It’s a sunny day in Downtown. Part of Sixth Avenue is closed. A camera-mounted Rivian follows a new Toyota as it drives down the closed street. This is just one of several Seattle locations Toyota used to film a commercial for their newest electric vehicle, the bZ Woodland.
Commercial film productions like this one make up more than half of all productions our Film Program permits.
“Seattle is a hot spot for commercials. People come here because it looks like anywhere in the country,” said Mark Fried, location manager and Seattle Film Commissioner.
For this production, the crew shot at multiple locations in just three days, including driving shots in Downtown and SODO, glamour shots in Gas Works Park, and various other locations throughout the Seattle area. Los Angeles production company MJ68 produced the work with Chicago agency Saatchi & Saatchi, hiring over 50 local cast and crew.
“We have had the pleasure of doing a few shoots in Washington State,” said Adam Braid, executive producer at MJ68. “The crews are fantastic, made up of good people with good knowledge. There are excellent resources and you cannot beat the scenery.”
Filming in multiple locations in a short period requires a lot of organization, which is where our office comes in. We offer film permits at a flat rate of $25 a day, complete with a one-stop shop concierge permitting coordination service. Productions make one call to us and we coordinate the rest.
“The $25 dollar permit is pretty cheap considering you get access to all City parks, streets, and all the other infrastructure the City of Seattle has,” said Fried. “But the communication is key. To be able to have one-on-one conversations with someone, to be able to work out the logistics of your location shooting, it’s always very helpful.”
On top of an affordable and easy to navigate permitting system, Seattle offers a large talent pool of crew members. Jon LaFollette, the key grip for the Toyota bZ Woodland commercial works full-time in film production in the Seattle area.
“Depending on the year, I work on anywhere between 10 to 25 or 30 commercials,” said LaFollette. “I love the fact I actually get to stay home and make a good living working in the Seattle area.”
Last year, commercial productions permitted by our office hired more than 2,100 local cast and crew members, accounting for a little more than half of all cast and crew hires for the year.
“We’ve got industrials and commercials and internal work with the varying facilities and people who are here,” said LaFollette. “It’s lovely to have a full crew here in Seattle so we can staff an entire film and work with an outside director. We can bring our expertise to whatever project they want.”
Thanks to a recent commercial film incentive expansion through Washington Filmworks, commercials filmed in Seattle and throughout the state may qualify for funding assistance. Commercial film productions can receive 30% cash back on qualified Washington expenses, with an additional 10% uplift available for productions that meet enhanced incentive criteria. This incentive is a key tool in our work to attract and retain more commercial film productions, bringing and keeping more projects and jobs for our local cast and crew.
“People should film their commercials in Seattle,” said LaFollette. “We have a great crew, we’ve got a great infrastructure, and we get to do incredible things in this incredible place.”