By admin 
If you keep an eye out while watching “Love Island: Beyond the Villa” or director Ang Lee’s upcoming feature “Gold Mountain,” you just might see a place you recognize.
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That’s because South Lake Tahoe and other sites in El Dorado County served as backdrops for more than 25 film and media shoots in the past year. Those productions generated an estimated $8.7 million in direct spending during filming in the county, according to data gathered by the El Dorado County Film Commission.
The area appealed to filmmakers and photographers because of its varied landscape, according to Karen Garner, director of planning and building for the county.
“The number one thing is just the diversity of landscape and views that we have,” she said.
“El Dorado County, stretching all the way from Sacramento County, Folsom to South Lake Tahoe, we have everything from suburban, new communities to very rural, mountainous communities,” said Garner. “We have ag, rivers, and river rafting…just a wide variety of locations that a filmmaker may want to use.”
The productions, including the Amazon Prime TV show “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and the upcoming National Geographic docuseries “Secrets of Bears,” benefit from the county’s film commission, according to Garner. The office, led by commissioner Kathleen Dodge, helps producers navigate local permitting and locate ideal locations for shoots.
“She definitely helps them through the permit process, which isn’t always that complicated, but it can be,” Garner said. Say you have some action movie that has explosions and other crazy stuff going on, that all requires coordination with local fire departments.”
In February 2025, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors eliminated funding for outside agencies, including the film commission, which was managed by the county Chamber of Commerce.
A restructured program was introduced later that year, and while the county continued to fund the commission, it hoped the program would eventually become self-funded, according to a June 2025 report submitted to the Board of Supervisors.
New data collection requirements were put in place, intended to help the county quantify the benefits of filming and media production. Numbers from the past year showed that an estimated 525 crew members came to work in El Dorado County. During the same period, productions booked at least 1,221 hotel, Airbnb or other rental rooms in and around El Dorado County, the commission found.
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Hospitality was just one of several industries that received a boost from film and photo shoots, according to Garner. Productions often hired local caterers, and workers dined at nearby restaurants, she said. Other expenses, including transportation, supplies and the hiring of local talent generated additional spending in the county.
A recent major source of spending was “Gold Mountain,” director Ang Lee’s upcoming feature about two Chinese American women set during the Gold Rush. A “major chunk” of the film’s $30 million budget was spent in El Dorado County, Garner told the Board of Supervisors during its meeting Wednesday.
The production also filmed in Sacramento and Amador counties, and was among the projects approved for California’s expanded Film and Television Tax Credit Program. The state more than doubled annual funding for the program last year, from $330 million to $750 million, in an effort to keep film and television productions and jobs in California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the “Gold Mountain” set July 7 while promoting the expanded incentive program. State officials said 170 projects approved during the program’s first year were expected to generate $6.6 billion in direct production spending and nearly 35,000 cast and crew jobs across California.
The production put out a casting call for more than 1,000 local extras, Garner said, and spent nearly $500,000 at a lumber business for set-building materials. During 50 days of filming, Gold Mountain spent around $110,000 per day, according to estimates provided by the commission.
Another lucrative project: photo still shots by L.L. Bean in Sugar Pine State Park. For seven days, the production spent an estimated $35,000 while in El Dorado County.
“Love Island: Beyond the Villa,” a spin-off of the hit reality series that follows competitors after they leave the show, shot for five days at a private location in South Lake Tahoe. That production spent an estimated $60,000 a day, the commission reported, and brought in 70 crew members.
Over the next year, the county said it would work with the Chamber of Commerce to find other ways to capture revenue from filming, including an updated fee schedule and coordinated marketing and branding.
Currently, the county does not receive significant permitting fees from shoots on private property or state parks. Because the majority of projects shoot at Tahoe-area state parks or privately-owned sites, little revenue from film permits flowed back to the county.
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