The seventh annual Tribeca Film Festival wrapped earlier this month. And while there were many notable films ranging from short form to feature length, arguably the most memorable development at the fest didn’t transpire on the big screen but rather during an opening day ceremony in which New York Gov. David A. Paterson signed legislation that dramatically expanded the Empire State film production tax credit program for theatrical motion pictures and television programs. (Commercials continue to have their own separate incentives package in the Big Apple).
New York felt the need to up the incentives ante in order to remain competitive with so many other states that have done so in recent years, including neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut. Estimates are that New York has lost a significant piece of film and TV business to neighboring states over the last few years–a loss that has cost the New York State economy an estimated $750 million.
The recently enacted New York legislation greatly enhances the state’s incentives program for feature films and TV programs, increasing the 10 percent below-the-line tax credit for such projects to 30 percent. The caps are being raised from $60 million annually to $65 million next year, $75 million in 2010, $90 million in 2011 and in 2012, and $110 million in 2013. This also represents a two-year extension to the program, which in its original form was set to expire in 2011.
Already the initiative is paying dividends. ABC Television Studios plans to move production of the primetime series hit Ugly Betty from Los Angeles to New York, translating into significant gains in jobs and revenue for the Big Apple. Specifically the series is headed for Silvercup Studios in Queens, where its pilot was filmed in ’06. Ugly Betty’s return to Silvercup “will bring a much needed economic boost to Queens and to New York City,” said Silvercup CEO Alan Suna.
The Ugly Betty coup underscores an observation made just a week or so earlier by Pat Swinney Kaufman, executive director of the N.Y. Governor’s Office for Motion Picture & Television Development. After Gov. Paterson signed the legislation, Kaufman noted that she had just come back from Los Angeles where she made studio visits and met with producers. She described them as being “ecstatic about the [incentives] increase. We expect to get a bumper crop of new productions, which is good news for New York’s film community and our economy.”
Infrastructure Though the new program doesn’t directly apply to commercials, there is a ripple effect that will likely benefit spots in New York–improved production infrastructure as a result of more business coming into the state. Spotmakers–including those involved in new media content for advertisers–will be able to tap into that infrastructure in terms of deeper talent and resources.
John Johnston, executive director of the New York Production Alliance (NYPA), noted that his group “has worked closely with the Governor’s Film Office, and with specific legislators to reinforce the importance of the film production business to New York. We are pleased and grateful for this significant increase in support of an industry so vital to our economy. This program renews New York’s competitiveness. Combined with our world-class creative base, expert crews and iconic locations, New York is a more attractive production option than ever before.”
Dan Glickman, chairman/CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, added, “I applaud Governor Paterson and the New York State legislature for their vision to grow motion picture and television production in New York State, which is proving to be a positive economic stimulus that continues to create thousands of new employment opportunities for New Yorkers.”
On the jobs front, Nancy Fox, national director of policy and strategic planning for the Screen Actors Guild, related that although the original New York incentives package for features and TV was successful, employment for New York SAG members fell dramatically after Connecticut and several other states introduced similar but more generous tax credit programs. Fox affirmed that SAG “greatly appreciates” New York State’s expansion of its filming stimulus program.
In signing the bill, Gov. Paterson stated, “It is vital to our state’s economy that New York remains a premier destination for film and television productions. The entertainment industry plays an important role in fostering economic growth by promoting our state on movie and television screens around the world, and creating thousands of jobs for New Yorkers.
Marquee attractions Getting back to the Tribeca Film Festival, which ended on May 4, there were appropriately enough several films screened that participated in the Empire State film production tax credit program. Plus there were a number of spotmakers whose work gained valuable exposure at the fest.
On the former score, the opening night film Baby Mama from Universal–directed by Michael McCullers and starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Sigourney Weaver–benefitted from the original film production credit program. So too did the neo-noir thriller The Caller directed by Richard Ledes; the drama Life in Flight directed and written by Tracey Hecht; and The Wackness, a narrative piece directed by Jonathan Levine.
As for work from commercialmakers, consider director Steph Green who is repped for spots by Little Minx, part of the bicoastal/international RSA family of companies. Her 11-minute piece New Boy won Best Narrative Short Award at Tribeca. The short tells the story of arriving at a new school through the eyes of a nine-year-old African lad. The Tribeca kudo is the latest recognition for the film which has also garnered best short film honors at a 2008 Berlin fest, the Audience Award at the ’07 Cork fest and best short film at the ’08 Irish Film and Television Awards.
Little Minx also saw a short, Rope A Dope, from its Exquisite Corpse web-centered initiative screened at Tribeca. However Laurent Briet, the director of Rope A Dope, has since joined Mr. Boomboom, a sister shop to bicoastal/international Believe Media. Nonetheless Little Minx successfully gained exposure for its up-and-coming directors via Exquisite Corpse, named after the parlor game in which players develop a story piecemeal, each participant adding line by line to create a bigger, sometimes outlandish tale. Little Minx applied it to a series of shorts by individual directors that debuted on the web. Per the initiative, the final line of the script for one short became the starting point for the next director’s short.
On the longer form front, Believe Media also scored as director Kief Davidson saw his Kassim The Dream debut in Tribeca’s docu competition.
There’s even a link, as it turns out, between Tribeca and SHOOT’s 6th annual New Directors Showcase. Among this year’s Showcase directors is Benita Raphan (see separate Showcase story and profiles in this week’s issue). Raphan earned inclusion in the Showcase in large part due to the strength of her 27-minute experimental documentary Great Genius and Profound Stupidity, which made a worldwide premiere in competition at Tribeca. The film is slated for U.S. broadcast on the Sundance Channel and it entailed contributions from numerous New York-based artisans in addition to Raphan, including editor Lin Polito of jumP, New York, sound designer/audio supervisor Marshall Grupp of Sound Lounge Music and Sound Design, mixer Paul Weiss of Sound Lounge, and a coterie of VFX artists at effects studio Manic.
Meanwhile Sound Lounge artisan Tony Volante did the cinema remix for Lou Reed’s Berlin, a feature documentary directed by noted filmmaker Julian Schnabel.
Also screened at Tribeca was the animated film Idiots and Angels, written and directed by Bill Plympton who is repped for commercials by Acme Filmworks, Hollywood. Noted feature documentary maker Errol Morris (handled for spots by bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures) had his Standing Operating Procedure screened, a film which turns the camera on the American soldiers who took the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs. Director Josh Seftel of Redtree Productions, Boston and New York, saw the premiere of his War Inc. at Tribeca. And Jay Duplass of the directorial duo the Duplass Bros. (repped by RSA) debuted Baghead.
Economic bond Having the Empire State tax credit program signed into law at Tribeca was most apropos. Just as the pro-filming initiative figures to re-energize the state’s economy, so too did the Tribeca Film Festival spring from a desire for economic recovery.
Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff founded the Tribeca Fest in ’01 following the attacks on the World Trade Center to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan through an annual celebration of film, music and culture. The Tribeca Film Festival’s mission focuses not only on helping filmmakers to reach the broadest possible audience, enabling the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema, but also on promoting New York as a major filmmaking center.
