After posting record-setting film production revenue in recent years, it appears that New York saw a slight slowdown, at least in spotwork, due in part to the six-month-long strike by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) against advertisers. Exactly how much production was lost? It’s too soon to say; film commissioners for New York City and New York State haven’t completed tallying the official numbers for 2000. Even once those numbers are in, cautions Patricia Reed Scott, the film commissioner for the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, they might not tell the whole story.
"I can’t give any great insights into the before and after without the numbers," says Scott of the impact the strike had on production in New York City. "And I’m not so sure they’ll be that informative, because this is a business that has it’s own cyclical turns—with, or without, a strike."
Scott notes that the volume of commercial production in the city is always fairly stable, and has stayed that way for quite a while. But "my anecdotal sense is that it’s generally slow this year—it’s flat or a little lower than flat. That’s what I expect the numbers to say [when they come out]." Regardless, she asserts, the city is still in the midst of a production boom, thanks in large part to the features and TV shows that are filmed in the city. (However, possible strikes by the writers and/or actors against the feature/TV studios loom this year.) "We’re still at record-breaking levels above anything we’ve ever done before," relates Scott.
Pat Swinney Kaufman, the deputy commissioner and director for the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development, says that her office was still "busier than ever," even with the strike. "This is a guesstimate," she stresses, "but my sense of it is that during the strike we had fewer commercial calls … We still had commercial calls coming in, and with TV growing so much in New York, it’s not as if we suddenly had a vacation. We were extremely busy all year long."
Spot Perspective
Charlie Curran, an executive producer in the New York office of Crossroads Films, bicoastal and Chicago, says that regardless of the official numbers in the wake of the strike, his company has been enjoying two back-to-back good years. "I’m looking at it, maybe, through rose-colored glasses," he concedes. "I keep hearing people saying, ‘We’re not busy, we’re not doing this, we’re not doing that.’ … But, when all is said and done, we’ve had two really solid years here." Recent work from Crossroads that was lensed in New York includes "Dot-com," a Norelco spot shot aboard a Staten Island ferry, by Crossroads director Simon Delaney, who is repped by Cowboy Films, London, via Darcy, New York; and Lycos’ "Wise Guy," directed by Chuck and Clay—a.k.a. Chuck Bennett and Clay Williams—out of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulous, Boston. "Wise Guy" was shot on location in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Clifton, N.J.
Curran admits that the strike did have some effect on his shop, albeit minor. "We were picketed on a few occasions," he says. "And work did slow down for a bit. But by August, we were very busy again."
Curran reports that Crossroads, which has shot everywhere in New York—from a Manhattan loft space to a swimming pool on Long Island—films about 30 percent of its work in New York, a figure which Curran calls "pretty consistent" over the last few years. A native New Yorker, Curran says there’s something you get in his home town that you can’t get anyplace else in the world. "I’ve lived [in New York] my whole life," he states, "[There are] parts of Boston, Toronto, Philadelphia that all kind of look like New York. But in New York, [you get the] New York characters, the way people dress, the way people talk."
Lou Addesso, president of Creative Film Management International (CFM), New York, is also a native New Yorker. Born and bred in Brooklyn, Addesso says that he goes to Los Angeles every 10 days. "But any chance I get to shoot in New York, I take it," he adds. Like Curran, Addesso observes that while the industry might have suffered during the strike, CFM didn’t. "There’s always the doom-the-day people," he says. "The glass is half full, or the glass is half empty—with me, it’s always half full." Recent spots that CFM shot in New York include "Dr. J" for the ESPN Classic Sports channel, helmed by Nick Cassavetes, via Wieden+Kennedy, New York; and Dos Recycling’s "Guest Speaker," lensed by Ted Demme for Grey Worldwide, New York. Addesso estimates that 30 percent of his work is shot in New York.
CFM, which represents a number of directors who work on feature films and episodic television, does not have a Los Angeles office, although some of its directors are based there. Addesso says that he’s been tempted to open an office in Southern California, but hasn’t yet. "I’ve been fighting it all along," he recounts. "I like having my office in New York. If I do need an office in L.A., I rent one."
Addesso doesn’t believe the strike will have any long-term effect on the industry. "I think the hurt was for the six months," he opines. "For the guys that were able to last through that, things are back to normal. … For the people that have survived it, I think this is going to be good, if not better.
