Great News! January netted an important occurrence for the industry in Massachusetts and people who want to work here when location and other embargoed files from the old Mass Film Office, closed under suspicion in July of 2002, were recovered from their State archive-warehouse and delivered to the Massachusetts Sports, Film & Entertainment Commission. These files are now available at the Commission for qualified individuals considering location work in the Commonwealth. I believe this signals a new era and it could be just in the nick of time.  

 

Most everyone I meet and talk to is settling into 2005 with high hopes for a better economy and greater anticipation of a major pick-up for the production industry in all of New England. I am extremely pleased with the response and recognition for the importance of the industry that I’ve received recently from Massachusetts State leaders. I’ve spoken directly with Governor Mitt Romney, Speaker Sal DiMasi, and others. There is focus on incentives for the Commonwealth and you can read in this issue about several independent productions with genuinely good odds for obtaining theatrical and TV releases (see our cover story about THE LEGEND OF LUCY KEYES). Also note that you can see a behind the scenes look at the making of this homegrown supernatural thriller on Backstage with Barry Nolan and Sara Edwards on Friday, February 25^th at 8 PM on CN8 – The Comcast Network.

It is fairly obvious that THE DEPARTED, the Martin Scorsese film featuring a blockbuster cast has eyed Boston and all its charms working with Mark Drago, Director of Film and Entertainment at the Massachusetts Sports, Film & Entertainment Commission, and Patte Papa, the Director of Events & Film at the City of Boston. Both worked long hours supporting the Scorsese advance team with location, resource, and permitting issues when they were here in late January. Mr. Scorsese himself flew in to visit with Boston Mayor Tom Menino and view location options. Legitimate, credible local officials generating direct dealings between political and film professionals is making an immediate difference and should pay off for the Commonwealth. The general consensus is that THE DEPARTED will film in New York, then in Boston 2-3 weeks in June, go back to New York and then come back to Boston for 3 weeks in August.  Look for their production office to open in Boston in May.

In Providence, we know that the Showtime television series “The Brotherhood” is committed to 11 episodes to be entirely captured in Rhode Island. This production is expected to make a direct deposit of $38 million into that economy. I for one am grateful for the collaborative efforts of Steven Fienberg, state and city elected officials, and others that have pulled together to literally create this opportunity for Rhode Island and the region, snatching it right out of the jaws of Toronto. Look for Showtime’s production office to open the end of April. Shooting will begin July 5^th. You can get production updates on the Rhode Island Film Office hotline: 401 222-6666. Watch for highly competitive Rhode Island production incentives to be announced very soon. 

It’s music to our ears when we learn about a London company that’s has just wrapped a film in Vermont (see story in WWW Wraps) and that the Rhode Island Film and Television Office has installed a “hotline” to accommodate Showtime’s “The Brotherhood” (expected in Providence in April) and other independent and studio movies with cast and crew. It appears that potentially, studio movies and independent films are coming our way, or at least thinking strongly about it. Providing the snare is our job.

A new episode of “Wickedly Perfect” is scheduled this month for CBS. This series is taped entirely on location in Connecticut. Emmy Award-winning journalist Joan Lunden hosts WICKEDLY PERFECT, a new reality show that pits 12 people with a creative knack for the finer things in life in a no-holds-barred competition to crown the country's new authority on at-home living. These perfection-obsessed contestants, whose motto is "anything you can do, I can do better," will compete in different areas of beautifying the home and entertaining, including party planning, gardening, cooking, baking, sewing, crafts, floral arranging and decorating.

In addition to chronicling the sometimes funny, sometimes fractious relationships that develop among the tightly wound, extremely competitive participants, each week a contestant will be eliminated from their luxurious estate located in New England. LMNO TV taped the series last fall in Greenwich and surrounding towns/locations in lower Fairfield County. This show’s challenge will take place on the Greenwich estate.

This is the 4^th season for WB’s “The Gilmore Girls.” The series is set in the fictional storybook town of Stars Hollow, CT as well as Hartford and Yale University. Although the show is filmed on the back lot of Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, CA (ala Providence for NBC), promos and scenes for the first season were shot in Essex, Collinsville and Hartford and Yale provides script consultation and B-roll for scenes concerning the University. Also, Connecticut native Edward Herrmann is one of the principal characters on the series. It’s a smart show whose positive portrayal of Connecticut celebrates life in a “typical New England town”.

