Media

Sacramento actor learning how to stand out in Hollywood

2011-05-24T01:03:10Z

Sacramentan Joel Thompson wasn't expecting his acting career to launch as quickly as it has.

After recently refocusing on a passion discovered as a kid, the 32-year-old will start work in five weeks as the lead in his first feature-length film. Thompson will play a young cop in the psychological thriller, "The Genetic Code."

He's already done featured extra work in "Moneyball," starring Brad Pitt, which is set to open this fall, and in the Tuskegee Airmen movie "Red Tails" produced by George Lucas, which is still in production. He also has a bit part in a big movie he said he can't talk about yet.

Thompson co-owned The Corner Restaurant and Bar with his father, Jerry Thompson, until two weeks ago. Joel Thompson said he has been surprised not only because things are happening so fast but by how much entertainment industry people value his restaurant experience and background as a Morgan Stanley financial adviser.

He actually includes newspaper articles about The Corner in audition packages. The restaurant and his financial skills have been used as conversation starters and get talked about during auditions, he said.

"Casting producers love that you have a life outside of acting," he said by phone from Hollywood, where he now lives.

Producers have also been interested in his talent as a drummer – he played for Phrenik and other bands in Los Angeles and Sacramento – and that he's writing a screenplay for a film he'd like to star in and produce.

"You're like, 'Hey – I'm doing this and I'm doing that and I'm doing this.' All of this is just one more quarter in the slot machine. Just one more thing to get you noticed," Thompson said. "And that's really what Hollywood and the film industry is about. You've got to create your own heat."

His tendency to have many things going on at once comes from his high-energy personality and his parents' lesson to always have a backup plan and be ready to make a change when needed.

His mom, Joyce Thompson, worked for the state. His dad is a real estate broker and restaurateur who opened Crawdad's River Cantina and other restaurants.

Growing up in the Arden Park area, Thompson started acting with the Sacramento Theater Company when he was 8. He did his first TV commercial a year later and got the lead role in the play “Charlie Brown” when he was 10 or 11.

"I was a hyper child, to say the least. Always kind of the center of attention and wanted to be the center of attention. Theater was a natural progression for me – or for my parents to throw me into," he said.

"My parents, God bless them, took me to rehearsals, singing lessons, drum lessons... and dancing lessons from a young age up through high school," he added.

Thompson got more into music and drumming while at Rio Americano High School. He got a job learning the financial services business with Wachovia Securities in Sacramento at age 20. He also spent two years in Los Angeles, working as a financial adviser for Morgan Stanley by day and playing drums at night.

He returned to Sacramento in 2004 to spend time with his younger brother, John, before he died of cancer.

Thompson formed a small financial firm with friends, then spent a year in Arizona at another financial services company. He returned to Sacramento in June 2009 to open The Corner with his dad. Thompson began pursuing acting again at the same time.

The income allowed him to take acting classes and pursue auditions in Sacramento, San Francisco and Southern California. At times, he operated the restaurant and bar from afar.

Since then, he's studied with several acting coaches: actor Cody Dorkin, owner of Sacramento talent management company Studio 24; Mary McCusker, set coach for the NBC TV show "Parenthood;" Kirsten Dunst's coach John Homa and Lesly Kahn, the "god of sitcom training," he said.

His network has played a big role in making things happen so quickly, he said.

"It's a lot about who you know. It is a combination of hard work, who you know, and you just have to have the will," he said.

Living in Southern California also has helped. He now auditions 10 times a week, while in Sacramento, he auditioned once a week here or in the Bay Area.

Thompson has put his career on track by working with the right people, said Dorkin, who now manages Thompson's career.

"Most people that are pursuing this go to L.A. and they spend five or six years just spinning their wheels," he said.

"He's just been down there for a little bit."

In January 2010, Dorkin sent him on his first adult audition. Thompson saw the thousands of other people auditioning for the Motorola commercial and thought he was crazy to try out. He auditioned for a short film in San Jose on the same day and got both parts.

A month later, he spent two days working on set at Industrial Light & Film with George Lucas. He had a small walk-on part with no lines.

"I think I was ‘Italian One.’ But it was my first real-big experience," Thompson said. "Being directed by George Lucas – it was a surreal moment for me."

He plays a cameraman in "Moneyball." With tons of people on the set, he didn't interact with Pitt or costar Robin Wright. But he chatted a lot with Jonah Hill, who starred in "Superbad" and "Get Him to the Greek."

Thompson has worked in some other short films, including "Daddy's Little Girl," directed by ex-Splender front man Waymon Boone. Boone wrote the script and will direct "The Genetic Code.” He’s producing the movie with Homa, Justin Finney and Jeff Dockweiler, in association with Boone’s independent production company, Boondock Films.

