‘Local production outfits must be tapped too’

While touting the obvious benefits of having a Korean soap opera shot here in the CNMI, House Committee on Commerce and Tourism chair Rep. Martin Ada said that local production outfits should also be tapped in marketing the destination to the world.

Ada said he had a meeting with Northern Marianas College board of regents chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds last week and discussed the potential of using the college’s film arts department to collaborate with other local production outfits for the Korean soap opera project or similar tourism efforts.

“We can utilize them [local film production companies] to cover CNMI events and other community events,” he said, adding that tapping local film outfits to cover events in the Commonwealth could revitalize the industry.

NMC’s faculty in the Department of Film and Television Arts is comprised of award-winning Hollywood veterans. Most of the faculty each has over 20 years in the television and motion picture making industries. One of the faculty members is Film and TV Department chair Butch Wolf, who won an Oscar for the Best Sound for the movie The Hunt for Red October.

Among Wolf’s other works include Bridges Of Madison County, Die Hard 2, Eraser, Fire Starter, First Blood, Fried Green Tomatoes, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Pet Sematary, RoboCop 2, Scrooged, Space Cowboys, Speed 2, Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Territory, Tequila Sunrise, The Replacements, The Rookie, The Thirteenth Warrior, Total Recall, Unforgiven, Up Close and Personal and Wayne’s World.

Ada also said he sees no reason not to support the proposal by Korean production company, Castle in the Sky, to shoot a soap opera on Saipan.

“I am in full support of the production because it would help our tourism a lot. We need the Legislature to approve it [funding],” he said.

He said the production of the Korean soap in the CNMI would mean huge exposure for the islands.

Castle in the Sky is eyeing the Northern Marianas as the location of a new television drama series to be syndicated all over Asia. For the project to materialize, though, the CNMI has to cough up a sponsorship cost of about $750,000 to $1 million.

MVA reported that Korean TV drama programs are heavily exported to the Northern Marianas’ tourist markets in Asia. About 19 percent of the programs are syndicated in Japan, 24.5 percent in Taiwan, 18.6 percent in China, and 3.3 percent in Hong Kong. There is also demand for Korean TV drama from other countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

MVA earlier said that sponsoring the new drama series would also open the possibility for the CNMI to develop new tourist attraction sites from the film locale and for tour agents to be able to sell shooting tour packages. Furthermore, the project will provide the CNMI with exposure when Castle in the Sky organizes media tours to the shooting sites and produces materials promoting the show in Korea.

The Legislature has already approved allocating $800,000 for the CNMI’s sponsorship of the drama series. The senators passed House Bill 14-358 appropriating the amount from the Managaha Island landing and user fee collections to the Marianas Visitors Authority for promotions and advertisements.