SEQUIM — A producer who has shot scenes to promote a movie thriller to be filmed in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley and East Jefferson County has established a Sequim-based movie business.
He says he hopes to build a North Olympic Peninsula film community.
“It’s amazing how this area hasn’t been a place for the film industry before,” said John Rodsett, who has been produced independent films and TV shows for more than 30 years and now lives on property near Blue Mountain.
Rodsett said the idea is to hire local actors and theatrical groups, use businesses as film locations and encourage schools and Peninsula College to learn about the film industry.
Among Rodsett’s past movie and TV productions include “Malaika,” 1998; “The Desilu Story,” 2003; and “Trojan Warrior,” 2002.
Olympic Game Farm President Bob Beebe joined Rodsett and Jim Becket, a film producer/director from the Los Angeles area, at the Dungeness animal farm Monday.
They included a stop at the old barn studio where scenes from Walt Disney movies were filmed in the 1950s.
“That’s what intrigued them. We’ve got the studio barn here . . . and some of the locations around the farm,” Beebe said.
Beebe has been working toward re-establishing Olympic Game Farm as a film studio and location and has begun training farm animals so they can be used in movies — similar to what Disney Studios did in the past.
Together, Rodsett and Becket plan to film “Serenity Farm” — which Rodsett said was named for his property off Blue Mountain Road — as a low-budget thriller feature film.
Rodsett will produce it and Becket will direct.
Rodsett said he hopes to create films as “a joint community experience.
“We help by supporting what’s missing here by bringing in some people from L.A.,” he said.
“If we can do all that, it’s magic.”
Becket said it was important to emphasize the recruitment of local talent for films.
Rodsett said those interested in getting involved can contact him at 310-488-7238 or email at jrodsett@mrfilmbiz.com.
“Serenity Farm” production starts in May and is expected to run through July.
The film will be distributed to 70 countries, according to Rodsett, also known as Mr. Film Biz.
A promotional trailer about the movie can be seen on the film’s Facebook.com page, where the film is described as taking place on a remote Northwest island on a children’s horse farm named Serenity.
A group of camp counselors on the island wanders into old bunkers and tunnels, partly filmed at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, “and serenity turns to terror,” the film trailer’s narrator says.
“They are there for a horse show, and horrible things begin to happen,” he said.
The producer hinted that it would likely involve wild animals.
The producers looked at a large wolf and black bear at the game farm Monday.
Film locations might include the Sequim police station and part of the Palace Hotel in Port Townsend, he said.
“We want to make a film that if we can sell it, maybe we can make some money, too,” he said, adding that most independent films do not make money.
Inside the barn studio Monday, Rodsett and Becket discussed building a mock-up of a World War II-era bunker, or ordnance magazine, at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend and Fort Flagler State Park on Marrowstone Island.
Replicating the bunker allows scenes to be shot without weather interference.
“You have a much more controlled environment,” Rodsett said.
Rodsett, who has lived on the Peninsula three years, has taught global business and marketing at the University of Washington and marketing and entertainment marketing at the University of Miami.
Rodsett started his career at 20th Century Fox, later establishing his own independent film company in Los Angeles.
He has sold and distributed more than 100 films, DVDs and television products globally.
Rodsett also teaches independent film business seminars.
Becket wrote the first Amnesty International report on torture and, as director of public information for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, made several films about refugee problems around the world.
He followed the story with other documentary and educational films, notably on health issues as well as the environment.
He has also directed six feature films, directed two television movies and continues to write scripts and direct movies.
His awards include festival Best Film Awards, two Humanitas Awards, and a George Foster Peabody Award.
His films include “Final Approach,” 2004; and “Plato’s Run, 1997.
His daughter with epilepsy inspired him to make a number of films for parents who first learn that their child has the seizure disorder.
Rodsett’s website is at www.mrfilmbiz.com, and he also can be found at www.facebook.com/MrFilmBiz.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
