A star is born?
The local division is one of only three in Virginia certified by the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI).
To become certified, Felicia Rupert, the EDC's tourism and film assistant, underwent nearly two years of training. She completed the Film Commission Fundamentals and Film Commission Professional courses and then attended a cineposium where she received additional classroom and field instruction.
The Tourism & Film Division maintains images of various locations around Henry County-Martinsville in an online database through Reel-Scout, the same database used by the Virginia Tourism Corporation's Film Office and other film offices across the United States. Filmmakers frequently look at Reel-Scout and other online databases when searching for filming locations.
The Tourism & Film Division's first project since obtaining the certification was to help Volvo Corp. and Thompson Creative with a print ad photo shoot in Martinsville. Scouts from Blackhorse Studios chose U.S. 220 Business just below the Martinsville hydroelectric dam as the ideal location to shoot still photos of a Volvo tractor trailer that had been manufactured in Dublin, Va.
The studio contacted the EDC's Tourism & Film Division for assistance, which included information to find their way around town and arranging for the road to be blocked off for early morning and late afternoon photoshoots.
Filmmaking is a proven economic driver in Virginia. A recent study by the Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Public Policy found that more than 8,000 people in Virginia are involved in the film industry, which brought more than $500 million in economic impact to Virginia in 2004.
For the Volvo shoot, crews from Blackhorse Studios, Thompson Creative and Volvo stayed at a local hotel and ate at a variety of restaurants.
There is even more reason to film commercials and movies in Virginia now thanks to the Film Industry Tax Credit Legislation signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell in June. The incentive provides a refundable credit for any motion picture production company with qualifying expenses of at least $250,000, in an amount equal to 15 percent of the production company's qualifying expenses or 20 percent of such expenses if the production is filmed in an economically distressed area of the commonwealth.
The Tourism & Film Division will be launching a film page on the existing tourism website, VisitMartinsville.com, to increase location presence on the web.
Local photographers with unique images of sites around Henry County-Martinsville as well as property owners who have homes and businesses with unique architecture and style are encouraged to contact the Tourism & Film Division for inclusion in the Reel-Scout database as potential filming locations. The EDC's Tourism & Film Division can be contacted at 403-5945 or frupert@yesmartinsville.com.
