Filmmaking in Northern Virginia
By Jennifer Pullinger
“Argo.” “J. Edgar.” “The Bourne Ultimatum.” “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” “Breach.” “Rules of Engagement.” “Foxcatcher”— the latter a new movie that filmed scenes in Loudoun County in fall 2012. The biopic, slated to be released in 2013 according IMBD.com, stars Steve Carell, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo and chronicles the story of multimillionaire paranoid schizophrenic John du Pont, who built a training facility for wrestlers on his sprawling estate in Pennsylvania and later murdered Olympian David Schultz in 1996.
All of the above are major motion pictures filmed in part in Northern Virginia. While the city of Richmond drew one of the most high profile productions in the Commonwealth this year—perhaps in the country—with Steven Spielberg’s historical biopic “Lincoln,” Northern Virginia is still the most popular place to film in the state. And for good reason.
Richmond indeed captured the Hollywood spotlight in 2012; yet, Northern Virginia is the state breadwinner when it comes to attracting motion picture and video production of all scales and sizes. In 2010, according to Virginia Film Office data, the regional impact of the film and video industry to Northern Virginia’s economy totaled $173.4 million, generating 1,243 jobs and $16.8 million in tax revenue. Hampton Roads was next in line, with an economic contribution of $25.8 million. In 2011, the film industry brought in $394.4 million, 3,817 jobs and and $60 million in local and state tax revenues.
So what makes this region such a hot place to film, whether it’s the next A-list-starring, 3,200-theater nationwide opening flick, or a small budget documentary that has only the passion of its filmmakers behind it?
For one, Governor Bob McDonnell has made it known, even before he was elected, that encouraging film and production in the Commonwealth would be one of his economic development and jobs creation priorities. “The big screen is big business, and we want that business right here in Virginia,” he has said. With McDonnell’s support, the Commonwealth now has an unprecedented level of film tax incentives, including in the Governor’s Motion Picture Opportunity Fund, available to attract filmmakers to Virginia.
The Virginia Production Alliance is one of the primary organizations that have been working with state lawmakers to make incentives more competitive. Founded in 1988 to support film, video, audio and media production across the state, the VPA has regional chapters that work behind-the-scenes to grow the film community and the industry as a whole. Based in Richmond, it also has long-range plans to establish a Northern Virginia chapter.
“Northern Virginia stands ready to reap the benefits of what Governor McDonnell has done for us all in the state,” says Mark Remes, former VPA president and executive producer of BES Studios. “He’s been a huge supporter of film here since taking office and we’re seeing it pay off with “Lincoln,” and other projects. Without question, the crew base in Northern Virginia is amazing and deep. I think you’ll see more and more films coming there.”
Filmmaking is a collaborative process, and that extends itself to the symbiotic relationship that has to exist between the state film offices in Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Maryland. That means Northern Virginia’s film and media production success has to be credited, in some part, to its proximity to the District and Maryland, including such entities as the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring and other major networks with bureaus and production facilities here.
“The seat of power of our great country will never be one to have a shortage of controversial or scandalous stories that will come out [of] Washington, D.C.” says Andy Edmunds, interim director of the Virginia Film Office. “So there will always be a certain amount of work, especially in the feature film world, that will cede over into Northern Virginia and represents locations where various characters of whatever story is being told live or work or play.”
Because of its relations to the capital, Northern Virginia almost becomes “a character unto itself in many stories,” says Edmunds. “However we can assist filmmakers in making the region film-friendly will just create an environment that will bring more production work to the area. Any work that we do get up there and the successes that we do have is a testament to the great cooperation we do receive from our partners in government, business, citizenry up there that helps us execute the work.”
Vienna-based freelance location and production manager Peggy Pridemore has worked on numerous major motion films in the region, from “Argo,” “Safe House” and “Night at the Museum” to “Wedding Crashers,” “Minority Report” and” Traffic,” but she considers “Breach” the most satisfying of her experiences because of the authenticity that filming in Northern Virginia lent the shoot, even though it could have been filmed anywhere. “Breach”, released in 2007 and starring Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper, is a historical drama centering on Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who was arrested in 2001 for selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
“We filmed in actual locations where the spy Hanssen was caught in Vienna. The neighborhood where he was actually caught was very welcoming to us and allowed us a great deal of access to that neighborhood and the little park where he was caught,” says Pridemore.
That authenticity—and the region’s diversity of locations—is another advantage to filming in Northern Virginia, whether a filmmaker needs to shoot in a commercial or institutional building in the city, the rolling hills and pastures in the countryside, or business centers and residences in suburbia. The inventory of old historic structures and streetscapes, like those in Alexandria or Manassas, as well as military bases and museums that filmmakers can access, such as the Air & Space Museum Annex in Dulles where scenes from “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” were filmed also help.
