Making movie magic in The NC

Everyone knows Grizzly Adams. Even those who didn’t see the television series “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” in the late 1970s are familiar with the persona of the heavily bearded mountain man.

What most don’t know is that the company that created Grizzly Adams is still producing shows, right here in Loveland. In fact, Northern Colorado is home to many production studios, creating everything from feature films to television commercials.

Grizzly Adams Productions started out as many studios do, in Hollywood. However, the company soon found that production was cheaper elsewhere and moved most of its functions to Utah, still maintaining an office in Hollywood. But where Grizzly led the others followed, until the cost for production had increased in Utah, too.

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By the late ’90s, the company had moved out of Utah and into Loveland.

“There’s a lot of talent coming out of the schools here,´ said David Balsiger, vice president and producer for Grizzly.

Today, the company operates offices in several states. Distribution and order-taking for DVDs is largely handled out of Oregon, for example. Balsiger explained that with technology today, there is no need for the firm to be centrally located.

The “Grizzly Adams” series aired on NBC for a total of 10 seasons, including reruns, and was the most successful project for the company. The firm is also responsible for myriad feature films, mini-series, television specials and even books. With titles ranging from “Ancient Secrets of the Bible” to “The Lincoln Conspiracy,” Grizzly serves the niche of religious and family friendly productions.

Some of the most recent titles include “Breaking the Da Vinci Code” and “Cracking the Da Vinci Code, ” which aired on PAX-TV and the Sci-Fi networks.

The company hasn’t made a feature film in about 10 years but recently announced it would produce at least 20 films during the next five years under its Grizzly Adams Family Entertainment brand. The films will focus on family values with high emotional content. A company press release touts that the films as “Capra-esque,” referring to director/producer Frank Capra of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” fame.

Balsiger said that the company hasn’t decided the exact theme or topics that the films would tackle yet, as they were only just beginning to test some ideas. Grizzly always uses viewer testing.

“We determine what the public wants to see first,” he said. “It’s worked for us for more than 30 years.”

The decision to return to feature films to produce feel-good movies was based on generational research. Balsiger said that each generation takes the culture in a different direction. Grizzly’s initial research shows that people are tired of the Hollywood glam and violence they are getting from today’s movies.

The movies won’t be a huge boon for Northern Colorado, as most of the shooting will be done in Utah, Balsiger explained. But most of the post-production work will be handled in Loveland.

Grizzly has held a long-term contract with Loveland-based Shadow Play Films for post-production work. Balsiger estimates that Grizzly’s work occupies about 90 percent of Shadow Play’s time, with the company employing between five and 15 people at any given time.

Boosting local industry

Such relationships could really boost the nascent Northern Colorado film industry. In 2004, U.S. Census figures showed 17 companies in the category of motion picture and sound recording, with 193 paid employees, in Larimer County. Although none were reported in Weld County, the figures don’t include all the local freelancers with day jobs in other industries.

Building local relationships and boosting Northern Colorado as a place for all stages of productions is the major goal of Horsetooth Productions of Fort Collins.

“We started Horsetooth Productions because we really thought there was a lot of talent in Northern Colorado that was going unrecognized,´ said Francie Meyer Glycenfer, co-founder and vice president of the organization, in a Business Report interview last year.

Glycenfer, an adjunct professor at Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado, founded Horsetooth Productions in 2001 in partnership with Carol Van Natta, an actor, writer and voiceover talent.

The organization has been hosting networking events to unite the local players, but its biggest event will take place at the end of August. In conjunction with the Fort Collins Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Horsetooth Productions is hosting the TriMedia Festival on Aug. 25-27. It is touted as Fort Collins’ first national-profile film competition and festival; screenings will take place downtown at MOCA, Lincoln Center and the Nonesuch Theatre on Pine Street in Old Town.

The festival will feature entries from all over the world, according to Van Natta – from local productions to entries from Australia and Mongolia.

“We feel really luck to get some of these entries,” Van Natta said, adding that they received about 45 entries in all.

