Commercials more frequently filmed in LV

Phil Levine

Monday, June 5, 2000 | 11:06 a.m.

A new Volkswagen or a cheeseburger may not have the star appeal of Mel Gibson, but promoting products like these provides the cornerstone for Southern Nevada's burgeoning film industry.

Industry experts agree that commercials play an integral part of the Silver State's efforts to expand its share of the film production market.

"Television and print ads don't make the big splash that movies and T.V. shows do, but I can tell you that we see more business generated from commercials than from those two industries," said Charlie Geocaris, director of the Nevada Film Office.

"Over the past few years, we've seen tens of millions of dollars generated by the filming of commercials in Nevada."

Geocaris said that last year commercials generated $16 million over the course of 220 production days in Southern Nevada.

Mimosa Jones, chief executive officer of the Entertainment Development Corporation of Las Vegas, sees commercials as the foundation for the region's burgeoning film production industry.

"Commercials really are the bread and butter of the film industry here," she said. "To date, we (in Nevada) really haven't done enough marketing of this region to that sector."

With a cross-section of natural settings in close proximity to a large metropolis, Southern Nevada provides advertisers with an array film settings.

As a backdrop for commercials, the region's natural setting is attractive to several industries.

But few advertisers view the desert as more commercially attractive than auto manufacturers; industry experts say automakers flock to the region, hoping to capitalize on the area's wide open spaces and bright desert sun.

"When you are shooting a commercial ad (in the desert) you tend to work at either dawn or dusk," said Richard Horn, owner and partner of Los Angeles-based Hard Drive Productions.

"You need wide open spaces and clear lighting, and the Las Vegas region provides both of those."

Horn's company specializes in filming still pictures used for billboards and print ads. His firm recently shot an ad campaign for Volkswagen in the Las Vegas area.

One of the most popular sites for car commercials is the Valley of Fire, just north of Las Vegas.

"It provides great lighting, and the topography makes it well-suited to car advertisements," said Horn.

Still, for some corporations, choosing to film commercials in Southern Nevada has little to do with either the region's natural environment or the glitz of the Strip.

Take the case of Oklahoma City-based Sonic Corp., parent of the Sonic Drive-In chain.

The fast-food chain recently chose Las Vegas as the site for its latest national television commercial.

"We've actually filmed T.V. ads in Las Vegas twice in the last year," said Debbie Nance, Sonic's broadcast production manager.

"Our most recent production probably cost us about $2 million, and it will provide us with film for about 14 separate television ads."

Nance's reason for choosing Las Vegas will likely be music to the ears of those promoting film in Nevada.

"For this last shoot, we needed to film at one of our Sonic 2000 re-designed stores," she said.

"We'd previously filmed in Phoenix for many of the same reasons that we chose Las Vegas, its proximity to Los Angeles and the availability of crew and natural settings.

"But we chose Las Vegas, because the city ordinances in Phoenix have made it difficult to convert our stores to the new design."

Nance said about 100 people involved in the production stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.

Phoenix also drew the short straw when Keith Akala was choosing the site for his company's recent catalog advertising shoot for Suzuki.

"We filmed in Arizona a couple of years ago, and the company didn't want to repeat that location," he said. "We looked at (filming in) Utah, but the weather there just wasn't good enough.

"So we ended up filming at the Valley of Fire. It's a great location, with unique rock formations and colors that really work well on still photos."

The attention to detail demanded by still photos is well-suited to the Valley of Fire, said Akala.

"You can pay so much attention to the small things when you do still photos, and that location is great for contrasts and detailing," he said.

The EDC's Jones sees great opportunities to expand TV commercial production in Southern Nevada.

"But to attract more production, we have to be able to offer producers an ability to shave 10 to 15 percent off their costs. We also have to recognize that the exposure (of Las Vegas) offered by television commercials is exponentially greater than one or two backdrop shots in a movie."