Where art thou Plymouth Rock Studios?
Posted by Frank Auer on Mon, Feb 22, 2010 @ 08:13 AM
I read today that Shutter Island saved 25% of its budget by filming in Massachusetts. Primarily in tax credits. Ultimately that means they spent a ton of money in the state. Yet our short minded legislature is planning on putting a cap on the amount of film tax credits film productions can get in the state. Sure it might be easy to view this as a boon to independent film. One could think - "that will keep the blockbusters out and support indie film in the state." Sadly, that will not be the case. We need the large productions for a number of reasons.
1) They help crew members make a good amount of money so they can work for a much lower wage on indie films.
2) They help TRAIN new crew members. Without the experience crew gain on major films they would not be as effective.
3) They encourage the building of production facilities, that can be offered to indie producers during slow seasons.
Number 3 leads me to the fate of Plymouth Rock Studios. I know many people think the whole thing was a scam. Having met with th executive team I can tell you that I never got that feeling. From what I can tell they were VERY much into making this studio happen. The fact is they made one huge monumental mistake - not vetting their loan company. The sad thing is how many people rooted for them to fail. Had they been supported by the community they may have recovered from that mistake. However everyone, especially the Boston Globe, was cheering their failure. Does anyone understand the jobs that were lost? Or potential jobs that could have been created. The media industry is birthing a new type of media and Mass has the change to be on the cutting edge of that. However, it seems they are too busy worrying about outsiders to actually embrace that.