Oregon’s Love Affair With Film Locations
An Interview with Jane Ridley (Marketing Communications & Special Events, Oregon Film).
By Viv Smith (SetJetters CMO & CoFounder)
You can probably count on one hand the states, provinces, countries, and regions that have truly capitalized on their film legacy. For many, New Zealand and its industry-defining embrace of the Lord of the Rings quickly comes to mind, but Oregon certainly deserves a shout out!
The home state of Mount Hood, gas station attendants, and Portlandia is nestled in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, but it’s so much more than those aforementioned traits. The office of Oregon Film is intimately aware of how diverse the state is: it’s seen it on the screen.
Tim Williams, the Executive Director of Oregon Film refers to the movies shot in Oregon as “the gift that keeps on giving.” Acknowledging this gift, Tim’s office created The Oregon Film Trail, a series of sign posts dotted around the state marking the locations where movies were filmed in Oregon.
SetJetters recognized Oregon’s love of film locations early on in its development and digitally expanded the film scene locations marked by Oregon’s Film Trail signs, giving them national and global discovery. SetJetters CoFounder Viv Smith sat down to check in with Jane Ridley (Marketing Communications & Special Events, Oregon Film), one year after the partnership with SetJetters was formed.
Oregon Film Trail sign with Jane Ridley and SetJetters CEO Erik Nachtrieb.
Viv: Jane, how does working with SetJetters help Oregon Film’s goals?
Jane: Working with SetJetters has meant that we have been able to raise Oregon’s filmed history, and the Oregon Film Trail profile, both within our Oregon communities and beyond the state. By working with SetJetters we have increased our exposure to visitors both locally and internationally. The ability for visitors to use the SetJetter app to navigate to film scene locations acts an ideal extendor to the Oregon Film Trail marker sites. Additionally, SetJetters is able to capture visitor data from each of the Oregon Film Trail signs and Points of Interest, and we can determine what areas are performing well for our communities and see the number of engaged visitors at each marker.
Viv: It’s been great to see our vision for connecting film and tourism start to play out in real life here in Oregon. What would Oregon Film say to other states that have a film history and how could they capitalize on their film legacy?
Jane: The fast-growing sector of Film Tourism has been on Oregon Film’s radar for multiple years and was one of the many compelling reasons that motivated and helped the development of the Oregon Film Trail. Film, television, and video games all tell stories that get woven into the fabric of our shared experience. We can enhance this by making it easy for visitors to come and see these film locations for themselves where imaginations become immersed in the real-life Oregon locations. The Oregon Film Trail (with 42 physical sign stops and marked on the SetJetters map) stitches together our communities, RDMO’s, DMO’s, small businesses, and notable film scenes, at iconic filming locations and strategic points across Oregon. Film history in our communities is important - many Oregonians worked on, or were part of, these productions that have highlighted Oregon on the screen for scores of years. The screen exposure often brings pride to our communities. We are starting to understand more fully what it means to accommodate movie lovers who seek to visit the real-life locations of their favorite films, TV shows, and video games. This is why the Oregon Film Trail is partnering with SetJetters to elevate what they have called “the Reel to Real” experience!
Viv: We’re also really thrilled to be working with an organization that understands film tourism. On that note, can you elaborate further on what Film Tourism means?
Jane: The way we see it, Film Tourism (known also as SetJetting) is becoming more popular and the demand for visiting filming locations appears to be growing. It is becoming clear that building a physical trail infrastructure and working with our communities to attract and accommodate visitors (both local and more far-flung) is beneficial. Our partnership with SetJetters extends the Oregon Film Trail initiative so that visitors from anywhere in the world can easily find actual scene locations around Oregon via an interactive experience on the mobile app. The app not only allows the user to find locations but also to connect to special deals and experiences within our local communities, as well as the ability to capture on-site location photos from visitors' favorite films.
Pictured Above: Scenes from iconic films shot in Oregon. From top left to bottom right: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Goonies, Point Break, Stand By Me, Twilight & Wild.
Viv: So diving into the business of film tourism, what problem does SetJetters solve for Film Tourism, Direct Marketing Offices, Businesses and the film tourist on the ground?
Jane: We can only really speak for Film Offices and SetJetters does the heavy lifting for directing visitors to film sites, and then also connecting them with local businesses within communities while also providing the ability to capture data that until now has been elusive.
For the film tourist, SetJetters enhances the visitor’s experience on the Oregon Film Trail by providing map locations, navigation, movie information and local community business information at points of interest – a one-stop-shop for film tourists!
We believe that for State travel offices, SetJetters can provide partnership on highlighting events, businesses, Places of Interest, etc., as well as working with them to promote their visitor agendas.
For businesses, we can see the potential for SetJetters to provide a global visitor exposure for a modest fee, by connecting businesses and Places of Interest to the entire Oregon Film Trail and with their global reach they can now advertise to incoming tourists from around the world.
Viv: Awesome, thanks for that - we’re building film tourism in an app! So tell me, why should we pay attention to film tourism, and more importantly who should pay attention to it?
Jane: It is easy to forget that film tourists act like any other tourist and visitor when they are at their destination and therefore any business or travel outfit should probably be paying attention to this established growing tourism sector. During the Covid-19 pandemic, creative content consumption was at an all-time high and now as the world slowly opens up consumers are looking for places to go and things to do. We believe Film Tourism will continue to grow from this kind of content consumption.
Viv: We couldn’t agree more! So, one of the things we’ve noticed is other states and tourism offices building their own apps. From our perspective this is part of the problem we’re trying to solve. The Film Tourism market is fractured, and having a few localized apps and websites that only highlight one area which isn’t globally networked, only feeds that fractured state. But I’d like to hear what you have to say on this?
Jane: Why reinvent an app when the SetJetters app covers it all?! When the Oregon Film Trail was first conceived, it was hoped that the Trail would act as a physical framework throughout the state that would celebrate Oregon, and also encourage and spark such enterprises as, film tours, increased film festival programming, app creation, events and partnerships with other state-wide trails, further event partnerships with RMO’s, DMO’s, as well as interactive gamification - all things that attract and keep visitors returning to our communities on the Trail. In our phase 2 of the Oregon Film Trail, we hoped to add an interactive AR experience – an exciting feature for the visitor - but working with SetJetters and their “ShotSync” feature recognized this as a way to provide a fun and interactive experience.
Viv: Plus we save you the cost of building and updating an app which we know is very expensive to do well!
Jane: Exactly! Let SetJetters carry that responsibility, know-how, and cost!
It’s been exciting working with such a forward thinking film office and state. Oregon is home to more film locations than you could imagine across a very diverse state (over 500 filmed projects and growing.) We suggest you jump on the Oregon Film Trail with SetJetters and explore the region through film. If you don’t find yourself in Oregon, download SetJetters and locate film scenes near you!
SetJetters is the app that puts film locations in the palm of your hand.
Download for free on Android or Apple stores, and we look forward to seeing your photos from your favorite movie locations.