In the film, which is part action movie and part love story, Thompson will play a cop named Jack Forrester in a grungy Los Angeles 30 years in the future.

He tells others the way to stand out in Hollywood is to get themselves in the business by doing commercials and extra work, making their own movies if needed and getting in touch with as many people as they can.

"You have to go in there and create your own destiny," he said. "Go out there and ‘git’ it. That's the stand-out part."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Journalist Jonathan Mumm retires from News 10

2011-05-13T03:56:06Z

Sacramento TV reporter Jonathan Mumm – host of KXTV News 10's California Postcard and Mumm at the Movies – will retire from the station this month after nearly 30 years.

But don't expect to find him spending afternoons playing checkers just yet.

The five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist is just moving his energy and talent east to Roseville Performing Arts (RPA) Studio, which he owns with his wife, singer and music teacher Roberta Mumm.

About a year after joining News 10 on July 11, 1983, Mumm became the reporter and producer for the station's new travel feature series called California Postcard. The show ran twice a week for 15 years, took an eight-year hiatus and resumed in May 2007.

Mumm interviewed intriguing Californians and visited unique spots such as the Bodega Bay house where Alfred Hitchcock directed the 1963 horror classic, "The Birds." He kayaked whitewater rivers, crawled through caves and flew the Goodyear blimp during the show's 19 years.

"I'd find myself in these positions and think, 'What am I doing here?' But they made great stories for the show," he laughed. "They were often more fun to tell than they were to live through."

Mumm has been obsessed with broadcasting, announcing, and being on the air for TV and radio for most of his life. He first saw broadcasters at work in television reruns of movies from the 1930s featuring the golden age of radio.

Even as a kid, Mumm was more interested in the people and the work that went on behind the scenes than the stars of the movies.

At age 8, he and his brother pretended to have a talk show broadcast in their basement in Lynchburg, Va. The TV camera was made from a metal milk box with "WOWW" scrawled on the side, and a block of wood was their fake microphone. They spent hours watching disc jockeys spin records at a local radio station in the early 1960s.

In high school, Mumm got a weekend job at country music station WBRG. He ran gospel tapes, read headlines from the Associated Press wire and recorded National Weather Service updates. He soon became a country DJ spinning records on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

He got his own time slot, "The Johnny Mumm Show," in his senior year of high school. He raced to the station every afternoon after school and played records until sunset – the station's closing time.

His voice and his name were famous, but his face was not. Once, when his mom paid for groceries with a check, the store clerk asked, "Are you Johnny Mumm's wife?"

"My mom said, 'No, I'm his mother,' " Mumm recalled. "Particularly then, they didn't expect a kid to be on the radio."

Mumm majored in speech and drama at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. – alma mater of Susan Sarandon (a senior when he was a freshman) and Jon Voight.

He worked at radio stations in Washington, D.C., during the school year and at home in Lynchburg during school vacations. Mumm was known as "Good Guy Johnny Mumm" when he became a top-40 DJ at WLLL in Lynchburg the summer after freshman year.

In 1973, he cut his long hair and shaved off his beard to get his first on-camera TV job as the sports director for a station in Lynchburg. He was also the station's only sports reporter and sports camera operator.

"I was a one-man sports department," he said.

Mumm also filled in as a news reporter. He shot his own footage and did standups in front of the camera by setting it on a tripod and running to stand in front of the lens.

The nephew of movie tough guy Claude Akins, Mumm moved to Los Angeles and focused on acting for five years. Mumm did community theater, commercial voiceovers, industrial films and occasional parts on TV shows. His big break came in 1977 when he was cast in one of his uncle's shows, “Nashville 99.” He got 14 lines playing a rookie cop.

"That was big-time stuff," he said. "I thought I was on my way to fame and fortune."

He left acting a year or so later, after marrying and not getting cast in bigger roles. Mumm got a job at a Bakersfield radio station. Six months later, a neighboring TV station hired him to produce and anchor the 11 p.m. newscast. Mumm worked in TV news in Bakersfield for five years.

He joined News 10 as a reporter doing hard news and features. He didn't do any camera work then. That era was much more laid-back for TV news, he said.

Big stories included the Democratic and Republican conventions, floods, political coverage and the second Sacramento bombing by the Unabomber in 1995. He joined a week-long road trip following actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the campaign trail in his first run for governor.

As the station's movie reviewer, Mumm covered the Academy Awards five times. He interviewed stars including Morgan Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank and Reese Witherspoon.

Mumm will retire May 27, at the end of the spring ratings season. He now plans to focus on writing plays, teaching classes and directing performances at RPA Studio's Little Theatre. He teaches voiceover classes, acting and film history.

In his decades-long broadcast career, he's watched technology grow and change. Cameras are much smaller and recording with videotape or digital video, rather than film, allows journalists to do more with stories through editing and to use more creativity. That also can take more time. Working in news is no longer as laid-back as when Mumm started.

