Before Hollywood, there was Flagstaff.
Westerns were the first popular films and an enterprising group of people decided Flagstaff would make an ideal filming location. There's the old west look as well as the snowy mountaintop vistas. Money and supplies in hand, a large crew assembled in this great northern Arizona city.
Then it snowed, and snowed and snowed some more.
After many weeks of this, the crew moved west to a little town called Hollywoodland.
Oops. There went Arizona's chance.
Fast forward to a few years ago... a few film crews ventured east to the Phoenix, Tucson and the surrounding cities in between. The prices were lower and the environment had much to offer in the way of scenery. A light bulb went off just above the head of a few enterprising politicians. I imagine their thought process went a little like this- "Wouldn't it be nice to get a little bit of that Hollywood money? It could help tourism as well."
And now... a star is born... and her name is Arizona.
The Arizona Department of Commerce has a complete site that covers all the legalities and loose-ends of filming in Arizona. Then the Phoenix Government created a film office and offered a nice tax credit program for those who wanted to venture this way. The Phoenix Government website also has a great link for location scouts. Surprisingly this is not a uniform-look state. We have locations that can mimic just about any place in the world.
Now several movies are filmed here... some in parts- others entirely. We also have become a thriving location for television production, commercials and yes... the infomercial. In all, 540 projects have been produced here in the past year. Whether you've been to Arizona or not, chances are you've seen us on tv or the big screen. So come to Arizona, we'll make you a star. Or... bring your camera- you might be the next Spielberg (that's right; he's from here.)
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Chuck Willman is a real estate agent based in the Phoenix area.
He's available at www.AZvest.com or 480.292.0600.
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photo "Have a Seat Mr. Director" by Viktor Klimo
Chuck great information. I took a look at your links and wow when I have more time I am going to read more. INTERESTING!
Linda- It's pretty fun actually... there's always something going on. Then- you get to see how your town looks on the big screen.
Hi Chuck - How fun, 540 projects is a pretty impressive number. I love Arizona and the entire 4 corners area. We contemplated moving out there but, believe it or not, the dry air did not agree with me - gotta have my humidity - go figure!
On another note, I've been meaning to ask you about your gorgeous ArizonaWood banner. If you did it yourself, did you simply extend the pixels beyond the 740ish they recommended and do you remember the length in pixels (or inches)? 2nd, were you able to choose the yellow color at the location of the A|R logo as opposed to it just....uhmm...just happening? Hope you're having a terrific day :-)