Posted 27 October, 2007 in CA News
http://www.dexigner.com/digital/news-g12469.html
Posted 27 October, 2007 in FilmUSA
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117974381&
Posted 27 October, 2007 in CA News
L.A. feature filming down but TV’s up
Reality television dominating local production
In a surprise development, studios held back on stockpiling feature films in Los Angeles during the past three months in the face of strike fever but third-quarter TV production stayed sizzling.Third-quarter feature stats showed 1,897 days of off-lot shooting on public property in the Los Angeles area — down 22% from the third quarter of 2006 and off 24% from the previous quarter. It was the slowest third quarter for features in four years, according to permit statistics issued today by the Film L.A. agency.
“We had heard that production should continue to increase as contract talks instensified but we just didn’t see that happen during the third quarter,” Film L.A. president Steve MacDonald said.
But TV production was at the second-highest level ever recorded with 5,950 days, Film L.A. said. That figure represented a 10% gain from the second quarter and trailed only the first-quarter record of 6,478 days.
TV activity has soared in Los Angeles over the past few years, thanks to the growth of cable and reality shows. Film L.A. stats showed a 2% gain in the third quarter, pushed by a 43% hike in pilots and growth in areas such as talk and variety.
Reality TV continued to dominate, edging down 1% to 2,374 days, while TV drama activity declined 12% to 1,852. Sitcoms slid 16% to 504 days.
The figures are one of the few measures of local production activity, although some observers note that the stats capture less than half of the region’s production activity.
Posted 19 October, 2007 in CA News
http://www.film.ca.gov/GreenProject/index.html
Posted 19 October, 2007 in CA News
From the Spartan Daily News (San Jose State University)
CEO donates to art program
DreamWorks executive gives $300,000
By: Jovanni Colisao
Posted: 10/15/07
Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive officer of DreamWorks SKG, made a
surprise announcement Thursday afternoon: he will contribute $300,000 to
SJSU’s animation/illustrat ion program. Katzenberg made the announcement
during an event with students and faculty members moderated by President Don
Kassing.
“It’s a wonderful help,” Kassing said. “It reflects on how an industry will
spot universities thathave strong academic departments in areas where they
need talent and we have that here in our animation department.”
Posted 19 October, 2007 in CT News
Recent tax breaks have led to several movies being filmed in at least a dozen cities across Connecticut.Connecticut’s film tax credit has been so successful in luring moviemakers and famous faces that now there aren’t enough production crews to do the work.With that in mind, a committee of legislators, educators, union leaders and film industry professionals gathered at the capital Wednesday to try to script a solution.They’ve dubbed themselves Hollywood East and their goal is to establish a solid work force made up of those who live in Connecticut.In recent months there have been many celebrity spottings in Connecticut. There was filming for an “Indiana Jones” movie in New Haven and Leonardo DiCaprio shot scenes for one of his upcoming films in Thomaston.The Hollywood East group strives not only to improve the work force but also to expand academic opportunities for an even bigger homegrown work force in the future.In the next 100 days, Hollywood East is expected to make recommendations on how to create the training programs necessary to insure the jobs stay in CT.
Posted 19 October, 2007 in CO News
“Nowhere” to go but out: Filming done
By Bill Husted
The Denver Post
It’s a wrap.
Today, the cast and crew of the Eddie Murphy movie “NowhereLand” finishes up a few shots and leaves town.
After two weeks, dozens of locations, hundreds of extras and $3.25 million, everybody is happy.
“I think it went really, really well,” says Colorado Film commish Kevin Shand. “This has been a great shoot.”
Shand was on hand when Gov. Bill Ritter, Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien, House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and Mayor John Hickenlooper visited the set at the Brown Palace on Tuesday. The producers of the film told the pols that Denver had the “best police they’ve ever dealt with - in the world.”
Marketing/communications exec Kathleen Eccleston was an extra in the flick and lives in the Commons Park/Riverfront neighborhood, where they filmed Wednesday and Thursday nights. She writes in: “The morning coffee run and dog walk just became the social event of the week.”
She says the Plaza at Riverfront was alive with moviemaking - wires, props, lights, camera, action. “Everywhere you go, people are comparing notes and snapping pictures of the set and crew.”
Shand says another big Hollywood movie should come to Colorado Springs in the spring - with a formal announcement coming soon.
Posted 14 October, 2007 in NC News
Jordan Kerner: One on One
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04 Oct 2007
Ben Wolf | Staff Writer
There are going to be some changes around here.
