When talking with Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, one almost expects her to turn blue and keel over, so rarely does she pause for breath.

She speaks with the same intensity that has catalyzed the remarkable rebirth of her once-moribund office, appropriately situated in the Ed Sullivan Theater Building. Her mission? To bring film and TV producers back to New York.

Ms. Oliver, who was formerly head of Bloomberg’s sizable radio and television operations, has stirred things up in the film office, and thank heavens. As she bluntly puts it, “Dealing with this office was a bureaucratic nightmare.”

When she arrived in 2002, all work was being done on electric typewriters. For the entire staff, there was only one computer. Immediately, Ms. Oliver brought the office into the 21st century by appropriating some unused city-owned computers, and by streamlining staff activities, including the all-important granting of permits.

Film companies had been waiting three days for permits; now the requests get turned around in three hours. That’s just the beginning.

The next step was to convince the staff that they were there to help, not to hinder.

These days, the office does everything but provide doughnuts for the cameramen. They provide location services, a Web site that matches apartment owners eager to rent out their homes with interested producers, NYPD personnel when necessary, public outreach to ensure good neighborhood relations, and nearly everything else that could entice film companies to the Big Apple.

They also have lined up significant free advertising, through the use of the giant Reuters and Nasdaq screens in Times Square, on NYC TV, and on the sides of city bus shelters. Recently, commuters awaiting their buses were treated to images of Nicole Kidman in “The Interpreter.” More importantly, the office was instrumental in allowing the production to shoot scenes inside the U.N.

On a shoot last summer, the office handed out free Haagen-Dazs ice cream to 1,200 Upper West Siders to thank them for hosting the shooting of a feature film called “Little Manhattan.” Definitely a cool thank you.

Of more substance is the 5% refundable city tax credit signed into law this January by Mayor Bloomberg for qualified film and TV producers. The credit, which is complemented by a 10% credit extended by the state, is part of a program called Made in NY, which includes marketing credits and concierge services such as the efforts described above, in addition to discounts on hotels and car rentals, and assistance in obtaining office space and in planning premiere events.

The “Made in NY” designation is awarded to films and TV shows that shoot 75% of their footage in the city. The city film office hopes that joining “Hitch,” “Law & Order,” “Sex and the City,” and other hot shows and films will appeal to filmmakers, and that the designation will lend some cachet to New York-made productions.

Why all the fuss? Because the film industry moved away from New York in the late 1990s, and especially after 9/11, and because the industry accounts for roughly 100,000 jobs in the city. The film office claims that the movie and theater businesses generate $5 billion a year. That’s serious revenue.

Production shooting days in New York increased significantly from 15,292 in 1993 to a peak of 22,851 in 1998. (More than 200 feature films are made each year in New York.)

In 2002, the total was a rather dismal 14,858 days. Security concerns were an issue. So was the bursting of the tech bubble, which robbed independent film producers of many potential investors. The trend did not bode well for the health of the numerous unions that serve the entertainment industry, or for the services that have so much to gain from it.

Thanks to the energetic courting of the industry by Ms. Oliver and her office, and to the tax incentives recently handed out, production days are again on the rise, and hit a peak of 23,321 last year.

Though some observers (including The New York Sun) have taken issue with the increased spending of the film office in recent years, Ms. Oliver counters with numbers she said show that in her first year, fiscal 2003, the office managed to make much progress with only a 2.3% increase in spending (from $1.306 million to $1.337 million).

In the past couple of years, the office’s budget has increased more substantially, rising to $1.695 million for the current fiscal year. Ms. Oliver’s team ascribes the jump in spending to the initiation of its concierge services, which they view as having been instrumental in bringing in new business. Ms. Oliver claims that the city has attracted $295 million in new feature film and TV business so far this year, which includes nine TV pilots. The upcoming films “The Producers” and “The Departed” were both filmed in the city, attracted by the tax credits and new services. (And, according to Mel Brooks, the bagels.)

The film office is trying to counter competition from other countries, such as Canada and Australia, and other states. Maryland, Illinois, Louisiana, and New Mexico are particularly aggressive in courting production companies and offering tax breaks. The final straw was the announcement that the movie “Rudy,” about our very own hero-mayor, was to be shot in Montreal. Montreal, for heaven’s sake – where they don’t even like to speak English!

The decline in the value of the dollar has been helpful in the fight for film business, as has the overall improvement of New York’s image. Even the unions have chipped in, offering more flexible work rules and some cost breaks.