Ten years ago, people consumed their media in a much different way than they do today. You-Tube has replaced the VHS machine which ate the tapes from the video store. Nonetheless, the DVD now rentable from Netflix, the documentary that’s downloaded on a computer, or the movie that’s seen at a local film festival, still share one fundamental thing – they are all stories told by cinematic storytellers. The best of these stories move and enlighten us. The diversity of these stories helps us to understand each other.
While the numbers of new ways to tell stories gives us more opportunity to engage new audiences; they have also profoundly affected the current business models which make the production of quality stories possible. The technology changes, the fragmentation of markets and the drop in capital available for production have all combined to create a rapidly shifting ecology for the film industry nationwide.
In 2004, the members of the
Alliance for Indepedent Motion Media and its collaborators at the
Massachusetts Production Coalition came together to deal with our local industry in crisis. Since 1998, businesses had been closing, filmmakers leaving, and both were feeling overwhelmed by the vast technology changes. This year end report to our field is partly a story of what we have done to turn things around, and partly a blueprint to take us the next steps towards our vision for the future.
While we cannot know for sure what the technologies of the next ten years might bring, our vision of the future is a strong, vibrant community of cinematic storytellers whose innovation supports businesses and organizations, which in turn provide wages and sources of capital to make possible high quality cinematic stories across many platforms. Each of you are part of that--and we hope that you will join with us in making this vision a reality.
OUR WORK SO FARIn May of 2006 we released our economic impact report
Lens on the Bay State: Motion Picture Production in Massachusetts. The result of a year and a half of research and on the ground work in partnership with MIT and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the report documents the motion picture industry and the job creation and revenue generation benefits of this industry on the Massachusetts economy. The report, the first on this industry in over ten years, reveals a significant industry in Massachusetts- providing jobs for more than 18,500 people in 2004, who earned more than $725 million in personal income. Additionally, it is estimated that each job in the motion picture industry supports 1.3 additional jobs in other industries directly affected by it, such as hotels, food services and transportation.
Our research confirmed what many already felt- the motion media industry had been experiencing a serious decline – having lost 30% of its workforce since its peak in 1998. The problems were complex. We were quickly losing jobs and businesses to competing states and to other countries due to the lack of competitive tools, including tax incentives to lure major Hollywood Studios and commercial work; and a state film office to provide marketing and promotions. The Massachusetts film industry was simultaneously deeply segmented and yet completely interdependent. Our report revealed the deep importance of our skilled production work force as the glue that held them all together, and which was not finding enough work to stay in Massachusetts. And across all sectors was the technology revolution which was transforming the industry.
In 2005, we went to work on solving the most immediate and pressing concerns to make our state competitive once again. We mobilized as an industry voice to advocate for the passage of state tax credits for motion picture production in Massachusetts, and for the establishment of a state film office. On January 1, 2006 the tax incentive legislation went into effect, and immediately changed the economic landscape. By October 2006, several films had taken advantage of the new legislation, bringing a dramatic increase in activity to the industry. Though official numbers are not yet in, the unions and payroll service providers confirm the boost to wages and employment, and principals of production equipment businesses also report a significant increase of between 10-15% in revenues. Massachusetts is now embarking on a nationwide search for a candidate to head the state sanctioned and funded
film office, and the film office will conduct a promotional campaign aimed at persuading Hollywood executives to take advantage of the tax incentives.
We established a climate for making change by developing networks for communication, strong alliances for collaboration and creating ways for people to come together and learn from one another to foster innovation. We utilized a variety of methods – from incubator projects, mini-grants, workshops and expos, to a web site that operates on fully collaborative software. We focused all these efforts on the basic building block of our industry –its creative workers.
Over the course of the past two years, we have tracked the growing numbers of attendance at our events and traffic at our web sites, the numbers of subscribers to our mailing list, and the anecdotal evidence from industry members that there is an increasing sense of optimism about the industry and a growing sense of community. We have made economic research of our industry a central component of our activities in order to provide ourselves with information and insight on how best to approach economic revitalization.