"Any time any little thing happens, people get scared," he continues. "There’s work out there. You’ve got to fight and go out and get it. And those people that fight through rough times, they get the work. … Right now I have [director] Ted Demme for the next four or five months, because he just finished a feature. I have to go out and get work. I don’t personally look at whether there’s a strike. I don’t want to hear that. And there is work out there—[you just have to] go out of town, you go to places. Whatever you have to do."
At Compass Films, New York, partners/executive producers Kathrin Lausch and Lise Ostbirk admit that the strike "was a nightmare" for them. Agencies they worked with tried to fight the problem in three ways: by asking Lausch and Ostbirk to go someplace where they could do a non-union shoot; by giving them boards that were vague location-wise; or by giving them boards that had no people in them. "I just got really sick of looking at animals talking," says Ostbirk. "Everything from toilet paper to Polaroid to carpet-cleaning—all these products you really don’t associate with animals."
Ostbirk and Lausch explain that they were able to get through the strike in part because they have location experience. "The Grand Canyon, Patagonia, Iceland, South Africa," Ostbirk notes. "That’s us." During the strike, in some cases at least, exotic locales could substitute for actors." She estimates that about 50 percent of Compass’ volume is location based; with the remaining 50 percent split pretty evenly between New York and Los Angeles. Recent New York work includes the New York Lottery’s "Red Hot Spot," out of Grey Worldwide, New York; and Captain Morgan’s "Hot Tub," "Microphone" and "Headquarters," also out of Grey. All four ads were helmed by Compass director Kenan Moran.
But Lausch concedes that Compass’ on-location reputation wasn’t always enough to save the firm during the strike. "We bid a ton of New York jobs that died," she says. "Eighty percent of what we bid died. It was just out of our control. Did it affect us? Absolutely. Did we expect to shoot more? Yes. But did we shoot more than the year before? Yes. So we grew—but, obviously, we’re always hoping to grow."
Ostbirk says that she actually prefers shooting in New York to Los Angeles. "I see [shooting in New York as] much easier than L.A.," she explains. "Most L.A. producers come to New York and think it’s so cumbersome. The practicalities of parking, what do you do with trucks, things like that. We’re like, ‘No problem!’ Because we’re so used to those problems, we don’t even see them as problems anymore. I think New York is a very movie-friendly city."
With the strike behind them, Ostbirk and Lausch are relieved. "We’re happy that we made it out alive," they conclude. "You hear a lot of bad stories about companies, and it’s nice to say to people, ‘Hey, we made it through it.’ "
With commercial production apparently stabilizing in New York, the film commissioners are hard at work to bring more work to both the city and the state. Some New York City Council members have expressed concerns about film shoots causing significant disruptions in local neighborhoods (see separate story, p. 1). To make filming in the city more palatable to area residents, Scott at the Mayor’s office is negotiating the relationship between them and the industry. One approach is the so-called hot-spot list, which details specific locations that have been overshot by all kinds of production, to the point where they’ve worn out their welcome. These are given a furlough from shooting for a time. "We have had so much production for so long that we’ve collectively worn out our welcome in most of Manhattan and a large share of Brooklyn," notes Scott. "People don’t want to be a standing set every single day. So let’s not get them so angry that they’ll ban production altogether, which they can do. You want to be able to come here again? Well, we’ve been here too much already. Give them a break. There are other choices.
"It’s going to take a great effort by the industry, along with this office and the community, to not just give lip service to how things are done," Scott continues. "Attention to how trash gets taken away, to how you don’t put generators under peoples’ windows and don’t park the extra crew cars where you’re not supposed to park them. You don’t do a lot of things without fully informing and explaining and modulating the effect upon that locality. … I think it’s time for everybody to take a much more responsible look at that—to not just agree with us, then go out and do what they [want]. Do it correctly in the street, or we won’t have it anymore."
Kaufman at the Governor’s office is also doing her part to attract more film work to New York State with a new marketing package. "We wanted a marketing piece that says, ‘We’re the center of the world here; lots of things happen here," she explains. The new package showcases what the state has to offer filmmakers. A large section of the brochure is devoted to commercial production—an indication of New York’s attitude toward ad work. "There’s a tendency of film commissions around the world to only focus on movies when they talk about production in their areas—maybe sometimes mentioning TV," says Kaufman. "But we see commercial production as just as important, just as valuable, just as vibrant. And you can see we devote serious real estate to it in this book." r
