As the Warner Bros. production team calls it a wrap in Humboldt, the local film commissioner talks about the 11 days they spent filming in our area.
“I don’t know how long it has been in the works, but my first phone call was in April of 2019, and that’s when we were first notified of an interest of being part of the project,” said Cassandra Hesseltine, the film commissioner for Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission. “So it’s been a long time coming for us and we’re pretty excited to see it come to fruition.”
April 2019 was the first time the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission received a phone call asking if they’d like to be part of a production with the “BC Project.” When a production team comes to the area it could be days or even years before filming starts.
When big productions come to our area it is an economic boost. However, the report for this project isn’t out yet. That will come out sometime during summer. Once the report is available it will tell us how much money they spent in the community.
“Well, in a case like this, if a feature film has the tax incentive program, if they’re part of the tax incentive program with the state of California, then they turn in a report to California Film Commission, and that’s passed on to us of how much spending they spent in our community,” Hesseltine said.
A production of any size usually comes with their teams and crews. Warner Bros. brought theirs but also, they hired quite a few locals for the film. Like extras, production assistants and vendors.
“We did have locals that were hired as production assistants,” Hesseltine said. “We had everything from, you know, as I already mentioned, like water trucks and barricades and signage, EMT to be on set. Usually, that’s a local individual as well. So there is lots of different roles, different types of responsibilities.”
Other well-known movies shot in our area are Return of the Jedi, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and E.T. Those were mostly shot in the redwoods. The BC Project is the first in a long time to be filmed on the streets of Humboldt County.
The Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission has been focusing on film tourism to celebrate and document the different films that have been filmed in our area. Some of those events and celebrations include the Forest Moon Festival, the film museum inside the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission and an app that includes a map of the different areas filming has taken place.
