Roaring Tiger Films, a motion picture and video production company, shot a Mervyn’s commercial at Café Baci in downtown Pleasanton, Tuesday, August 1.
“They were looking for a downtown that had a lot of character and ambiance,” said Pamela Ott, economic development director for the city of Pleasanton.
Roaring Tiger Films is based out of San Francisco and had been scouting out a site around the Bay Area when it came to the Tri-Valley. After originally talking with Dale Kaye, president and CEO of the Livermore Chamber of Commerce, and the city of Livermore’s Film Commission staff, Kaye referred the production company to Ott to see if Pleasanton would work for the shoot.
“They were looking for a very specific look of a main street, which we didn’t have and Pleasanton did,” Kaye said. The plan of the Film Commission is to not only to promote Livermore as the future hot-spot for filming, but also its neighboring cities of Pleasanton and Dublin.
While film companies do not have to pay a city fee for filming and do not need to secure a permit, they do have to pay expenses that incur from city businesses and services. This might include payment to police personnel for monitoring traffic or compensation to Café Baci for closing the restaurant for the day.
“What we recognize is that if Pleasanton becomes a place that filmers want to film at, then revenue will occur,” Ott said. When production companies arrive and are filming all day they hire local caterers or buy materials at stores around town, bringing in profits at fairly large amounts. “This whole area of the Tri-Valley becomes more attractive to film companies, so that can be significant dollars,” Ott added.
Two commercials were recently filmed in Pleasanton, with the Mervyn’s shoot this past week and one for Clorox Bleach earlier in July. While commercials tend to bring minimal exposure to a city–the Clorox Bleach commercial was shot at a local residence on a side street–commercials shot in the heart of downtown are more likely to spark some gossip.
Some might be aggravated by traffic issues and the inconvenience of having locations close for filming, and others may worry that films generate too much business for the small “Pleasantonian” market to handle, or, if future motion pictures are filmed here, flocks of tourist will take over the town. Yet, Ott and Kaye both remain hopeful for the potential profits that the Tri-Valley’s natural beauty and appeal will bring to the economy. As a film commissioner in Florida, Kaye realized the potential of the three cities once she took the job at the Livermore Chamber of Commerce.
“Miami looks like Miami and no where else,” Kaye laughed. “There are places here that can look like the East Coast or the Midwest.” The versatility provided by the architecture that spans over hundreds of years is a focal point that Kaye and Ott try to make when enticing film producers to shoot here. Kaye is actually putting together a production guide that she and fellow members of the film commission will take to L.A. in November.
The production guide will show pictures of the Tri-Valley’s most unique, historic and beautiful spots in town, like Dublin’s jail and Pleasanton’s downtown strip. It also includes lists of hotels, restaurants, weather patterns, proximity to airports and production facilities, like sounds stages. “Frankly, we don’t want to miss any location shoots or anybody for that matter, but by doing this we lure the production companies out here and we’ll be updating our lists and doing numerous issues to get as much publicity as possible,” Kaye said.
“What it is, is an economic development tool,” Kaye added. “Whether it’s a commercial, TV series, a feature … even still shots bring a lot of money into the community.” When small commercials are filmed, costs consist of location fees, which, Kaye mentioned are fairly generous for food vendors and local businesses. When a motion picture is being produced, the entire cast and crew stays for three to four months. This means the people are living in the hotels, going to the dry cleaners, using the golf courses and visiting the hardware stores, putting tremendous revenue into cities.
So will Pleasanton be the next Hollywood? Ott concluded, “We hope for more filming, but I don’t have any knowledge at the moment.” With only a few commercials having been filmed in Pleasanton, one can only guess.
