John Travolta sightings over the past week have sparked a renewed public interest in local film production, but the effort to attract Hollywood (and non-Hollywood) projects to the city have been an ongoing effort for several years. The Greater Columbus Film Commission has been tasked with this specific project, and with a new board, more focused support from GCAC and a new director coming on board, the organization expects to make progress moving forward.
“If we’re touting ourselves as an arts city, we can’t do that unless film is a part of it,” explains Film Columbus Interim Executive Director John Daugherty, “That includes indie cinema as well as film festivals and film shoots. We need to embrace all of that as a city.”
Daugherty says that the showcase of indie cinema already has a pretty strong base in Columbus between the Gateway Film Center, the Wexner Center, Studio 35 and the Drexel Theatre.
“We have it pretty good, and I don’t think we appreciate that enough,” he says. “Those venues give us a lot of opportunities that you wouldn’t see outside of The Coasts or Chicago.”
He says that Columbus needs to work harder in showcasing the city to production crews and location scouts who are looking for an affordable and flexible place to shoot all types of film. He explains that the “I Am Wrath” team moved very quickly to set up shop here and says that an organization like Film Columbus is intended to assist as a liaison between film crew needs and city government.
“The producers came in at the end of January and met with the Mayor’s office and within ten days they announced that they had decided to come here and shoot,” he says. “Three days after that they had a crew of six or seven people in town setting up production offices. At that point we were here just to help them out as much as possible.”
Daugherty says that he can’t speak to specifics of the “I Am Wrath” shoot, as much of it remains as secretive as possible during the filming process, but said that as far as he knows it has been going well. Filming locations have included Downtown, Port Columbus, Clintonville, Bexley, Merion Village and Old Oaks. The diverse range of neighborhood backdrops is something that Daugherty says is an advantage for filming here.
“Cleveland and Cincinnati film well because they can double as a stand-in for bigger cities like New York,” he says. “We can’t do that, but we do have areas that you can’t find anywhere else. German Village has a unique look. So does New Albany. And you can drive 20 minutes outside the city and be in a rural area. We need to sell that more to location scouts, and we’re working on that.”
While currently only serving as Interim Director, Daugherty (who has a background in film production at Vital Companies and film festival events as a producer of FFOCOL) has applied for the full time position.
“I enjoy the higher-level roles of fundraising, and working to make Columbus more of a film-centric city,” he said in reference to his work in the position thus far. “With the Mayor being behind this effort as much as he is, it’s a good time for pushing our mission forward.”
For more information, visit www.filmcolumbus.com.