Pat Swinney Kaufman became the deputy commissioner/director of the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development after Republican Governor George Pataki was elected in 1995. She recently sat down with SHOOT at her office in Manhattan to discuss, among other things, the increase in New York State production in the past three years, the function of the state film commission and her involvement on the board of directors of the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI), a trade group for film commissioners from the United States and abroad. Figures released by the commission last July indicate that $6.2 billion was spent on film production in New York State and New York City in ’97, compared with $5.2 billion in ’95 and $5.8 billion in ’96, which makes the state the second-busiest production center in the country.
SHOOT: What do you do on a day-to-day basis as film commissioner?
Pat Swinney Kaufman: It is our responsibility in this office to build the film, television and commercial production industry … [and that] is sort of a three-pronged responsibility. In the first place, we work to attract the most production to New York as possible, and we do that by reaching out to production companies-commercial production companies, film production companies, studios, television companies, in the city, in Los Angeles, wherever they are-and we try to get them interested in bringing their projects to New York. And once they are interested, or if they make an inquiry, we go and find the location.
The second prong of the approach is that we facilitate filming once a project has been landed here. We are here to open doors, to get permission, to solve problems. And that facilitation can range anywhere from getting a bridge or a tunnel closed for a production to persuading a sheriff in a small town in upstate New York that he should close the road for a commercial that needs to shoot on Main Street on Sunday morning, or whatever. Or working with a town regarding the permitting process. Now, the city [of New York] has a wonderful film office-the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting-that does a terrific job of issuing permits for the five boroughs, but once you leave that area, then every little town has its policy and procedure regarding how to get a film permit. So we act as a liaison and connect with all of the various towns and counties throughout the state and help productions work with the process. And if a production needs assistance dealing with a state authority, like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, we are often a company’s first defense if they are having difficulty with the MTA, and they come to us and we can help smooth over whatever the difficulty is. And the Port Authority, again it’s a state authority. A state building, a state park, [in all of those areas] we become the liaison with all of these agencies and organizations.
SHOOT: Do you usually open these areas to productions?
PSK: Oh, absolutely. [One of] Governor Pataki’s goals in his first term-and into his second term-is to turn New York around and to make it the most business-friendly state in the country. There has been a dramatic change in New York, and, of course, when you say business-friendly, that includes being film-friendly for production companies, and there has been a tremendous turnaround as a result. So, for example, the state parks do not charge a permit fee if you shoot there. Granted, if you have to use park personnel, the company may have to reimburse for the service, but there isn’t an actual location fee or a permit fee to shoot in a state park or to shoot in a state building. So there is tremendous support to the industry, and all of the [state] agencies have been told that this is an industry that creates more than 75,000 jobs, generates over $6 billion in economic impact, and therefore it’s an industry that we all want to support.
SHOOT: Does New York offer any tax incentives?
PSK: Absolutely. That brings us to the third prong of what we do. We work on policy issues, and tax incentives are certainly one of the major policy issues. When Governor Pataki came in, he gave directives to the tax department that they were there not to strangle business, but to work with business. And for years the industry has been crying for a guide to the tax breaks that are offered in New York because there were already very good tax breaks [in place], but they were obscure and complex, and really, no one knew how to use them or what they were. Under the governor’s directive we were able to work with the Department of Taxation and Finance to come up with a New York State guide to tax breaks [A Guide To Sales Tax For The Film Industry], which has become the bible. When I visit with production companies here and in L.A., it is on everyone’s desk.
In addition, the governor signed in even more tax breaks. There is no question that Governor Pataki takes this industry very, very seriously and empowered this office to aggressively [court] this industry, and he has done everything he can do to create an environment here that is good for production. And by the way-this is of particular interest to the commercial community-under one of the governor’s initiatives, the tax department came up with a very critical ruling regarding the way the editors and commercial producers and the agencies work their contracts out, which has been extremely beneficial. [SHOOT, 2/21/97, p. 1] And since the bulk of these [advertising] agencies are in New York, it was very important that the New York State tax department give a blessing to a redesigned contract. … So New York really took the lead and made the critical decision, and this benefited the commercial production and editing industry throughout the country.
SHOOT: And have we seen an increase in commercial production because of that?
PSK: We did see-remember that all we track is location shooting-a small increase in terms of location shooting throughout the state. This office in particular tracks what happens outside of the city, and outside of the city we did see further upward movement, which I think is actually quite good, because my sense [is that] nationally, it has been quite flat. My sense is that it’s not just flat, but it has actually dropped, so we feel like we are holding our own in the particular universe we are in. Holding your own is a great achievement, since I get the sense that there are not as many commercials being shot nationally. We never really know our numbers until the year is over and we start collecting them, and it takes a long time to collect them. So I don’t really have the ’98 numbers yet, and I won’t have them for months. It is a gruesome process that we have to go through because we are not a permitting agency.
SHOOT: According to the 1997 figures, New York experienced a great increase in production. How did that happen?
PSK: Well, the whole industry has come together magnificently. There is a real community here that wants to see production grow. So, first of all, I credit the governor with really turning around the business environment in New York, and, in addition, I credit the entire production community in New York for its dramatic support for everything that is happening here. You have never seen such a level of cooperation, and there is great synergy here. The unions really have come a long way. The unions are extremely supportive of production, and they really want projects to come to New York, so they are very accommodating. Vendors bend over backward. We are the second biggest production region in the country, anything you need or want is here. I’m very excited about what’s going on with ECDC [East Coast Digital Consortium]. … It has been a tremendous asset, because not only is New York the second biggest production region, it’s also a huge postproduction region, and in some ways they are the unsung heroes of New York. There is not nearly enough awareness and attention given to the tremendous post done in New York.
SHOOT: You were recently elected to the board of the AFCI. What does the organization do?
PSK: It is the professional association for film commissioners around the world. It started as an association of American film commissioners, but it is becoming a truly international industry. Canada has been involved almost from the beginning. [And] in the last couple of years there has been a real burst of activity in Europe and Asia and South America, [which are] setting up film commissions, and understand what an incredibly lucrative business this is and that it makes sense to create film commissions to facilitate filmmaking and attract as much production to their areas as possible.
The AFCI is a professional organization that brings together all of these film commissioners. It acts as a support group for the film commissioners all throughout the world. It really has been very important for establishing a professional standard. [That standard] is good for the industry, because if you are a producer or a director or a location scout, it is very comforting to know that you can call a film commission, if that commission is part of the AFCI, [and] there is a real level of quality you can count on in terms of support and professionalism from the people you are going to be working with in that commission. So I think it has been a boon to the industry that the AFCI has evolved into the organization that it is.
And we do a big trade show [Locations ’99]. It’s in February in California, and all of the film commissioners from around the world come, and we head up booths where we sell our wares. We talk about what we have, we promote our areas. … People come from all over to attend this trade show. In one place you can go and find out, for instance, if you need to make a commercial and you need mountains, well, you can go to this trade show and learn about mountains in Colorado, Washington, Mexico, New York, or in France. And we are all talking about production and incentives that we offer. We also run seminars, and, in fact, that is the task force I have been handed. I have a great team, and we try to come up with industry seminars that are relevant.7