"Each innovation that has happened in the industry has increased the workload and the intensity," he said.

The Internet has also changed the industry drastically. Reporters are writing for online audiences. Live-streaming video online provides opportunities like the early days of TV, he said.

At News 10, his title is now multimedia journalist. For people like him who started at smaller stations, it's a return to a time when journalists wore many hats – reporting, shooting, editing and sometimes anchoring. Aspiring journalists shouldn't be discouraged from pursuing a career in the industry, he said.

"To me, the opportunities are there. But you have to be skilled at more things," he said. "If that's what you want to do, it's something you will succeed at."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter at The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Mom's mag Kidaround resumes this summer

2011-05-06T00:35:13Z

After a brief hiatus, Kidaround, an edgy local mom's magazine, will start publishing again this summer under new leadership.

Founder Barb Hennelly is passing the reins to columnist Kara Turner – who plans to expand the print magazine created by moms for moms.

Hennelly put out the magazine solo for five years. She recruited moms like herself to contribute stories and photos and do copy editing and bookkeeping.

As publisher, editor and chief graphic designer, she handled all the logistics to put issues together. She also sold ads and managed the business end of the magazine.

The 39-year-old mother of four stopped publishing after the November/December 2010 issue when she found herself stretched too thin. The venture also wasn't making as much money as she'd hoped.

Turner was disappointed when she heard the news. Writing the "Mind if I Ask?" column had helped her uncover another part of herself and allowed her to connect with other Sacramento moms.

"I was really crushed. I just felt like it was the perfect fit for me," said Turner, 40.

She had worked as a real estate agent in Southern California before marrying and starting a family. The column was a way to find out what was going on in other moms’ lives. One column focused on the sense of self moms can easily lose after devoting so much time and energy to caring for their families.

"You're giving to your husband, you're giving to your child – and you're living at Fairytale Town in your yoga pants," she said. "I did that for three years. I knew the ducks there. I knew the roosters. I ate the popcorn."

She contacted Hennelly. The women met and discussed forming a new partnership that would allow the magazine to keep going.

Turner now plans to take over publishing Kidaround with Hennelly serving as her mentor for the next year. Turner's first issue, the “Inspiration Issue,” will be distributed July 1.

The "Fairytale Issue," covering October, November and December, will be distributed Oct. 1. The magazine will resume its bi-monthly schedule in January.

The focus of the parenting lifestyle magazine won't change. Regular columns and departments such as "Lovable" (products people love) and "Hit the Sac" (where to do fun things) will continue. "Meet Mom," which profiled a local mother, will become "Meet the Family."

However, Turner will expand Kidaround from 24 to 32 pages. That will allow her to increase the cover story from four to six pages and add other departments.

Turner recruited stylist Mary Gonsalves Kinney, co-founder of the fashion styling company Sister|Brother, to help plan cover stories, which are fashion-focused features using local people as models. Kinney will also style the models in clothes and accessories from local stores.

Turner is adding departments that focus on the home, cooking and art projects for kids. She's working with local chefs to contribute family friendly recipes for the new cooking department, "What's Cooking." New mom Shannon Seitz will also write a funny yet real column called "Baby Talk."

Another big change: Turner will use a consistent editorial calendar to let readers, contributors and advertisers know what's coming. One issue will focus on parks and recreation, while another will highlight marriage and blended families.

Hennelly's youngest child is going into kindergarten this fall. Hennelly will soon start a full-time gig as a graphic artist at the local design firm Fuel Creative Group.

Without a background in magazines or publishing, Turner realizes she'll have a steep learning curve. Her column is on hold. She and Hennelly are still figuring out how Hennelly will continue to leave her mark on the magazine. She may be a contributing editor, make introductions in the community and do graphic design for the magazine in her free time – multitasking like all moms, they said.

Turner, who has a 7-year-old daughter, said she sees publishing the magazine as a great opportunity to unleash her creative side – a gift from one mom to another. The deal came together at a local wine bar where they met earlier this year.

"When I was driving there, I was so nervous. I felt like something was happening that was bigger than both of us. This magazine isn't really about Barb or I. It's about the moms and the kids," Turner said. "I just knew that somehow, it had to come back."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

HGTV show looking for homeowners, realtors

2011-02-26T01:45:51Z

HGTV's home remodeling show "Bang For Your Buck" is coming to Sacramento for the first time.

And if you're a homeowner who's recently renovated your master suite or an outgoing Realtor who'd like to appear on the show, a TV production company wants to talk to you.

High Noon Entertainment is searching for three homeowners who've had their master bedrooms and bathrooms overhauled within the last three years. Applicants must send photos, renovation costs and applications by March 11.

