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Fighting the film exodus U.S. cities unite in bid to stem loss of TV and movie work to foreign countries Tuesday, April 20, 1999 By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
First television sets. Then running shoes. And now TV movies and the occasional feature film. All things no longer -- or too rarely -- made in this country.
After seeing Showtime take virtually all of its original dramatic programming to Canada, after watching James Cameron film a substantial chunk of "Titanic" in Mexico, after hearing "Baywatch" threaten to move to Australia, film commissioners around the country are fighting back. They have formed a group called Film U.S., and Pittsburgh's Dawn Keezer has emerged as a spokeswoman.
"We're having stuff walk out the door and go to Australia. It's not acceptable. This is our industry. We grew it, we created it, we trained them. We did all this, this is ours," says Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.
Australia? That would be where "The Matrix," the Keanu Reeves sci-fi dazzler, was made.
Film U.S., says Keezer, is an advocacy group that wants to make the United States more film-friendly. In other words, less red tape, more financial breaks.
If a director, for example, wants to use an Air Force Base, Yosemite National Park and a naval yard, he must deal with three different bureaucracies, Keezer says. "It's not film-friendly. You go to Australia, you go to one office. You get that permit and you do it.
"There's no one speaking for this industry on a national level, and the entertainment industry is our No. 1 export. It's our business, it's in our back yard, and we're doing nothing to keep it here." Canada, on the other hand, has the benefit of the exchange rate (an American dollar is worth $1.48 in Canada), plus all kinds of incentive programs that cut or rebate costs for producers.
"There are over 50 projects each shooting in Vancouver and Toronto, as we're sitting here. Australia. Ireland's incentive program. It's insane what they've been able to do, and we've done nothing to compete against it."
Take the comedy "Detroit Rock City," about teens in the late '70s trying to scam their way into a Kiss concert. Scheduled for release later this year, it was filmed almost entirely in Canada.
"They came down here for two days of establishing shots so they could pretend to be on Woodward Avenue. That one annoyed me mightily," says Janet Lockwood, director of the Michigan Film Office, which has lost a number of projects to its northern neighbor.
The $33 million feature "Reindeer Games," starring Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise and Charlize Theron, will feature Michigan road signs, business logos and identifying posters but it, too, has gone to Canada. "They hired a local guy who took tons of photographs [so the look could be copied]. It will say Michigan, Michigan, but it won't say 'Thank you to the Michigan Film Commission,' since it won't be shot here," Lockwood says. "Perhaps it can fool people and we'll get a few tourists" out of the snub, she jokes.
Film U.S., a not-for-profit group of film commissioners that is welcoming unions and other advocates to the cause, will meet in Washington, D.C., early next month to elect officers, adopt bylaws and talk with congressmen and federal officials. Film offices will each put up $500 in dues. An eventual goal, Keezer says, is a federal film office.
"For the first time, very formally all 196 U.S. film offices are working together. We're still all competitors. We still fight each other tooth and nail for that work, but we realize it's a bigger issue and we've all got to work together."
The Directors Guild of America has hired a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm to try to get elected officials to stem the run-away production.
In Burbank, Calif., on Sunday, more than 1,500 boom operators, editors, gaffers, grips, directors and actors streamed into Johnny Carson Park for a "Bring Hollywood Home" rally. They want the state to intervene to keep film and TV work in California, where such residents as makeup artists, Teamster drivers and lighting technicians are finding work increasingly hard to get.
"I've never seen the entertainment industry put together a labor rally like that," says Cody Cluff, president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which acts as the Los Angeles film office. "It's obvious that quite a few people all across the spectrum are hurt," because of low-end television work, such as movies of the week, going elsewhere.
Although no figure for feature films is readily available, it's estimated that 70 percent of all TV movies (as opposed to mini-series) are being shot outside the United States. Before the exodus, Pittsburgh shared in that business back when such movies as "Darrow" with Kevin Spacey, "What She Doesn't Know" with Valerie Bertinelli and "Citizen Cohn" with James Woods were shot here.
While many movies of the week have gone to Canada, Keezer and others are quick to say Film U.S. was not formed to Canada-bash.
