EDA Winter Newsletter

WINTER NEWSLETTER Page 4

Riverside County Film Commission FAM TOUR: Palm Spring Bureau of Tourism & the Riverside County Film Commission (RCFC) hosted a 3 day Familiarization Tour of the western Coachella Valley in addition to unincorporated areas and properties of Riverside County. Top location managers from the Los Angeles area were hosted for a weekend of visiting notable and sought after filming sites. After arriving and checking in to the Hotel Saguaro, the team loaded up in vans and began their non-stop tour beginning with the unique Parker Hotel. Staff was poised and ready to give a brief tour to the group and discuss the possibilities and limitations of filming at each site visited. Palm Springs is known for mid-century modern homes and we showed them the best possibilities for filming such as the “Dinah Shore” recently purchased by Leonardo De Caprio, a mid-century modern Wexler home and several others that were camera worthy. Details of permitting procedures were shared at each location depending on whether the location was BLM, Tribal, City, County, Private or Public. Location Managers were also very interested in accessibility for parking of trucks/RVs/cars, accessibility for large equipment to move around a scene and the film friendliness of the immediate neighborhood. An interesting variety of locations and activities filled the weekend as the tour spanned from Indian Canyons which was the back drop for the new Louis Vuitton catalog, an artist colony where Top Chef recently filmed and county roads with access to windmills followed by a trip up to county parks and the mountain areas of Idyllwild. Several of the Location Managers that were part of this tour have already been back to the Film Commission for upcoming productions. Recent productions have taken advantage of the Film Commission’s crew directory to employ county residents on current projects. In a report received from the Greater Palm Springs CVB, an Indio based production assistant and a La Quinta based production assistant have been hired for the full run of a PBS series “Project Smoke” hosted by culinary writer and barbeque master Steven Raichlen … Slated to start production at the end of January. NURTURING A LOCAL FILM WORKFORCE & PUTTING RIVERSIDE COUNTY ON THE GLOBAL MAP:

Hotel Saguaro, Palm Springs

Parker Hotel, Palm Springs

Inside The Dinah House Palm Springs

Parker Hotel, Palm Springs

Windmills in Palm Springs

Indian Canyons, Palm Springs

Inside a cabin in Idyllwild

Cabins in Idyllwild