There has been a lot of talk about incentives lately in Providence and in Boston. They’ve been around for over 2000 years, much before the film and television industry came into being. Well thought out, well implemented, and good controls are secrets to the successes for film production industry incentives. Canada, Australia, Yugoslavia, even Puerto Rico and Iceland have practiced and perfected industry incentives designed to bring the worlds’ largest industry to their doors and shores.

Incentives are intricate by nature, extremely difficult to design (existing laws, natural resources, individual requirements, other industry needs and goals need to be factored in). Sometimes, even the finest minds, never mind the weak, fail. Frequently, like in Louisiana, you will need an attorney or a fairly competent legal mind just to understand them or make them work for you. As in the case of Canada, frequently the legal costs of obtaining the incentives and tracking the necessary paper trail don’t equal what a production may be giving up or getting. Eventually, there has to be an honest accounting for business and government.

I like what is going on in Rhode Island. Last month I attended a press conference at the State House held by the new director of the Rhode Island Film and Television Office, Steve Feinberg (see Vin Fraioli’s story in this issue). What is apparent to me is that Feinberg collaborated with the elected politicians of the state and city of Providence, the local unions and others to snatch the Showtime pilot of “The Brotherhood” out of the jaws of Toronto. Obviously everyone had to work together to “contribute” or “give-up” something to allow the executives of Showtime and Mandalay Entertainment to commit to shooting every scene of the pilot in Rhode Island. The press conference was spirited, upbeat and positive, inclusive, and celebratory. Mainly, for me, it was a “signal” that Rhode Island was committed to putting their film community back to work rather than letting them leave the state to work elsewhere or wither on the vine of burden. Just think of it, when this pilot gets picked up, that counts for another 13 episodes, all in all an estimated $40 million spent in the state. You needn’t be an economic whiz kid to understand that 4 or 5 such projects would infuse around $200 million into the smallest state in the union.

While I was there for this event I received a call from my office letting me know that I had a call from a Boston business reporter who wished to speak to me about incentives and possible incentive legislation in Massachusetts. I took the time to chat with him and let him know that it would be a great idea as soon as we have a single, bona fide, state/municipal government controlled and operated, sanctioned film office dedicated to providing competent professional support to the studios and major producers who want to come here and to the indigenous independent work that continues to be done here in spite of the lack of any government support or oversight. (As it is, quietly, industry insiders are picking up the slack.)

Such an office would require the support and the underwriting endorsement of the Governor’s Office, the State’s Economic Development leaders, the Mayors of major cities and the leadership of the House and Senate. House bill 303 continues to languish in Ways and Means even though it has a unanimous favorable report from the Joint Committee on Commerce and Labor. Emergency band-aids that have been put in place by the Legislature have only served to confuse and confound the situation. No one really knows where to go to get “one-stop” shopping for all that a production needs. In Massachusetts, there is no such place. And, regrettably, until there is an aggressive, proactive, well-led and honorably intentioned film office, there is no need for incentives as it is inconceivable that the Commonwealth would place costly incentives in the hands of anyone other than itself. Frankly, there is no related organization that I can see that is strong enough to administrate incentives in Massachusetts, even if it did. The cost of administration is one of the biggest costs of offering incentives after you get past the design and construction of them.

At the Rhode Island press conference I attended the reality of state support, not the facade, was apparent, Speaker of the House William J. Murphy, spoke with passion about legislation the House would write to support the industry, ostensibly Film and Television incentive related legislation. State legislation that was passed with the support of former Mayor “Buddy” Cianci three years ago has never been implemented to the best of my knowledge. Incentives are a tricky business. Yet Rhode Island has demonstrated that legitimate political leadership and honest industry brokers can make an immediate difference. Next month IMAGINE reports on the most successful industry incentives and how they work.

The incentive to have a great evening of fun at an IMAGINE sponsored event “Midnight Chimes End of Summer Fest” was a good one as more than 650 filmmakers and fans came to the Regent Theatre in Arlington. A second screening was added to accommodate everyone and a special get together afterwards collected hundreds of industry networking individuals, many who stayed much later than they had planned.

I want to thank everyone who attended, the Regent Theatre, and especially filmmakers Kevin Anderton, Joseph Bouvier, and the entire Midnight Chimes Production team who toiled tirelessly to plan and execute the event. This is an important kind of event that I would like to see happen more frequently as it provides an opportunity for first time, struggling, under budgeted, starving filmmakers to share their work with their peers and to get their work seen. With one or two exceptions the biggest budgeted title was $1500. That’s pretty lean filmmaking where the amazing ideas, creativity and talent of the filmmakers could really shine. The evening was purposely free so that everyone could attend and see the work. Congratulations to all the filmmakers that were selected to screen.

In October, I am anxiously awaiting the Boston premiere of SPIN (see IMAGINE December 2003) produced by Boston’s own Elaine M. Rogers who took a leave of absence from law firm Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson to make the film in and around Tucson, AZ (my hometown!) The picture will receive its charity premiere at the Sundance Resort near Salt Lake City on Oct 9th in aid of the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness, a nonprofit organization. Along with the directorial debut of James Redford, SPIN will have premieres later in the month of October in Tucson and Boston prior to opening in other cities. Watch for the details right here in IMAGINE next month.

This month we have TV great host Barry Nolan on the cover, and stories that speak to HDTV, the new technology that will allow you to capture images without tape, even WWW is filled with local tales of working in television. Please enjoy!