IMAGINE enjoyed the company of some of the best and brightest of our production industry at our HotShots New Year’s Celebration. It’s true, on a bitterly cold and wintry night; over 200 filmmakers came together to share good cheer, discuss their projects, and to network. Reportedly, everyone had a great time. Photographers Erika Hahn and Robert G. Pushkar grabbed memorable “hotshots,” some of which are presented in this issue in our photo review for your enjoyment. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to our corporate sponsors, FADE IN, inc., Finish Editorial, Video Transfer, Inc., Cramer Productions, and National Boston/Ministry of Design and to each of the beautiful people who attended (honestly, I’ve never seen so may good looking people in one place, ever). You are all the magic that makes IMAGINE’s events the best! Every guest was special, but the noted special guest (winner of the Chrysler Million Dollar Film Festival and our cover story) is/was Andrew Mudge.
IMAGINE is sponsoring Andrew for the 21st Century Spielberg Director’s Award. If you missed the HotShots Party this year, put it on your schedule for next year. It will be the second Tuesday of 2005, after the real New Year’s Day and just before we all leave for Sundance, Slamdance, NATPE and Berlinale. Save the date, January 11th.
Right now, we at IMAGINE are busy implementing our exciting 2004 calendar and plans. I’ve just returned from Las Vegas, NATPE 2004, and an exquisite Venetian Hotel experience. It was warm and warming to see other New Englanders there. I bumped into Element’s Eran Lobel on his way to a pitching session with Paradigm. I’ll tell you what he said about that experience in the next issue. And I saw Paula Kouletsis getting her first NATPE pitching experience. I found this year’s NATPE fresh and appealing. It offered worthwhile seminars and workshops while also facilitating a great show floor and exhibit. We visited with old friends DeAnne Sheehan (Lotus Broadcasting) and former Bostonian, Carol Nashe. Suffice to say “reality” and “technology” were words buzzing around the Venetian Hotel and the Sands Convention Center. There were other words, find them in Paul Boghosian’s report in this issue.
“It’s a sign of the times” is a phrase that I am also hearing over and over again. Subtle changes are emerging, surprisingly comprised of attitudes over profits as the driver.
As IMAGINE is going to press, I notice a story on the AP wires. “Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said that he believes the low Oscar-nomination count for COLD MOUNTAIN was due in part to stories in the U.S. press attacking the moviemakers' decision to shoot it in Europe and not America.
Weinstein, who jetted in (Berlin) to support the Anthony Minghella-directed Civil War story, which kicked off the Berlin International Film Festival (Vinca Jarrett is there covering for IMAGINE), hinted that there had been a whispering campaign against the production because the filmmakers chose to shoot largely in lower-cost Romania rather than the United States.
Said Weinstein: ‘I'm proud of COLD MOUNTAIN being a European film. The movie has done $80 million at the U.S. box-office so far and is on its way to $100 million. But I think it (being shot in Romania) did hurt us with the Academy (voters).’
Weinstein stopped short of calling it a boycott by voters but said negative press may have resulted in ‘a move to deny the movie awards.’ The film received seven Oscar nominations.
Said Minghella: ‘There has been a reaction in America and a real campaign to stop movies leaving America to shoot.’
While Minghella said he understood the criticism, he defended his decision to shoot in Romania on economic terms. ‘It was a choice between making the movie (outside America) or not,’ he said. ‘We still spent nearly $20 million in the U.S.’ "
GO AMERICA!
I clearly see other “whispering” movements that will cost American business and governments their hoped for rewards by seeking foreign shores and related cost savings. Pressures will mount, and change will occur, as penalties are perceived such as those by Harvey Weinstein. Americans will take that into their consciousness and perhaps next time or in the next level of this release, COLD MOUNTAIN, no matter how good the reviews or popular the stars, will not meet its studios’ expectation. A few years ago, the average filmgoer wouldn’t care so much about where a film is shot, but the spotlight and focus on the loss of 3 million U.S. jobs and the fear of losing ones own job since 2001, is a misfortune that many Americans can identify with.
In our region and particularly Massachusetts since it lost its State Film Office, the industries’ goals are to attract our “unfair share” of Film, Television, and Commercial Production business. We can do that because “good stories originate here, excellent writers live here, the stories are located here, the people who want to produce the stories want to live or at least spend time here, and the great colleges and universities that are here produce excellent artists and technicians.
