By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — The year 2021 turned out to be a pretty good year for filmmaking in Nebraska, despite the pandemic, according to the State Film Office.
Bruce Springsteen shot a Jeep commercial in Webster County, episodes of “RV There Yet” were filmed at several state parks and an Italian-American horror-romance film used sites near Fort Robinson and Scottsbluff.
Laurie Richards, director of the State Film Office, said that no economic impact estimates were done on the projects but that film crews used no state incentives and spent locally on meals and lodging.
The crew of the Italian-American film, “Bones and All,” really enjoyed the food catered by the Dairy Sweet in Crawford, Richards said.
Other projects filmed in Nebraska last year included:
- “Heartland Docs,” a reality show in its third season about a husband-wife veterinary team from Hartington.
- “Ghost Hunters,” which shot an episode at Crofton’s Argo Hotel, which is reportedly haunted.
- “Daft State,” a soon-to-be-released psychological thriller directed by Omahan Chad Bishoff that was shot in west Omaha.
- A promotional shoot for Hewlett-Packard, filmed at the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Last year, as part of the state budget, state lawmakers launched a program to offer grants of up to $400,000 for feature films that are shot in the state and meet certain criteria. The program was aimed mainly at luring production of a film on the life of Chief Standing Bear, the Ponca chief who won a landmark court ruling in 1879 that recognized Native Americans as “persons” under the law.