Action! Florida continues to make its mark on the film industry

Ever y single thing you see on screen came out of somebody’s creativity. It doesn’t exist. Nature didn’t deliver it to us. Everything had to be dreamed. — Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dreamworks

The history of film begins in 1824, when British physician Peter Mark Roget developed what he called “persistence of vision,” a series of individual still pictures that created an illusion of movement when they were set into motion. This flash of creativity laid the foundation for the cinema.

With the rise of inventions and experiments in the late 19th century, motion pictures came to life with the development of cameras, projectors and transparent celluloid film. George Eastman came along in 1878 with his first photographic dry plates, which he followed a year later with a sensitized paper roll for photographic film that could use with his small box Kodak.

Our Southwest Florida neighbor, Thomas Edison, is credited with the development of early motion picture cameras and projectors, but it was really his assistant, William Dickson, who around 1892 designed a camera powered by a motor called a kinteograph.

The war weary head to the movies

Creativity continued to flourish in the film industry and by the 1950s, a decade known for its post-war affluences such as television and drive-in theaters, the “greatest generation” was making new traditions. During this time, Southwest Florida began making its own mark on the movies scene. Today we’re the No. 3 state for filming, after New York and California.

We provided the locale for four films in the 1950s: “Lady Without a Passport” with Hedy Lamarr (1950); “The Barefoot Mailman” with Robert Cummings (1951); “Distant Drums” with Gary Cooper (1951); and “Wind Across the Everglades” with Christopher Plummer and Burl Ives (1958).

While many believe “Winds Across the Everglades” was the first film about the Everglades, I learned several months ago such might not be the case.

When the winds blew first

Steve Briggs, a nephew of Dr. Jack Briggs and local Old-Timer, called to say that he had gotten “wind” that his grandfather, Stephen T. Briggs (of Briggs & Stratton Motors), who also had a film studio on Gordon Drive, 2700 Solano Studios, had shot several films here. The younger Mr. Briggs believed that a few of those films might have been saved from a fire at the studio.

Jim Haynes, whose parents owned the beach store and movie theater (on Third Street South, where Marissa Collections sits today), confirmed Steve’s notion. After much hesitation (and rightly so), Mr. Haynes signed over the two remaining 16mm reels from the elder Briggs’s 1951 shoots. One filmed on the Tamiami Trail is so brittle that special care will need to be given before it can be transferred to DVD; the other reel, filmed in the Everglades, has been carefully transferred by David Frelick of Alpha Media Inc. and is awaiting a special showing date. Stay tuned for more on that. A nifty idea: The NIFF

In 1988, with the Economic Development Council of Collier County’s public recognition of the film production industry as an important one for our community, the state of Florida designated the EDC as the official Collier County Film Commission.

Our paradise coast was ripe and ready for an independent film festival, and Maggie McCarty laid the foundation from 1998- 2004 with the Marco Island Film Festival.

Now the Naples International Film Festival is poised and ready to make its mark — much to the surprise of many, and much to the delight of many more. (See complete coverage in Section C this week.)

Festival founders Rowan Samuel, Eric Raddatz and Daniel Linehan, originally perceived by some as the Three Stooges, transitioned to the Three Amigos and now are widely considered the Three Musketeers. You decide who’s who: D’Artagnan, Porthos and Aramis.

D’Artagnan is the duty-bound Musketeer, honorable, headstrong and prone to impulsive decisions. Porthos is self-serving and self-praising, with a lust for the finer things in life. Aramis, the humble one, is religious, skilled and intelligent, thus making him a formidable soldier with an appreciation for the finer things as well.

As for the founders of the NIFF, their “all for one and one for all” philosophy is what kept these NIFF dreamers moving forward.

As Jeffrey Katzenberg said, “Everything had to be dreamed,” and dream is what the NIFF team did. And aren’t we glad they did? 

Memorable lines

Here’s some film trivia to get you in the mood for the Naples International Film Festival. See if you can match the quote with the movie:

>>1: “Oh, it was nobody’s fault but my own. I was looking up. It was the nearest thing to heaven. You were there.” >>2: “Do, or do not. There is no try.” >>3: “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.” >>4: “There are simply too many notes.” >>5: “Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.” >>6: “Does your dog bite?” >>7: “There are only two things more beautiful than a good gun — a Swiss watch and a woman from anywhere.” >>8: “All-righty then!” >>9: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

>>10: “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!”

MATCH THE QUOTE:
>>A. “The Pink Panther Strikes Again” (1976)
>>B. “Red River” (1948)
>>C. “To Kill A Mockingbird” (1962)
>>D. “Animal Crackers” (1930)
>>E. “Patton” (1970)
>>F. “Sons of the Desert” (1933)
>>G. “Amadeus” (1984)
>>H. “An Affair to Remember” (1957)
>>I. “Star Wars V” (1980)
>>J. “Ace Ventura” (1994)