The attendance of New Englanders at the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) 2005 Conference in Las Vegas was also encouraging to me (see Paul Boghosian’s NATPE Report in this issue). It was the strongest conference I’ve seen marketing TV content. It was more international in scope

and must now be the top world market for television programming. The demand for content and American programming continues to grow fueled by reality shows success, experimental and educational programming demands, and new content providers. 

John MacNeil, Mike Yip, Ed Peselman, Emily McNamara, and Ralph Jaccodine represented the many production creative ideas of Moody Street Pictures. They were pitching 4 –5 program ideas. I ran into Sara Edwards at the top of the escalator at the Mandalay Conference Center interviewing Charlie Sheen, who was a featured speaker, and I bumped into Eran Lobel of Element Productions getting into a topical session for industry professionals. Part of the fun is always seeing the ex-New Englanders now living and working in Las Vegas like Tommy Thompson who entertains regularly. IMAGINE’s go to guy on Government, Ed Rae, Paul Boghosian (see Article on Page 24) and I catch his act at Napoleon’s in the Paris Hotel. Tommy is a Berklee alum and plays the heck out of his Tenor, Alto, and Soprano Saxophones. His group features Teddy Davis, Jr., another Boston bred musician as Lead Vocalist and on the Bass Guitar. The news to note is that Vegas is bigger and brighter than ever and NATPE has been scheduled at the Mandalay Bay Conference Center again in 2006, January 26 – 28.  

Speaking of those hot International markets product consumption; it isn’t only the managed delivery system gaining the ground. By many estimates, revenues from international home video sales are the fastest-growing part of Hollywood's business. The most reliable estimate comes from Screen Digest, a British data company, which calculated that the home video divisions of the United States studios garnered $11.4 billion in wholesale revenues from the $24.6 billion that overseas consumers spent buying and renting home video products in 2004 

What is more certain is that the windfall from overseas home video sales is affecting how the movie business is run. It is inflating budgets for films with big international potential (the ones that have big international stars), changing how top stars negotiate their take of the profits.  

"International home video is the last great profit center for the studios, and they are going to keep those numbers as smoky as they can for as long as they can," said Ron Bernstein, who runs the West Coast book department at International Creative Management, negotiating a piece of the net profit from films for authors.

The question of how to share the DVD windfall has been a sore subject among Hollywood's labor negotiators for the last year, but the studios have been able to hold their ground. The writers' and directors' guilds recently agreed to new contracts with no gains on the DVD issue. Recently, the national board of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted by a 2-to-1 ratio to recommend to members that they accept a new contract with the producers that had no gains for home video residuals.

It’s apparent that the studios are underreporting international home video gross revenues and that they participate in back-end deals for a share of the profits.  So it isn’t the piracy that should have front-page headlines and government intervention, but who should participate in the “spoils.” Studio accounting is always a sticky wicket and until there is an audit, we won’t get the video numbers broken out between domestic and international gross revenues.

Top stars typically negotiate $1 for every DVD sold while the rest of the movie’s cast shares in just 1.1 percent. There’s a lot to “chew-on” here.  We’ll talk to Dona Sommers, Executive Directive of SAG/AFTRA New England and try to sort it out for you in the next issue. No doubt that $100 million international movie promotion budgets are looking for returns from something other than box office receipts.

Again this year, the IMAGINE HotShots party was a well-attended terrific success. I want to thank each and every one of you who came. I want to thank Donnie Ritchie who made our accommodation at the International Restaurant & Pub so convenient and fun. And, I especially wish to express our gratitude to Pan Am Clipper Connection and their Marketing Director Alex Mouzas for providing our door prize of a trip for two to St. Kitts. The winner was Entertainment Attorney Vinca Jarrett, who announced she had never won anything in her life and almost didn’t bother to put her name in the pot. It was our pleasure to honor Gabrielle Savage Dockterman by presenting her with a framed copy of the November Cover of IMAGINE in which she was featured for her great work writing, producing and directing MISSING IN AMERICA, MIA for short. This title replaces the working title of THE WOODCUTTER. We’ve included photos (HotShots) from the event in this issue on pages 14 and 15.

The party supports subscriptions and renewals of IMAGINE. It is a promotion we schedule every year for the second Tuesday of the New Year. You can still subscribe or renew online in the event you didn’t make it to the party. Just go to: www.imaginenews.com and click on subscribe.

Our thanks to everyone, especially our advertisers who continue to make our work possible. Our goals are still the same as when be began.  We work to grow, nurture and support the Film, Television and New Media Production Industry and the people who work in it. Our March issue will provide even more great news.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Carol Patton