Monday, January 26, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SHOOTING STARS: Area production schedule features foreign visitors

This week's location calendar has a decidedly foreign flavor, with a variety of overseas TV productions making Vegas visits.

Britain's Twofour Productions, for example, continues a four-day shoot, which was scheduled to begin Sunday, on "Dead Famous."

The series, which consists of six hourlong episodes, features British presenter (that's Britspeak for host) Gail Porter and American "sensitive" Chris Flemming "as they take a road trip across the U.S. in search of famous spirits including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, the Rat Rack and the Mob," according to Melanie Leach, Twofour's director of broadcast development.

It's the Rat Pack connection, of course, that brings "Dead Famous" to Las Vegas -- because the show's participants "will be hunting for the ghosts of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack," Leach notes. "Vegas was chosen because of its obvious connections with the subject matter."

Present-day Vegas, meanwhile, is the focus of today's visit from Australia's Channel Seven, scheduled to be on the Strip and at the Fremont Street Experience to capture the action for the network's "Sunrise" program.

From Australia we shift to Austria, home of "Seitenblicke Holiday," a TV vacation show with a title that loosely translates as "Sidesteps," according to the show's Ronald Brandl.

The visit brings winners of an Austrian ski-jumping contest -- members of the public who competed on a special, prefabricated jumping hill -- to Las Vegas to celebrate their victory. Three Austrian celebrities accompany the winning ski-jumpers: an actress, a champion water skiier and a silver medalist (in ski jumping, of course) at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Along with obligatory visits to the Strip and the Fremont Street Experience, "Seitenblicke Holiday's" shooting schedule also includes a nighttime helicopter ride above the Strip and a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon, Brandl reports.

Rounding out the week's overseas lineup: the German edition of GQ magazine, which was expected to conclude a two-day photo shoot Sunday. Among the anticipated locations: the Strip's iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign, the Fremont Street Experience and the Neon Museum, according to Las Vegas-based location scout John Norton.

Back on home ground, two casino-based reality shows continue rolling -- one in its third week of production, the other rehearsing for its official Feb. 1 launch.

The former, Discovery Channel's "American Casino," continues its focus on Station Casinos' Green Valley Ranch in Henderson. Meanwhile, back at Glitter Gulch's Golden Nugget, home of Fox's upcoming "The Casino," rehearsals are expected to dominate the week, but cameras will capture background shots of the Strip and downtown.

Speaking of Glitter Gulch, Casino Center Drive was scheduled to provide a backdrop Sunday for a MasterCard commercial that also expected to shoot on the Strip and at a local truck stop.

Two other commercials also are scheduled to start shooting today: one for the Nevada Commission on Tourism, the other for Galyan's Sporting Goods. Las Vegas-based Barbara Lauren cast both spots, choosing three local actors for the tourism commission spot and 10 principals for the Galyan's ad.

Also on tap today: the Nevada Film Office's annual news conference and awards ceremony, at which Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt is scheduled to announce the Silver State's 2003 filming revenue figures, along with several awards.

One of them -- the Silver Nitrate Award for "an individual or company that has notably contributed to the quality, visibility and/or success of filmmaking in Nevada" -- goes this year to Las Vegan Anthony Zuiker, creator and executive producer of CBS' top-rated, Vegas-set "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." (To say nothing of its two spinoffs, the current "CSI: Miami" and the upcoming "CSI: New York.")

Zuiker, scheduled to spend Sunday night at the Golden Globe Awards in Southern California at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe Awards, will not be able to attend. (After all, "CSI's" in the running for best television drama.) But a hometown, home-team contingent -- Zuiker's parents, grandmother and uncle -- will stand in, with mom Diana Zuiker expected to accept on her son's behalf.

The Monday session also serves as the official launch for the NFO's 2004 Nevada Production Directory, which provides at-your-fingertips information for production executives interested in filming here.

This year's directory has increased in size, with wider pages, easier-to-read type and more visual appeal, notes NFO director Charles Geocaris.

The directory's shift to a wire-bound, desk-size format in recent years has prompted "a lot of copycats" in other states, Geocaris notes -- which in turn prompted the NFO to alter the guide's size "to throw 'em a curve."

The directory is available free to industry professionals at the Nevada Film Office in the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave., Suite 5400. (Or you can check it out online at www.nevadafilm.com.)