As the Phoenix Film Commissioner, Phil Bradstock knows what the best view from the City Hall building is. It’s a conference center on the 20th floor that looks out over the skyline.
“My job is the conduit for filming in Phoenix, so I represent every department within the City of Phoenix — the streets, police, aviation, you kind of name it,” Bradstock said.
Bradstock, a Phoenix native, started his job as the film commissioner in July 2006 but has developed an additional role for himself. He works with startup tech companies offering incentives for them in Arizona, which he said is totally new.
“Most film offices, they just do film,” Bradstock said.
“He’s got all these little projects he’s involved in. He’s a Renaissance man of sorts,” said Jason Carney, the executive director of the Phoenix Film Festival.
Though he has taken on a new position with the business attraction team, he still grants about 120 film permits a year to companies and productions in the Phoenix area.
Bradstock moved to Phoenix when he was two years old and grew up in Paradise Valley. After graduating high school, he attended Boston College in Massachusetts and graduated with a degree in political science.
After returning from traveling the world, he received a call from his cousin, who was an executive producer of the show “Suddenly Susan.” He was asked to move to Hollywood and get lunches for the writers.
“I went over there and basically just got the writers their lunches for five weeks,” he said. But Bradstock quickly acclimated to Los Angeles.
After “Suddenly Susan” ended, he eventually became a stage production assistant on a show called “Nikki”. Bradstock said the most important job as a stage production assistant was controlling the air conditioning.
When “Nikki” was picked up for a second season, Bradstock realized he wanted to be a production coordinator.
“All of a sudden I went from wanting to go to law school to getting writers their lunches to now production coordinator for a TV show in Hollywood. It was very unexpected,” he said. “It wasn’t anything I had ever really planned on doing, but I just really understood it.”
Bradstock said he gets asked what a production coordinator does and he’ll often respond with “I don’t know. Everything, I guess.”
“It’s kind of like you’re the on-site superintendent for construction projects, so you’re not in the construction office. You’re in a trailer on the site, so that was kind of what I was in charge of,” he said.
He went on to work for Warner Bros. on shows such as “Center of the Universe,” “Hot Properties” and “Presidio Med,” where he met his wife. And after six years, he decided to make his way back to Phoenix.
“This (has) been fun. Time to actually go live life rather than Hollywood life,” Bradstock said. When he returned to Arizona, the preceding film commissioner had left, and the position opened.
“I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got six years at Warner Bros, plus a poli-sci degree. I’m kind of local, so maybe I’ll throw my hat in the ring there, and sure enough, I got the job.”
Bradstock said Phoenix lags behind places like New Mexico and Georgia, where benefits are greater. According to Bradstock, because Arizona does not currently offer tax credit to productions, it takes much more to bring companies to Phoenix.
Kim Wilmot, administrative secretary of the film office’s floor said the incentives were taken away by the state, but Bradstock has been trying to get them back. Wilmot said Bradstock has a calm demeanor, so it is more disappointing than frustrating when projects go elsewhere.
“The pie in the sky wish list is something that will attract the major movies here,” said Bradstock. He said a sound stage in Phoenix would be ideal, but production brings sound stages as much as sound stages bring production.
Bradstock now spends much of his time on the phone, negotiating and trying to understand what producers and location managers want and how to bring those visions to life.
“Movies are made on the phone, not with a camera,” he said, quoting a long-time colleague.
Contact the reporter jdlyons3@asu.edu.
