Bo Keister

Film facts

• The film and television industry is expanding at a rate of about 20 percent annually. Entertainment-related goods and services are the United States’ No. 1 export.
• Gov. Tim Kaine says the film and video industry had an economic impact of $221 million in Virginia in 2005, a new record and a 14 percent increase from 2004. The western part of Virginia posted $4.4 million in film and video activity.
• Two feature films, “Mission Impossible III” and “Flags of our Fathers,” shot scenes in Virginia in 2005.
• SOURCE: Virginia Film Office

FAIRLAWN -- Bo Keister was about to leave for Tampa, Fla., where he will spend about two weeks doing really nasty stuff to witch doctors and surfer kids.

"You never get to play a nice guy when you're my size," said Keister, an actor who is built along the lines of a football player. Currently he is sporting a beard, which he grew for the role of first mate to a drug runner.

In the independent horror film "Buried at Sea," Keister's character will kill an island witch doctor and bring down a curse on everybody aboard the drug-running ship, including young male and female surfers who have innocently hitched a ride.

Keister doesn't question the plot -- just the location. "And why am I not filming it at Virginia Beach?" he demanded.

Keister, who studied at the American Studio of Acting in North Carolina and acted and produced infomercials in Los Angeles for the past six years, is back home in the New River Valley. He'd like to bring his work with him.

He wants to recruit investors to create a revolving film fund to help bring independent film companies to Virginia.

Virginia has an abundance of places that could serve as movie locations, he said. But despite the boosts to local economies that followed Steven Spielberg shooting parts of his "War of the Worlds" in Rockbridge County, and some filming of "New World" in Jamestown, Keister said, Virginia has not stepped up with incentives as have other states.

Keister has taken his proposal to several state representatives and to Explore Park in Roanoke, where he has an ally in Bootie Chewning, who has long been involved in promoting filmmaking in Western Virginia. She is working to establish an Explore Park Film Center.

If the revolving film concept gets going, she said, "it would be wonderful and then everyone would benefit from that." She is working on getting more names of people who could be hired for movie crew activities, which is the first thing film companies ask about, she said.

Mary Nelson, communications manager with the Virginia Film Office, said Wednesday that she thought the idea of a revolving fund "complements or supports" the work her offices does to land larger pictures.

"I think it's a wonderful idea because the independent producer, I think, is going to be tremendously importnat," Nelson said.

Keister's day job is as vice president for sales and contacts for Smiling Bulldog Enterprises, which sells tailgate rugs produced by Bob Harman, who runs a textiles museum in Pulaski.

"But I'm still acting. I'm still involved in the movie industry," Keister said.

He has appeared in "Remember the Titans," "Black Dog" and "Vampires Anonymous," among other movies. The experience gives people like him and Chewning an edge in dealing with independent moviemakers, he said.

"Accountants don't understand the film industry. Accountants only understand numbers," he said. "We know what sells, we know what works, and what an industry company needs to have to make a film work."

If he gets enough investors, Keister said, his film fund would invest in movie projects.

A film company would submit its package and agree to film at least 80 percent of its movie within a prescribed radius of the western end of Virginia, and spend at least 60 percent of its gross budget in the community where it films.

The fund would get back its investment plus a percentage to help it keep growing. Paybacks would be quick, Keister said, because independents typically have 30-day shoots and sometimes 21-day ones.

Investors "are going to make money, but they're also going to build an industry," Keister said. "This industry could be a big solution to an ailing economy."

As more independent companies come to Virginia, he predicted, the bigger studios will get interested "because they go where the work is."

Keister said he learned in California that in planning a film "you have 'Catch-22s' all over the place."

The main one is that filmmakers need to have the production costs in hand before getting a film distribution deal, and distributors will not sign on until the production money is there. A letter from the revolving fund would show the money is there and give the filmmaker time to obtain distribution before any money is actually paid.

Keister said he thinks Hollywood is out of touch, remaking 1970s TV shows as feature films.

"Independent film is where it's at," he said. "I want to be the person to lead that into Virginia."

Keister can be reached by e-mail at vthokiebird@hotmail.com.