The festival will include films, TV pilots and original theatre productions. Van Natta said the TriMedia Festival will be one of only four in the U.S. to include TV pilots.

One goal for the festival is to show the community how art can be business.

“It is a business and it brings in money,” she said.

Media production is considered a clean industry because its outputs leave little or no waste. Additionally, the festival will likely help other local businesses by bringing in potential customers. Since the festival is in its first year, attendance estimates range from a conservative 350 to an optimistic 1,000, Van Natta said

“Part of our goal for the TriMedia Festival is to put Fort Collins on the map for film and production,” she explained.

The production industry is an insular one in that its often about who knows who. Because of that, production companies that are not in big metropolitan areas are often overlooked or perceived as less professional than their big city competitors.

“Some of that is just about comfort level,” Van Natta said.

Competing with bigger players

Northern Colorado production studios have felt the frustration of loosing work to studios from bigger cities.

“If you’re not in a big metro area, you’re often overlooked,´ said Maury Dobbie, president and CEO of MediaTech Productions in Fort Collins.

MediaTech, founded in 1994, offers a variety of services, from Web design and hosting to live events. But the company got its start in video production.

Currently, it is working on a clean-energy series, “Sustainability: From Science to Solutions.” The series will include about 13 episodes, all focused on different aspects of clean energy.

MediaTech employs 10 people now, but anticipates growth in the near future. The company is now evaluating options to build or retrofit a building for a new, expanded location.

Dobbie said the move might take the company from its location in central Fort Collins further south in the city or even to Loveland, but the company wouldn’t entertain moving out of the region. It’s the quality of life and quality of the community that makes Northern Colorado more desirable than any production Mecca.

“It’s something we’ve had to overcome as a company,” Dobbie said of operating in a small community. “In this day and age, we can do anything from anywhere.”

Expanding with technology

Advancing technology is advancing the opportunities for many production companies in Northern Colorado. It has allowed companies like Bruen Productions International Inc. to expand not only its services, but also its coverage areas.

Bruen Productions was founded in 1983 by brothers Frank and Dave Bruen, who started out doing radio jingles and voiceover commercials for local companies. Today, the company also specializes in producing television commercials.

Early on, Bruen Productions had a hard time breaking into other markets.

“Denver was a tough market to get into because we were a small company from ‘Fort Where?'” Dave Bruen explained.

However, as technology progressed, where a firm was from became less important that what it had done.

“By 1993, we worked everywhere but here, it seems,” he said.

Using sophisticated equipment, Bruen can tap national and even international talent for its commercials. The ability to quickly send audio and video across the nation has been a boon for the company.

Bruen Productions specializes in “real-people” commercials – more broadly known as testimonials.

“We’ve been doing those for the better part of 20 years,” Bruen said.

The company produces the Russell Stover Candies commercials, which typically air around Valentine’s Day. It also recently finished commercials for the Weight Watchers line of chocolates, also a Stover product.

While the Russell Stover commercials are shot here, often real-people commercials involve filming in the client’s town or region. While filming can be done just about anywhere, all of the editing, finish work and post-production is handled here. The Internet also makes it easy for Bruen to post clips for approval from clients.

The company also uses the Internet for has podcasting and vodcasting – posting audio and video. Bruen said a large part of what they do in that regard is helping the customers understand how technology can be used to get their messages out.

The Internet isn’t the only tool helping the region’s production companies stand out. Danny Dodge, owner of Roadrunner Productions Inc. of Loveland, said that one of the things that sets his company apart is its focus on producing in high definition.

Dodge started Roadrunner in 2001 after spending several years working in Northern Colorado as a freelance videographer for other companies.

Dodge explained that his firm, which focuses on product promotion pieces, is truly a full high-definition production company. Delivery in high-def can even be done over the Web, he said.

Whether the focus is television commercials, educational series, documentaries or feature films, Northern Colorado’s production scene is rolling with the help of technology and an increasing reputation.

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