Executives with HGTV and High Noon Entertainment decided to take the show to Sacramento after all the attention the city and the region have been getting lately. Some of that attention has come from local efforts to live sustainably, including building and designing in environmentally friendly or "green" ways, said High Noon Casting Producer Denielle Johnson.

"There are a lot of interesting things going on in Sacramento right now, as far as design and building," Johnson said.

The Sacramento area has also gotten a lot of recent attention from national reality TV shows, production companies and cable channels.

Last year, the Food Network show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" shot a segment at The Golden Bear in Midtown, and the Travel Channel's “Man v. Food” filmed at downtown landmark Jim-Denny's. Other eateries have been featured on the shows in recent years.

The Idea Factory, a TV production company based in Sacramento, has been spotlighting the Camellia City on "Yard Crashers," "Turf War" and two other DIY Network shows over the last few years.

A crew from High Noon Entertainment, which is based in Denver, will be in town in April to film "Bang For Your Buck."

Johnson said she's looking for fun, enthusiastic and energetic homeowners from a wide range of backgrounds and ages.

"We really strive to have a good time on this show," she said. "We are definitely looking for a diversity of spaces, a diversity of people."

The renovations should cost $20,000 and up and include both bedroom and bathroom. Additions qualify as renovations. The production company will choose three renovations with similar budgets.

Individual homeowners and couples in the Sacramento area can apply. Single homeowners should recruit a friend, relative or design expert to interview and appear on the show with them so they can play off each other, she said.

"I think it's more fun for them anyway," she said. "They're less likely to feel intimidated if they have company."

On the show, the homeowners lead a tour of their renovated spaces. Then a local real estate expert and a design expert walk through discussing the renovations and the returns that could be expected on the investments.

The homeowners watch the experts talk about their home on a closed-screen TV.

Interested homeowners should send in photos of themselves, before and after photos of the master suites, and the cost of the projects as soon as possible. Realtors who can appear as guest experts are also being sought.

Johnson will set up calls to interview people by phone after getting two-page applications that discuss the renovations.

The whole process should be easy and fun, she said.

"The application is not meant to be brain surgery. You're meant to have fun with it," she said.

To apply, e-mail Denielle Johnson at djohnson@highnoontv.com or call her at 303-872-8721.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Bee cuts 32 staff positions

2011-02-11T01:43:27Z

The Sacramento Bee announced its decisions on 32 staff cuts Thursday.

Early in the afternoon, management was still in the process of notifying those who are being laid off after an undisclosed number of employees took buyouts. The employees' last day will be Friday, Feb. 18.

"Our goals were reached with a combination of voluntary and involuntary methods," Bee Community Affairs Director Pam Dinsmore said.

Nine people will be leaving the newsroom, and a full-time critic job will become part-time. Jobs were also cut in advertising, circulation, support, finance and building services.

It's too early to say what changes will be made in the paper to accommodate the staff loss, she said.

Several people working in the newsroom kept their jobs after others agreed to take buyouts amounting to two weeks' severance pay for every year worked, up to 40 weeks.

The staff cuts will bring the number of jobs lost at the paper to about 387 since 2008. Bee employee numbers will drop to 754, with about 168 in the newsroom.

Health care writer Bobby Caina Calvan was among those who accepted buyouts. He's worked at the Bee for about five years. He was a general-assignment reporter before taking on the health care beat two years ago.

Calvan said he was happy to take a buyout. He will be heading to Laos through a fellowship from the International Center for Journalists and then freelancing while he contemplates his next career steps.

"It's unfortunate that the industry has fallen on such hard times," he said. "I still consider journalism to be a fine and noble profession. It's unfortunate so many people have lost their jobs, and that so many people like me have had to reassess their futures because of all these cutbacks and setbacks."

Newsroom mood 'grim' over impending cuts

2011-02-05T01:55:42Z

The mood in The Sacramento Bee's newsroom has been grim this week after its parent, the McClatchy Company, announced another 32 jobs will soon be cut.

Management notified 32 people on Monday that they were facing layoffs unless others agreed to take buyout packages. Dozens of people have since been asked to consider accepting buyouts that amount to two weeks' severance pay for every year worked, up to 40 weeks.

Their responses are due by 10 a.m. Tuesday morning. Announcements about the layoffs are expected soon after, Bee Community Affairs Director Pam Dinsmore said.

"We're calling it a job elimination, so it means those jobs are going away," she said.

Newsroom employees are still "reeling" from the news, said features writer Niesha Lofing, Guild unit chair.

"We're really worried," she said. "It's terrible having to see people make these gut-wrenching decisions again and again."

From the Newspaper Guild unit, the Bee plans to lay off 12 people, including two reporters, one artist, one content developer, two copy editors, three page designers, one graphic designer in the advertising department, an outside ad assistant and an ad account manager. A full-time critic job will become part-time.

