LV film company seeks more Hollywood business

A 12-year-old Las Vegas company that opened a post-production center last month hopes to capitalize on the push to bring Hollywood to Southern Nevada.

Century Productions plans an open house later this month to show off the company's seven-unit, 6,000-square-foot video production studio at 5210 S. Procyon St.

Century co-owner Mike Levy said the post-production process involves inserting graphics, animation and special effects into films to produce a "finished" feature. The company works primarily with television production and currently is working with UPN's "I Dare You" and a Fox television special that airs Tuesday night, "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?"

Production work for a TV show is high-profile, but most of the revenue for the business comes from the company's bread-and-butter operations -- putting the polish on car commercials and other local ads.

"Most of our work is with ad agencies," Levy said. "And about 40 to 50 percent of our work is with local clients."

But the other half of Century's client list has out-of-town addresses -- and Levy expects that list to grow as more film companies try out Las Vegas for location shooting.

Public and private organizations have been working to convince Hollywood executives to film in Nevada. The Nevada Film Office and the nonprofit Entertainment Development Corporation of Las Vegas (EDC) are lobbying government leaders to make the film industry a part of their economic development programs.

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman are on the bandwagon to expand Las Vegas' efforts as the "Entertainment Capital of the World" by making the city and state more business-friendly to Hollywood. Backers of the effort say the motion picture industry has high economic yields and is not an environmental liability.

Local industry leaders also are appealing to Hollywood to keep its dollars in the United States by choosing Las Vegas over Canada, where many film companies have fled to take advantage of lower costs resulting from a favorable currency exchange rate. Local film industry backers point out to Hollywood that Nevada's tax policies, good weather and proximity to Southern California make it an appealing alternative to Canada.

To foster additional production, the film office and the EDC are encouraging government agencies to make it easier for crews to get permission to film in local settings. They're also encouraging the development of film industry infrastructure -- studios, soundstages and production centers. That's where Levy's business comes in.

Levy, who formerly co-owned Valley Upholstery in Las Vegas with his brother, Barry, and learned video production by filming his own commercials, started out taping small projects in a 1,000-square-foot building. They used a closet for an editing bay and started with small easy-to-produce videos.

The business kept growing with more and more sophisticated production and post-production projects. The Levys reinvested business profits to buy new, upgraded equipment.

Today, the company has 28 employees in editing, production and administration.

Levy hopes his new state-of-the-art facility will be noticed by companies that need post-production work. He figures that efforts to develop sound stages and studios in Southern Nevada will generate more work for his company.

He doesn't consider projects like the Lear Motion Picture and Television Studios and proposed Black Mountain Studios to be competitors, though he has a small sound stage about a block from his new building.

The Lear studio, operated by Marilee Lear, has set up operations in an unfinished building that used to be a frozen food warehouse. The Black Mountain project is a plan by Henderson resident Doris Keating to develop a studio. Her plan is in limbo since Henderson officials delayed action on the proposal and Keating now is seeking another site.

Levy's studio is filled with sophisticated equipment and creature comforts. It is designed to keep clients comfortable while overseeing technicians working with digital editing systems and big-screen monitors.

While clients look over the shoulders of Century's editors, they have a variety of office amenities available to conduct business.

"Our motivation in undertaking this expansion is to bring a Los Angeles-quality facility to Las Vegas," Levy said.

Levy did not disclose how much the new video equipment is worth. In addition to the new facility, the company has a $1.4 million mobile production truck -- the only one based in Nevada -- to do location shooting.

Among the company's more than 200 clients are Mirage Resorts Inc., ABC Sports, E! Entertainment Network, ESPN, the Sci-Fi Channel, HBO and Dick Clark Productions.

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