The upper case "I" stands for "Infrastructure," which is essential for cities, states and countries serious about keeping and attracting filming. But understandably, anti-runaway measures with the highest profile have centered on economic incentives. And there have been some encouraging—albeit isolated—developments on that front in the U.S., most notably Illinois’ recent passage of a wage-based tax credit slated to take effect on Jan. 1 (SHOOT, 6/13, p. 1).
Yet lost in the excitement over that reform is another component of the Illinois initiative—to establish a Visual Media Task Force that will be charged with recommending steps the state can take to grow its entertainment/filmmaking infrastructure. The group will look into ways to keep local talent from moving out of state, form partnerships so that the region can continue to offer adequate sound stage services to meet the needs of major productions, and attract additional equipment suppliers and resources to the area.
As related in this column last week, Jack Lavin, director of Illinois’ Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, noted that the state had 25,000 people working in feature, TV and commercial production in 1996. Last year, that number decreased to a little more than 8,000. "As this has happened, the infrastructure has started to deteriorate," he said. "People left the state. Now we have to do whatever it takes to expand our infrastructure."
Part of what it takes is training for industry artisans. For example, Illinois’ Visual Media Task Force can formulate a viable recommendation based on California’s Employment Training Panel (ETP). Last month, Burbank-based Video Symphony—an authorized training center for Avid, Apple, DigiDesign, Sonic Solutions, Adobe, Alias| Wavefront and NewTek—was awarded a new two-year, $1.2 million ETP contract to provide 100 percent subsidized upgrade training to professionals employed by California digital media production companies.
ETP funds are granted to a select group of training centers with the intent of helping to keep California digital technology companies competitive, and to reduce export of production work to other states and nations. In partnership with ETP since ’98, Video Symphony has trained hundreds of California’s film/ video editors, sound editors and engineers, DVD authors, 3-D animators and graphic artists.
Companies that qualify for ETP can now send employees to Video Symphony for 24 to 64 hours of hands-on, job-related training without direct cost to employer or employee. Since ’95, the ETP has allocated $30 million to train employees of entertainment enterprises. The funds come from special taxes paid by the overall industry itself.
ETP’s director Peter McNamee stated, "As technology constantly changes, upgrade training is critical. In a high-tech world, businesses recognize that success depends on adopting leading-edge technologies that require highly customized workforce training. California needs a workforce empowered with skills that can unleash the full potential of modern technologies."
I hearken back to the observations of Kathleen Milnes, who is senior VP of workforce and economic development for Los Angeles’ Entertainment Industry Development Corp. In this column about two-and-a-half years ago, she related, "Everyone can talk about this convergence of Hollywood and technology, but unless our workers have the necessary skills, we will continue to be dependent on increases in the number of H-1B visas [enabling foreign talent to come into the U.S.] to fill these jobs, or worse—[lose] work to other regions and countries."
