Lights! Camera! Hudson Valley Film Commission works to ensure moviemaking action
Film and television production is thriving in the Hudson Valley, and the Hudson Valley Film Commission (HVFC) is ready to provide assistance with both Hollywood blockbusters and smaller independent movies.
“We actively work with 50 productions a year,” said Laurent Rejto, founder and executive director of the HVFC. “We have so many trained professionals in the area and more shows are traveling up here.”
Established in 2000, HVFC is a nonprofit organization that engages, supports and promotes regional film and television productions by referring locations, local crew, cast, vendors, qualified production facilities, post-production houses and more. As a result, thousands of jobs have been created in the Hudson Valley with more than $350 million in regional economic development. Since its beginning, the commission has worked on over 500 films.
“Our entire mission is to make it easier for film productions to work in the area,” said Rejto, who maintains a collaborative relationship with producers and casting agencies to employ local talent ”” a film production can have more than 300 different types of jobs available.
“What makes the Hudson Valley special or different from the other areas is we have so many trained professionals and also well-known A-List and SAG-AFTRA actors who live here. Having locals working on a local project is beneficial for everyone and we”™ve been able to do that successfully. We concentrate on the blue-collar aspect ”” the workers who are putting it together and working behind the scenes to make it happen.”
According to Rejto, the first 16 years of the HVFC focused on low-budget, non-union indie productions. More recently, major productions with union crews have been seeking to film in the Hudson Valley locations, staying in the area from nine to 18 months.
“That”™s huge because it allows for security, for people to settle down and buy houses and to settle their careers here,” Rejto continued, noting the 2018 HBO series “I Know This Much is True” changed the film industry”™s perspective on the region. “The personnel enjoyed working in the area so much that it ended up bringing another HBO show, “The Undoing” starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, and then another one. If an area has a good reputation, word gets around quickly.”
While the Covid pandemic put a freeze on local production in 2020, the industry returned in 2021 with a vengeance.
“2021 was our biggest year,” said Rejto, who noted this year”™s activity is on course to “break the 2021 tally.”
In 2021, the HVFC estimated $58 million direct local spending with the creation of 631 local crew jobs, 72 local featured actors, and 4,048 local background extras, with 42,686 hotel rooms being rented ”” all are record numbers with the exception of the extras. This year, the commission reported $38.5 million in direct local spending with the creation of 561 crew jobs and nearly 1,700 cast jobs for actors and background actors. Additionally, productions utilized 29,170 room nights at local lodging establishments.
Rejto said these numbers are due to two massive productions ”” HBO”™s “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” and Peacock”™s “Poker Face.” So far this year, the area has been the site for 21 productions, with “Pretty Little Liars” was based at Upriver Studios in Saugerties and also filmed in the Catskills, Schenectady, Hudson and Rhinebeck while “Poker Face” filmed in Dutchess, Orange, Westchester and Putnam counties. Much of the region”™s appeal to filmmakers comes in locations that can be used for a wide variety of stories.
“We can duplicate almost anything ”” urban, historic, there”™s forests, rivers, quarries ”” there”™s so many different types of locations that we can find anything that anyone needs, and usually you don”™t get stuck in traffic driving there,” said Rejto. “There are parts of the Hudson Valley where locations are cheaper than other areas because of traffic patterns, population. That sets us apart from a lot of places.”
Another major incentive is the New York State Film Tax Credit that provides 25% on approved below-the-line costs. Since November 2016, an additional 10% is available on approved below-the-line labor for film and television projects outside of New York City.
“The bottom line for producers is cost effectiveness and profit,” Rejto stated. “Filmmaking has become more regional and the film tax credit is the only way to get productions here.”