LV coalition will help lure TV, movie productions

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 11:36 a.m.

The Silver State has had no problem finding its way to the silver screen in everything from "Con Air" to "Mars Attacks!"

Now, a new coalition is recruiting filmmakers and their production companies to Southern Nevada by being an intermediary between Hollywood and the local business community.

Mimosa Jones, the only employee of the 2-month-old Entertainment Development Corp., Wednesday unveiled a marketing video designed to sell Southern Nevada as a film location and a comfortable business environment and introduced charter members and the governing board of her private agency.

Film isn't the only medium for which Jones plans to recruit. The EDC, she said, plans to market the region to writers, directors, producers, special-event planners and creative directors of commercial and television productions, print and new media developers as well as Hollywood filmmakers.

Jones said "Con Air," a Nicolas Cage drama featuring a fiery plane crash on the Las Vegas Strip, was rewritten from a Washington D.C. setting, ultimately resulting in a bonanza for local support businesses when the film was shot in 1996. The film received the Motion Picture Award at the Southern Nevada Governor's Appreciation Luncheon last year.

Gov. Bob Miller was among the guests at Wednesday's debut event. Others on hand: Terry Wright, chief executive officer of Nevada Title Co., Somer Hollingsworth, president of the Nevada Development Authority, and Daniel Greenspun, vice president of the Greenspun Corp., all board members who helped get the EDC off the ground. Members of the Greenspun family own the Las Vegas Sun -- Daniel Greenspun is chairman of the EDC board.

Jones said she first considered the idea of the agency about six months ago. The marketing professional, a former aide to Miller, said she observed a public-private group assisting filmmakers in Los Angeles. Getting guidance from Hollingsworth, whose organization has a mission to diversify the Nevada economy, Jones went ahead with the formation of the group in late June with a $250,000 budget.

Hollingsworth noted the NDA looks at Hollywood production companies working in Southern Nevada as part of the economic diversification the state seeks.

Jones said companies seeking information about shooting locations still will be referred to the Nevada Film Commission. But other logistics, from lodging and transportation to 24-hour dry cleaning services, will be referred by companies affiliated with the EDC.

The 23 companies that got the new agency off the ground pledged different levels of financial support to get it started. Major contributors include Citibank Nevada, Encore Productions, the Greenspun Corp., JR Lighting, Matthews Studio Group Nevada, the NDA, Nevada Title Co., Production Resource Group, Quillen & Co. Advertising and Scot Rammer Music Inc./The Compound.

Other companies and individuals contributing: Entertainment Ventures Inc., Graphics West, Hamiltons, Planet Hollywood, Sprint, Bank of America, Black Mountain Studios, Carrara Nevada Public Relations, Coalition of Agents, Andrew Molasky, Nevada Corporate Headquarters Inc., The Rogich Communications Group and the Screen Actors Guild Nevada.