Jobs will also be cut in circulation, support, finance and building services.

The cutbacks will bring the total number of jobs lost at the paper since 2008 to about 387. The Bee closed its regional newspapers in 2008. In the newsroom, 50 jobs have been cut in the last two years, Dinsmore said.

Bee employees will number 754 after the cuts. There were 177 people working in the newsroom as of Jan. 20.

Some people have already turned in response forms to accept the buyouts, but still have time to change their minds. Others were still evaluating the company's offers Friday.

A continued reduction in newspaper ads and the size of the paper has concerned employees like Lofing.

One of the worst things about the staff cuts is how helpless employees feel as they watch coworkers leave the paper, she said.

"When you cry on the way to work – not for yourself but because your colleagues are so upset – it's a terrible feeling," Lofing said. "All I can do is write the stories and hope the advertising comes in."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Trio unveils California Northern

2010-12-09T01:10:02Z

A bold new magazine has launched in Sacramento.

California Northern has been kickstarted here by two brothers and a friend. Former reporter Casey Mills, English professor Richard Mills and graphic designer Paul Barrett plan to fill the twice-yearly, glossy-print magazine with in-depth literary journalism, literature, poetry, essays and photography focused on the culture, history and environments that create the region's unique identity.

The trio hopes to produce a magazine that hasn't been done here before.

"We're trying to be sort of a New Yorker or a Harper's for the West Coast," said Casey Mills, publisher and editor in chief. "I think a lot of the high-level, long-form journalism and cultural criticism comes out of New York and Washington, D.C.

"It's such a shame because California has such a rich culture and complex environment that isn't explored very often in a deep and thoughtful way," he said.

They're hosting a public release party for the magazine's second issue Thursday night at the Avid Reader, 1600 Broadway. Issue 2 went on newsstands in early December.

The magazine is based in Sacramento, where Mills works part-time for an environmental consulting firm. Once a reporter for the Contra Costa Times and BeyondChron.org, a political news website, he spent a few years away from journalism but missed the field too much. That's when he, his brother and Barrett saw something missing among California's current crop of magazines.

The magazine's executive editors are his brother, who teaches at two South Bay community colleges, and Barrett, a former book designer getting his master's in Creative Writing at St. Mary's College of California in Moraga ~~San Francisco State University~~. With two of the founders based in the Bay Area, the magazine launched its first issue last June with a San Francisco release party.

All three write for the magazine and share editing duties. Barrett, who's also the art director, handles design. Working in his Land Park home office, Casey Mills oversees everything else not related to editorial, including ad sales, business licensing, subscriptions and mail.

He met Barrett, an Orange County native ~~a Seattle native~~, in Seattle while working for a planning commission. The Mills brothers grew up outside Redding.

They've brought aboard Jesse Nathan as poetry editor and Karlene Barrett (no relation to Paul Barrett) as "Notes from the Field" editor, plus two copy editors.

Everyone volunteers their time. While there's not yet much money to pay contributors, Mills said he expects to soon start applying for grant funding after recently becoming fiscally sponsored by Heyday Books. Their goal is to find grants for specific projects while using ad and subscription revenue to operate, like San Francisco-based investigative magazine Mother Jones.

The founders hope to make the magazine a quarterly eventually. The debut issue's first 500 magazines quickly sold out, and another 1,300 printed soon after is nearly gone. About 2,000 copies have been printed for Issue 2. The magazine is available at Barnes & Noble, Borders, independent bookstores like the Avid Reader, and through subscriptions.

Each issue will carry copy and photos from several regions of Northern California. The magazine's coverage area spans from the coast to Nevada, as far south as Fresno and Monterey and ranging to the Oregon border.

"We hesitate to draw distinct lines because it's such an amorphous region," Mills said.

The magazine has a website to give readers a sample of what they can find in the magazine. However, the real product is print.

Mills and his partners believe the online market is good for quick information delivered directly to readers. But computers and electronic reading devices aren't good mediums for in-depth stories and packages that marry words with art in a "cohesive format," he said.

"Computers -- they're not lovers. They're fighters," Mills said.

People who spend a lot of time with an article want to have something that's visually beautiful and physically enjoyable to hold, he added.

"The print edition just offers you something online can't," he said. "I really feel there's room for both in this world."

Photo 2, left to right: Founders Paul Barrett, Richard Mills and Casey Mills. Photos by Kate Sawyer.

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. Follow her on Twitter @SuzanneHurt.

Tollywood movie shoots in Sac

2010-12-08T03:13:17Z

An Indian film company spent some time in Sacramento recently shooting scenes for a love story, with Capitol Mall standing in for the streets of San Francisco and Placerville standing in for Brazil.

