From Crains:The film industry, which has enjoyed record growth since the state started its tax incentive plan five years ago, is being hit with a number of new obstacles that could wreck the business and send longtime hits like Law & Order packing to cheaper locales.
The latest shock to the industry is a plan by the city to charge the largest fees in the nation for filming in its buildings. The Mayor's film office is also drawing up plans to charge for its famous free permits. Even more troubling, the city's tax incentive program is out of money and in the process of being scaled back, and the state is in negotiations over whether to renew its tax incentives. The quadruple whammy is pushing the production industry into its most precarious time since the dark days of the early '90s, when Hollywood boycotted New York and nothing was shot here at all.
16 comments:
Let them leave and take the Mayor with them Crappy.
What these piggish producers, directors and actors need to do is cut some off their own $5000+ hour salaries.
They may THEN have the money to show the investors who back these films.
--Wishful thinking but it will never happen. These folks are like drug addicts with money. This same old story has been going on since the movie industry's inception.
Seven 104pct cops, a police trailer, traffic control, on set EMT and Con Ed electrician all on overtime protecting Jennifer Aniston on Elliot ave is a little ridicules.
Let these overpaid Hollywood multi-millionaire producers & divas buy their own not the taxpayers already getting peed on.
These movie people don’t even use local restaurants; every catering, grip, wardrobe, lighting, company is sanctioned by the mayor’s office INCLUDING THE BANKS THEY MUST USE.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/discounts/discounts_home.shtml
ALL from Manhattan !
Let see:
People in Manhattan get the $$
People in Queens get the headaches with these summer movie shoots.
I hear it was a mess in Maspeth this summer with the "2 Cops" shoot.
It would be a shame to let this happen. Shooting movies and television shows is a great economic boom to the city. It seems everywhere you turn there is another shooting going on and the vast majority of those staffers are from Queens and Brooklyn.
Every dollar extra that goes into the NYC economy ratther then that of Toronto and Vancouver is a good thing for everyone. Especially people from Queens which has actally reaped the biggest benefits from the tax breaks out of the entire state.
Actually, most of the people on movie and TV sets are from Manhattan or Long Island. And they always say that we should be so happy that the crews are patronizing Queens businesses while they turn our neighborhoods upside down, but Joe is right, they don't use local businesses. There is an approved list of caterers, which are 90% Manhattan based.
Oh no - where will we get all our crap movies from?! Who's going to block off the paths in Central Park most days of the week!
Another reason, among many, to dump this putrescent parcel of pig we call our mayor!
If I'm going to watch a crime show I'd rather watch NCIS or CSI Miami.
I prefer it to the domestic brands like Law and Order.
A corpse on a slab is dead no matter what city he or she is being dissected in.
I can walk down my own NYC streets (until Bloom-fuhrer decides to charge me for the privilege) ...don't need to see them on TV.
Show me a locale I can't visit readily like Paris or London.
Those British shows beat the pants off of the American tripe we call mainstream.
Well that's what happens when you drive all of the economic engines like the solid manufacturing base out of NYC (LIC in particular) and replace it with frivolous "luxury" housing!
You're left with nothing left to sell but image.
Bloomberg insists on building his eerie detatched from reality version of Disneyland/New York.
Welcome to the Gotham's magic kingdom where everything is franchised by the rich and all is a stage set...a sand castle...waiting to be swept out to sea with the next economic downturn.
And emperor Bloomberg runs it all from his padded armchair like a deranged impresario sequestered in his upper east side mansion.
This micro managing midget does not need another 4 years to finish the job of gutting our once viable city.
Erik the phantom still has most of his marbles left when compared to Mayor Mike!
Remember...Hollywood once built a set called "New York street".
They can do it again and control the lighting and weather conditions too.
No rain date cancellations needed!
I think the saturation of filming in NYC over the past 15-20 years has overexposed NYC. Film production is just one of countless sources of jobs and revenue in the city. But unfortunately, like alot of those other sources, it has gotten way out of hand in the last few years, and it doesn't seem to benefit the average NY'er much. Perhaps it should be scaled back a bit, and maybe return some normalcy to the city streets.
Good-bye and good riddance. I rarely go to movies anyhow. What $10-$12 bux to see some crap that will be on TV or the computer screen in awhile anyway? To sit through 20 minutes of commercials at the beginning? To watch idiot no talent foul-mouthed, half-naked actors and actresses?
Remember...Hollywood once built a set called "New York street".
They can do it again and control the lighting and weather conditions too.
