Sedona, Arizona seems to have blossomed into quite an active and involved film community. The city, with a modest population of just over 11,000, has both the charm of a small town and an unwavering passion for film that rivals that of larger, more traditionally acknowledged film-centric cities. The credentials to prove this are all there: an acclaimed film school (the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking), an impressive filmography including Dead Man (1995), 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and Midnight Run (1988) as well as their very own international film festival. While it is well noted that many moviemakers look to Sedona for the city’s stunning Red Rocks, Judy Schultz, director of the Sedona Film Office, told MovieMaker all the other reasons why Sedona needs to be considered by moviemakers.
1) What are some factors that make Sedona an exciting location for film shoots?
Sedona is a very film-oriented community. We are a small city of 11,000, but have an international film festival, the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking established by writer Dan Gordon (“Passenger 57”, “Wyatt Earp”, “The Hurricane”) as well as a full time film office. The film office has tracked approximately 150 shoot days per year since the establishment of our office in 2005. By comparison, when I previously worked as project manager for the state of Connecticut’s film office (before the production incentive program was passed) I tracked approximately 300 shoot days per year for the entire state. So, for such a small area there is a lot of production. Our unique red rock locations provide breathtaking landscapes for shoots.
2) For independent moviemakers in particular, what are the benefits of choosing Sedona as a location?
Again, I would have to say the spirit of the community towards independent filmmakers. Many locals support and participate in the film festival and Zaki Gordon events.
Also, most independent films tend to shoot on location. Although most productions come here for the red rock landscapes there is much diversity in the surrounding area. We have pine forests and the creek in Oak Creek Canyon which surprises people as they tend to think of Arizona as just a desert area. There are many various locations in and around Sedona creating the illusion of being in several different places for “road pictures”. Beside the red rocks and Oak Creek Canyon we have the Mingus Mountain range, Sycamore Canyon and old salt mines which each have a different look. The red rocks also can fill in for “other world” landscapes providing the feeling you are on another planet. 40% of visitors and many production projects come to Sedona for its spiritual aspects. The popularity of paranormal projects continues to increase. Sedona is a great setting for this type of project, too. Other interesting film-friendly locations in the area include the Mexican village of Tlaquepaque, Out of Africa, the Verde Canyon Railroad, Blazin’ M Ranch, Oak Creek cabins, world class resorts, and the haunted Victorian mining town of Jerome. For more than 80 years, filmmakers have chosen Sedona as a prime location site.
Another important benefit is the state of Arizona’s production incentive program providing a 20%-30% tax credit as well as sales and use tax exemptions available to qualified productions.
We also have some wonderful experienced crew people who worked in LA for many years in feature films that have migrated to Sedona as well as some local independent filmmakers embarking on their projects besides the graduates from the local film school.
3) Sedona has some pretty impressive festival events–like the Sedona Film Festival and Workshop. What separates Sedona’s film festivals from other film festivals? How do they embrace independent moviemakers?
The Sedona International Film Festival & Workshop is noted for how it treats the filmmakers and films that come here. The filmmakers are their true celebrities for the festival week. They honor them with Q&A’s after every screening, plus unlimited access to all festival events, galas, tributes and workshops. They bring in a panel of experts from the film industry to work side-by-side in their festival workshops with the indie filmmakers. They treat them to a great Sedona experience when they are here as well as exposing their films to a sophisticated audience of indie film lovers. They have three different levels of festival awards: Directors’ Choice, Audience Choice and Excellence in Filmmaking Cash Awards. They honor the people whose passion for filmmaking comes to life on the big screen and give exposure to films that might not otherwise play in major theatrical release. Many of their films have gone on to be picked up by distributors and studios.
The festival is actually a year-round operation. Their Second Tuesday Cinema Series screens a new film every second Tuesday of the month as well as other special screenings and series that provide many opportunities for independent filmmakers to showcase their films throughout the year. (Recent Arizona premieres from these series include “Waitress”, “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead”, “The Savages”, “Starting Out in the Evening”, “The Air I Breathe” and “3:10 to Yuma”)
4) Your city has been to the backdrop for many classic westerns such as Broken Arrow, starring James Stewart, and the original 3:10 to Yuma. Is the western something that has lived on in Sedona or has the genre faded away there as it has in other places?
When I first came to Sedona to start up this film office many people asked if we thought we could “revive” the history of the western here in Sedona. As you know the popularity of the genre comes and goes, so you can’t predict when that will happen (it seems to be on an upswing particularly in television right now). They also seem to shoot many of them in Canada where the needed wilderness is available for the period. As you can imagine, Sedona has grown tremendously since that time. That being said, we came extremely close to being the location for the recent remake of “3:10 to Yuma” and I was pleasantly surprised that despite the growth here it was still possible to for us to continue to be a setting for a period western. Therefore we continue to market our filmmaking history and location for western films. We also get a lot of international production that thinks of us as the “wild west” and bring their productions to Sedona.
5) What does the future hold for films in Sedona?
We are currently working on our infrastructure to build a better work force as well as a production facility. We have a couple of companies interested in relocating/locating in Sedona that want to build studio space in the near future and we are working to find a place for them in the City. We are a fairly new office and, hopefully, through the efforts of the film office, film festival, film school and local filmmakers we will continue to build a vibrant and welcoming City for independent filmmakers.
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