Wide Angle Creations is a production company based in South India, whose film industry, Tollywood, is the counterpart to North India's Bollywood.

The company came to Sacramento to work on the film "180," which features Siddharth and Priya Anand. Siddharth, who goes only by his first name, is also in Disney's first Southern Indian movie "Once Upon a Warrior."

In "180," he stars as a successful San Francisco-area doctor who falls in love, marries and encounters trials and tribulations in life.

Like many Indian movies, "180" is a musical romance. Some of the singing may have happened in Sacramento, but Kris Hemenway, a line producer for the movie, couldn't go into too much detail.

"They have done little pieces of song just about everywhere they've gone," Hemenway said Tuesday.

Scenes have been shot in India and Malaysia. But the film takes place mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The name Tollywood is said to predate Bollywood and was reportedly coined in 1932 by an American engineer who introduced talkies to India. “Tollywood” was his name for the budding film industry located in Tollygunge, a suburb of Calcutta or Kolkata in West Bengal.

In the same way that Kolkata is exotic to U.S. residents, California is mysterious and alluring to those living in India.

In addition to the Bay Area, other Northern California cities and the region’s natural beauty are also highlighted, from honeymoon scenes shot in South Lake Tahoe to rescue scenes shot on the American River in Coloma.

"We're kind of their exotic locations," Hemenway said. "They shot from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe and probably got (some of the most) beautiful places on the planet."

The movie is set for release early next year in Tamil, Telugu and English in theaters in India and the United States.

Sacramento's Capitol Mall plays a pivotal role at the start of the movie. On Nov. 28, a quiet Sunday after Thanksgiving, Sacramento Police closed down the entire mall and the crew set up wrecked cars and police cars for a car accident scene where the movie's lead woman meets the doctor she later marries.

The accident allegedly takes place in San Francisco, and the Emerald Tower at 300 Capitol Mall doubles as the woman's workplace. The director really liked the look of Capitol Mall and the striking fall colors there, Hemenway said.

The production company chose to shoot some scenes in Sacramento and El Dorado County because of the locations themselves and because the people here are so friendly, Hemenway said.

"Sacramento PD - they are phenomenal," said Lucy Steffens, head of the Sacramento Film Commission. "They are one of our best resources when it comes to filming."

At least 50 to 70 extras were used here. Cast and crew returned to Sacramento last Saturday to shoot scenes in the Old City Cemetery. Cast and crew dined in Target's parking lot. The director worked hard to keep nearly 40 Sacramento County Jail inmates and their orange jumpsuits out of camera range while they worked in the cemetery, Steffens said.

Many scenes were shot throughout El Dorado County. Various locations there have appeared in dozens of movies, including a river scene in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." The area has stood in for more exotic locations at other times as well, with Highway 50 posing as Europe's Autobahn in car commercials and Placerville depicted as Japan in "Memoirs of a Geisha," said Kathleen Dodge, executive director of the El Dorado Lake Tahoe Film & Media Office.

Placerville was a strong candidate for location shooting for the recent movie "Knight and Day" starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, but the crew shot those scenes in the Los Angeles area instead, Dodge said.

So perhaps it's not such a stretch to hear that historic downtown Placerville is playing Brazil in "180." Other scenes were shot in a private home, Chuck's Restaurant in Placerville, El Dorado Hills Town Center and more.

"We're all complaining about how our money's leaving the country," Dodge said. "Here's a situation where we're bringing money in from another country. It doesn't get any better than that."

Photo of Old City Cemetery by Chris Fryer. Photo of 300 Capitol Mall by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

More hyperlocal news coming to area

2010-11-23T02:51:21Z

The Sacramento region is about to see even more hyperlocal news coverage as TV station News10 and AOL's Patch.com roll out new media sites nearly simultaneously.

Sacramento's ABC affiliate, News10, and its website, News10.net, are preparing to launch 30 hyperlocal news sites in early 2011. Patch.com flipped the switch on its first site in suburban Rosemont on Thursday and plans to start 11 more sites in Davis, the suburbs and the foothills within the next year.

The sites add to a recent proliferation of online media offerings in the area.

"News10 is now getting down deep into the hyperlocal news business," said Tim Geraghty, vice president of the News10 Information Center.

The TV station's hyperlocal webpages, which will be known collectively as MyNeighborhood or MYNE, will feature a mix of news produced by staff, bloggers and community contributors, as well as anything relevant provided by News10.net. Two full-time staffers are being hired for that effort, but others working in the Sacramento and Stockton newsrooms will also pitch in.

Five sites will be created for Midtown, East Sacramento, Land Park/Pocket Area, South Sacramento and West Sacramento. Half will be spread out in the greater Sacramento area, from the city to El Dorado Hills and western Placer County. The rest will be in outlying areas from Auburn to Stockton and Modesto. Some communities may have their own pages, but others will share pages.

