Santa Clarita Seeks More Action From the Movies : Film: The area’s rugged landscape is part of Hollywood’s past, and officials want city to play a bigger role in its future.

SANTA CLARITA —  The rocky canyons that surround this city are as much a part of Hollywood’s past as the Western movie itself, and now city leaders are working to make the film industry a bigger part of its future.

Cheryl Adams, the film liaison officer for the Santa Clarita Chamber of Commerce, touts the city’s history, geography and its abundance of local talent as selling points to producers, location managers and other film industry officials who decide which studios are used and where location shots are taken.

The city works to provide easy access to location shots in the city and in the surrounding hills.

A location manager can obtain both city and county permits from the Los Angeles County Film Liaison Office, a convenience that helps speed up the process, Adams said. Only West Hollywood and Malibu offer a similar service to movie production crews.

That effort, coupled with the diverse natural beauty in the valley, has made it the prime film shooting location in Los Angeles County for the last two years, county officials said.

The chamber distributes brochures listing local businesses in the area that service the industry. Shot Maker Inc., for example, a mobile crew for filming road scenes, is located here. Adams also keeps on file more than 300 resumes from set designers, key grips and other movie support workers, she said.

Historically, Gene Autry’s old Melody Ranch and others outside the city have been used in Westerns since 1911, said Ze Gonzales, chairman of the Santa Clarita Film Development Committee.

“At industry trade shows, Santa Clarita has as big a presence as San Francisco and San Diego,” said Patty Archuletta, director of the state film commission. “They do a big-time marketing effort, and if other cities did as well as Santa Clarita, it would be easier for them to retain film business.”

Also helping Santa Clarita is its location. Because it is within a 30-mile radius of Hollywood, movie companies don’t have to pay actors and crews out-of-town rates for shoots there.

Since the city incorporated five years ago, revenue related to the film industry has doubled to $18 million in 1992 from $9 million four years earlier, Gonzales said.

Armed with its reputation as a prime location shot area, the city in recent years has sought to boost its image as a studio town as well. It’s not always an easy task at first.

“People were reluctant to come out here at first, they didn’t know what to expect,” said Herman David, owner of Santa Clarita Studios, the biggest and busiest of three studios located here. “We were the last ones people would call, now we’re one of the first,” he said from his offices in the Valencia Business Park.

John Warren, who owns Lindsey Studios, which features hard-to-find sets for movies and television productions, agrees.

“The biggest opposition that we run into is from people who’ve never been out here before,” he said. “They have low expectations.”

Rates at Santa Clarita Studio and its neighbors, Lindsey Studios and Studio K, fall well below the prices charged in Hollywood. They range from about $500 to $1,600 a day.

“If we could get the financing to build two more stages, we could fill them,” David said, peering at an open field right below his office window.

To the delight of many in the business, the drive to Santa Clarita proved as fast and far more scenic than the dreary commute in heavy traffic back to Hollywood.

And rather than miss the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, the actors and production staff find that Santa Clarita is a pleasant place to work.

“I like that it’s far away,” said Courtney Thorne-Smith, one of the stars on Melrose Place. “You know everyone on the lot and it feels safe, not like in Hollywood,” she added.

Magic Studios of Valencia, a new studio that will replace Valencia Studios, which filed for bankruptcy last fall, will open in September under the direction of Larry Spangler.

Spangler plans to build a heliport, a swimming pool and other VIP amenities as part of a $2-million renovation of the lot.

Spangler is joining the studio community here in the belief that the off-the-main-drag studios will continue to grow as production and security costs in Hollywood continue to rise.

“We think this is part of a coming trend, and that’s not to say that there won’t be movies made in Hollywood, we just believe there’s enough to go around for everybody,” he said.