| Picture this:
Hollywood East?
Virginia Business
March 2004
It’s
not quite Hollywood East yet, but Virginia is gaining
a reputation as a favorite locale for filming movies,
television shows, documentaries and commercials. The
most recent example came with the release of the critically
acclaimed Civil War drama, “Cold Mountain.”
Parts of the movie were shot at Carter’s Grove
Plantation in Williamsburg and Belle
Isle in Richmond’s James River.
“We’re a filmmaker’s dream,”
says Mary Nelson, spokesperson for the Virginia Film
Office, noting that the state offers producers just
about every type of setting — from oceans, pastoral
farmland and mountains to big cities and small towns.
And that recognition is adding up to some real dollars.
Last year’s total spending by the film industry
in Virginia will top $190 million, Nelson estimates,
a 600 percent increase over 1991, when the state took
in just $30 million. Much of that goes to multimedia
and post-production companies, as well as hotels, restaurants
and real estate leasing.
The figures do not include the film’s industry’s
potential effect on tourism. “We’re just
beginning to learn how to measure that,” she says.
The film office did launch a public relations and Web
campaign in early 2003 around the movie “Gods
and Generals,” a not-very-successful Civil War
drama shot in Lexington and Staunton.
The result? A 77 percent increase in inquiries for Virginia’s
Civil War-related tourism sites.
Virginia
Business - March 2004
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