The pages will offer an outlet for community-oriented content, much of which is already coming into the newsroom but wouldn't appeal to a wider audience, Geraghty said.

"Our content will appear there, along with other content that people have not seen from a local TV station before," Geraghty said. "This gives us a chance to have a very narrow interest on a lot of pages."

Nearly a dozen people will work for the station's digital sites, which include News10.net, MyNeighborhood, sports, MomsLikeMe and mobile news and weather sites. The hyperlocal sites are expected to be launched during the first week of 2011.

"Patch may hire some very good editors," Geraghty said. "But we already have a 50-plus-year relationship with this community."

AOL bought the Patch news and information platform for $7 million in June 2009. This year, the company vowed to spend at least $50 million to expand the network. Patch has grown to 401 sites and is expected to reach 500 by year's end.

Sacramento State 2008 journalism grad Cody Kitaura was hired to work as Rosemont Patch’s editor. He worked as a reporter at the Elk Grove Citizen for a year and a half before joining Patch.

AOL will launch Patch sites in Fair Oaks, Elk Grove and Carmichael by the end of the year. The company is in the process of hiring for sites expected to open next year for Davis, Folsom, Granite Bay, El Dorado Hills, North Highlands, Citrus Heights, Roseville and Rocklin, said Alex Gronke, Patch.com's regional editor.

At Patch.com, a local editor manages each site and produces original stories, along with contributions from freelancers, a sports editor and a calendar editor. Community contributors can post photos, events and announcements. The goal is to have at least three to four original stories each day, Gronke said.

"It's the old version of the newspaper in a small town, where one person would go out and gather all the news across the beats," he said.

Patch equips local editors with laptops, iPhones and cameras. The editors work out of their homes, rather than in newsrooms with other journalists. Editors with a range of backgrounds have been hired, from those with only one year of working at a small community newspaper to experienced journalists who've spent their careers working at large newspapers.

Regional editors like Gronke, who is relocating from Oakland to Davis, try to overcome the absence of newsrooms through phone call meetings and workshops where journalism skills can be shared.

Advertising dollars have shrunk for large metro papers that provide international, national, regional and local coverage. Local online advertising is growing. Media outlets are banking on the expectation that advertisers will be more interested in niche local markets. At Patch.com, stories may range from a high school fundraiser or the hiring of a new principal to animal stories and craft sales.

"It's the kind of thing that doesn't matter a lot to anyone outside the community, but matters a lot to the people that live there," he said.

Patch philosophy is to focus on smaller communities. The Elk Grove and Roseville sites will be two of the largest Patch sites in the country. Patch has no plans to start a site for Sacramento.

"How could one person cover Sacramento?" Gronke said. "It's too vast a geography."

Photo of Cody Kitaura, editor of Rosemont Patch, provided by Patch.com. Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter covering business and development for The Sacramento Press.

Bee to cut 25 jobs

2010-01-13T03:58:42Z

The Sacramento Bee and other McClatchy newspapers are making another round of job cuts.

The Bee announced Monday it will cut 25 people by month's end, while McClatchy newspapers including North Carolina's News & Observer and The State in South Carolina announced additional layoffs. The total number of layoffs at the country's third largest newspaper company was not available.

Reporters will not be among those cut at The Bee, although the paper will lose a photojournalist, two copy editors, two designers and two others in the newsroom, said Pam Dinsmore, the paper's community affairs director.

"We've made the decision that the reporting staff — that's not a place that can go down in any numbers," Dinsmore said.

Currently, 71 reporters work in The Bee's newsroom and Capitol Bureau, and total newsroom staff numbers 197, she said.

Bee management will offer buyouts to trim positions in four departments: 16 in audience development and membership services, one in human resources and one in advertising, in addition to the seven newsroom cuts. Employees will be offered a maximum of 40 weeks' pay, depending on how long they worked at The Bee, Dinsmore said.

"It's a pretty generous severance package," she said.

The Bee will lay people off to meet the goal of cutting 25 by Jan. 29 if enough buyouts are not taken. These are the fourth round of cuts in about 18 months. McClatchy cut 15 percent of its workforce last spring. Before that, the company had already cut more than 4,000 positions, or a third of its employees, in about a year.

On Monday, The Bee also jointly announced it will team up with Capital Public Radio over the next year to offer a series of stories exploring Sacramento's attempts to pull out of the recession. The two news agencies will coordinate the project, which they described as the first of its kind for Northern California. Reporters will work on stories for their own agencies rather than collaborate to produce joint stories.

“We’re looking forward to this ongoing collaboration with Capital Public Radio," said Joyce Terhaar, The Bee's managing editor for content, in a prepared statement. "We each bring different expertise to the partnership that augments what we offer readers online."

