BUTTE — Lights, camera, action - With the film industry working in Butte, local artists are getting some very interesting work.
“My friend Sam Debree came up last night and he goes, ‘we need to make it so that we can impale somebody with a plow,’” said Butte artist Rob McClain.
Several film and television products have been working in Butte over the past several months providing an abundance of work for local arts and skilled laborers.
“We turned Matt’s Dine into a donut shop, this is movie magic. It’s something different every day and you don’t know what you’re going to be doing,” said McClain.
One production has rented out the Butte Civic Center and has built a set on the arena floor to be used in a feature-length film. Each production brings many people to Butte and helps the local economy.
“They’ve had over 800 room nights in hotels, they’re eating in our local restaurants, they’re buying materials in our local hardware stores,” said Butte Civic Center Manager Bill Melvin.
Rob Cox, a Butte resident who worked as a location manager on one of the film productions, added, “We were hiring people from all over town we spent I think $3 million in three weeks, you know what I mean, and so when there are five productions in town and we were the low-budget one, that’s millions and millions and millions of dollars that get poured into the local economy.”
Filmmakers already like the way Butte looks and if locals can get trained in all aspects of film and television production, well, there’s plenty of work in the dream factory industry.
“There’s going to be tons more production coming, as you look around, I think we’ve had five productions here just in the last three months and there’s more coming, and if we’re not ready for it, we’ll blow it,” said Cox.
Filmmakers find it easy to work in Butte and this reputation is likely to bring more to the Mining City.