"These countries, we admire what they were doing. They were smart enough to figure this out. They realize this is a cash-cow business. These people came in here and in 1998, spent $12.5 million in Pittsburgh. That's good, clean money. We're not building roads, we're not building new schools for them. They come in, spend the money and leave," the film office director says.
Canada, to milk the cash cow, has the exchange rate in its favor, plus it offers rebates on labor costs of anywhere from 22 to 36 percent for productions, depending on whether the location is Vancouver or Manitoba. And then there's the Canadian content system, which lets productions accumulate points for hiring Canadians as producers or lead actors or other key jobs -- with a minimum of 10 points translating into money.
Canadians can work in this country but Americans don't enjoy the same freedom there, Keezer and Michigan's Lockwood say.
It's been five or six years since Lockwood and counterparts from such areas as Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Palm Beach, Fla., started talking about this issue. At that time, she recalls, they were perceived as Canada bashers and rabble rousers. But then the problem started hitting home elsewhere.
In September, talks turned serious at a film commissioners' international conference and more plans were made in Los Angeles in December.
"We've been talking about the Canadian problem and all these other country problems out here in what I call the second-tier production cities for a long time, but now it's hitting LA, it's hitting New York. They're paying attention," Keezer says.
Although Hollywood has become wary of making too many movies or spending too much on them, Pittsburgh seems to have weathered its dry spell quite nicely. In 1997, no feature or TV films were made here, only commercials, industrial films and CD-ROM games.
The business turned around in 1998 with Kevin Smith's "Dogma," Disney's "Inspector Gadget" and the four-hour miniseries "The Temptations," for which Pittsburgh paradoxically doubled as Detroit. "Wonder Boys," starring Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr., is getting close to wrapping up production under director Curtis Hanson.
Talking about "Inspector Gadget," Keezer says, "We really want it to be successful because there are plans for sequels. We're established as the town of Riverton, so they have to come back."
The fact that Keezer could help the production close down the Sixth Street Bridge, a feat noted in the Hollywood Reporter trade publication, only enhanced her reputation. "I walk into producers' offices and they want to know how the hell I did it. I say because we asked and we planned ahead. We've got the reputation of being able to do anything here, so it's only helping us."
Her work with Film U.S. also has raised her profile both here and abroad. The London Financial Times interviewed her for a recent story.
And Keezer saw 15 minutes of dailies for "Wonder Boys" and couldn't be happier. "The 15 minutes I saw are amazing. They're beautiful. Absolutely." Hanson and cinematographer Dante Spinotti, who were nominated for Oscars for "L.A. Confidential," are reuniting on "Wonder Boys."
Keezer and the film office have come a long way since September 1997, when she was the subject of complaints by some union leaders about the lack of work.
"There are over 200 crew on 'Wonder Boys' and a lot of them are locals," Keezer said. At the height of production, 96 members of IATSE Local 489 were working on the film.
Local 489 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees represents 186 carpenters, painters, set dressers, sound people, camera operators, wardrobe experts, laborers and others in the business of making movies. The Curtis Hanson film "has been able to employ nearly everyone in the local who isn't busy doing other work in the field," confirms Dave Sonita, treasurer of IA Local 489.
During the fallow period, "We continued our program of aggressively marketing this area, and it works. It's a cycle and ... the cycle turned in our favor. Hopefully it won't turn again against us any time soon," Keezer says.
She is working to make sure the cycle doesn't turn by making sales calls, by trying to lure feature films, TV movies and even a TV series here, by arranging for interested producers to attend a Pirates-Dodgers game in Los Angeles, by sending out cool tchotchkes, by making a public-service announcement spoofing "Flashdance" that recently won a couple of awards.
Keezer needs to keep banging the drum since her funding expires at the end of the year.
A three-year deal with the county commissioners, which gave the film office $300,000 annually from the hotel room tax (supplemented by $50,000 per year from the state), ends Dec. 31. The hotel room tax money that came her way apparently will be going to the new convention center.
"Commissioner Dawida has assured us, as have the other commissioners, as has the mayor, they will find funding for our office. They understand we're a vital part of the economic development in this community. ...
"We're a good story to tell. We're a great return on the investment. You go back to 1990, and we've brought in over $200 million, and if you add up the budgets over the years, I think it comes to less than $5 million. Way less."
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