Nothing tops a friendly referral when it comes to new business. Producers who work in an unfamiliar country or studio installation are quick to share their level of satisfaction with fellow filmmakers.

“I’ll always call people up to ask about their experiences, and of course they’ll call me as well,” explained Alex Boden, former chair of PGGB and producer behind the overseas filming of streaming hits such as Tokyo Vice and Sense8. “Sometimes it’s just a quick 5-minute call to run through the most important information. Thumbs up or thumbs down.”

Boden joined a dozen A-list producers and studio executives on a FAM trip to Spain that I coordinated last fall. “People know that I’m here, so it’s something that we’ll talk about together. We always share information, if we can help someone else with their production,” he adds.

My own way of helping was to secure sponsorship of premier accommodations and business-class flights while tapping into further support from local film offices and studio installations for this select group of film and TV producers from the US and UK. The effort was well worth the buzz generated for the network I helm of top-tier production service companies in 50 countries facilitating filming in more than 100 territories.

“I’m going back and presenting this trip to over a hundred production people at HBO next week,” said Max Production VP, Holly Peterman, during the Spain FAM trip. “We have so many productions going on that, you know, someone may have something up their sleeve, like ‘oh, that’s interesting’, and I can then share all my files with them.”

Being in the mix positions FAM trip sponsors for new business from filmmakers.

No Substitute For Being There

Our FAM trip to Spain demonstrated the value of first-hand experience. My awareness of this came into crisp focus one year earlier during a FAM trip to Portugal’s island of Madeira that I prepared for a handful of veteran location managers and producers.

“You can go Google ‘scouting’, you can go ‘street view scouting’, but it never replaces the experience to look at the place, to talk with and experience the people,” said Klaus Darrelmann, Location Manager for titles like Tenet, The Hunger Games, and The Grand Budapest Hotel while in Madeira.

“California, Hawaii, Eastern seaboard, Western seaboard, I’ve seen arboreal forests, I’ve seen landscapes that make me think I’m in North America and yet I’m, basically, off the coast of Africa,” reflected Location Managers Guild International President, John Rakich, whose credits include The Expanse, The Dark Tower, and See.

“We’ve all been driving around Madeira and going, that could be Costa Rica, that could be Thailand,” noted Harriet Lawrence, Supervising Location Manager for Saltburn, The Essex Serpent, and The Personal History of David Copperfield. “Having location managers and producers who have all traveled extensively bouncing those sorts of ideas of what Madeira could double as was really exciting.”

Practical Locations and Installations

FAM trips must tune in to filmmakers’ creative aspirations and satisfy cost control limitations. The Hollywood film and television industry is increasingly prepared to move production out of state and even outside the country to save production costs. There’s added value in FAM trip guests seeing cost-effective alternatives for themselves that double for more familiar urban as well as rural locations where net production costs are higher in the US.

“I have two studios that have suggested Spain,” revealed Kelly Mendelsohn, EVP of Production at Revelations Entertainment, the production company owned by Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary. “We pushed back because I had no information about Spain, so we budgeted for New Mexico. Now, being here and seeing the infrastructure and what’s available, I can confidently say, ‘yes, we can do this.’ It’s very beneficial to have boots-on-the-ground experience.”

Infrastructure is fundamental for most main unit filming. The southwest US as well as the Middle East have both been portrayed in Spain’s badland interior which encompasses the region of Alicante. Anchored in these iconic surroundings is the recently reopened Ciudad de la Luz studios and watertank. Studio management sponsored a portion of the Spain FAM trip to make Ciudad de la Luz a priority stop on our itinerary.

“The best way to put the Ciudad de la Luz on the world map of the film industry is for professionals in the sector to come and visit it in person,” said CDLL CEO Fermín Crespo during a lunch the studio hosted for our group following a tour of the installations. “To learn firsthand about the dimensions and possibilities. Especially if they are agents of the sector who work with leading production companies and streamers.”

In an industry with no shortage of events where an array of suppliers promote their wares, FAM trips stand out as an opportunity for studio installations to enjoy the undivided attention of a select group on site.

“It’s really smart. You’re taking it down to another level,” observed Debbie Liebling, former studio executive and producer of comedy titles like South Park and Borat, Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. “Instead of just saying, ‘here are the places you can shoot, call us if you’re interested’, no, these are the people, and now that you know them, you know whom to call, and you know how it works here, and how it works there.”

FAMiliarity Gets Personal

Pinning producers and executives down to a multi-day event out of town is no small challenge. I’ve learned a lot by sharing FAM trip experiences with film commissioners at the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) and location managers at the Location Managers Guild International (LMGI). In cooperation with the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and the Production Guild of Great Britain (PGGB), I’ve crafted an approach to FAM trips that underscores the educational value and ensures our FAM trips are time well invested.

“It makes you a better producer. For the information and for broadening perspectives,” concludes Boden. “There’s an extra string to your bow. If you’re trying to shoehorn everything into the world that you know, and in terms of competition, there are other producers that have got many more options, they’re going to do a better job. So I very proactively encourage people to do FAM trips for that – and so much more.”

There is also much to be said for the goodwill garnered by hosting an informative and entertaining visit. Producers and executives we hosted in Spain enjoyed each other’s company in ways they rarely have a chance to do back home.

“It’s good to meet the group as itself because you can exchange notes with them,” remarked Nigel Wooll, producer of features including Tár, and G.I. Jane.. “See what they like, and what I like, and discuss how you sort problems out.”

“It’s a great, deep dive to be able to go beyond just a general networking of your peers and colleagues,” said Nicole Beaudoin, Physical Production Producer at Ubisoft. “To have time to connect with people on a deeper level, to have a fun, shared experience together.”

“I’ve enjoyed being with people that I’ve never met before to hear their perspective,” said Lisa Cochran, Warner Bros. Television SVP of Production. “They’re looking at their projects with their eyes, and I haven’t had some of that perspective so I’m listening, and I’m thinking. There’s a lot of take away. I feel that as a group, and not a large group, a group like this has afforded us all to hear each other. We all have different backgrounds. We have different sets of experience. I think that the collective group shares that information, and I think if you’re willing to listen, and you chat and talk, it helps that it’s a fun group, a good group and that the personalities are great.”

Make It Memorable

As a fellow producer, I treat each FAM trip as a production. I get to know my FAM guests beforehand just as I would a producer client and their team filming abroad with us. I work with our production service company partner in each country to plan the locations and studio installations to visit, and to select the industry professionals to meet at a pace that keeps producers and executives engaged but not overwhelmed. And after the FAM trip is a wrap, we all stay in touch.

Positive, lasting impressions from FAM trips can generate new business directly with  VIP guests. They also inspire producers and executives to advocate for locations and installations they can see themselves using.

“When you read a script you consider many locations for a project and the ones you’ve been to will come to the forefront,” said Searchlight Pictures VP of Physical Production, Joe Malloch during our FAM trip. “I’ll read other people’s scripts and ask ‘oh, did you consider Spain?”

Often without our knowing, it is that sort of friendly referral that boosts a country and its studio installations to the top of the list for consideration. That alone makes the investment in well-curated FAM trips immeasurably worthwhile.

Written by Michael Moffett – Stagerunner Contributing Writer

Michael Moffett is a seasoned American producer who channeled his own experience filming abroad on four continents into the creation of PSN-Production Service Network. Working with exclusively vetted service company partners in strategic territories, Michael provides producers with trusted boots on the ground to execute the filming of features, television, and commercials worldwide.

PSN – Production Service Network

Spain FAM Trip

Portugal FAM Trip