The Bee lifted a wage freeze last month and has hired three people since November. Two journalists, one from the Los Angeles Times and the other from the Boston Globe, joined the editorial board this month.

McClatchy owns 30 daily papers and dozens of non-dailies, among other interests.

A representative of the Bee's Newspaper Guild unit could not be reached for comment.

McClatchy profits grow

2009-07-22T05:43:33Z

Sacramento-based McClatchy Co. on Tuesday announced a surge in second-quarter earnings following the latest round of company-wide downsizing.

More cutbacks are still in the works to staunch a continued loss in revenue. Next week, members of the editorial employee union at The Sacramento Bee, the company's flagship, will vote on a proposal to use accrued vacation days rather than face unpaid furloughs this year.

However, a small amount of hiring is still taking place.

Net quarterly profit rose to $42.2 million, up from $19.7 million in the second quarter of 2008. Per-share earnings grew to 50 cents, up from 24 cents for the same period last year, according to the report released Tuesday by McClatchy.

The news was met with a spike in the value of McClatchy stock, which leveled off at 74 cents a share — up 20 cents — by the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday.

The "hard work" of restructuring and cutting expenses has led to the earnings growth in the midst of the recession and turbulence in the newspaper industry, according to Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive officer.

"Our challenge in this extremely tough environment is to stabilize cash flow, reduce debt and continue a transition to an integrated multimedia company," he said.

"Looking ahead, we know that economic slowdowns do not last forever, and our 152-year-old company has been successful by taking a long-term view and staying true to our strategic plan," he said. "We are working to put ourselves in a good position to weather this downturn and to create value for all of our stakeholders."

Second-quarter revenues dropped to $365.3 million, a 25.4 percent decrease from 2008's $489.7 million. Although ad revenue of $283.7 million marked a 30 percent decrease since this time last year, the loss of ad revenue this year has been slowing slightly since at least April.

The growth in earnings followed a 15 percent workforce reduction in the spring. McClatchy had already cut more than 4,000 positions, or a third of its employees, in about a year.

McClatchy currently owns 30 daily papers and dozens of non-dailies, among other interests. In May, the Bee lost 128 positions, including 29 in the newsroom, or 11 percent of its workforce, said Pam Dinsmore, the paper's community affairs director.

The paper has been able to make a few hires, including eight people in advertising and a new business editor, she said. The ad positions had been cut, and those who left were contacted about the jobs.

Someone also has been hired to fill a capitol bureau opening, and the paper's attempting to replace an opinion editor, said reporter Ed Fletcher, who chairs the Bee's Newspaper Guild unit.

In another move that could offset expenses, the paper has entertained an offer to buy its two-level parking garage after someone approached the Bee. No deal was made on the structure, which was built to allow additions for office space or other uses. But management would consider other offers, she said, adding that selling the garage isn't part of any cost-cutting plans.

"It's not like there's a for-sale sign out there," Dinsmore said.

Employees, including the entire features staff, have been moved from the newspaper headquarter's third floor to the second floor. Management has talked about using the third floor as a conference center for staff. Dinsmore said she hasn't heard anything about the possibility of leasing the third floor out to someone.

The Bee is now opening up its Eleanor McClatchy Center — known to employees as "the Bee Hive" — to neighborhood and community groups free of charge. The center holds an 80-seat theater and a conference room.

The Bee is considering additional cost savings. Guild members have agreed to vote next week on "vacation burn down," or using all vacation they earn in the next six months, as well as five more days of vacation accrued previously — and all by the end of the year. Bee management said such an agreement would prevent a week of unpaid furlough days, Fletcher said.

If the union agrees, everyone else at the paper will get the same deal, including management, he said. The Guild contract expires at the end of the year. In the last few months, all employees also have taken 6 percent pay cuts, and the Bee has capped pension plans at current levels and frozen 401K matching.

"I would say higher profits are good. But it would feel a lot better if it didn't come on the backs of workers who didn't have to take paycuts or see their 401K plans obliterated," said Fletcher.

Staff cuts have impacted the newsroom's climate as well as coverage. Editorial staff were cut from features, sports and the metro section, and regional coverage was the biggest loser, Fletcher said.

Reporters don't have as much time for investigative stories, Fletcher said. Many reporters and editors' assignments have changed in recent months. The movie critic is now covering general features and entertainment, including music reviews. The TV critic writes a new wine column.

Layoffs have stopped. But people are still leaving the paper on their own.

"People aren't real sure about whether the jobs will be there a year from now, or two years from now, or three years from now," he said. "Morale has bounced back slightly. But there are a lot of people looking over their shoulder or looking for work."

Suzanne Hurt is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press. She can be reached at 916-804-2856 or suzanne@sacramentopress.com.