♪♪
Harbor Island
Studios is a creative hub for everyone in the region
who wants a place to create films, tell their stories,
make their commercial content, get some work experience on a film crew.
It is many things.
- Built in 1911.
This mill stands as a monument to the faith
that its founders placed in the northwest as an industrial center.
- So we've known for a very long time that the film industry
was lacking the infrastructure.
It needed to be a full blown film industry, that we had to have
a production facility in order for filmmakers and film crews
to be able to work, and for us to be able to land the kinds of films
and the kinds of productions that we would like to have in this region.
- Kate and I, we come down to this building
and we walk into the front of it.
We continued walking back, and we couldn't believe
that it was 117,000ft² of building.
And what was really interesting was this sparked
an idea that has not stopped since.
- You know, we don't want to have to watch
any more films about Seattle when we recognize the streets
on screen being Vancouver or Portland.
- We went to Dow Constantine.
We could
literally have not done this without him and the support of the county council.
- Harbor Island, to me, it
represents opportunity and growth.
I could come and shoot something the way that I would,
and all these other places that I've had to travel to to work in the past.
I've worked in cities all over the US and Canada and,
all of them have some version of this. - Harbor Island
really put the region back on the map as a
as a premiere film making city, region, area.
And, and then Seattle had to do something as well.
And that paved the way for the success of the Seattle
Film Commission establishment. -For many years
you know, when I would talk to producers or investors
that I try to bring to Seattle,
they would complain that Seattle doesn't have an actual soundstage.
We now have a place to shoot movies on a large scale,
which is a game changer for Seattle.
We really focus on do we have the capacity to help big productions,
and do we have open doors for the aspiring filmmakers in our region?
- It brings in jobs, whether it's commercial narrative, television, film. - I feel like
it has this huge benefit to local productions because it provides
all of this opportunity for people to work,
and that's really all anyone wants to do is just be working.
- Have some of my famous lemonade.
- I'd like to welcome you to the November 18th, 2025
meeting of the King County Council. - The King County Council,
and made a decision to cut funding for Harbor Island Studios.
And they decided that they were going to make a decision within 24 hours.
- I was shocked and heartbroken.
To be quite honest, and I cried.
- It just feels like the rug was being sort of yanked out.
- Finding out on short notice that the King County Council was not planning
to fund Harbor Island Studios before January 1st was really a shock.
And so then seeing within 24 hours the film community rally to go
tell the King County Council why it was so important to preserve this space.
Oh, be still my heart.
- Raise your hand if you work in film, please.
- In Harbor Island, Harbor Island Studios has provided
2334 unique industry jobs
since opening in 2021 - At a pivotal moment in our creative growth.
My team, when we were ready to build a major set
and expand our production capacity and bring more artists into the fold.
Harbor Island became our blank canvas.
- I was really just impressed
by the people that came together and just moved to fight for their dreams.
- It was really inspiring to be one of the people who went down to King
County Courthouse and watched the testimony of the community,
who all came out on no notice to just talk about
how important this place is to them and to the community.
- I was sitting right here watching every bit of testimony,
and I just could hardly believe my eyes and my ears
because there was our film community in lifetime, educating our council
about the reality of what happens here.
And they won them off.
So now we do need to work on a new model to sustain this place.
- The vote would have gone very different had we not all
rallied and showed shown up, and that was reassuring.
And what that tells me is that we need to continue
to use our voices and to tell our stories.
- It's probably going to be an uphill battle to figure out how to make it work
in a sort of a long term way, but it does make sense to me that
the county should continue to support this space,
because it is going to be a revenue generator.
- Show everyone you know, what happens here at Harbor Island Studios.
That was what was apparent when we spoke to the council members.
They didn't know what was going on down here.
They didn't know that people whose livelihoods was at stake,
that people's dreams were coming true here, that productions were happening.
That could not happen anywhere else.
This place offers something special that most other places,
if not in another place, offers there.
- There is a vibe that this studio has that is pure heart and soul.
The county has gotten this off the ground and given us five years in this space,
and now we need to carve a model out that make sure this is here
for the future, for the film community.