Providing pictures of the planes: the phone began ringing at Air Hollywood Sept. 12 as producers realized airports would no longer be available for location shooting. (Small Business).

SOME of the most expensive and challenging aspects of filming, be it for the big screen, broadcast TV or cable markets, have always been location costs and availability.

And increasing rental rates, combined with tougher requirements for obtaining filming permits, have contributed heavily to the ongoing runaway production crisis.

For film producer Talant Captan, these hurdles, particularly when it came to filming aviation-related scenes, became too much to bear. When he attempted to get clearance a few years ago to film a movie called "Ground Control" at Los Angeles International Airport, the bureaucratic hoops he was forced to jump through, combined with the airport's negative view of his script, set the stage for a new business venture.

"They didn't like my script," said Captan. "They said it had the potential to make people afraid to fly."

Captan knew he wasn't the only producer in town frustrated with the difficulties of filming on airport property. The alternatives for aviation sets were limited: spaces were small, equipment was rudimentary or outdated, and most often production houses had to pay to have bulky props -- airplanes, cockpits and terminals -- delivered to the filming site, a costly enterprise regardless of the circumstances.

So, in the fall of 2001 he launched San Fernando-based Air Hollywood.

"Like anyone would do in that position, I thought about how to get revenge," said Captan, the company's president and CEO.

Today Air Hollywood can provide everything a producer might need for an airline or airport scene. That includes a 110-foot, 777 wide-body jet or a transportable 737 narrow-body jet, a 200-foot-long concourse, security checkpoints, baggage counters, jet ramps, fully operational cockpits and even departure and arrival monitors in foreign languages to support international story lines.

Business is good: Captan said first-quarter revenues for 2002 were $300,000 and he projects year-end figures of about $1.5 million, more than half the $2 million it cost him to launch the company just over 11 months ago.

That's not to say Captan didn't experience some turbulence getting the company off the ground. He officially opened his doors in August, just weeks before Sept. 11, when terrorists turned three commercial airliners into weapons of mass destruction, shutting the airline industry down for days and changing the way it did business probably forever.

"It scared the hell Out of us," said Captan, a Burbank resident. "My wife was sitting in front of the television on Sept. 11 just weeping, and all I could do was prepare for having to virtually shut the company down."

Eventually though, Captan realized airport closures and tighter security measures meant there had to be directors out there left high and dry mid-production.

Sure enough, a day later, the morning of Sept. 12, he heard from the producers of Fox's "America's Most Wanted."

"That call led to other calls as producer after producer ran into difficulties trying to get access to the airports, not just in Los Angeles but across the country," said Talent.

Even airlines themselves had to halt the use of airports for their own advertising purposes and turned to Air Hollywood for help. Jet Blue and American Airlines are both clients.

Zachary Kahn, an assistant location manager for 20th Century Fox, said he chose Air Hollywood to film scenes for the upcoming feature "Daredevil," starring Ben Affleck. The company shot all its aviation scenes for the film at Air Hollywood in just one day, which, said Captan, cost about $10,000.

Kahn said the draw was simple: space availability.

"Air Hollywood is one of the largest aviation set companies on the market," said Kahn. "They have a lot of space around the stage itself and that's very important, and they have sufficient parking for equipment. And, because they are in an industrial area, there are fewer roadblocks in terms of nearby residents."

New security measures at airports across the country helped boost sales: the tougher the restrictions became, the more difficult it was for location managers to get past the gatekeepers, so many production companies have opted to avoid airports all together.

"Any business like Air Hollywood that gives producers more control over their shots, especially given what's going on at the airports, is a significant advantage for the industry," said Morrie Goldman, vice president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp.

The challenges for Air Hollywood now may be keeping up with the growing list of clients who can't use airports they might have in the past. Among those clients are MCI, Radio Shack and TV programs such as "JAG," "Providence," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Judging Amy."

Feature film productions include "Like Mike," "Not Another Teen Movie," "Path to War" and "Full Frontal."

Producers of the upcoming NBC-TV series "She Spies," a sort of Charlie's Angels-meets-Buffy action/adventure, recently took over the studio for a week.

"It's hard to accommodate everyone because of date conflicts," said Captan. "We try to squeeze them in any way we can. Sometimes we have to work around the clock."

The logical long-term plan for combating the scheduling challenge as well as the ongoing runaway production issue is to expand. Captan said he intends to open up a second location in the San Fernando Valley by year's end. In 2003 he hopes to open two more: one in New York and another in Toronto.

Spotlight

Air Hollywood

Year Founded: 2001

Core Business: Providing airline and airport sets for filming projects

Revenue for First Quarter 2002: $300,000

Employees in 2001: 4

Employees in 2002: 4

Goal: To open three new locations, one in the San Fernando Valley

Driving Force: Need of TV and film producers for inexpensive, accessible locations