A close-up on Utah's film industry.

• Author: Beers, Heather
• Position: Future Story

IT'S MONDAY NIGHT, 9:00 p.m. Flip to WB, and you'll catch Dr. Andrew Brown (Treat Williams, Hollywood Ending) recovering from the recent loss of his wife, while he and his children find refuge in their new home in Everwood, Co.--a picturesque Rocky Mountain town with an old-time Main Street and stunning vistas.

It's Tuesday morning, 9:00 a.m. Drive down 25th Street in Ogden, and you're likely to catch lights, cameras, trailers, crew and stars in action. It's the set of Everwood, WB's new family drama, and it's just one of four television series that have made Utah their principal shooting location in the past five years.

Utah's film and television industry is thriving, generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue to the state over the past 10 years, according to Leigh von der Esch, Utah Film Commission (UFC) director. The UFC reports that in fiscal year 2002, ending June 30, the state played backdrop to seven motion pictures, six TV series or parts of series, 12 local film and television productions, and 111 commercials, industrial films, documentaries and print projects -- not to mention worldwide broadcasts for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and the internationally acclaimed Sundance Film Festival, which generates more than $30 million annually.

Since the mid-90s, Utah has consistently ranked among the top six U.S. states in film and television production, according to the UFC. Who plays a role in Utah's show business, and how does that impact business for the state? Here's a big-picture look.

The Hollywood Connection

A significant portion of the state's annual film and television production is imported from Hollywood, in part because the industry's movers and shakers are keen on Utah.

Take Don Schain for example. Schain, now a producer with Salt Lake City-based DRS Films, Inc., was sent to Utah by the Leucadia Film Corporation in 1990 to produce a string of films. "I thought about it long and hard. I'd lived all my adult life in places like New York and L.A., and had only been in the Salt Lake airport. Would it be too small and too conservative? I wasn't here very long when I fell in love with the place," says Schain. After Leucadia left in 1996, Schain decided to stay. He has since brought several productions to Utah, including Showtime's Just a Dream, Columbia Tristar's Little Secrets (which hit theaters this August), and the Disney Channel's The Luck of the Irish, and Double Teamed.

Sally Young, an L.A.-based production manager...