CEDAR FALLS - Life can be odd, Scott Smith believes. Raised in Orlando, Fla., his education and career have taken him to Los Angeles, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the Corn Palace in South Dakota, the Amazon Jungle and various other locations around the world. Since 2004, he has called Cedar Falls home.

Smith came to the realization he could live here, away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, during one of his first trips to the Cedar Valley. He was lunching next to a local bike trail with riders passing by. He couldn't fathom miles and miles of trails.

"You don't have anything like George Wyth Park in Orlando or L.A. where you can bike without cars around," he said. "I can't stress how inhumane and hard it is to spend an hour in traffic."

Smith is an independent filmmaker and owner of River Run Productions, a spin-off of Spinutech, a local Web site developer. He spent the previous 20 years working on such media productions as America's Downhill in Aspen, Co., producing faith-based videos and conferences, and taping interviews of Holocaust survivors for director Steve Spielberg's Shoah project.

He took a global route to Cedar Falls. After several trials and errors, he determined he could make his living here.

"I can be here in Cedar Falls, but I can work around the world," he said.

Smith attended the University of Miami. He says growing up in Orlando before Disney World was probably similar to growing up in Cedar Falls.

"There were a lot of kids. We played football or baseball. Disney was not a part of my world. We were having fun, like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. It was a simple life. Miami, on the other hand, was the real world. I walked on to the football team and walked off after shoulder surgery. Miami had a good film program. I got turned on to production my junior year. I then decided that everyone who graduates goes to L.A. or New York. So why not go to L.A. now? New York sounded too cold."

He finished school in the evenings at Columbia College in Hollywood, made contacts, worked as a photographer during the day, mostly taking shots of sports teams. He was fortunate to work for a fashion photographer and briefly for a newspaper. He enrolled in a few workshops at the American Film Institute. At age 25, he landed a job with Motivational Media in Burbank. He was on top of the world.

"I thought, 'Now I'm on track'," Smith said. "Shooting 16mm film and editing 16mm film and on the side writing my own screenplays. Just enjoying life. Then the earthquake in Whittier happened in 1987. A few people were killed. I had gotten married, had two stepkids, and the event terrified my wife. She wanted to move right then. I sent out a bunch of resumes and ended up back in Orlando."

Smith joined Ligonier Ministries, producing its radio program "Renewing Your Mind" while freelancing on the side. He eventually produced and directed the ministry's videos and television programs. He learned computers, video and multicamera directing. He also became vice president of Teaching Resources.

"It was a stimulating place," he said. "I got to connect history, politics, the spiritual, arts and culture."

However, after 9/11 and turning 40 years old, he felt the need for change.

"I always had friends encouraging me to be more creative," he said. He eventually formed Scott Smith Productions, producing promos, commercials, TV, a program on stay-at-home-dads, and interviewing individuals who had come back from Afghanistan. He made enough to balance his books, pay bills, pay people. When a job fell through in Michigan, he lived briefly in Chicago "but it was difficult with a dog to find a place to rent."

His stepdaughter was living in Cedar Falls, married to a local pastor. Smith had visited her during business trips to Chicago. She suggested Smith and his wife move to the Cedar Valley.

"Here was my opportunity to live in a small town, close to the kids," Smith said. "We moved in June of 2003."

Finding a job, however, turned out to be a "resounding thud. People thought maybe they couldn't afford to hire me with my experience. Someone recommended I meet (local illustrator) Gary Kelley. We had a wonderful talk. He said he hoped I stayed. Seeing him in his studio, working at the level he was, planted the seed that I maybe could make it work here."

Still not earning a paycheck, however, Smith worked three months for a local car dealer.

"It was hard but probably was the single biggest turning point because it was all about sales. That was the key I was missing going out on my own. And I learned selling cars wasn't what I wanted to do.

"I applied for a freelance job back in Orlando. I was too young to give up on my dream of working in film. I went back to Florida for a month to work on infomercials. It turned into six months because I kept getting work. My wife's up here and it was like we were dating again. She eventually said I could continue what I was doing based out of Cedar Falls, kind of like the Gary Kelley model. I moved back here in 2004. I bought a house, invested in equipment."

