West Coast indie outfit, Seattle Pictures has beefed up its executive team with the formation of a Producer Advisory Board, headed by Larry Estes, Scott Rosenfelt and Thomas Lee Wright.

Estes and Rosenfelt have already spearheaded the promotion, marketing and distribution of independent films through their company SearchParty Films. They now team up with production executive and former screenwriting instructor Wright.

Wright, whose most recent film Trade Off was voted Best Documentary at the 2000 Seattle International Film Festival, described the programme as "particularly exciting because it provides a wealth of cyclical momentum we've never had here before."

Actively seeking projects and scripts from the local community, Seattle Pictures aims to raise $15 million to fund the production of three full-length feature films to be shot in Seattle in 2002.

Seattle Pictures was founded earlier this year with the aim of drawing on local artistic potential to develop a major motion picture industry in the greater Seattle metropolitan area.

With the Producer Board, they aim to bring together the artistic and business communities in Seattle in a forum that will showcase the local film talent. Their Film Production Mentoring Program will also provide more than one hundred local young people with the chance to experience all aspects of the filmmaking process firsthand.