Filling the Space: Venues Go Hollywood

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 2/28/2005

Tradeshow managers aren't the only producers vying for space at convention centers. These days, Hollywood executives are treating the facilities like hot commodities too.

And the use of convention centers for Tinseltown productions is increasingly apparent, for everything from star-studded film productions to regional tryouts for "American Idol."

Productions in and around the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York are expected, of course, since the two cities serve as the epicenters of the entertainment world. However, convention centers in locales such as Atlantic City, N.J.; Honolulu; and Tucson, Ariz., are featured in more films than Jude Law lately — and their officials are enjoying the increased worldwide exposure.

In essence, convention centers are alluring to the entertainment community because of their amenities and vast contiguous space, said Kate Breck Calhoun, sales and marketing director for the Tucson Convention Center.

"When a film or television production company rents a soundstage, they are merely given the keys to the building," Calhoun said.

But when they use a convention center like the TCC, she added, the company has access to amenities like onsite food and beverage service; security and staging staffs — some available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and forklifts and forklift operators.

The TCC's 24,000 square foot North Exhibit Hall is marketed specifically to television, motion picture, commercial and photo shoot producers. The facility's Leo Rich Theater is ideal for viewing footage shot the day before, Calhoun added, and several meeting rooms can be converted to production staff offices.

The TCC hall was the location last fall for an ABC-TV made-for-TV movie based on the Stephen King novel "Desperation," and was transformed into eight separate sets, including a jail cell and a mine shaft.

Since the north hall is situated in one of the older sections of the facility, without "all the bells and whistles" that the other halls offer for tradeshows, entertainment production is "a perfect niche for the use of our space," Calhoun noted.

Although the tradeshow and entertainment businesses are equally important to the TCC, Calhoun added, "we end up getting a better cost per room," from the casts and crews that inhabit the city and support local businesses during the several-week shoots.

But sometimes there are unforeseen costs. The movie production generated a $15 million economic impact, which included $8 million from the cleanup and restoration of the facility due to an accidental fire on the set. The repairs had to be completed in double time for the center to be ready by Jan. 27 for its largest annual show — the American Gem Trade Assn. GemFair Tucson.

To prove that the TCC remains an opportune location for entertainment business, the venue and the Tucson Film Office will increase their combined presence at the upcoming 20th annual Assn. of Film Commissioners Intl. Locations Trade Show April 15–17 at the Santa Monica (Calif.) Civic Auditorium, which will feature about 200 exhibiting companies and attract nearly 3,300 attendees.

Atlantic City officials are also stepping up their marketing efforts at the AFCI show and working to balance the interests of both the tradeshow industry and Hollywood, said Susan Ricciardi, a spokeswoman for the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority. However, she points out, tradeshows always get top billing at the seaside city's venues.

"Certainly, if we have a big tradeshow in the building, we're not going to clear them out," she said, but if there's a "dark day" at a facility like the Atlantic City Convention Center, the red carpet rolls out.

While the ACCVA welcomes intermittent business like the independent film "Duane Hopwood" (starring "Friends" alumnus David Schwimmer), which was shot in the ACCC and around the city last year, the authority is also trying to reel in New York-based productions and "get on the radar screen of certain Hollywood producers," she added.

"We're trying to capitalize on our close proximity to New York," said Ricciardi.

The authority has even gone as far as joining the likes of the Hollywood elite by hiring a public relations agency to review scripts to see whether Atlantic City and the ACCC would fit into scenes.

"We are getting Atlantic City into the hearts and minds of people watching TV," she added. "The younger demographic isn't watching the evening news."

Although Atlantic City facilities have been used for high-budget films like the $73 million Nicolas Cage film "Snake Eyes," Ricciardi said that's nothing compared to nearby Philadelphia, which gained notoriety with films like "Rocky" and, well, "Philadelphia."

The City of Brotherly Love also attracted productions like the Bruce Willis film "12 Monkeys" to the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The facility's Grand Hall was transformed to replicate the Baltimore/Washington Intl. Airport, a common use of convention center entrances, with their lofty escalators and open space atriums.

The open-air lobby of the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu was used to represent an Australian airport terminal for flashback scenes for the television show "Lost." Houston's Reliant Astrodome, which is being redeveloped and is projected to include nearly 150,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, was also recently a film location site — for the high school football film "Friday Night Lights."

Bill Lindstrom, CEO of the Assn. of Film Commissioners Intl., said convention centers are valuable resources for productions on location because of their covered space and services. "It's a controlled environment that the filmmakers generally love," he said.

Nevertheless, don't expect the entertainment industry to start bulldozing soundstages once they've discovered the charm of convention centers. "They're just not built as well for filming like a soundstage," Lindstrom said. "Plus, you can blow up a set in a warehouse or a hangar; you can't do that in a convention center."