At least, there will be if Jordan Kerner, the new dean of the School of Filmmaking, has his way. With sweeping changes planned for the film school’s curriculum, identity, funding and even the state’s film incentives package Dean Kerner will definitely be leaving his stamp on the campus community.
Kudzu Gazette: What brings you to NCSA?
Jordan Kerner: As a sophomore at Stanford in my spring quarter I was pre-med and I took an elective course from a man named Jules Dundees. Jules was the communications films professor and he taught a course on mass communications in society. He was played by Robert Downey Jr. in “Good Night and Good Luck” and as an executive vice president of CBS News he and Fred Friendly and Edward R. Murrow brought down Joe McCarthy by doing a series of four broadcasts. In class we watched those four broadcasts and previous to that I thought I was going to become a doctor and then run for senate and then the presidency and then fix health care because politics has always motivated me. Professor Dundees was someone who really changed my life that way. Much to my parents’ chagrin I left medicine and became a political science and film major.
What I noticed about Stanford’s film school was that there were two film courses and everything else was film theory, they were really trying to teach critics and teach people to teach film theory and I wanted a dramatic narrative course. So for 30 years as an alumnus I tried to get them to adopt what I called the “Conservatory of Narrative Film.” I’d gone to the president a few times and a lot of people in the business agreed with me.
To make a long story short, it was those instances that caused me to want to become the head of a film school in some manner. I never thought of doing this now in my life. When I’d be offered something I’d say call me back in ten years. I wasn’t ready to do this. I’ve got three films that are getting ready to be on the deck. The chancellor was incredibly understanding and felt that he wanted a film professional in this job so any time I had a film that went I could go do it. And he pre-approved all of my preexisting project contracts. I said if I could I would try to stay here one hundred percent in the fall and then if this film happened in the winter I would take a few students with me on rotation. You know, producing students be with me, directing students with the director, cinematography students with the cinematographer, editors with the editor, and try to get maybe two or three different cycles of students so that we could give them a great experience in New Zealand or Australia. Not just as an intern who would Xerox and make photocopies but would actually be at every rehearsal and then later we’d figure out all the credit. So I’ve always wanted to be able to form the curriculum of a film school.
KG: So what attracted you to NCSA was the freedom the chancellor offered you?
JK: I wouldn’t have even thought of coming here other then coming here as a guest artist last November and there was a very high quality of questions coming from the students. I felt that the students were really motivated and that it was a really great campus. I knew that in some way I wanted to be involved. I maintained an email relationship with Patsy (Seiler) and I didn’t know the chancellor at that point or really anybody else, I knew of Dale (Pollock). I was getting ready to send them a letter to tell them that if they wanted me to do a producing seminar I would be interested, I’ve done them at USC and AFI and at UCLA.
Then they contacted me in January with the offer and I thought, ‘Wow, but call me in ten years’ sort of. They called back a few times and finally got me on the phone with the Chancellor. We had a number of conversations and then Sam Neil, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, called me and in a sense they made me the proverbial offer you couldn’t refuse if you wanted to do this and be a producer.
KG: The school has a name for itself as a production heavy, hands-on school that focuses on independent production. The changes you’ve mentioned seem to suggest that won’t be the case for long. What will NCSA’s film school be known for in the future?
JK: What I hope it’s known for is that great storytellers come from NCSA whether they’re in the independent world, or the studio world, whether they’re on HBO, doing music videos or Google or Apple ads, that stories are being told. When you say it’s known for production heavy graduates and independent orientation what you essentially just described is the New York Film Academy, which is a trade school, because they’re known to do independent film and are production heavy. My worry was that the school was becoming a trade school and that’s not the job of a university in my mind. The job of a university is to train minds to think and to be critical thinkers. So from my standpoint if I can take the first two years, keeping a film production course, and a critical studies course, same in the second year and then the possible addition of a specializing course in the winter trimester and another in the spring. So, one whole year of survey and then the first trimester of your second year. Your winter and spring trimesters you might decide to take directing and cinematography, or editing and producing, so very much like what we have now just not so much.
When I say cutting back I really want to make the room for stronger liberal arts courses. Dean Miller has great courses right now and he’s been very open and forthright about wanting to hear what we have to say so he’s sending Dean Wright and another faculty member to serve with our committee so that we can do it together, we can start having courses in short stories, courses that are fascinating in terms of critical thinking. Psychology and abnormal psychology are two of the most important courses you can take as a director or a writer or a producer. So that’s what I’d like people to get out of this program.
