TV series • Recently, the San Diego Film Commission (SDFC) pitched a project in development to film their pilot in San Diego. Although the “Untitled Josh Berman Project” filmed the San Diego story in Atlanta, Georgia due to the film incentives offered there, they did come to San Diego to film several days. Tim Matheson, who starred in “Animal House,” was the director of the pilot. The story is about two San Diego homicide detectives, starring Sherry Stringfield (“ER,” “NYPD Blue”) and Jamie-Lynn Sigler (“The Sopranos,” “Entourage”). The creator of the pilot, Josh Berman, also created the current Lifetime Network hit “Drop Dead Diva.” They filmed in the Gaslamp Quarter, on a Hornblower Cruise, at the Children’s Museum, Tidelands Park, Harbor Boulevard, Sunset Cliffs Park and various San Diego streets. Local company Corporate Helicopters captured the aerial photography for the pilot. One hundred local people were hired locally. • Rose Wedding Formalities from Shanghai, China plans to film at the “Unconditional Surrender” statue in Tuna Harbor Park. The Chinese TV crew will be traveling throughout the state of California filming its show called “Rose Wedding” I which 10 couples from China win the opportunity to travel to California to get married and have their honeymoons. This Chinese show is very popular and reaches an estimated 160 million viewers. While they are in town, they plan to gather additional footage on a harbor cruise and at the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. After an extensive scout with the SDFC, they were most impressed and delighted with our kissing statue as they called it (near the Midway Museum). In fact, they plan to film their show’s closing shot there with their newlywed couples kissing in front of the statue, calling the segment the “kiss of the century.” This was a huge opportunity to showcase the artwork displayed at the Port of San Diego to an international audience. ‘Terriers’ • Are you watching the “Terriers,” the San Diego TV series on the FX Network on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.? You can also watch the series online at http://vod.fxnetworks.com/watch/terriers. The series showcases San Diego locations, which is great to see on the small screen. The show left more than $20 million in our local economy. They hired 100 local crew people and hundreds of talent. We hope the show will get another season and be back in San Diego. Commercials • A Venice, California team traveled to San Diego to film some driving footage of the new Nissan Leaf electric car along the streets in the Marina District. They hired 10 local crew people and booked 50 room nights in a hotel in Mission Valley. We are pleased to see car commercials returning to San Diego. Additional car spots scouting are Lincoln and Hyundai. • A Los Angeles production company came to San Diego to spend three days filming a commercial for McDonalds. The crew filmed Ronald McDonald at several iconic locations including Balboa Park, Tidelands Park, the Embarcadero Marina Park South and Coronado. SDFC staff processed posting for parking requests for their trucks and motor home, and spent time monitoring the crew while they filmed on public properties. Our office also assisted the production team with finding local crew, vendors and resources. While in San Diego, the production team booked 193 room nights at six different hotels in the downtown area. • Another Los Angeles production company traveled to San Diego to film a commercial for Bank of America. They spent three days filming in the downtown area, Balboa Park and Coronado. While in town, the production team hired six local crew people and 27 local talent. The rest of the production team booked 288 room nights at hotels in La Jolla and downtown. COLA Awards • The SDFC attended the California On Location Awards (COLA) in Beverly Hills on Oct. 24. The event is hosted by Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS), which is made up of the film commissions in California. Location managers are recognized for their talent and expertise in working on location in California. It is the 16th year of the event and attendance surpassed 500. The Beverly Hilton was the perfect venue for this award show. Joan Collins and Linda Gray were the MCs and sponsors included Paramount, UPS, Teamsters Local 399, Variety, Warner Bros., Sony, NBC Universal and Walt Disney to name a few. In attendance were the location crews from “Madmen,” NCIS: Los Angeles, The Green Hornet, House and Inception just to name a few. The SDFC had an opportunity to talk to location managers and remind them that San Diego would love to host their next projects. Travel Shows • A Japanese travel show has selected San Diego for their project. They are return customers having been here in 2006 for a project titled Tabi Salada. They will be filming in Old Town, La Jolla, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly known as the Wild Animal Park). We thank CONVIS for referring this project to us. • The UK is planning an exciting campaign that will feature San Diego. It is called California Classics in which classic iconic movies that “read” California will be featured for the UK tourists. Their pitch line is, “Classic California landscapes brought to you by classic California films.” Guess which film they selected for San Diego? “Top Gun” will be their focus while here. They will show how tourism and premier travel destinations can be driven by feature films and television. The introductions to the show are comprised of three-minute pieces with icon location shots combined with scenes from the film. The purpose of these introductions is to illustrate to the UK audience what a dynamic, beautiful and interesting tourist destination San Diego is. Documentaries • Discovery Studios from Silver Spring, MD sent a crew to San Diego to film a documentary about phobias. They filmed in the college area as well as on the SDSU campus. • A film crew from Germany selected San Diego to film footage for a documentary series called Galileo Xperience. The focus of the series is to interview people from around the world who have had unique and challenging life experiences. It will air on the BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic and ZDF Germany. • Kaplan University recently filmed in Balboa Park. The focus of the project was to show a typical day in the lives of international students living in San Diego. Corporate films • A San Francisco production company selected San Diego to film an industrial video for Fitness Anywhere, Inc. San Diego is a popular destination to film exercise equipment and apparel videos, and infomercials. This particular company filmed along the boardwalk near the Midway Museum and at a training center in Chula Vista. • A local production company filmed a leadership training video at several locations along San Diego Bay. They hired 10 local crew people and booked 40 room nights at a Coronado hotel. Print Advertising • Polaroid shot a three day project for their stock library. Locations selected were in Oceanside and downtown San Diego. • Local sports photographer John Segesta was busy with some editorial filming in Balboa Park for the cycling magazine called Road. • Lou Mora, formerly of San Diego and now based in Los Angeles, returned for a one-day shoot for Shure headphones. • San Diego Productions produced a product catalog shoot for Poway based Chef Works. Locations used were eateries in the Hillcrest area. California Incentive • The State of California now offers a state film incentive which is actually a tax rebate for projects that film in California. As you may know 70 percent of Hollywood’s projects leave our state to work in other states that offer attractive film incentives. • In 2009-10, 75 projects were approved for the incentive and $200 million was granted. This amounted to a return of $1.3 billion spent by the film industry as a result of the incentive. • In 2010-11, 30 projects were approved for the incentive using $100 million in incentive funds and the benefit was $700 million in economic impact. • Our TV series “Terriers” filmed by Twentieth Century Fox for the FX Network was a recipient of the incentive and the only TV series granted the incentive thus far. Cathy Anderson is the film commissioner and CEO of the San Diego Film Commission.