Why Movie Crews Get to Disrupt City Life

By Chosun Ilbo columnist Oh Tae-jin
englishnews@chosun.com / Dec. 01, 2009 13:16 KST

Casino operators blocked the filming of Mike Figgis' 1996 film "Leaving Las Vegas," forcing the director to film his movie in the small gambling town of Laughlin, Nevada 140 km away. To make matters more difficult, police rejected requests by the film crew to block off traffic. The lack of cooperation stemmed from the Las Vegas Film Commission's disapproval of the movie, which depicted a dark love story between a suicidal alcoholic and a prostitute. "Leaving Las Vegas" has been the only movie about the city that got this kind of cold-shoulder treatment.

Through the Film Commission, Las Vegas city officials seek out movies that can be set in the city and offer benefits to film producers. As a result, the "Con Air" prisoner transport plane crash-landed in downtown Las Vegas, James Bond raced through its thoroughfares and a child the size of King Kong walked around the town bashing up neon signs. Many U.S. cities have their own film commissions that seek to attract movie shoots. Even officials in crowded New York City close off entire streets to help make films. Brooklyn Bridge was blocked off for five days back in 1997 for the filming of "Siege."

The reason why so many cities compete to attract film crews is because they spend a lot of money when they are in town and the movies themselves end up doing a great job promoting the cities where they were filmed. The Alcatraz prison in San Francisco saw the number of annual visitors rise to 1 million after the 1995 movie "The Rock" was filmed there.

Film New Zealand, which is the state agency in charge of attracting film crews there, covers 15 percent of production expenses. The New Zealand government has provided W30 billion (US$1=W1,163) so far to Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar," which is being filmed there for the third year now.

In Korea, the film commission of Busan has also decided to foot 30 percent of the costs of films that are shot in the southern port city.

The Busan Film Commission was established in 1999 and until last year had attracted 228 movie crews to shoot scenes in the city. The commission went as far as temporarily changing public bus routes to support the filming of the movie "Friend." It scoured the city and found the perfect back alley that was used as the neighborhood of the heroine in "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance." The commission passed out notices to residents and even booked hotel rooms for pregnant women in the neighborhood where a gas station explosion was being filmed for the movie "Libera Me."

The efforts paid off. Over the past four years, Busan attracted the filming of between 30 to 43 movies and more than 40 percent of Korean movies have been filmed there.

Many other cities and provinces followed Busan’s example. Depending on how prominently it is featured, Incheon provides between W50 million to W100 million in support per movie. Analysis by the film commission of Jeonju showed that a W200 million investment yields W4 billion in returns.

Earlier this week, Gwanghwamun Plaza was sealed off while spectators flocked to the scene. They came to see the filming of the action TV drama "Iris," which was filmed there for 12 hours. The city of Seoul signed a deal with the producers to use the drama to publicize the capital, hoping that the show will be exported to Japan and other countries.

Quite a few people were probably unhappy to see traffic backed up on a weekend. But it was a scene that reflected the power of popular culture as an export product and the changed attitudes of public servants when it comes to publicizing Korea.