Though she now lives in Los Angeles, California, Aneiszka Sea was born in Plainfield, a small town in central Vermont with a population of 1,236, according to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau.
Aneiszka set out from Plainfield to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional artist at 17 years old after being inspired by her mother, a model, and her father, an actor. Now, she models, acts, dances and produces music along with being an equestrian.
Being born and raised in a small town was the reason she decided to shoot a portion of her music video for her single “Good Enough For Me” at the 1776 Tenino Bar in the downtown area of the Thurston County town.
“Small towns always have a special place in my heart,” Aneiszka said. “I’ve lived in Los Angeles now for the past 17 years, and of course I’m always dying to get back to nature and community, and that’s the thing I love about small towns — that sense of community.”
Many locals were cast as extras in the music video including Thurston Economic Development Council (EDC) Rural Program Manager George Sharp, EDC Director of Strategic Alliances Aslan Meade and former Tenino Mayor and newly elected Thurston County Commissioner Wayne Fournier.
“I really wanted unique individuals and characters and people to create a sense of authenticity,” Aneiszka said.
She added Tenino’s sense of community lines up well with her music.
“I like music that makes people feel empowered and happy and want to move, and I think it kind of has that same vibe,” Aneiszka said.
Other artists have already reached out to her asking about the location where she was filming.
“They’re like, ‘Where are you?’ and I’m like, ‘Let me tell you about it,’ and mention that Tenino is such a phenomenal location because you guys embrace the arts and welcome the arts,” Aneiszka said. “That’s something that’s so different than what you experience in a lot of other areas. … I love that the community here welcomes the arts with open arms.”
She hopes to have the music video wrapped up and released by next month, though her single “Good Enough For Me” can be found on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube.
Aneiszka added she plans on returning once the rainy season ends to film more at the Tenino Quarry Pool.
Both Meade and Fournier talked to The Chronicle during the music video shoot about working on growing the region as a creative economy for artists.
“My boss, Michael Cade, even 20 years ago, he was promoting the creative economy as an essential part of our economy,” Meade said.
He added Cade laid the foundation for Meade and Sharp to do their work in the EDC and develop creative districts.
The music video’s director, Eric Belgau, of Olympia, was the one who helped get Aneiszka interested in shooting in Tenino in the first place, Meade said.
Belgau, primarily a screenwriter by trade, was born and raised in Washington. He moved and lived in Los Angeles for about 13 years for work before eventually moving back to Olympia.
“(Belgau) is committed to this and wants to prove this concept that we can shoot in places like Tenino,” Meade said. “He flew in Aneiszka, who's the talent. He flew in the crew from Hollywood, and he used Dancing Goats (Coffee) for the craft services and a local makeup artist to do her makeup.”
Local companies were even able to provide filming and lighting equipment to use for the production.
Fournier added while Tenino might never be the site of a major blockbuster production, there are a lot of smaller budget productions out there looking for good filming locations still.
“Small, in some of these peoples’ minds, is a $3 million or $4 million budget, and that can have a huge impact in a place like Tenino,” Fournier said. “And we can be very accommodating to the film crews coming up here from LA.”
He added Aneiszka and Belgau aren’t the first to film in Tenino, as scenes from the 2018 film The Mountain starring Jeff Goldblum and Tye Sheridan, scenes in the Netflix series Firefly Lane and multiple Blippi productions have all been filmed in Tenino in recent years.
“We’re starting to build a resume, and we want people to understand there’s a lot of economic benefits to doing stuff like this,” Fournier said.
Belgau also spoke to The Chronicle and stated he is always a huge advocate of filming in Washington.
“It’s got wonderful character and it used to be a huge filming location before they invented tax credits in Vancouver, and then all the production moved up there,” Belgau said.
He added with the coming of the digital age meaning more digital content and Washington still being the home of major tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft, the state is primed to become a film production hub once again.
“It hasn’t because it hasn’t been competitive with film subsidies,” Belgau said.
Now, Washington is starting to get competitive with those subsidies, but the current obstacle is building the infrastructure other areas filmmakers frequent already have.
“One of the things is demonstrating you can come to a town like this and get a certain kind of reception,” he added. “That there are people who are going to champion the creative economy, people who are going to support what it takes to actually put a shoot together and be your local cheerleaders, because you can’t go to a location without that support and expect to succeed.”
Belgau added working in smaller communities like Tenino has advantages because of the sense of community.
“You don’t have that in a studio environment where it’s all business, it’s all what I can get out of it, it’s not what I can put into it. And as creatives, our relationship with our craft is all what we can put into it,” Belgau said.