KG: What’s funding these changes? There’s this rumor about the title of the school…?
JK: Well, I’ve raised a lot of money for politicians in my life, for political causes, I never have a problem asking for money for something I believe in. The school hasn’t, in my mind, had a great development department. The chancellor is building a terrific development department, people raising funds for NCSA and not just hitting up local businesses for donations. There are a lot of companies that when they understand what they’re giving money for they have no problem donating money. So I have to say to them If I can get the film curriculum and I can get the film school working in a certain way I think that I can go to Phil Anschutz, Sumner Redstone, any one of those types of people who have billions of dollars and who, at that point in their lives, are all preoccupied with their place in history and having a lasting effect or what they’re associated with. If I can give them an orientation to the kinds of films we’re making here, films that have value and worth, I can sit them down in a room and show them three or four films that were done this year with this new program and say, ‘These are the kinds of films we’re making, wouldn’t it be great to have this become the Turner School of Film’ or ‘The Anschutz School of Film.’ That’s the big endowment that I’m looking for, that’s the big picture.
Dean Kerner speaking at the Chancellor’s Convocation last month
Allen Aycock
The second part of this is the state. The way I see my job here in addition to performing my duties for the school is to create a relationship where NC becomes a film centric state again. It was twenty years ago when they built Wilmington. There have been a lot of television shows and a couple of independents but there haven’t been the big studio films that bring hundreds of millions of dollars in to the economy and there’s a reason for that. The reason is a few years ago when all the productions were being done in Canada or New Zealand someone in Louisiana got the bright idea that if we give a rebate that’s much higher then everybody else’s, everyone was at ten percent, if we give a twenty five percent rebate with no cap we think we can attract a film business here. Well, they’ve attracted a film business there. Now they have ten, twelve, fifteen films a year shooting there right now. All of a sudden New Mexico got the same bright idea. Nine to eleven films shooting in Albuquerque, they don’t even have the hotel rooms for them.
Now when you’re a state you say, ‘My gosh we’re giving 25 percent back to these rich studios. How do we get it back?’ There’s income tax. All of our people are working, all of these people we’re educating to be filmmakers here in North Carolina, the state taxes their income thirty percent, forty percent, if you start to run the numbers you see that the state is actually making five or six or ten percent on their investment of giving the rebate and they’re increasing the employment in their states. They’re increasing the use of hotels, they’re increasing the use of restaurants, they’re increasing the use of, God forbid, gas stations. Everything benefits. There are all these secondary and tertiary benefits. So I’m going to be working with the state film commissioner and working with senator Linda Garrou and another senator from Greensboro. We’re all going to be working with the governor to sign a bill for a 25% rebate with an unlimited cap.
KG: The school here runs on rumor so if you could just confirm or deny a few things that would be great. There’s talk of changing the name to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts?
JK: Yes, I’m a huge proponent of that. We are the University of North Carolina, we are funded by the University of North Carolina. It’s a misnomer to call ourselves anything other than the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to me. It doesn’t make any sense to be hiding the fact that we are a part of one of the greatest university systems in the country.
KG: There’s also a rumor, a personal one, about your home here in Winston being more environmentally friendly than others?
JK: No, let’s put that rumor to rest. We’re using as much post-consumer product as we can. We’re investigating the contractors in Virginia because there isn’t a contractor here that can put a photovoltaic roof on my house, which makes me insane. And I applied to the city to have grey water. Do you know what grey water is?
KG: No, I don’t.
JK: We wanted to take all of our water from our sinks, our laundry and our showers and have those go down one set of pipes in to a cistern in our backyard that cleans the water and then there’s a pump in that cistern that pumps it out and irrigates our land. In California they pay you 55% of the cost that it takes to do this. The state of North Carolina would not allow me to do it because you have to be zoned agricultural and have 125 acres. We’re going to have to work on that. We weren’t allowed to do the things that would make an environmentally friendly home.
KG: I also hear you have an impressive wine collection?
JK: I do.
KG: Including a bottle from the last supper.
JK: (laughs) That’s a lie. But my wine collection is all in Los Angeles. It’s too hot to ship it right now. I don’t know if we’re going to ship everything, we’re going to ship about 400 bottles to start with. We don’t yet have a wine cellar in our house but it’ll be built hopefully within the next couple of months. Once it hits November it’ll be cool enough to ship. I have about 2,000 bottles. It’s my complete obsession and hobby.
KG: What are your favorites?
