Oregon Film Office Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Portland, OR. Oregon Film turns 50 this year. The office was founded in 1968 by Governor Tom McCall as a way to meet the needs of the Hollywood crew filming Paint Your Wagon which was shooting in Baker County. Hundreds of projects have been filmed in Oregon over the past 50 years including Wild, Cheryl Strayed’s 2014 biographical adventure staring Reese Witherspoon.
TNT’s Leverage Season 4 filmed on Mount Hood.
Forest Park was one location for NBC Universal’s GRIMM where David Giuntoli, who played Nick Burckhardt, and Russell Hornsby, who played Hank Green, worked a crime scene. (Photo credit, Scott Green)
In the 50th anniversary year, the newly minted #OregonMade “umbrella” initiative strives to raise awareness, pride and creative connections between production of all types, as well as businesses, crew, the education sector, events and related services. #OregonMade promotes all sizes of projects, even those that do not necessarily qualify for financial incentive programs.
As part of the initiative, Oregon Film created the non-profit, Oregon Made Creative Foundation. This unique project, done in partnership with the Charitable Partnership Fund to create a stand-alone (501[c][3]), offers several limited edition #OregonMade products for sale. All of the net proceeds will be used for grants for low or micro-budget creative content, initiated or made by Oregonians.
Oregon’s collective production industries now generate more than $200M in tracked economic activity per year. That’s more than 20x the tracked spending for this industry in Oregon in 2005.
According an economic impact study by PSU’s Northwest Economic Research Center this industry now provides Oregon with more than 3000 jobs and $150M in annual payroll.
The crew working on the TV show Grimm, which wrapped in 2017 after six seasons, took time to record testimonials about working in the local film industry.
Here’s a video created in 2009 for the Oregon Film Office to help bring major motion picture and television series productions to the state.
Oregon Film is tasked with the following:
- Market Oregon as a filming location
- Recruit out-of-state productions
- Liaise with producers & production groups
- Help build the indigenous film, video, and multimedia industry
- Sponsor industry & community events
- Work with partners to build the creative community
- Advise other entities on creating filming regulations
- Strengthen relationships with local communities
- Provide consumer protection information
- Serve as a spokesperson for the industry
About Oregon Film:
Oregon Film is a semi-independent, state agency with a mission to promote, support and advance the film, video, interactive, animation and creative content industries within the state, by fostering and creating connections between production, businesses and the public, and strengthening this industry’s profile and reputation locally, nationally and internationally. It operates with a staff of four people who work to promote and strengthen the statewide industry, it answers to a board, which is overseen by Governor Kate Brown. The Board of Directors includes: Juliana Lukasik (Chair), Jason A. Atkinson, Angela Jackson, Paul Loving and Steve Oster. Oregon Film acts as the official voice of the production industry in Oregon.
As Oregon Film moves into another busy production season and a new fiscal year, administrators are busy managing the state’s incentive programs – OPIF, Greenlight Oregon, iOPIF and the newly created rOPIF – and a large and growing, interactive database of over 6000 filming locations, as well as curating and managing the many resources that are needed to shoot a film, TV series, or commercial project, or start an interactive, animation or branded content company here. 
We aim to try and create space for connections between the creative and business communities in Oregon – that’s where all of the exciting #OregonMade work lies! This means we support and attend more than a hundred industry and community events in any given year; festivals, screenings, film shadow programs, educational outreach and business relationships/partners. We regularly work with state agencies such as; Travel Oregon, Travel Portland, Oregon State Parks, Oregon Arts Commission and Business Oregon; statewide non-profits like the OMPA, The Hollywood Theatre and The Historic Theaters Initiative; and educational programs at institutions such as PSU, SOU, PCC, CCC, U of O and even high schools across the state. (Take a look at some highlights of a High School Job Shadow program we did last summer.)
Did you know that last year we tracked more than 40 film-related festivals in Oregon? We were lucky enough to attend more than half of these (with a goal to reach them all!). All told, we traveled nearly 10,000 miles last year alone in order to make creative connections in Lakeview, Ashland, Burns, Pendleton, Estacada, Bend, Klamath Falls, Eugene and La Grande – all celebrating #OregonMade projects and locations.
Most recently, we we able to partner with Portland City Parks, Friends of Trees, Friends of Pier Park, Comcast/NBC, City of Portland, Gov. Brown and Comm. Nick Fish to plant a grove of trees in Pier Park ,North Portland, to commemorate six years of the NBC series “Grimm” calling Portland it’s photogenic home.
The icing on the cake this past year was the double-whammy of a six month exhibit at PDX Airport with costumes and props from some of Oregon’s most iconic shows – “Wild,” “The Goonies,” “The Librarians,” “Portlandia,” “Animal House” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” – an exhibit seen by over one million people – and last summer’s statewide tour of Buster Keaton’s #OregonMade 1926 silent classic ,”The General”, with a brand new, live score by Oregon Composer Mark Orton. The pinnacle performance took place in an outdoor amphitheater in front of more than 1500 people in Cottage Grove, about 100 yards from the very tracks where it was shot more than 90 years ago. These special projects represent the kind of creative connection we take pride in making with our collective #OregonMade brand.
If you think there might be ways we can creatively connect with you – please get in touch and let us know. We thank you for partnering to help promote all things #OregonMade.
Want to stay up-to-date on production news in Oregon? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.