“We also have some old areas that are ideal, like on “Argo” we found a street of old houses in McLean that looked like an old, historic street even though it had some new houses built on it. Then we went a mile away to an historic church that looked like it was out in the middle of the country,” says Pridemore.
“Argo”, starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman and directed by Affleck, tells the story of the covert rescue mission during the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis of six American diplomats who had found refuge in a Canadian ambassador’s home.
In spring 2011, Clint Eastwood took advantage of the array of locations that filming in Northern Virginia offers with “J. Edgar,” which starred Leonardo DiCaprio. Eastwood shot in Warrenton and The Plains in Fauquier County, Great Falls in Fairfax County, Alexandria City and Arlington. The legendary actor and director is no stranger to filming in the region; he shot parts of “Flags of Our Fathers” at the Iwo Jima Memorial in 2005.
The region’s infrastructure, on the other hand, can present a challenge to attracting filmmakers to work here. “One thing that can make a region more useable as a film palette is just being able to utilize various government assets that exist up there. But sometimes it’s complicated because it’s so busy in Northern Virginia, traffic being one of those things that’s busy,” says Edmunds. “So when we have to slow one down or alter one for a film project it creates issues.”
“In Richmond [with “Lincoln”] in particular we were able to work with local authorities to make those things go pretty smoothly,” he adds. “And the traffic of course is not as dense down here so there’s not as many jurisdictional hurdles to jump through as there may be in the D.C. area.”
In addition to the major feature productions that are drawn to the region, Northern Virginia is home to numerous homeland security and defense contractors that produce films for the federal government. In fact, the Department of Defense is one of the largest video producers in the country and many of their producers are located in this area, says Melissa Houghton, executive director of Women in Film and Video. Along with this type of industrial filmmaking, the independent filmmaking community in Northern Virginia is also just as prolific, and while not as glamorous as a Hollywood production, no less vibrant or creative. And perhaps not surprisingly, many of those indie filmmakers are learning to make movies on their own terms.
“I think what I’m really finding is amazing groups of people who instead of waiting for someone to give them permission to do their work, are starting to figure out the ways to do their work on their own. I can say that that can only work to the advantage of this region,” says Houghton.
Examples include indie filmmaker Tim Gordon, who has worked on films like “Sum of All Fears,” “Enemy of the State” and “Arlington Road,” and is now producing and directing his own feature called “Blood and Circumstance” based on the crime novel by Frank Turner Hollon. Sheri Ratick Stroud is another enterprising local filmmaker who maintains a day job but also side film projects. Stroud, who operates under the Wonder Pictures banner, works with talent and crew all based in Northern Virginia.
Stroud says Wonder Pictures recently wrapped up a short called “Suspicious Densities” that has been submitted to film festivals. “It was selected a semi-finalist in the Moondance International Film Festival that was held in New York City,” adding that her team is now in preproduction meetings on a new script.
“There is a really dynamic group of people in this region who maybe even work in media as their full-time job, but are now working on their own projects outside of their full-time job and they tend to be feature length and they tend to be filming them here,” says Houghton.
These same indie filmmakers are also eligible for the state’s film incentive program, much like their major production counterparts. Virginia’s incentive program consists of refundable tax credits—designed to replace tax liability—a sales and use tax exemption, lodging tax exemptions and grant opportunities from the governor’s Motion Picture Opportunity Fund. Media productions, film and television productions, documentaries, commercials, and music videos, for example, must spend at a minimum $250,000 in Virginia to be eligible for tax credits on qualifying expenses, among other criteria. While having even more of a competitive film incentive package that attracts more major motion picture or independent film production would be ideal, Houghton says, she believes that investing in Virginia filmmakers is a better, more long-term option for sustaining the local film industry.
“Those [films] are smaller and more of them can happen, which is building everyone’s skills sets and building the reputation of the creativity of what’s here in this region. That will also help attract other people to it,” she says.
In the past, many of the major features shot here were only in the area a short time, says Houghton, but “Lincoln” was a big change in that regard; It was filmed entirely in the state. A May 2012 analysis prepared for the Virginia Film Office provided a snapshot of the economic activity that “Lincoln” brought to the greater Richmond-Petersburg area, revealing that the production generated $64.1 million in total economic output to the region, which included $32.3 million in direct expenditures for local hires, goods, and services.
“A lot of people across the region and across the state got to work on that film—got to increase their experience, increase their pay scale—that’s an exceptional case these days. So what I love about what’s happening in Virginia is [the Virginia Film Office] is really looking at how do we actually sustain a film industry here, and one of the ways they are doing it is investing in the independent films that are also being driven by Virginia-based filmmakers. I think that says more for what’s really going to happen in the future of the film industry here than those feature films coming in,” she says.
