The show must go on: when it comes to show business in South Florida, the entertainment industry knows no bounds. Instead, it bonds together to make the most out of a good thing

South Florida CEO, June, 2004 by Catherine McElrath

Miami is South Florida's shining, sexy star when it comes to attracting Hollywood's hottest and Madison Avenue's hippest, and its glamour factor has been key in drawing music, television and movies to the area. Since its boom in the early 1980s, with the lure of "Miami Vice" and the onslaught of the fashion photography industry, the world of high-profile celebrity has been very good to Miami and Miami Beach.

But where does that leave its northerly neighbors?

"We understand that for the film industry, 'Miami' is a region," says Elizabeth Wentworth, film commissioner for The Broward Alliance Film and Television Commission. "So Miami-Dade County is very important to our success as well. When people come to film in Miami, especially big-budget shoots, they usually also film somewhere in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Scouting is a regional endeavor, and we work very closely with other counties to bring projects into Broward and to develop the infrastructure that they need."

Annie Perez, marketing director for Miami-Dade County's Film and Television Commission, agrees. "Any time that a movie or a major TV show films down here, the benefits usually trickle up," she explains. "All three counties benefit, and we all work together on referrals. For example, I had someone who needed to film a wooden roller coaster. I said. 'We don't have one, but I know where you can find one. In Broward.'"

Examples of recent films that have shot in both Broward and Miami-Dade include "Adaptation," "The Hours" and "2 Fast 2 Furious," and it is this attitude of comfortable cooperation that has helped boost all three counties' reputation as locales of choice. While each county conducts its own marketing, all three are co-marketed by the state film office. Among other things, the state keeps a Florida film representative in Los Angeles to lobby for projects in the state.

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"There's no substitute for a governor who takes film seriously and has an understanding for the future of the film industry as a whole," says Chuck Eldred, film commissioner of the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission. Both locally and statewide. "We've become a lot more proactive, providing incentives for studios and offering educational programs that support the industry," he says. "When we started this office about 15 years ago, we basically let the economic windfalls just come in on their own."

While the Hollywood "It" factor of films like "Bad Boys 2" and "Wild Things" (both films shot on location in all three counties) can't be denied, most of the money to be made in South Florida's entertainment industry is on the more utilitarian side. In the case of Palm Beach County, for example, out of the $112 million spent there last year on television, music videos, commercials, film and photo production, less than $10 million was spent on motion pictures.

"We've always done broadcast work, but that's not where the money is," says James Haney, president of the Haney Production Group and director of the Association of Independent Producers of Palm Beach County. "Advertising and corporate clients, and plenty of them, want to come down here, especially during winter."

For such shoots, the tri-county area acts, again, as a regional palette. "We cross county lines all the time, looking for whatever our client needs," says Barbara Goicoechea, director of operations for Miami Beach-based ACT Productions, which does product information videos and television commercials. "Sure, I guess it would be easier for us just in terms of location to film in Miami, but our clients' needs are really what we're serving."

The tri-county area as a whole is also flexing its muscles in television production and broadcasting, an industry segment once dominated by Miami-Dade County, with its position as the US portal to Latin America, and its history of producing such television programs as "Flipper," "Gentle Ben" and "The Jackie Gleason Show." Today, television production is spreading across the tri-county area. Paxson Communications, for example, which produces the PAX cable station, is based in West Palm Beach.

Even Miami-based television production for Latin America is beginning to go tri-county. A case in point is Claxson Interactive Group, a multi-media company that distributes Spanish and Portuguese-language cable and broadcast television, radio shows and Internet portals throughout the Americas from its offices in Miami. "Clearly, Miami-Dade has become a global center for production, music and new media," says Alfredo Richard, Claxson's vice president of communication. "Our programming and packaging is done here in Miami, but we do have projects in other counties." Example: Playboy Latin America, which is distributed by Claxson, recently filmed a racy segment about the sexy side of Fort Lauderdale for its documentary series "Erotica."

South Florida is also a hub for programming aimed at the US Hispanic market--the place to shoot telenovelas, talk shows and everything in between. But is Miami the only game in town when it comes to Hispanic TV? Maria Cristina Baros, Spanish language network Telemundo's creative and program services director, doesn't think so. As part of the NBC family, Telemundo occupies a state-of-the-art studio and office space in the south Broward city of Miramar. "Originally Telemundo's studios were in Hialeah. Moving here with NBC to this absolutely gorgeous facility gave us the room to grow," she says. "By being here, straddling the two counties. I think it makes it easier for us in a lot of ways. Besides, the physical location of the facility doesn't matter to the audience. They care about where we are on the dial."