Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Studio in Hiwasse looks to boost film industry in region.
— NW Arkansas, 1B
Visitors to an open house at Farm Studios in Hiwasse tour the sound stage Feb. 5 during an open house at the new studio. The studio is designed to meet a variety of television, movie and media needs in Northwest Arkansas. Attendees included television and movie professionals, chambers of commerce representatives and high school students interested in the television, movie and photography industries.
HIWASSE — A Hollywood-style studio has the potential to increase film production in the state and help develop a Northwest Arkansas workforce for the film industry, project partners and economic development leaders said.
Events such as the Bentonville Film Festival and production of the film F.R.E.D.I. and HBO show True Detective, give a glimmer of the growing interest in Arkansas as a place for film creation.
Farm Studios is the next step, said Jason Netter, one of the founders of the festival and CEO of Kickstart Entertainment, a production company in Los Angeles.
“The idea is building into something bigger,” Netter said. “If you want to have a consistent production ecosystem, you have to have the infrastructure to support it.”
Netter, along with Zak and
Tom Heald of Intercut Productions, partnered to create the state-of-the-art film and media production studio in Hiwasse.
Intercut Productions is a film production company in Bentonville.
The studio, on 4.5 acres on Dickson Road near Arkansas 279, includes a 9,500-squarefoot soundstage equipped with a 50-by-90-foot infinity wall — whose curvature at the floor provides a seamless transition from floor to wall — and a 30-by-50-foot light grid. There is also a 3,000-squarefoot set construction workshop.
“Top-tier production requires top-tier infrastructure,” Zak Heald said. “That’s what
we’re building here, a space that provides for production whether you’re shooting a $10,000 commercial or a $20 million movie.”
The studio was placed in the community of about 500 residents because of its quiet surroundings, the ease of transporting large trucks and equipment in and out, proximity to the airport as well as hotel and dining options in the area, Netter said.
Visit Bentonville is seeing an increase of “cold calls of interest” from production companies since the first Bentonville Film Festival in 2015, said Kalene Griffith, Visit Bentonville president and CEO.
This year’s festival is set for May 6-11.
The festival introduced industry players from producers to actors and directors to the region’s potential, she said.
“There were people filming here before. It was just few and far between,” she said. “Now we’re getting more interest and people are looking at us, companies are wanting to be a part of the experience in Arkansas.”
Having a studio such as Farm Studios can continue to expose the state to the rest of the world through film and bring in tax dollars as crews stay in hotels and eat in restaurants, Griffith said.
The film and television industry contributed $134 billion in sales to the country’s overall economy in 2016, according to the Motion Picture Association of America’s most recent numbers released this month.
The industry generated $20.6 billion in 2016 from sales taxes on goods, state income taxes and various federal taxes based on direct employment in the industry, according to the association. The industry supported 4,907 jobs and $149 million in wages in Arkansas.
Wendy Guerrero, president of programming for the Bentonville Film Festival, said she’s anticipating the festival and studio having a reciprocal relationship.
“Hopefully they’ll have shoots here that they can introduce to the festival and then we can introduce some of our filmmakers and some of our talent to Farm Studios and let them know that there’s resources here beyond just the festival,” she said.
The studio will offer educational opportunities in addition to employment opportunities, Heald said.
The studio is developing educational partners and plans to work with students in eighth grade through college, providing workshops, programming, job shadowing and internships, he said.
“What we always say is when you’re developing workforce talent, you’ll never be what you don’t see,” said Graham Cobb, Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce president and CEO. “This gives folks the opportunity to see it. That’s huge.”
Digital media and entertainment were identified as economic sector opportunities in the Bentonville Blueprint, an economic plan the city adopted in 2014. Farm Studio helps implement that initiative, Cobb said.
The studio was placed in the community of about 500 residents because of its quiet surroundings, the ease of transporting large trucks and equipment in and out, proximity to the airport as well as hotel and dining options in the area, Netter said.