Imagine a new big screen version of the infamous Boston Strangler issue, filmed. . . Cleveland. Or an organized crime thriller based in America’s best fishing port, New Bedford, Massachusetts, filmed on location in. . . Halifax.
Both scenarios could have happened. But thanks to passionate filmmakers and state tax breaks, moviegoers will see a serial killer and more “CODA-style” hunters in their natural habitat: Massachusetts.
Not many impressive visitors have descended into the state since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. In addition to the $28 million “Boston Strangler” and the $28 million Paramount+ thriller “Finestkind”, two blockbuster Marvel films (Disney’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Sony’s Spider-Man spinoff “Madame Web”), a movie Film directed by Bradley Cooper written by Leonard Bernstein “The Maestro”, Zendaya’s tennis drama “The Challengers”, Whitney Houston biopic “I Want to Dance with Someone” and more are made there.
David Hartman, executive director of the Massachusetts Production Coalition, notes that the state attracts about 30 productions a year, totaling more than $3 billion in direct spending since the tax incentive program began in 2007. Since then lawmakers have voted to make it permanent last summer, without Maximum super talent – a feature that has drawn all-star “no-look” to the state – more work is likely to come under the helpful stewardship of Massachusetts Film Director Lisa W. Strout.
“Things started to change for us in 2017, when the first spin-off was filmed in Massachusetts in over 20 years, Hulu’s Castle Rock, and they’re back for a second season,” says Intl. Coalition of Theater Staff, Motion Picture Technicians, Artists, and Local Crafts 481 Business Manager Chris O’Donnell. “Since then, we’ve had over half a dozen series filmed in Massachusetts. This has really been an advantage for growth, not only in our crew base, but in terms of businesses, suppliers, and the industry that’s expanding to meet this growing need.”
For the small screen, New Line’s horror-comedy “The Parenting” with Brian Cox, Eddie Falco and Lisa Kudrow and the second season of Julia Child’s biographical series “Julia” film for HBO Max. AMC is also doing double duty: After wrapping up the second season of the drama “Kevin Can F*** Himself” in May, much of the same crew will be filming the first season of the 1930s psychological thriller “Invitation to a Bonfire” in September.
“We live in a world with over a hundred incentives, and more competition for movies and series than ever before,” says Jay Rowey, senior vice president of incentives and production planning for HBO and HBO Max. “So we usually see at least two to four different locations depending on that, considering where the story is set, what the stage and crew position are, the time of year and so on. Since Julia is set there, the state has one Strongest motivators in the country and they’ve taken off the sunset, which has always been a problem for a series that does multiple seasons, there wasn’t much twist of gun, either on the part of the studio or the director.”
The result: In season one of Julia, HBO Max spent $52.4 million on 440 sellers and added 528 jobs out of a total of 834 employees, excluding extras. “We are very happy to come here now because of the quality of the staff and infrastructure,” says Rooy. His only warning? Like many of the shows, Julia shoots interiors in a converted warehouse outside of Boston. “Just more sound is needed. Because of the way the spur has been structured, there has been some reluctance to look at a long-term view, but these are the things we expect to see more of here in the future.” (This is also changing as New England Studios and Red Sky Studios in Allston and Marina Studios expand or plan to expand.)
For “Finestkind” writer and director Brian Helgeland, who will be bending over with a hybrid theatrical production +/Paramount, filming in his hometown of New Bedford was a must. “There was pressure to try to do it differently, and we went up to Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a courtesy, but Brian made it clear — and I support him one hundred percent — that unless the movie was shot in Massachusetts,” said producer Gary Foster of Krasnov/Foster Entertainment. He wasn’t interested in making it.”
But in order to make the budget work, they needed to know more about the situation of the land.
“New Bedford is out of ‘the area.’ It is considered a remote location, and travel time, hotels and living expenses all add up.” So we put our production office in Stoughton, near New Bedford, which meant the drive was shorter and we were paying less overtime. in a day. All the guilds and crews understood that, it helped.
“The other thing we discovered is that the site fees near Boston are very high. Down here, there’s not a lot of production, so the fees are about 40%-50% lower, and the infrastructure costs aren’t that high. That’s how we got an extra week or so in New Bedford” on the 40-day shoot. “Local government, authorities and citizens were very happy to host us, and we were able to make better deals than if we were shooting near Boston. There are also great crews here, so you bring in fewer people from Los Angeles and New York to fill your departments.”
It is also useful to know more about the availability of workers in advance. “Someone was telling me one day that Massachusetts has about three crews,” Foster says. “If you come here and two or three things happen, all of a sudden you have gaps in the sections. There were a couple of other films thinking about coming here, but we got here first and we started making commitments first, so timing is everything.”
Colin Walsh, executive producer of AMC’s “Kevin” (where filming wrapped around 300 people a week) and co-producer of “Bonfire,” has been in domestic productions for nearly two decades. He has a slightly different view of employment than Foster has been told. “The most important thing we have is having a very strong local staff. With certain divisions, there are probably three very strong options. With others, there are more than three.” Being an independent company, the timing is always different. The crews overlap a little bit, so people go back and forth and work with different people on different shows.”
And despite the stories about “The Godfather” being shot about real gangsters in the 70s in New York, the local sages of Boston do not cause anyone much trouble. “It only happened to me once [the Whitey Bulger gangster biopic] “Black Mass,” and it wasn’t a big deal, says longtime site director and product manager Ryan B. cook. “One person who owned some property said, ‘Our family is kind of connected to this story. We are not interested in participating in that. It was random, so we moved on the street.”
But he was relieved to help bring another true crime story from the early 1960s to life in “Boston Strangler.” “They were exploring Boston and Cleveland for the movie, and it would be criminal to film that shot in Cleveland,” Cook laughs. “Working on a movie was so unique and special where you can explore the real locations and say, this is where that really happened. There are just so many famous Boston stories that are yet to be told.”
[ad_2]
