Lights, cameras, welcome!
An esteemed nonprofit cultural institution in Westchester will partner with the county”™s tourism and film office to make the county with its variety of locales a more inviting production site for filmmakers and new media artists.
The Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville has joined with Westchester County officials to create what Laurence Gottlieb, the county”™s economic development director, called “a powerful economic and artistic development platform.” The county offices of tourism and film recently were merged under the umbrella of Gottlieb”™s economic development office. The new office is directed by the county”™s veteran head of tourism, Kim Sinistore.
In a statement announcing the initiative, Gottlieb said the Burns film center”™s “incredible reputation and expertise will help propel us faster and farther than if we tried to build and sustain a viable development program on our own. This is a true private-public partnership funded without taxpayer dollars, but rather fueled by the fees production companies pay for filming on county property.”
Sinistore said those fees vary according to the county-owned site chosen for production and the services provided filmmakers by the county.
Dominick Balletta, managing director of Jacob Burns Film Center, said the nonprofit is working with county officials “to find a structure that will make it easier and more welcoming for filmmakers to film in Westchester County.” He said they expect to appoint an industry board and a separate film advisory board by Labor Day.
Sinistore said more than 55 feature films and cable TV productions have been shot in Westchester since 2000. Most recently, downtown Peekskill in April was animated by the presence of Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet and an HBO production crew shooting scenes for the cable channel”™s five-hour miniseries, “Mildred Pierce.”
“HBO was exemplary up there working with Peekskill,” Balletta said.
That has not always been the case for local municipalities charging fees to film companies they hosted. “If they”™ve had a bad experience, very likely they”™ll have more restrictive covenants” governing productions in their community, Balletta said. He said the county”™s new film partners want to forge stronger relationships between film companies and municipalities.
The county has long proved attractive to filmmakers, given its proximity to New York City and its plethora of scenic rural and urban settings. “But a lot of it is scattershot,” said Balletta. “It”™s very catch as catch can. The county will know if something is shooting on county property, but when it gets down to the municipality, it becomes very difficult” to coordinate the film enterprise.
“This initiative will create a central networking database,” Balletta said. “The more centralized we can make it, it”™s easier for companies to find what”™s going on. It”™s easier for us to encourage people” to film here.
The partners”™ efforts could be boosted by the state Legislature”™s recent five-year extension of the state”™s film production tax credit. Filmmakers shooting in the state will continue to receive a 30 percent credit on production costs and the program cap will increase by $420 million annually over the five-year term. Projects that are not shot in the state but that complete 75 percent of their post-production work in New York are newly eligible for a 10 percent credit on their New York work.
Sinistore said the county should reap benefits from its location within the union labor zone for productions filmed in New York City. At the state Governor”™s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development in Manhattan, “They refer a lot of film companies to Westchester,” she said. As a part of the city”™s union labor region, “That”™s a very big coup for us.”
“It”™s very hectic economic times up here,” said Balletta at the film center, “and we think this is one way of assisting the county in bringing jobs and in bringing dollars in. We think this is one thing that will have a strong impact very quickly.”