On June 12, 2006 we convened a group of researchers and economic experts to review our efforts to date, and to evaluate our report Lens on the Bay State and its recommendations. The twenty-one attendees included Elliot Winer, Chief Economist at the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training, Darcy Rollins from the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, John Regan, Vice President , Government Affairs, Associated Industries of Massachusetts; Ed Kaznocha, Massachusetts Career Services, Economic Analysis Office; Charlotte Kahn, Director, the Boston Indicators Project, the Boston Foundation; Mark Schuster, Professor of Urban Cultural Policy, MIT; Doug DeNatale, Cultural Logic, Inc.; Neil Alper Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator, Labor Economics, Northeastern University; and Carol Atwood, CEO Spartacus Media Enterprises; among others.
The questions that emerged from this meeting combined with the recommendations we put forth in our report have formed the basis for our goals and projected activities for 2007 and 2008.
NEXT STEPS TOWARD OUR VISION FOR THE FUTUREBecause of the success of our efforts over the past two years, our industry has achieved stability and we are now an industry poised for growth. Our goals for the next two years are to:
• Create new sources of capital and access to new markets utilizing new business models.
• Retain and grow our indigenous talent through our cross industry network
• Develop an infrastructure plan informed by a complete assessment of industry assets
The next step is to make all of Massachusetts, and the city of Boston in particular, friendly to motion media production. Our research shows that growth will come from investment in 1) access to capital and new markets 2) our indigenous talent, and 3) industry infrastructure.
Expand Access to Capital and New MarketsWe will continue to take the lead in advocating for clear cut and consistent regulations for the administration of the tax incentives, as well as in developing policy in outlining the responsibilities of a film office. This can be achieved through more effective coordination by and with government agencies, increased outreach to Hollywood studios and advertising agencies, and having well-run film offices at the state and local levels.
Tax incentives have been implemented in several states and in a variety of versions. We need to evaluate how the incentives are working in Massachusetts, and if the incentives as currently implemented are the best ones for Massachusetts. To evaluate this, we will convene meetings of representatives of the industry, the State, economists and other researchers to review the economic data gathered through our research as well as the Department of Revenues data on the use and impact of the current tax incentive legislation. This group will be tasked with reporting out its findings to the industry as a whole and making recommendations regarding its findings.
The tax incentives are making independent productions less expensive to make in Massachusetts. But to become truly sustainable, the state’s independent sector also needs access to capital that can finance new ideas and distribution channels that can take finished work out into the world. Getting independent work from Massachusetts more widely seen will require either adapting emerging channels enabled by new technologies or building stronger ties to the established distribution networks centered in Los Angeles and New York. We need to help independent media makers get better access to funding and distribution. The following activities will address these problems:
• We are currently seeking funding to conduct in depth research on the productions that are being created in Massachusetts; documenting sources of funding for production, sizes of budgets, workforce and promotional efforts as well as distribution venues. This information will inform our understanding of the vitality of our production industry; of how much capital is being provided for new productions, how those productions are being sold, and the impacts of new technologies on jobs, cost and the sale of those productions. We hope to publish the results of this research in the spring of 2008.
• There is a need for a film investment fund to support Massachusetts based documentaries and independent films. We hope to create such a fund. There are a number of models on which to follow in the state’s quasi-public finance system. This fund would help to cultivate the smaller and independent film industry in Massachusetts by filling critically important funding gaps for these productions.
• We will conduct a series of “mini think tanks” which will develop ideas for new business models for the capitalization and distribution of independent film and video productions. We will conduct a series of six meetings to analyze the data we have gathered during our research and formulate recommendations for the industry. These meetings will be a mix of live, teleconference, and online events, and will all be documented on our website.
• We are trying to raise funding to create new markets for independent media makers work by creating an online filmography where media-makers can showcase their current and past productions. This will show the breadth and scope of Massachusetts work across a range of genres and offer a means for filmmakers to raise production funding. Keep checking back to the AIMM website for more information and updates.
Retaining and Developing Indigenous Talent into a Strong NetworkManaging the increased level of production spurred by the tax incentives is a key challenge (this increase is already beginning to happen) in the state. This can be accomplished by a combination of luring back veterans who have left the state and keeping newcomers and students.
