Coming Soon to Newport, a Film Crew Near You

Are you ready for your close-up, Newport?

The Newport Film Commission, which works to promote the city as a premier place to shoot film and television productions, is currently in pre-production on an ambitious 15-minute promo video that will show off all that Newport has to offer.

Vin de Bona, a former producer of "America's Funniest Home Videos," has consulted and contributed seed funding to the promo, which is being shot in high-definition digital format. Among the producers are Rico Santi, chair of the Newport Film Commission, and Paige Kane, the organization's secretary. The producers told Patch that the commission is seeking James Woods, the Academy Award-nominated actor who grew up in Rhode Island, for both on-screen and voice-over narration. Woods was previously instrumental in garnering support for the Rhode Island motion picture company tax credit law, which allows companies that shoot here to receive a 25 percent transferable credit on all expenditures while filming in the state.

Once in the can, the promo will be distributed directly to location scouts, production companies, film festivals and industry fairs, all in an attempt to entice studio execs and crews to shoot their next movie in the City by the Sea.

Newport's Kane—an independent filmmaker and screenwriter, and as film commission secretary, one of nine members appointed by the City Council—is co-producing the promo. She has also written the script. A former Rogers High School English teacher who is married to Newport Fire Department Captain Peter Kane and is the mother of two children, Kane recently won the 2009 Nevada Film Festival short film screenplay competition for her script, "Le Plume." She is also the director of the Newport Film Salon, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering local talent and production in and around Newport County.

As Kane describes it, the promo for the Newport Film Commission will feature a host of breathtaking "beauty shots," including sweeping, birds-eye aerial footage of the town and coastline supplied by the Newport County Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

The video promo will highlight Newport's natural geographic attributes and architectural structures as prime locations, while offering a retrospective of previous Newport-based major film productions. In conversation, Kane mentioned a number of iconic Newport locations that would ably serve productions across a broad range of movie genres. From Fort Adams, an excellent location for period pieces, to Miantonomi Memorial Park, with its stark tower looming high on a hill overlooking Narragansett Bay, to the state fishing pier, brimming with local character and gritty maritime color and tradition.  

Kane points back to when Steven Spielberg was shooting the film "Amistad" in Newport, and the effect it had on the community.

"There was a palpable excitement for locals to see the cameras and crews at work," she said.

Not to mention certain stars, like Matthew McConaughey, walking on and off set.

While not able to divulge details, Kane indicated there is a major studio production, one starring an A-list, Academy award-winning actor, which is slated to begin production in Newport, possibly as early as winter 2011.

"In addition to bolstering our local economy, when people are included as extras in a production, or they know a film was shot in Newport and then see it in the theater, they feel invested in it," Kane said.