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Movie benefits the area
Published Friday, July 18, 2008
It’s not every day you get a call out of the blue from a film-production company. News that the Regional Treatment Center in Fergus Falls has received a look as a movie set is like being tapped on the shoulder by a talent scout.
Filming a movie at the RTC could be a unique opportunity for Fergus Falls and would not show Fergus Falls or the RTC in an unfavorable light.
Movies are big business.
In the short term, they bring production crews and actors to town that would fill our hotels and restaurants. Local residents would have an opportunity to play roles as extras. An excitement could be in the air the likes of which Fergus Falls hasn’t seen in quite a while.
The city, owners of the RTC, could possibly generate some revenue from the rental of the facility, too.
In the long term, success at the box office or on video could give our community one more reason to be a tourist destination. Pulling off I-94 to see the location of a film could be, to many, a pretty neat thing.
There are plans in the work to someday make the RTC the home of a learning program for Chinese students. But to date, the RTC sits empty.
If a movie could be filmed prior to the arrival of Chinese students — or a another future endeavor at the RTC — it could be an opportunity we as a community might not want to let pass by.
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by chrreed (anonymous) on July 18, 2008 at 5:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree!
Posted by olson736 (anonymous) on July 19, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Interesting comments by all. From the little that has been reported there has never been any comments that they wish to feature the RTC as a insane asylum.
After over 100 years in our community and thousands of previous employees that spent years working with people with disabilities and other problems. I don't want our local facitlity featured in a negative light.
The development group has a point also. They don't want any publicity that features the facility as negative. They are working with foreign universities and investors that will depend on students attending this facility. The Chinese, as well as other asian countries are superstitious about these things and this could prove to be a detriment to their success. It has been reported in this paper that it will be near 50 million to build out a university. Why in the world would we risk something important as a college with over a thousand students and professors plus other support staff to have people come gawk at a movie location. A movie that only has a $100,000 dollar budget that will only spend $8000 in lodging and food. We have had hockey tournaments that generate more then that.
We must ask, do we want a horror film about our regional treatment center or do we wish for 50 million spent in construction which will provide jobs in construction for years. Plus the student spending plus the professors and support staff. Professors and other staff will live in Fergus and they also have kids that will attend our elementary and high schools.
Look at the long term benefits. I do believe that the city took possession from the state so that it could be transferred to the development group for their planned college. It would seem to me that they would have the most to say and we the most to lose if we screw it up with a two bit horror film. Why is this city even considering anything on that property when they are supposed to be holding it for redevelopment. They should be bending over backwards to take advantage of this huge opportunity to have long term jobs and benefits in that location instead of a month of filming with a crew of 20 at the most.
Posted by metasonics (anonymous) on August 4, 2008 at 8:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
RTC and Movie Opportunity.
Today I sat in on our City council meeting.
A man named Dav Kaufman explained and outlined his generous proposal to use our RTC to shoot a movie.
this movie sounds good.
The money for our community sounds good too, but perhaps what I liked most is that this movie would be shot by people from Minnesota and involve local Fergus falls people as well.
This movie would be done and cleaned-up within a reasonable amount of time for those who support selling the RTC off to foreign interests, so it should be a no-brainier.
I did hear what sounded like political trickery to delay making a decision until it would be too late for the movie to be shot here by a council member named "Wilson".
I also noticed "Shelstad" did not attend.
there was a lot of talk about concerns over how Chinese interests could feel about a film shot here.
I decided to speak and expressed that I don't understand why Chinese concerns should factor in when deciding whether to allow our own people to shoot a movie.
Members of my family have fought and died to preserve this country.
when I think of what the costs were to build this country and our community, and then hear some local residents and elected officials chose to babysit possible Chinese interests at the cost of our own people, it angers me.
certainly there are people in our community who have personal financial interests in catering to the Chinese.
I think history has shown us what could happen.
the Chinese are still in one of the largest military build ups in history as well as going after every possible oil source they can find.
I don't know what they will do with all these resources they are gathering.
I do know that I live here and my concerns are with my people.
we have an opportunity, the parties involved have explained intent and outlined how this would benefit our community, this film has the support of statewide organizations.
some of whom had representative in attendance today who spoke candidly in support of this film.
I hope as a community we do not chose to support a rumored Chinese buy-out, which there is still not even a letter of intent from the Chinese, to deprive this community of the concrete opportunity of this movie offer!
thank you!
Jamie Cooper
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