The City of Sacramento is officially opening the new Sacramento Film Office with the hiring of its first full-time staff member. Jennifer West will be the new Film Office manager and will assist in promoting and developing Sacramento’s film industry.
West brings extensive knowledge from her previous roles working on feature films in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C. before becoming the manager of television production for New Line Cinema. After moving to Sacramento, raising a family and running two businesses, West served in the City Council Office for District 3, assisting Council member Jeff Harris and producing the successful concert series Pops in the Park.
Sacramento’s film services were previously handled by Visit Sacramento. They were moved under City operations in October 2019. The Sacramento Film Office will expand upon the great work performed by Visit Sacramento and its film mission and will continue to provide support and resources to film, television and commercial producers while positioning Sacramento as a production destination.
The Convention and Cultural Services Department enlisted the help of Metris Arts Consulting — a research, analysis, and planning support company — to develop a five-year plan to strategically support and grow the film and media industry in Sacramento. The plan established goals, strategies and metrics to measure success.
The Sacramento Film Office’s goals are to provide consistent, high-level service to those interested in filming in the area, leverage regional location assets, strengthen local crews, help local filmmakers and attract out-of-town productions.
The Film Office also will help provide film permitting, location assistance, production information, ordinance and regulatory information and grant opportunities.
“The City of Sacramento understands the value of film to the city, because it provides local jobs, local spending and fosters artistic expression,” said Jody Ulich, director of Convention and Cultural Services. “We are excited to build an office to support the local film community while attracting outside film to the area.”
“I look forward to working with the local and global media and film industry to help address their needs by determining what resources are in Sacramento organically and what we need to help build out to support the industry,” West said. “I am eager and ready to dive in to help develop the office.”
The Film Office’s first initiative will be to build out a comprehensive website with resources currently available and to establish relationships with the local, statewide and industry partners, West said.
See a full list of goals and strategies and view the complete five-year report.