Seattle, King County betting big on a return to the silver screen, streaming

SEATTLE — Nestled along the Seattle waterfront, is a commodity that few may know about, which specializes in an export that has nothing to do with freight.

“Sound Up!”

“Action”

Those words echo through a building here, on Harbor Island.

“We are on the set of Thai Guys right now, which is an Asian American sketch comedy show, kind of like Key and Peele, but we’re Asian,” says Seattle’s Nuk Suwanchote, with a twinkle in his eye. He and a full crew have been filming at the appropriately named Harbor Island Studios, which is officially more than a year old, and created as part of the vision of Kate Becker.

“It’s a bigger space, much bigger than a lot of people’s homes. It’s a space that is big enough to build out what filmmakers dream of,” Becker says, while touring around the 117-thousand square foot studio and warehouse. King County has spent slightly more than 2 million dollars to convert the old flour mill into a place that can host major productions.

“We’ve been exporting our film talent for decades, time to bring them home,” Becker said.

That is just part of the story. Seattle used to be a hub for filmmaking in the 80’s, and 90’s, with such projects like “Singles”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “10 Things I Hate About You”, and more. But a combination of city permitting, and reduced state funding chased away major productions by the early 2000’s.

Vancouver has played the stand-in for the city in such productions like “The Killing”, and London was the hub for the UW based “Boys In The Boat”. There was only a chase scene shot in Seattle for one of the”50 Shades” movies that were based in the city.

But Becker argues the studio puts the city and county in a better position to now compete.

The studios were used for 106 active days of filming in the past year, with 42 productions shot on location. The biggest of which – “Love is Blind” – also involved shoots across Seattle and in King County.

“It showcased lots of King County out at the wedding venues and all of that, because strangers were marrying strangers, love is blind,” says Becker with a smirk. “This is an economic development initiative and there definitely is a connection with tourism.”

Washington Filmworks is now offering up to $15 million a year in tax credits to attract productions, after legislation in Olympia was approved in 2022, which now puts it on par with neighboring Oregon and Montana, the latter of which struck gold with the ‘Yellowstone’ franchise.

Yet, a new production painfully reminds local leaders of the progress still left to be made.

“The Last of Us”, which is based off a popular video game franchise, was a hit in Season One on HBO. The second edition of the game largely revolves around Seattle, with characters running through key locations like the Seattle Aquarium, Lumen Field, the Sorrento Hotel, and Paramount Theater. Yet, the production has started in British Columbia, in Vancouver, and near Victoria.

“It’s frustrating, and motivating,” admits Markham McIntyre, who is the Seattle Director of Economic Development.

But McIntyre says, the City and County have continued to invest. Both entities spent nearly $2 million dollars last year to help re-open the old Cinerama theater, rebranding it the SIFF Downtown. It has been featured all this week as part of the 50th annual Seattle International Film Festival.

McIntyre argues that the theater is important to continuing efforts to reboot Downtown.

“It’s hugely important for downtown revitalization, because Downtown runs on people and we want to bring more people downtown,” McIntyre says.

Becker says the studio is helpful for certain types of productions, especially domestic or smaller independent producers.

Becker points to filmmakers like Suwanchote, who said he didn’t want to have worry about work visas and the like, and didn’t want to have to drive to Portland.

“I think King County’s investment in this studio is and will continue to pay off exponentially,” said Becker.

Ultimately, success will be judged, by those numbers of exports from the stage to the screen.