Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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REEL NUMBERS 7: Average number of feature films made in Massachusetts every year 6: The number of TV pilots shot in the state since 2007 57: The number of feature films shot in the state since 2007 3,500: The approximate number of film professionals in Massachusetts 222 million: Dollars spent in the state in 2011 by film and television companies much bigger player than it used to be," says Cashman, whose gold-streaked hair and olive complexion give her the wholesome good looks of an A-list film star. "There are so many filmmakers in LA who went to Emerson College or BU. They want to come back here and raise their families." Besides, she says, thanks to technological advancements and the increasingly far-flung nature of the entertainment business, being a Boston-based filmmaker is no longer a liability. "I can be in LA in five hours flat, and the train to New York is in my backyard," she says. "I can be in the world, but not of the world, in Boston, and that's probably what I like most about it." While the Ohio native admits that Boston wasn't necessarily her first choice of locales when she set up Saint Aire, her film and TV production company—she is married to Jay Cashman of Big Dig fame—she has come to appreciate the city as a creative haven, especially as she works on her current project, Charity Wars. It's a Boston-based docu-series she created that exposes the underbelly of the charity world. "If I have a project of my own that's not location-specific, this is where I want to be," she says. "I love shooting here." Dorothy Aufiero, who produced The Fighter, among other titles, is another Boston-based film producer. Aufiero is now producing The Finest Hours, a Walt Disney Company film about a Coast Guard rescue off Chatham. "There is a wealth of talent here, and there are a wealth of stories," she says. "I don't specifically look for Boston-based stuff, but a lot of [New England– based] properties come to me." Actors, too, are finding steady work, according to Angela Peri, owner and founder of Boston Casting, who was the local principal and extras casting director for Ted and Here Comes the Boom. "It used to be that New York would bring in all of its own people and I would have to cast the person in the movie who said things like, 'Can I get another cup of coffee?' Or 'Is this today's paper?' The little things," she says. "They're not 116 bringing in their own people anymore." J. Todd Harris, an LA-based producer who has shot several movies here, including Crooked Arrows, Black Irish, and The Legend of Lucy Keyes, calls Massachusetts a "production-friendly" state. He predicts that the presence of a big, fully equipped studio will draw more filmmakers here. Plus, the soundstage will remove what is probably the biggest impediment to filming in Massachusetts: the weather. "It is not the most commodious place in the world from November to March," says Harris, putting it delicately. But a soundstage would make it easier for directors and producers to work around the snow and cold. Y et New England Studios and projects like it are still a grand experiment. The movie business is footloose and fickle, and it is often unforgiving. Vancouver and Toronto are two cities that have successfully developed into bona fide movie towns, though many more have failed. While the Massachusetts Film Office says the state has enough experienced crew members and actors to staff several shoots at the same time and that the local film unions and guilds have been growing with the increase in production, success won't happen overnight. "It's always very difficult to turn an area into a film and television center," says Paul Schneider, chairman of the department of film and television at Boston University's College of Communication. Steve Samuels is a Boston-based real estate mogul who moonlights in the movie business. His company, FilmNation Entertainment, specializes in the financing, production, and foreign sales of independent films. Last year FilmNation produced four films, including Chernobyl Diaries and The Raven. Samuels says the tax credit is critical to maintaining the state's status in the movie industry. "It's all about cost; it's all about soft money," he explains. "There's always a conflict between the creative and the financials. You're trying to squeeze the most you can out of every dollar. If this state is no longer competitive and tax credits go away, the film [companies] will look elsewhere." The state's hope that "If you build it, they will come" seems already on its way to fruition, driving newcomers like Anton Nel. An affable South African film consultant who recently moved from LA to Hopkinton, he is taking a decidedly risk-averse approach to developing a soundstage and production studio in Westborough. His proposed project, on the site of an old state hospital, with verdant slopes descending to a lake, also includes an upscale hotel, an outdoor amphitheater, a conference facility, and office space. "I obviously want to be very positive, but there's always the fear of the incentives going away," says Nel, who played rugby professionally when he was younger. Still, he says he is "very gung ho" about the future of the film industry in Boston. "This is not my first rodeo. I understand what Hollywood needs. I can profile that location and leverage my relationships in LA, and we'll deliver business." Back in Devens, Byers is even more bullish. New England Studios hasn't inked deals yet with production companies to rent space there (although several major studios have placed holds on its stages), but he isn't worried. "I've got every head of the studio right here on speed dial," he says, tapping his iPhone. "They know us; they're ready for us." BC "There is a wealth of talent here, and there are a wealth of stories." —DOROTHY AUFIERO PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIPPETT STUDIO/UNIVERSAL PICTURES (TED) Dorchester native Mark Wahlberg in the made-inMassachusetts movie Ted. (Source: Massachusetts Film Office) BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 110-117_BC_F_REELLIFE_Spring13.indd 116 2/11/13 3:31 PM