He also met Marc Reifenrath of Spinutech. The two spoke about joining forces. When Spinutech moved into its current quarters in downtown Cedar Falls, Reifenrath offered Smith operating space in November 2005.

River Run Productions was born on Jan. 1, 2007. Smith produces the video for the Web sites, a growing trend over the past several years, and continues to do his own thing. He recently returned from a 10-day shoot in New York City, Charlotte, N.C., and San Francisco.

For a man who has interviewed former Tampa Bay quarterback Doug Williams, a former Mafia family member, a champion surfer and writer John Eldredge; played catch with Jack LaLane in Marina Del Rey; took a team photo of the Los Angeles Rams; met Alice Cooper and Mr. Rogers; acted in several commercials and traveled all over the world, Smith appreciates the synergy of everything that is happening in the Cedar Valley.

"All I've been able to do here never happened to me in L.A.," he said. "I'm not sure why. 'Fields of Opportunity' is what the signs say when you drive into Iowa. It's easier to get beaten down in the larger cities, plus it's so much more expensive. Technology has helped change the opportunities for everyone, allowing creative people anywhere to do things."

Smith acknowledges that Iowa winters can be long and hard, but "from a creative standpoint there are fewer distractions here. Oftentimes between business and creative you have a little friction. Both need each other. Iowa works harder to (make it work). Cedar Falls definitely does. Cedar Falls is a unique spot around the country, not just within the state. You've got the UNI-Dome, people understand the yin-yang of business, of creativity and of how you keep it here. The bike trails add to this. People appreciate those perfect weather days in Iowa more so than other places.

"I've been fortunate to travel to all 50 states. I still get to travel. I've been able to get a taste of everything. I've always been drawn to the smaller town because it#'s so much more humane. The Gallagher-Bluedorn (Performing Arts Center) is nicer than anything in Orlando. People support the arts here."

Smith said if you do good work, you can make a name for yourself anywhere.

"I've been told there's a brain drain here. People get educated here but don't believe they can make a living so they move away. It's just as easy to have e-mail or phone call exchanges and to get on a plane here. Companies are looking for incentives to move to places like this.

"Boomers realize once you've eaten in nice restaurants, or skied everywhere there is to ski in Colorado, what else is there? They want to have a quality of life. In Cedar Falls you have affordable housing, you#'re a short drive from Chicago or Minneapolis. There's a plethora of good restaurants. I have zero commute - I live four doors away from my stepdaughter's family and I can walk to work."

Smith films and produces local work, including projects for artist Paco Rosic and Mudd Advertising, yet remains involved internationally. He's worked on an AIDS documentary and has been to Russia, Jamaica and South Africa. Blue Bunny Ice Cream and Electrolux are clients. He produces an online cooking show and

has done a Brazilian missionary story for a client in Minneapolis.

"I live in a small town but I'm doing projects globally," he said. "I named my company River Run Productions because the Cedar River is only two blocks away, but it eventually flows into a larger body of water. I'm doing everything that I could want to do. This is never going to be Hollywood Midwest, but the American Dream is basically here. The equipment is here, the personnel's here. The actors are here, or you can get them here. The potential is here. That's the excitement about Iowa - it now has tax incentives for film."

Smith said there can be a carnival element revolving around the arts "because it#'s a nontraditional way of thinking. When an artist is first starting out, he can be viewed with a little bit of suspicion. I've found Cedar Falls to be very accepting. It's been exciting to see it all come about.

"I always love to meet people from outside of here. I met someone from Huntington Beach in town and asked, 'What is the biggest difference between there and here?' She said 'If someone in Iowa tells me something, I believe it's true. If someone in California tells me something, I generally believe it's not true.'

"When you live in New York or L.A., you feel like you're in a meat grinder," Smith said. "I'm doing everything that I could want to do from Cedar Falls, Iowa."

Contact Nancy Justis at newsroom@wcfcourier.com.