While many area filmmakers may never see their films screened at the local Regal Cinema or AMC Loews, there are a number of indie film houses that welcome small budget films: Arlington Movie Theatre and Draft House and Angelika Film Center in Mosaic District, as well as theaters in the District: West End Cinema, Avalon or E Street Theater.
A common phenomenon occurs when filmmakers get some experience under their belts though—they head to movie mecca Los Angeles, but Houghton says she has noticed a reverse migration of L.A. expats moving back here, because they want to take advantage of the can-do, opportunity-seizing undercurrent that’s taking place here in the indie film scene. Some, like Stroud, believe that Virginia simply has everything they need to make movies.
“I have met and worked with many talented people who took that trip to New York City or Los Angeles, stayed a few years and then came home … because the opportunities to work were few and far between. Here in Virginia you can make opportunities happen at a better rate. You can be a working actor or crew person. You will probably have to supplement your gigs with other paying work but at least you would be working,” says Stroud.
“That’s another thing that I think is really pushing this region to become more creative and inventive. We are kind of off the radar screen but we’ve got access to the same if not better resources than lots of other parts of the country and we are also getting better at trying to figure it out ourselves how to do it,” Houghton says. “So I think in the next three to five years we are going to see some amazing stuff coming out of here that is going to make people think differently about this region.”
Movies filmed in Virginia
2012
“Argo”
Feature
Warner Bros.
McLean, Fairfax County
2011
“J. Edgar”
Feature
Malpaso Productions
Alexandria, Great Falls, Fairfax County, The Plains, Fauquier County, Warrenton
“The Watermen”
Feature
Seven Cities Media
Newport News/Poquoson
2008
“Kalamity”
Feature
Beat Pirate Films
Fairfax County
“State of Play”
Feature
Universal Pictures
Arlington, Alexandria
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
DreamWorks and Paramount
Feature
Centerville, Fairfax County
2007
“Body of Lies”
Feature
Scott Free Productions
Northern Virginia, Dulles Airport
“The Bourne Ultimatum”
Feature
Universal Pictures
Fauquier County
2006
“Breach”
Feature
Movie Mogul Productions
Northern Virginia
2005
“Flags of Our Fathers”
Feature
Malpaso Productions
Arlington
“Mission Impossible III”
Feature
Paramount Pictures
Northern Virginia
2004
“National Treasure: Book of Secrets”
Feature
Warner Bros.
Alexandria, Mount Vernon
2001
“Sum of All Fears”
Feature
Paramount Pictures
Loudoun County
2000
“Hannibal”
Feature
Universal Pictures
Richmond, Northern Virginia
1999
“The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”
Feature
Universal Pictures
Northern Virginia
1999
“The Hollow Man”
Feature
Columbia Pictures
Northern Virginia
“Rules of Engagement”
Feature
Paramount Pictures
Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads
1998
“Arlington Road”
Feature
Lakeshore Entertainment
Northern Virginia
“Forces of Nature”
Feature
DreamWorks SKG
Fairfax County
“Random Hearts”
Feature
Columbia Pictures
Alexandria, Northern Virginia
1997
“Deep Impact”
Feature
DreamWorks SKG
Northern Virginia
1996
“Contact”
Feature
Warner Bros.
Manassas, Herndon
“Get on the Bus“
Feature
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks
Northern Virginia
“The Jackal”
Feature
Universal Pictures
Richmond, Northern Virginia
“The People Vs. Larry Flynt”
Feature
Columbia Pictures
Fairfax
1995
“First Kid”
Feature
Walt Disney Pictures
Richmond, Northern Virginia
“The Shadow Conspiracy”
Feature
Cinergi Pictures Entertainment
Richmond, Northern Virginia
1993
“In the Line of Fire”
Feature
Castle Rock Entertainment
Loudoun County, Arlington
“The Pelican Brief”
Feature
Warner Bros.
Arlington, Mount Vernon
1990
“The Silence of the Lambs”
Feature
Orion Pictures
Quantico
1989
“The Killing Edge”
Feature
Common Man Motion Picture Corp.
Northern Virginia
1988
“Chances Are”
Feature
TriStar Pictures
Middleburg
“Laughing Man”
Feature
Upfront Films
Richmond, Thornburg
1987
“Broadcast News”
Feature
20th Century Fox
Fairfax, Alexandria
“Star Quest: Beyond the Rising Moon”
Feature
Common Man Production Group
Northern Virginia
1986
“Gardens of Stones”
Zoetrope Productions/TriStar Pictures
Feature
Arlington
“No Way Out”
Orion Pictures
Feature
Alexandria, Arlington
1984
“Prime Risk”
Feature
Mikas 1 Productions
Fairfax
“Protocol”
Warner Bros.
Feature
Fairfax, Loudoun County
1982
“Best Friends”
Feature
Warner Bros.
Tyson’s Corner, Arlington
(January 2013)