In a “bottom up” view of the film and video industry, these artists/entrepreneurs are key to the creative strength of Massachusetts. These workers not only develop new products as small businesses, they also are the highly skilled work force that larger businesses and educational institutions draw from and depend upon. This highly skilled workforce is one of Massachusetts distinctive and major advantages over other states.
Massachusetts can build a sustainable production industry by taking advantage of its strengths: its highly educated and skilled production workforce; its distinguished documentary tradition and WGBH’s leadership position within PBS; the in-demand skills of its animators and experimental filmmakers; and its strength in technology and software development, which create the potential for the state to become an innovator in new media forms enabled by emerging technologies. Fillmmakers need to adapt to emerging technologies. We need to offer filmmakers professional development opportunities to do so. We also need to create a climate of collaboration that will foster the innovative uses of technologies with other sectors. We will do so by:
• Building on our Boston Filmmakers’ Expo 05, we will co-sponsor a two-day
Expo ’07, tentatively scheduled for spring 2007. We will bring top industry leaders such as Geralyn Dreyfous (producer of Born into Brothels) and Paula Silver (marketing specialist for My Big Fat Greek Wedding) as panelists and plenary speakers, hold panels and seminars on content and technology issues, offer a networking party, provide a trade show component, and showcase local filmmakers and their work. We will build on last year’s success by adding a “new technologies” track to explore the latest avenues of distribution, such as podcasts, cell phone videos, web streaming, and internet distribution. We will invite distributors such as ThinkFilm, Netflix, and Samuel Goldwyn Films, HBO, the History Channel, and other broadcast outlets to meet with filmmakers in mini “pitch sessions”. In 2007 & 2008 we will offer a number of follow-up workshops that will focus on new technologies and modes of distribution for media makers.
• We will hold distinctive professional development and networking opportunities that will offer independent media artists a non-competitive, supportive community to strengthen their work and their business practices. Our
Filmmakers Workshop series will be held monthly and one workshop each year will be devoted to connecting area university students with the working independent production community. Our
Screenwriters Salons and Film Skills Round-Tables will specifically target the narrative filmmaking community and emerging filmmakers-providing them with new ways to tackle challenges in a new production environment and creating ties between seasoned professionals and emerging makers.
• Our
Filmmaker in Residence program at WGBH will provide three independent filmmakers each year with a working space in a broadcast environment and provide WGBH Boston Media Productions with fresh creative thinkers and a link with the independent filmmaking community at a time when they are moving into a new building, which will be an important asset to the community.
• Our mini-grant program will offer grants to filmmakers of color to provide funding at crucial times in the production of their projects. In 2007, we will also focus on advanced project development, providing access to distribution networks and exhibition opportunities.
• Our research has indicated that we are losing a large percentage Massachusetts film and video students after they graduate. To keep these students we want to help them begin industry careers in Massachusetts. To that end, we intend to create a production resource packet for area university students which will contain state and business resources, internship opportunities, production support networks, explanation of tax credits and other incentives specifically for students, and helpful opportunities to connect with peers.
Evaluate and Strengthen Industry Infrastructure• We need information to determine the short and long term infrastructure needs of the industry (such as studios, wireless networks etc). We are seeking funding to conduct meetings with state and local officials, businesses and industry members to inventory existing and developing assets; and to identify infrastructure needs and to develop a set of recommendations by the end of 2008.
• We are also seeking funding to launch an online directory of businesses, film/video makers and workers in the industry in tandem with conducting the industry research. Using the collaborative software of the motionmedia.org website, each business and individual will be able to input and maintain their own listing on the site. In addition to providing renewable and constantly current data, this will promote the industry to those considering bringing productions to the state, provide the state film office with a significant promotional tool, and provide a networking resource.
HOW YOU CAN BE INVOLVED
Join the
Massachusetts Production Coalition, attend the meetings and workshops our partners offer--participate in helping us gather more information about our industry, leave comments HERE on this blog about YOUR IDEAS on how we can stimulate new business and resources to keep our industry growing. Give us your feedback-- and check in frequently!
