East High gears up for 'High School Musical 3: Senior Year'

Fame is coming to East High once again this month as Disney will be filming the third flick in the popular "High School Musical" series.

Tuesday East High officials held a pre-production meeting, laying out which parts of the schools will be used and laying out the final schedules of which parts of the building crews will use.

Unlike "High School Musical" and "High School Musical 2," which were filmed over the summer and spring break, respectively, "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" will be produced while school is in session.

Jason Olsen, spokesman for Salt Lake City School District, said staging, setting up for the production, will start in a couple of weeks and crews will start shooting toward the end of the month.

He said a sizable portion of the movie will be shot either before or after school. Some filming will be in the gym, since by then P.E. classes will be held outside.

"There should be no major disruptions ... they are going to be working in and around students," Olsen said.

Olsen said overall it's a lot of work but the benefits to the school are amazing. Aside from donations to the school from the last two productions, another plus is the public relation benefits for the school's image.

Since the initial movie was made, visitors have come in droves to East High just to see the school. And last year the school's drama program put on a production of "High School Musical" that sold out every night.

State officials credit the Motion Picture Incentive Fund for the ever-increasing number of feature films produced in Utah over the past few years. The now $5.5 million fund offers a rebate, capped at $500,000, for every production filmed in the state.

Marshal Moore, director of the Utah Film Commission, said the fund is an incentive to attract film productions.

He said that fund is emptied each year and if there was more incentive money available Utah would see many more productions. According to the commission Utah saw more than 40 feature films and one network television series shot in the state in 2006-07, generating $99 million in economic development dollars.

"High School Musical" 1 and 2 brought $8 million and 180 jobs to Utah when they were being filmed. Now "High School Musical 3" alone is projected to spend $13 million. Moore there are a number of reasons Utah is a great place for movie making with a number of built-in incentives. Crew depth is key. The state has built up a talent pool and crew base so multiple productions can be under way at a time due to the high number of films that have been shot in the state over the years. Also the diverse topography of the state offers cities, deserts, mountains and lakes, snow and summer. And, Salt Lake City is a 90-minute flight from Los Angeles.

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com