BLUFFDALE — The rural Point of the Mountain city is a far cry from Los Angeles, but that hasn't stopped a Bluffdale-based production company from turning out Hollywood-caliber DVDs.
It's the last place Garrett Batty, president of Three Coin Productions, 1486 Concorde Park Drive, expected to see his film career flourish when he headed for Hollywood as a fresh BYU graduate. Nevertheless, Batty has found success in the Utah film industry and in the road that led him there.
"This is still, in my mind, living the Hollywood dream that I wanted to live," he said. "It's just one step farther in the dream. Instead of being an editor for one movie, I get to produce DVDs for 10 movies a year."
Three Coin Productions puts together menus, bloopers, behind the scenes footage and commentary for DVDs. It has been particularly successful in the LDS market, having been involved with nine of Deseret Book's 20 top-selling DVDs, including "The Work and the Glory" and "Saints and Soldiers."
The company has also put together a small number of its own DVDs, including the HearSay game, Deseret Book's number one-selling game, which teaches memorization and application for LDS scripture mastery verses.
Batty credits the three years he spent in Hollywood with aiding him to acquire the skills and vision that have helped him achieve much of his current success.
"In Hollywood you are surrounded by the best of the best in the industry," he said. "We saw what was down there and wanted to bring the best parts of that back to the market here."
Utahns are often unsatisfied with the available popular entertainment, but they don't want to settle for what they feel is cheap quality, Batty said. He hopes to nullify that complaint by helping to produce clean films that have a high production value.
During the past decade, a number of small companies like Three Coin Productions have taken root in a market that used to be relegated to a handful of big companies in Los Angeles, said Micah Young, a producer at Excel Entertainment.
Three Coin Productions rivals the larger companies in capability and quality while providing services at a much lower cost, Young said. The company's prices are "mean and lean" even by the Wasatch Front standard.
"It's great that they sort of got their feet wet (in Hollywood); they jumped in the fire, meeting deadlines and meeting the quality that is required there, and they brought that back to Utah," he said.
The move to Hollywood was a leap into the uncertain. Batty and his wife set off the day after graduation with big aspirations but no friends or employment waiting to greet them once they arrived.
"You always kind of hear those stories — you don't know where the next job is going to come from, or the next paycheck — that was us," Batty said.
He pounded the streets until he picked up a number of freelance jobs, including editing Disney singalongs. It was refreshing to work for Disney, he said, because he didn't have to worry about the subject matter.
"I was coming from a BYU standard and I wanted to maintain that standard, so there were projects that had to be turned down because of content," Batty said.
Still, Hollywood was not a disappointment, he said. During the downtime between jobs, Batty formed Three Coin Productions, taking its name from one of his senior projects at BYU. At that point, he contracted with HaleStorm Entertainment to produce the DVD for "The R.M."
"It was great because I was able to stop all other work that I was doing and really sink my hands into creating the company," he said.
Momentum picked up as Batty put together DVDs for HaleStorm's next two movies and began working on projects for Excel Entertainment.
On top of enjoying the work, it was nice to be associated with projects that designers at major film houses, including Paramount and New Line Cinema, were impressed with, Batty said.
"These were all independent films with high moral content that were also high quality, and they could compete with any other film out there," he said.
With the LDS projects engaging all of his work time and with the rapid growth of the independent film market in Utah, Batty said he felt drawn to return to the Beehive State. He set up Three Coin Production in Bluffdale last May.
It was hard to leave Hollywood, he said. He still misses the constant energy of being surrounded by the film industry all the time, but relocating to the company's market headquarters has been beneficial — both for Three Coin Productions and its clients.
They're easier to get a hold of for one, said Jed Ivie, postproduction supervisor at HaleStorm Entertainment. The company's proximity enables Batty to confer with clients on a daily basis throughout the production process.
"They're definitely very hard working and very creative, and they'll always deliver what they say they're going to deliver," Ivie said. "They do a great job."
E-mail: sbills@desnews.com