Posted on: Sunday, March 10, 2002

Film chief says state should fix studio

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

If you don't build it, they won't come, said Donne Dawson, manager of the Hawai'i film office.

Film-industry boosters are campaigning for money to renovate the decaying Hawai'i Film Studio, saying the effort is needed to remain competitive in the global film business. The film office, the local Screen Actors Guild and others have spoken out in support of earmarking $9.5 million in state money to renovate the crumbling original sound stage.

"We can't go out to aggressively to market our facility when it's in such terrible condition," said Dawson.

Improvements would include a second sound stage and new production offices to complement newer facilities completed in the mid-1990s.

The studio, at 18th Avenue and Diamond Head Road, is a mix of old and new.

The original facility, sometimes called the "Hawai'i Five-O" sound stage, "is dilapidated, with water and termite damage," said Dawson. "We also have rodent issues."

The problems can make the film studio "a hard sell" with potential tenants. "We were eating humble pie with Universal Studios ("Surf Girls") and Revolution Studios (the untitled Willis project) when they confused the old sound stage with the new," Dawson said.

The modern facility, finished in 1994 with a $10 million allocation made in the mid-1980s, was occupied by Square USA Inc. for almost four years, while the computer-generated "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," was in production. That tenancy, which recently ended, pumped about $130 million into the Hawai'i economy.

"They had been a good, consistent tenant, getting us through some challenging periods," said Dawson.

Since the heyday of "Hawai'i Five-O," in production from 1968 to 1980, film spending in Hawai'i has totaled about $470 million.

Until a takeover by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism in 1989, the film studio site was owned by the University of Hawai'i, which collected rent because the studio was on Kapi'olani Community College property.