70 WINTER 2019 MOVIEMAKER.COM
Matthew McConaughey in The Beach Bum in
Miami and has more South Florida projects
lined up. The series David Makes Man,
about a child prodigy living in the projects,
is filming in Orlando and will premiere on
the OWN network in 2019. Shortly before
the November elections, Democrat candidate
for governor Andrew Gillum learned that
Georgia-shot Black Panther had resulted in
$89.3 million being pumped into the GA
economy and tweeted: “This could have been
us, Florida.”16
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
Do you feel the need for speed?
San Diego is back in the headlines,
particularly its Miramar Marine base, once the
location of the Navy’s TOPGUN training pro-
gram. With Tom Cruise being spotted in San
Diego through the fall as Top Gun: Maverick
got underway, who could blame even local
film officials for being excited? “It was very
exciting to welcome Paramount back to
San Diego for the sequel,” San Diego Film Li-aison Brandy Shimabukuro tells MovieMaker.
“Given what an icon the original is and its
San Diego roots, it felt like a homecoming.
Oftentimes, productions of this size are mea-
sured solely by economic impact—and with
good reason—since a cast and crew of about
250 lived and worked in San Diego for nearly
six weeks, but the reality is that hosting major
productions like this isn’t just an economic
boon, it helps bolster civic pride. We look
forward to seeing our hometown on the silver
screen in June 2020.”
Fighter jets or no, San Diego appears to be
making strides to reassert itself as a player in
the film production arena after budget cuts in
2013 went unaddressed for a couple of years.
In 2015 mayor Kevin Faulconer hired a film-
ing program manager, streamlined permitting
and established online directories of local
crew, but the building blocks of a deeply
staffed and resourced Film Office are still fall-
ing into place. In July it was reported that a
dormant 180,000 square-foot recycling facility
in the city’s San Elijo Hills—45 minutes closerto L.A. than downtown—could be converted
into a production facility, but what is needed
is more coordination with local producers and
local subsidies. A consultancy tasked by the
site owners is reaching out to the city council.
Faulconer tells us that the official reestab-
lishment of the Film Office in 2015 wasn’t
just a statement to say they were open for
business: “It was a message to the world
that while San Diego may be the industry’s
best-kept secret, it won’t be for long.” He also
cites some of the cultural qualities that SD has
to offer, from its history of promoting film,
photography, and other arts to its binational
location. “It’s a dynamic environment for any-
one looking to tell their story,” he says.17
DALLAS, TEXAS
“When filming in Dallas, you actu-
ally get two cities in one: Dallas
and Fort Worth, and they are very different
from one another,” says Liz Cardenas, produc-
er of 2017’s acclaimed A Ghost Story and the
2018 comedy Never Goin’ Back. “You also get
several unique neighborhoods and communi-
ties within and just outside
of the DFW Metroplex. In
my experience, both film com-
missions were extremely helpful
with locations, as well as our vari-
ous production needs, Fort Worth
on Never Goin’ Back and Dallas on
A Ghost Story.”
Cardenas says that Texas being a right-to-
work state is also beneficial for low-budget
indie moviemaking and that Dallas is a
very commercial city, so there is a surplus
of friendly and skilled crew members who
work regularly and maintain an open mind
when it comes to choosing projects even
if they are low-budget. “For instance, on
A Ghost Story I literally went door to door in
the neighborhood and surrounding area to try
to find a place we could use for ‘holding’ and
sure enough, a very kind woman let us use her
home,” she recalls. “I also got the wrecked car
Casey Affleck’s character is in for free and a
towing company took it to the set and back to
the salvage yard for free when we were done.”
Augustine Frizzell, director of
Never Goin’ Back, echoes Cardenas’ senti-
ments, particularly on the Dallas-Fort Worth
nexus. “The Fort Worth and Dallas Film com-
missions both stepped in and worked to help
us find authentic and accessible locations,”
Frizzell says. “We had an embarrassment of
riches with regards to the hardworking,
professional crew. Given the budget level
and the look I was going for, there’s no way
we could’ve shot my film anywhere else.”