We need to promote and keep the production and postproduction business of Massachusetts companies here, and attract new business, which will help retain our superbly educated and trained talent now forced to NY and LA. Here’s what Bill Goodell, V.P./Senior Producer at Arnold Worldwide had to say after shooting a Volkswagen new Phaeton spot in Burlington using Boston crews with an outside director and DP:
"We've got to use the people that are here because if we don't, they won't be here when we need them." How sensible is that, I ask!
Goodell made his statement to Don Packer of Finish Editorial who relayed it to me. It’s a credible use of in-sourcing that makes sense for the economy of the region and a good alternative to out-sourcing the whole project, which totally benefits another area. Goodell’s statement will be the centerpiece of an article I am researching on how to keep production local. There is considerable evidence that corporations headquartered here, send their production work elsewhere. We need to change this tendency for all the talented people and companies available to do and wanting the work.
In January there was considerable criticism in the local press and in the production industry of a state agency and its advertising agency that gave a $500,000 production budget to New York (yes, 10% of the overall budget of $5 million, but clearly 100% of the production budget for the Massachusetts State Lottery!) Spokespersons for the ad agency added insult to injury by explaining they made the decision to export the business to NYC in order to do the best job for their client (I’m paraphrasing). That explanation implied that the talent here isn’t up to doing the work. I would like to challenge that. I would also like to suggest that any director worth his or her salt has vision and will travel. In-sourcing is novel but, isn’t a new idea, just ask Clint Eastwood.
In this article I am researching, I will be making a case and establishing methodology for keeping regional business in the region. I am accepting ideas and input from others that have similar interest. If you or your company are planning or making efforts to keep business here, call or email me, and be a part of this study.
I have excellent news to report of my meetings with the House, the Senate and the Administration on Beacon Hill in behalf of our industry. Working with the three branches of government enhances the successful return of a state supported MASS FILM OFFICE. For IMAGINE and the entire production industry, I continue to thank and appreciate the efforts and support of Representative Brian Wallace (filed H 303 to reconstitute a State Film Office for us last year) and Senator Jack Hart (Chairman of the Joint Committee on Commerce and Labor who conducted our hearing), their offices and staffs, and you who are working with us offering your time and expertise to make this happen. We are now developing an aggressive and proactive office under the auspices of Economic Development patterned after the best and most successful models in the world. Make no mistake; it’s time to compete. And thank goodness, our Governor has plenty of experience on world stages that feature competition. The closed for business sign is coming down.
A world-class production center in New England can happen sooner than we think. Then I won’t have to “imagine’ it anymore, which is what I wrote in the very first issue of IMAGINE six years ago.
If you don’t remember the first issue of IMAGINE, I wrote that I did imagine a great part of our future success. The region lacked some structural sophistication, however, nothing that good Yankee ingenuity couldn’t reverse or overcome. At that time (1998), facts and information had become icons, and we forgot the potential and the dreams that we make for ourselves and for our world can are limited only by the perimeters of our imagination. We chose our name at that time based on those considerations.
It is totally awesome to reflect and realize that with our April issue (Location, Production and Resource Guide to New England), we begin our 7th year of publication. Lucky seven!
Most of you know I’m a Libra; I’m a flyer, an air sign. At this juncture I’m feeling a downdraft pushing on my wings. “It’s a sign of the times.” When movement and change is in progress, chaos also seems to appear. Like most of us now, although I have always done this, I am taking additional safety precautions to stay aloft. Also now, thankfully, I see my destination. I’ve flown all over the world, flown with the United States Thunderbirds, survived a max-performance take-off, achieved parabolic weightlessness, recovered from dizzying barrel rolls at extraordinary heights, pulled 7 G’s, and I didn’t throw-up, much to the chagrin of ground crews who were betting on what minute into the sortie I would. I claimed that reward and the purse. It was gut wrenching to say the least! But, then, I’m a gutsy girl.
On a lighter note, Sandra Bullock and Robert Downey Jr. will receive this year's Hasty Pudding awards at Harvard University. The awards, just announced, are given to performers who have made a "lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment" by Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the Nation's oldest undergraduate drama troupe. Living and officing in Harvard Square I am really a fan of the awards. Bullock will lead a parade through the streets of Harvard Square on Feb. 12 with Harvard students dressed in drag. Downey will appear Feb. 19 at the opening night of the Hasty Pudding production, "As the Word Turns." `Last year's Hasty Pudding honorees were actress Anjelica Huston and director Martin Scorsese. We were there and hope you will join us this year.
Please be my Valentine! I love you! And let’s get ready for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade coming soon to South Boston. The National Press will be there and here comes another chance to showcase our great region.
My best to everyone,
Carol Patton