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Good idea. Two suggestions;
1. They could bid on all the old buildings the city has torn down, or plans to tear down, and transport them to Hollywood, instead of destroying them.
2. They can hire a few hundred Mexican day laborers and re-create endless streets of Queens crap, for more modern period shoots.
I am ready for my clozeup!!!
so wait.....i;'ll get my parking back ? sweet
From Manhattan or Long Island ?
Since when do implant Manhatten Tower people count in Queens and Long Island
The only people who still live in "houses" are the union workers on these sets.
Most BTW are a bunch of assh*les, ever try and talk with an IATSE stagehand ?.
Get rid of the Unions and you will not only keep the film industry, and the talant here but regular people will be able afford a broadway play again.
These IA and IATSE Union racketeer brotherhood is whats killing the industry more then the Mayor.
Most are closed "father and son" family with their hands in everything and will strike or sabatoge your set if you dont kiss their ass.
Thats the main reason they shoot in Canada.
I worked on a Late Saturday evening TV show. To start with NOT ONE actor or writer on the show was from New York let alone New York City.
Id work 40 hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday till 1:30 am.
I have a $2,900 paycheck to have the union mafias steal $1200 right out of it. Taxes would then take 1/2 of whats left.
..Come home with $1600 ?
If you said anything bad about the unions you could be jumped or even killed.
Jimmy Hoffa's all of them.
I see we have one or 2 of these IA's on Queens crap.
"I see we have one or 2 of these IA's on Queens crap."
Well, I was one of those you scorn.
I am a college educated blond wasp, the son of a major art dealer, both my Mother and I were models.
Not exactly the potato-faced mafiosi you portray.
I don't know what locals you had dealings with but, on Broadway the relations were not nearly as adversarial as you contend.
When I worked an IA show we almost always ended the evening with cast/crew heading for Barrymore's (The Office) or Sardis. It was not unusual for cast members to be involved with crew and sometimes marry.
I got in because I had met "old timers" - (guys w/two digit cards) at a time when the industry was rapidly changing technologically and they needed someone with electronics background to fix and explain things. (FCC 1st Class).
These old characters had fascinating stories of the "golden era" -they- were a lot more interesting than spiking a chair on glowtape each night.
The mafia got as far as the Teamsters--load in door.
There is still a lot of feather bedding in the industry but the crew sizes per running show have declined from the days of piano boards and hemp lines.
The arts are a vital part of this city. Without them what do we have as a major industry?.. the dullard schemers who work on Wallstreet and live in my building. Oh, and the leeches (landlord) who bleed everyone.
Your points about Craft Services being mostly Manhattan based is taken..but so what? There is a trend toward the boroughs for the prod houses and soon related services will follow..that's if we don't kill the industry before.
Lino
My brother in-law is a sound editor for tv and movies. He's hardly rolling in the cash and relies on the tv and movie industry in NYC to take care of his children and wife. Losing this industry or any part of it in NYC would really hurt the people who AREN'T making a fortune from this business!
Faster340s brother in law is an perfect example of the racketeering involved inside the IAs.
The guy's must be working 14 hour days and seeing zip because the IAs garnish (steals) a good 1/3 out of his paycheck.
A good half to a 3rd of whats left he has to split with the goverment (SS & taxes).
The IAs are driving production costs through the roof.
The industry needs to dump these unions they have operated un-policed for to long.
Look at that the IA's and fat cats did to automobile industry
I dreaded the Madison Square Garden shows.
You cant get anything done, IAs run all the FOH and monitor boards. 1/2 of them do a lousy job (all sons a brother-inlaws)
You cant tell them anything, they tell you "OK tank you now go F_ yourself".
When I played for a so-called Disney "artist" An IA forman at MSG came at me with a baseball bat during a soundcheck (it wa sactually a riser leg) in front of 30 people because I moved a boom mic stand. It was to far in front my pedal board.
This slob gets out of his chair and starts screaming YOU PUT THAT BACK ! I refused and told him do your job cant you see this is wrong --its in the stage plot notes.
He grabs a riser leg out of box and comes at me.
I grabbed a mic stand in self defense.
The 2 huge almost 7 foot Arab looking securiety people cam out of nowhere and had both of us off our feet and in these headlocks before anything happened.
About 20 years ago it started raining Inside Beacon Theatre. (AKA White peoples Apollo according to James Brown) This cursing starts coming from in the balcony.
Must have been 40 or 5 of these guys doing $48hr overtime sleeping.
It no wonder the place coulnt afford to fix the roof.
It now costs a family of 4 $500-$1200 to see the Radio City Christmas show--insane
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