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'On Location' is music to commissioner's ears
By Lydia Wheeler, The Virginian-Pilot – 7/11/2012
As the commissioner of the Hampton Roads Film Office, Jeff Frizzell is often asked to name his favorite movie, when not being pumped for information on the location of celebrities visiting the region - like Tom Hanks. He would rather play it safe by naming the number of locals he has helped put to work in the film industry.
After all, putting local people to work is why Frizzell, 53, a Norfolk native, said he works for free. Last month marked the second, full year that he has run the film office, a division of the Hampton Roads Partnership, without a budget.
Frizzell spends a fair amount of time fielding calls when superstars such as Hanks are suddenly spotted having breakfast at Charlie’s Cafe in Ghent. The actor, starring in the film “Captain Phillips,” visited Charlie’s for breakfast, igniting a celebrity hunt that had Frizzell’s phone ringing. The movie is based on the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk-Alabama and some shooting took place in Virginia Beach.
“The Tom Hanks production was handled by the Virginia State Film Office because we aren’t a funded, full-time operation,” he explained. “The only reason anything got out at all was because they were filming off-shore on a carrier and really weren’t worried about people barging onto the set.”
That didn’t mean Frizzell didn’t have the hook-up. He just knows that keeping locations, the real names of production companies and projects a state and regional secret is essential to attracting more productions to the area.
“The production companies and stars check into hotels and tell people false names all the time,” he said. “‘Mission Impossible III’ went under the code name Heyday Films and the Lincoln movie used the name Office Seekers.”
He added, “If you see a professional film crew in the neighborhood and ask them what they’re shooting, they’re going to tell you it’s a mayonnaise commercial and not mention Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks.”
However, when he does make it to a theater, Frizzell, a fast-talking, high-energy guy who helped coordinate production for “Mission Impossible III” and “The Box,” starring Cameron Diaz, prefers to relax with lighter fare.
“I’m a sucker for romantic comedies,” he said. “I love when the guy gets the girl.”
More than that, Frizzell loves what plays out behind the scenes, in production, when the local guy gets the local job.
The Hampton Roads Film Office, a non-profit agency, was created in July 2006 to work in conjunction with the Virginia Film Office in Richmond. The goal was to attract film, television and other media projects to Hampton Roads.
Producers hire local actors; local camera, sound and lighting crews; make-up artists; and construction companies. Cast and crew not hired locally stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants. The economic impact, Frizzell said, is tremendous.
HBO spent $80 million in the commonwealth shooting its Emmy award-winning mini-series “John Adams,” which was released in 2008 and starred actor Paul Giamatti. Part of the series was filmed in Colonial Williamsburg. “The Box” spent $3 million in five days shooting at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton. Script writer and director, Richard Kelly was born in Newport News. Frizzell said he hired 400 local actors to play extras.
The last budget Frizzell had, in 2009, was between $90,000 and $100,000. Each municipality in the Hampton Roads region paid a share based on what their area had to offer in terms of locations to shoot. The budget paid Frizzell’s salary and marketing costs. But year after year, he said, he found himself spending more time begging local governments for money than marketing the area.
Since he can’t prohibit producers from filming in the cities that refused to contribute to the film office, Frizzell dropped his budget entirely in 2010. He works as a freelance film and television producer now, but continues to answer the film office phone, which is actually his cell phone. Caryn Nowland, a freelance associate producer and first-assistant director, is thankful he does.
According to Nowland, the bulk of work in the film industry comes from referrals. “When you meet people on a job and you see how hard they work, you refer them,” she said.
Because of Frizzell, Nowland said, she continues to get work. And since Gov. Bob McDonnell approved Virginia’s first tax-credits for film production in 2010 and added funds to the Motion Picture Opportunity Fund, there has been more work to go around.
“Literally, before 2010 you were going to North Carolina, Baltimore or Georgia, or else you weren’t working,” said Brian Kirwin, Hampton Roads chairman of the Virginia Production Alliance, a statewide organization for film professionals. The incentives and grants available, he said, put Virginia on the map.
But even with more productions coming to Virginia, Frizzell still soldier on without pay in the hope that the state will soon support him as he supports so many locals in the industry.
“I’m waiting it out,” he said. “I’m fortunate that it costs me no money to answer the phone.”
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