Origins
San Diego had a silent film production industry from 1898-1912.
In the early 1970s, producers of the Los Angeles-based television series Harry O, seeking new locales for the show, moved production to San Diego. At that time, television and film production accounted for only $400,000 in annual revenue for the city. But Harry O alone earned an estimated $1.5 million in a matter of months, in addition to providing hundreds of jobs. Unfortunately, the show's producers soon found their work in San Diego impeded by the slow processing of city permits and seemingly arbitrary fees levied by numerous local agencies. Harry O returned to Los Angeles after filming just a few episodes. Frustrated producers and civic leaders met with Wilson, members of San Diego's County Board of Supervisors and executives from the Port of San Diego to discuss new initiatives that would not only end debacles such as the Harry O incident, but promote the city as a "one-stop shop" for filmmakers.
The Commission created a precedent with "roundtable" meetings that brought filmmakers together with representatives of public safety and other government departments to streamline the permit process. The method became a model for similar commissions in other cities. San Diego also initiated tax incentives to make the area attractive to film production.
Read more about this topic: San Diego Film Commission
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“The settlement of America had its origins in the unsettlement of Europe. America came into existence when the European was already so distant from the ancient ideas and ways of his birthplace that the whole span of the Atlantic did not widen the gulf.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)