N.Y.’s Action Brings Lights, Cameras

When the Academy Award nominations are announced tomorrow, chances are films made in New York will be among the possible honorees. Film and television production in New York City reached record levels in 2006, according to the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting.There were a record 34,718 shooting days on public property for some 276 films, a 10% increase from the year before and more than double the number in 2002, according to the head of the office, Commissioner Katherine Oliver.She added that the industry employs some 100,000 New Yorkers and contributes about $5 billion to the city’s economy each year.It was dark days for movie making in New York when Ms. Oliver took over office in 2002. For example, a made-for-television movie about Mayor Giuliani that was supposed to highlight his and the city’s greatness following the attacks of September 11, 2001, was shot in Montreal.Regarding the Olsen twins’ “New York Minute,” Ms. Oliver said: “We were lucky if they were even here for a minute. They faked New York up in Toronto.”“I understand that for a variety of reasons productions set here have to occasionally film elsewhere,” Ms. Oliver told The New York Sun. “Our job is to make sure that happens less and less.”Not only has it been happening less, more films set elsewhere have been filming in New York City.A recent case in point is “The Good Shepherd,” directed by Robert De Niro. Although not one scene takes place in New York, about 80% of the film was shot at places such as Bronx Community College, Emigrant Savings Bank, the Bedford Academy in Crown Heights, and the Brooklyn Armory.“Our job is to showcase our city and provide a one-stop shop for productions, whether they plan to be here long-term or just for the day,” according to Ms. Oliver.Ms. Oliver points to the Made in New York program, which provides a tax credit, free advertising on bus shelters and phone kiosks, and a vendor discount card for helping to drive the movie industry’s rebound in the city. It was developed in response to tax breaks offered by other cities that were leading to New York-based films being shot elsewhere.Some of the city’s more established filmmakers add that the Made in New York program is an example of the Bloomberg administration’s commitment to building up the industry.“They’ve really rewritten the rules, and now a New York movie can be made on location in New York,” the co-founder of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, current co-chairman of the Weinstein Company, told the Sun.A co-producer of director Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed,” which was mostly shot in New York though it was set entirely in Massachusetts, Rick Schwartz, told the Sun the situation has changed dramatically under Ms. Oliver.“We shot most of ‘The Aviator’ on stages in Montreal for the Canadian tax rebates. Shooting in New York was barely even considered, as the financial and logistical ramifications were both too prohibitive,” he said, referring to Mr. Scorsese’s previous film.“Amere two years later, there was an entirely new program in place from the mayor’s office with incredible tax incentives and, almost as significantly, a sense of, ‘We want you here, and we’ll do whatever it takes to help you,'” he said. “That’s a big change from the days of feeling like a nuisance because you’re shutting down a block in the West Village for the night.”Ms. Oliver said she tries to remain very aware of the “inconvenience” issue.“No one likes to come home and find their block cordoned off,” she said.For “The Departed,” Mr. Schwartz said, “We shot in and around an armory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with arguably some of the most famous personalities in film — Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Matt Damon. During months of shooting — amid a sea of chasidim —there were no paparazzi, no hassles, no obstacles. Just a few gentle questions from a couple of little girls in long skirts if that was the boy from ‘Titanic.'”It wasn’t: They were pointing to Matt Damon.The increase in production has led to more jobs, which are being filled by a better-educated workforce.A former head writer for “Saturday Night Live,” Tina Fey, now the star and executive producer of “30 Rock,” points to the crews as one of the three reasons she prefers working in New York to filming on the West Coast.“The food is good, the crews are smart, and I don’t have to raise my kid in Los Angeles,” she told the Sun.

N.Y.’s Action Brings Lights, Cameras

N.Y.’s Action Brings Lights, Cameras

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