It all started on St. Patrick's Day, 1897,
when Jim Corbett fought Bob
Fitzsimmons in Carson City.
That famous boxing match was the subject
of the first moving picture made in
Nevada. The next two films were also prizefight
documentaries while the first scripted
movie was the 1913 "The Girl and the
Game," a Perils-of-Pauline type short shot in
Las Vegas merely because the weather was
bad in Los Angeles, according to Gary Du
Val, author of "The Nevada Filmography."
Since those early days, more than 500 films
have been shot here from John Ford's first
movie, the 1925 "Iron Horse," which featured
Reno's justice of the peace Charles Bull as a
look-alike Abraham Lincoln, to Clark Gable's
and Marilyn Monroe's final film, "The
Misfits," shot in Dayton, to last year's critically-
acclaimed independent movie, "The Deep
End," filmed at an eerie-looking Lake Tahoe.
In fact, if a few things had gone differently
over the years, said Du Val, Las Vegas
might have become a second Hollywood
rather than a gambling oasis.
Still, the state reaps plenty of benefits
from the not-too-distant film and TV
industry based in Los Angeles. Since 1982,
when Nevada established a film commission
to attract film making to the state, the
movie industry has brought in more than
$1 billion, according to the Nevada Film
Office. For fiscal year 2002, ended June 30,
movie makers spent $115 million in the
state (see chart). That is down from the
previous year, when the industry brought in
almost $135 million.
Despite the drop off, which the film
office attributes to Sept. 11, Nevada, and
not just Las Vegas, is still a thriving location
for film and TV production.
"Reno has a lot of advantages," said
Robin Holabird, deputy director of the film
office and director of its Reno-Tahoe
office. "The diversity of landscape means a
film can look it's been filmed in many
states when it only moved an hour away."
It is also a short plane-ride away from
Los Angeles, has local talent and labor that
can help support a production and boasts
unique locations such as glitzy casinos.
Two recently made films "The
Cooler" starring Alec Baldwin and "Pledge
of Allegiance" - were shot in the Golden
Phoenix, the old Flamingo Hilton on
Sierra Street in Reno, because its casino
floor had been closed for renovations and
was available for filming. Another recent
film shot here "Waking Up in Reno"
with Billy Bob Thornton is set to open
in theaters next month.
Northern Nevada does lack certain
amenities, such as a sound stage, that might
help attract more production. And like all
states, Nevada gets a lot of competition
from Canada, which has stolen production
away even from the industry's production
centers, Los Angeles and New York.
The Sean Penn-directed "The Pledge,"
for example, was set in Reno but shot in
British Columbia because the Canadian
location appeared to be a better deal for the
production company. "We penciled out
higher, but Canada ended up costing
more," said Holabird.
And sometimes northern Nevada wins
out over Canada despite its higher costs.
" "The Deep End' was a very low budget
film, just $3 million," said Holabird. "But
they really preferred the look of Lake
Tahoe and made their choice based on
aesthetics."
To promote Nevada, the film office
exhibits at industry trades shows, makes
regular visits to Hollywood studios, and
conducts so-called familiarization tours
junkets to the area for studio executives. Its
services include location scouting assistance,
an extensive production directory of
local resources and help in securing permits
to film at local locations.
In return, Nevada gets millions of dollars,
spent mostly in local hotels, restaurants
and stores. A typical film production
brings at least 25 to 30 crew and cast
members with it, according to Howard
Rosenberg, professor of art at University of
Nevada Reno. "All of those people have to
be housed and fed," he said. Even casts and
crews on films shot at Wendover Air Force
Base in Utah, a popular movie location on
the border of Nevada, usually stay in
Nevada, said Holabird.
Less money comes from the hiring of
local labor, which tends to be at the low
end of the totem pole in the form of local
drivers, gophers and so-called extras,
actors with no dialogue who work for
scale. And even less comes from the nominal
fees paid in filming permits. In fact,
the film office is working to get those permits
eliminated or reduced as part of an
effort to attract more production here by
reducing the cost of doing business.
In the end, making money for the state
is the main goal of the film office. Initially,
the agency was established to protect local
needs and resources as well as to assist film
companies with arrangements. But the film
office, like most other film commissions,
soon realized the movie industry brought a
lot of money into the state. So, since 1987
the film office has been a division of the
State of Nevada Commission on Economic
Development. That's because, said
Holabird, "the real focus of the NFO is for
economic benefit."
