Maui Film Office Industry Meeting

Harry Donenfeld, head of the Maui County Film Office, held an open meeting at the Kahului Community Center on September 26th for all producers, directors, casting agents, location managers, camera operators, and actors involved in our islands' film industry. The meeting was held to discuss the future of the film industry in Maui County and to gather more information about the types of services, equipment and talent that is available for film productions here.

“Maui has had a lot of press lately about being a great location for filming and we’ve been getting a lot of inquiries,” Donenfeld said. “We needed to gather everyone together in one spot and get an idea of what we have that’s available for these productions.”

Mayor Alan Arakawa spoke at the meeting about his intent to expand the film and production industry on Maui and is reaching out to mainland and international production companies to do their productions here. He recently made a trip to Korea to encourage professionals in Korea's fast-growing film and tv industry to bring their productions to the valley isle. The Mayor also announced that the County has recently approved a $7 million dollar fund to promote more production on Maui. Where exactly this funding will be allocated is still yet to be determined. There is discussion that the County will be supporting the development of a soundstage on Maui that will intice professional tv and film production from all over the world. Mayor Arakawa assured the attendees that some of the funding will also go toward local Maui productions.

Teena Rasmussen, Maui's Office of Economic Development Coordinator, praised Donenfeld for the experience and enthusiasm he brings to the Maui Film Office. Donenfeld said he would also like to produce more sporting events on Maui. He is currently working with others to plan an upcoming windsurfing and kiteboarding event on the island.

The meeting was standing room only as Maui's production professionals poured in to hear the future plan's of Maui County's administration. The crowd applauded when Donenfeld said that the goal of Maui's Film Office is to encourage production companies who come to Maui to hire the talented professionals who live here. He added that we have a plethora of videographers, sound engineers, location scouts, editors, grips, producers, scriptwriters and actors have made Maui their home and that the County supports increasing job opportunities for our production professionals.

The meeting included a question and answer session and attendees were asked to fill out a questionnaire to provide the County information about all the crew and equipment resources that are available on Maui. Rasmussen thanked Akaku Community Television for filming the evening's meeting and for providing television production education to members of Maui County.

Mayor Arakawa, Teena Rasmussen and Harry Donenfeld

Me and Lou Diliberto, one of Maui's best cinematographers

Maui Ocean Center

It was a hot September day and my daughter-in-law, Una, and I wanted to find a cool place to spend the afternoon with my 16 month-old grandson, Kainalu. Since Kainalu recently got a book about boats and learned how to do sign language for boat, i thought it would be fun to take him to Ma'alea Harbor and then to Maui Ocean Center.
The dock at Ma'alea Harbor is currently under construction so we weren't able to get a close look at most of the boats, but Kainalu seemed to enjoy the view anyway!
Maui Ocean Center was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. Kainalu was mezmorized and delighted by the turtles, jellyfish, manta rays, sharks and fish and so was I! There was lots of interesting sealife including the sharp-horned unicorn fish and the frogfish that camouflages itself to blend into the coral and rocks around it.
The Ocean Center staff gave us lots of fun ocean facts and there were cool interactive games like the one where you can record yourself trying imitate a dolphin's call. The amazing aquarium provided us relief from the heat and watching the spectacular sealife proved to be very relaxing.
Kainalu especially enjoyed sitting next to the tank with the oversized Emu fish that swam by his head as he made the swishy sign language with his little fingers for "fish".

Baldwin Beach Notice

As you may have noticed, there are a lot of things going on at Pa'ia's Baldwin Beach lately. The County has hired contractors to refurbish the large pavilion and it's looking great. It is due to be finished in October. The beach's public showers and restrooms are currently non-existent due to recent sand erosion. There are port-a-potties, but don't expect to shower off the salt at Baldwin Beach anytime soon. I asked the lifeguards if they knew when the showers would be replaced but they didn't know. Tony, the lifeguard, told me the beach erosion is a result of the summer tradewinds and south swell that pull the sand into the ocean. The winter north swells pushes the sand back onto the beach. He said the little bump the northshore received last week has already started the reverse of the sand erosion process. I understand that this process happens every year but to me it seems the past couple of years erosion is happening more and more at Baldwin. I could be wrong, but I don't recall the erosion being quite so severe in the past 17 summers I have lived on Maui.

When Tony, the lifeguard, and Jared, the lifeguard-in-training, were shoveling sand under their lifeguard tower, I asked them if the reason was to protect the tower from erosion. Tony said no, they were planting sod under the tower in order to have a nice grassy, shady refuge. Something they like to call "life guardening"!

Neverminds at Charley's

I was stoked to hear the Neverminds were finally coming out of their recent hiatus to perform at Charley's last Friday, August 26th. I was not disappointed.
I once again talked Cynthia Clark into hitting the town with me - being the social butterflies that we are : ). We ventured to a birthday party in Pa'ia (happy birthday, Paul Franco!), cruised through the ocean side town's "Fourth Friday" activities and parked ourselves in line at the famous Charley's saloon for the Neverminds show. There were people in line behind us that said they left LA to vacation on mellow Maui and couldn't believe how packed the town was. Personally, I love all the positive activity happening in Pa'ia on Fourth Fridays these days. The past three weekends I was in Pa'ia and it felt like a ghost town. Maybe it was the back-to-school lull after the somewhat busy summer visitor season I was feeling recently.
It was kind of fun to feel Maui's northshore pulsing again. Perhaps it was the anticipation of the upcoming south swell that hit last week (biggest south waves of the year). Seems like people who live on Maui feel the force of the waves rumbling inside them before the waves actually hit the shore. Pa'ia's festive mood and the music from the various street musicians permeated the warm ocean air.

Charley's was full before the Neverminds ever started. Cynthia and I waited in line outside the bar for about 30 minutes, causing us to miss the fashion show at Lophi across the street. We were thinking we'd buy tickets early at Charley's and check out the Neverminds after the fashion show. But we soon realized it was now or never to catch the elusive rock band as the doormen were only letting a few people into the show at a time. The guy yapping behind us in line was starting to give me claustrophobia as he inched closer to us in the barely moving line. I was about to bail when the muscle-bound bouncer finally gave us the green light. We were in and the band was about to start!
The Neverminds are known as one of Maui's best cover bands and I agree. Andy Church, lead singer and guitar player, was in his usual high performance mode, singing the covers like they were his own. The band sounded tight and the crowd was pumping. Putting out very fun dance jams were Nils Rosenblad on lead guitar, Dave Vickers on bass & vocals and Shawn Coullahan on drums. They jammed hard for hours playing goodies from bands like The Clash, Modest Mouse, U2, The Vines, The Killers, Green Day, Weezer, Sublime, Cheap Trick, Nirvana, Lenny Kravitz, and The Sex Pistols. I hear the drummer was new to the band, but I didn't notice. They sounded really good, and I am pretty particular about the bands I like.
By midnight Charley's was packed with lots of surfers, kiteboarders, windsurfers and random others - all smiling and bouncing around to songs like "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" and "I Want to be Sedated". When the dance floor got too packed for my taste, I headed to the back of the house where a friend and I enjoyed the rocking club from our comfortable booth. Now, I love reggae as much as the next Maui resident, but it is always nice to hear so many rock and alternative favorites performed by the Neverminds crew. They go hard and they play songs amazingly similar to the original bands. Everyone (except the guy thrown out for sneaking in the bar's back window) was smiling and feeling the positive vibes of really great dance music.
The Neverminds don't play in public very often - usually only at very private upcountry parties. If you get a chance to see them, make sure you arrive early and wear your dancing shoes. They will rock your slippas off.