The city of San Diego is pulling together resources for film and television industry chiefs who might want to produce programming in the region, and may be close to landing a TV series, according to a report delivered Thursday to a City Council committee.
Brandy Shimabukuro was hired as the city’s filming program manager in December, filling part of the role of the former San Diego Film Commission, which lost its funding three years ago.
Shimabukuro told the council’s Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee that she’s working to streamline the process for people who want to film in San Diego.
Her efforts could be close to a payoff with “Pitch,” a prospective television series about the first woman to play major league baseball. The 20th Century Fox pilot, with “Twisted” actress Kylie Bunbury in the lead role, was recently shot in San Diego.
San Diego has been home to several television series over the years but has been without a major ongoing production since “Veronica Mars” was canceled in 2007. The old detective shows “Harry O” and “Simon & Simon” were also filmed, and set, in San Diego.
Among the streamlining measures taken by Shimabukuro was adding an application called “Reel-Scout” to the city’s website. The program includes an image gallery for hundreds of possible shooting locations around town.
“Reel-Crew,” a module for the program, will provide free listings for local talent and crew members.
“We have so many talented crews, so many talented businesses and service providers, and having an online directory like ‘Reel-Crew’ will allow us to offer 24-7 access to this information and ways for them to communicate directly with our businesses here,” Shimabukuro said.
She said the “Reel Crew” registration portal should launch later this month, with the database becoming available for production use in two to three months.
Another program module will let property owners who want their homes and land used for filming will be able to provide information, according to Shimabukuro.
Information about one-stop permitting, a state tax incentive program for TV and film productions and education resources will also be uploaded to the website, she said.
The city also plans to boost local production by advertising in industry magazines, reaching out to film and TV executives and attending trade shows, she said.
The high cost of doing business in California drove a lot of production out of state in the early 2000s, and Shimabukuro’s report lists 34 cities in the U.S. and Canada with significant recent filming activity. More than half provided online services of the kind offered by Reel-Scout and Reel-Crew.
She said reinvigorating San Diego’s film industry will be a regional effort. Last week, a casting call took place in Oceanside for a television crime drama called “Animal Kingdom.”
–City News Service
