Vegas pluses, minuses listed by television show director

Monday, Oct. 18, 1999 | 10:56 a.m.

While director Gil Adler will sing the praises of Las Vegas as a location for his new television series, he says the city is still dependent on Hollywood for writers and post-production work.

The director of "The Strip," a cop show on the UPN Network, said that about half his crew members are Las Vegas residents.

Adler said the cooperation of government officials to get access to locations has been good since shooting began in the summer and the rapport he has established with Caesars Palace to get casino interior and exterior shots gets better as the series of shows progresses.

Adler's crew is working on 12 episodes of "The Strip," which stars Sean Patrick Flanery, Guy Torry and Joseph Viterelli. Adler should know by November whether the series will get an extended run -- which would mean more location shooting work for Las Vegas extras and crew members.

Ironically, most Las Vegans won't see "The Strip." The local UPN affiliate, KCGN Channel 25, does not appear on the Cox Communications cable television system, the dominant carrier in the Las Vegas area.

Most viewers would have to shut off their cable and use an antenna to pick up KCGN or pick up a UPN feed via satellite. Cox has cited economic and demographic reasons for not carrying Channel 25.

"I really can't tell you anything bad about working here," Adler told members of the Entertainment Development Corp. of Las Vegas at a recent meeting.

The EDC, which works as a liaison between Hollywood and Las Vegas, started its second year of operations with its September meeting. The organization, which consists of businesses that support filmmaking or offer services to film companies setting up here permanently or temporarily, now has about 75 members. Executives had targeted having 50 members by the end of its first year of operations.

"When we first came here, Caesars told us we would only be able to shoot between 1 and 5 in the morning," Adler said. "Today, we're filming right now (at about 6 p.m.). When we first started, they didn't want us filming in front of the property. Now we can shoot there. The better we get to know each other, the better the rapport gets."

Adler said getting permission to film in some of the city's public places is challenging because he does not receive copies of a script until about three days before filming is scheduled to begin. Yet even with the tight schedule, Adler said the city, state and county have been very cooperative in getting the necessary permits to keep production on schedule.

The reason for delay of scripts is that all of the show's writers are based in Los Angeles. Adler doesn't see that changing.

"We brought them all out here to look at a number of locations before the series started," Adler said. "And sometimes, we'll send some film for them to look at to help write certain scenes."

But Adler said he doesn't expect any Las Vegas-based writers to contribute scripts because "everything filters through L.A." -- the established system dictates that Hollywood-based agents and writers work directly with Hollywood-based show producers.

Production facilities also are lacking in Las Vegas. Efforts to build adequate sound studios in the Las Vegas area have stalled over the last year. Adler said all post-production and editing is done in California. He said he would prefer to work with a predominantly Las Vegas-based crew because it would cut per-diem costs.

He said he has been happy with the crew and cast from Las Vegas, but producers also look to sign established workers, regardless of where they're from, because they have reputations of being able to do the job.

He said word-of-mouth accounts by producers is the best way for Las Vegas to gain favor among Hollywood executives. And he expects to put in some good words for the city, even though he said he was nervous about shooting on location before he came.

Asked whether any place, including Las Vegas, would be able to wrestle some of the film production work away from Canada -- a growing concern among Hollywood film companies -- Adler said he wasn't optimistic.

Because the Canadian exchange rate makes it attractive to film there, Adler said it makes economic sense for film companies to hire the cheaper labor and take advantage of an expanded production budget in Vancouver and Toronto, the two hot spots for filmmakers north of the border.

Adler would not disclose the production budget of "The Strip" and it's too early to determine the economic impact of the company on Las Vegas.