission Bay Park and Little Italy. When the project is finished, they plan to shop it around to various distributors. Projects like these help maintain San Diego as a prime travel destination. • A Los Angeles production company traveled to San Diego for two days of filming part of a California travel commercial. Local destinations featured Sea World and the Hotel Del Coronado where the production team also booked several room nights. • AOL Travel spent four days in San Diego capturing footage of local tourist locations to add to their website. The mobile production team filmed segments in Balboa Park, downtown and along San Diego Bay. Documentaries: The Oprah Winfrey Network sent a film crew to San Diego to film a segment for their documentary “Shades of Hope.” The focus of the TV program is to bring food addictions into the national spotlight. While in San Diego, they filmed their subjects walking their dogs at Dog Beach in Ocean Beach. They also hired a local production assistant and booked hotel room nights in La Mesa. Music Videos: A music video was filmed at Crown Point in Mission Bay Park featuring rock and soul artist Siah S with AON. Another music video was filmed at Marina View Park in Chula Vista. Along with the musical artist, extra dancers from the Halau O Na Ali’I Dance Studio in Chula Vista were featured as well. Infomercial: A Portland production company sent a production team to San Diego to film an infomercial for a piece of exercise equipment called the Ab Glider. They filmed along a public plaza area just north of Seaport Village, hired several local crew and talent and booked 40 room nights at an East Village hotel. The Pitch: The Film Commission reviews projects in development and researches the people involved. Sometimes they are people we have worked with before and with an established relationship it can be an easy task to write an e-mail or call to see if San Diego can be considered. Sometimes we are told it doesn’t match the script, or they need to save money and are going to a state that gives big incentives. Sometimes we don’t know the people at all and must create a new relationship. We research the project and anticipate what they will need and pitch the locations, the incentives we can offer and try and make them comfortable with our expertise. Hopefully, we can get a “scout” out of the experience. Some examples of projects that did not originally have San Diego in the script but with a pitch we got the project for San Diego include: “Silk Stalkings,” “Traffic,” “Anchorman,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” and “Scorpion King.” Although we “pitch” regularly, most are simply marketing experiences. However, we recently scouted for a series that we pitched and hope to see the project commit to San Diego for at least part of the project. Print Advertising: Summer is always a slow time in the print advertising industry. Additionally, the cool, cloudy weather has proven to be another challenge in attracting print. Local product management company Gathering Storm took on the weather challenge and did a one-day shoot in Ocean Beach for Jaco clothing. • North Park-based Lancaster Photographics had to work through the difficult coastal weather conditions to shoot for Road Runner Sports in Balboa Park and the boardwalk along the Ferry Landing Marketplace in Coronado. • The Bodywear Summer 2010 catalog was shot by Oceanside-based Warmfocus at Whispering Sands Beach in La Jolla. • Tim Mantoani Photography shot the photos for a new Sharp Healthcare Foundation project in Balboa Park. • Wahoo Media, which specializes in triathlon and endurance product photography, finished a one-day shoot in North Park for Carmichael Training Systems. Did you know? We survey every production that films here to determine what they spend, how many locals they hire and how many hotel room nights are used. In the past 10 years, more than $772 million has been spent in our San Diego economy by the film industry. Cathy Anderson is the film commissioner and CEO of the San Diego Film Commission.