JK: I went from being a lover of French Bordeauxs, left bank Bordeauxs, to California pinots, California cabernets and because I shot three movies in Australia I’m now nuts about the shiraz in Australia and the sauvignon blancs in New Zealand.
KG: have you checked out any of the local wines?
JK: I’ve started to.
KG: Thank you for your time, Mr. Kerner.
Posted 14 October, 2007 in LA News
Film frenzy
by Jaime Guillet
Posted: Monday, October 8, 2007
Filmmakers still love Louisiana as a location for film production.
In 2007, 33 films will be produced in Louisiana, a 65 percent increase compared with 20 in 2006. Fourteen films will be shot in New Orleans compared with 10 in 2006, a 40 percent increase.
Most industry insiders expect the trend to continue into 2008.
New Orleans native Florent “Danny” Retz is one such insider. Retz, a film editor with more than 50 feature films under his belt, returned from Los Angeles where he’d lived since 1976. Seeking opportunities in the burgeoning Louisiana film industry, he moved into a new Slidell home five days before Hurricane Katrina. The 18 months following the storm were rife with potential problems for Louisiana studios — the largest being the insurance crisis — and Rentz had trouble finding work.
“The hurricane certainly dampened things a little,” Rentz said.
Not anymore, he said.
“If every year is like this, I’ll be able to carve out a good living,” Rentz said. “Jobs are plentiful here and I hope they stay that way. This year we’ve had something every month — usually two or three a month.”
The number of films now being shot in Louisiana is “right on par with pre-hurricane numbers,” said Chris Stelly, director of Louisiana’s Office of Entertainment Industry Development. Uncertainty about hurricanes and skyrocketing insurance premiums halted many companies from working in Louisiana right after the 2005 storms. Two years later, those pressures are finally subsiding, he said.
“Just a year after, folks are much more comfortable,” said Stelly. “A lot of the insurance issues have been worked out and haven’t been an issue this year.”
Producers also now understand hurricanes “are totally predictable and we can plan our contingency plans accordingly,” Stelly said.
The nation’s most competitive film tax incentives are still the major lure. The Legislature this past session mandated the 25 percent tax credit would only be received on money spent in Louisiana. The number of films being shot in Louisiana demonstrates a growing level of confidence among filmmakers, he said.
The economic impact in the state from filmmaking in 2007 is estimated at $362.2 million, although the amount is indefinite until an independent audit verifies the total, said Stelly.
A 2006 Economics Research Associates report on state trends in film, music and digital media shows filmmaking growing at an impressive rate in Louisiana.
In 2003, film spending added $7.4 million to the state economy in wages, profits and sales tax. Productions were a rare presence in the state.
After the film incentives authored by state Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Elmwood, passed the Legislature, film spending mushroomed to $344 million in 2005. The number of film production jobs rose 247 percent from 5,437 in 2003 to 18,882 and wages have increased 31 percent annually.
Unfettered growth also created needs for a deeper labor force and more infrastructure.
Mike McHugh, business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 478 union, said there has been great membership growth but people “aren’t beating down the door” to join.
“It’s just like anywhere else in the state: There’s just not enough labor,” said McHugh. “We’re definitely growing. We can’t grow fast enough.”
He said IATSE’s members hovered at 150 for years and pre-Katrina was at 300. Membership is now 550, marking 83 percent growth. The work force shortage outranks the infrastructure needs as a priority, said Stelly, but not so much the state has lost any productions.
Retz, who starts editing the new film “American Inquisition” Monday, said there’s one good way to enhance the labor force.
“The more filmmakers that come (to Louisiana to work), the more people we get to become experienced,” said Retz.
Posted 11 October, 2007 in AZ News
Much of ‘Wild’ was filmed in Arizona
Carrie Watters
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 8, 2007 07:38 AM
Former Glendale resident turned movie producer John J. Kelly said Into the Wild is one of those movies that change your life.
The film weaves the true story of Christoper McCandless, who left behind his material possessions and headed West on a two-year journey to test his strength and find meaning. Much of the film was filmed in Arizona.
“There’s a lot of nice pieces of Arizona you will see in this movie,” Kelly said.
The movie is at times exhilarating, as it depicts the young adventurer’s sense of freedom, and tear-jerking, as he finds triumph and tragedy in Alaska.
Kelly spent more than a year working on the movie with director Sean Penn, who waited more than a decade to get the blessing of the McCandless family.
In the Valley, the movie is only currently being shown at Scottsdale’s Camelview Harkins Theater
As executive producer, Kelly’s role was to help set up camp at various locations, find props and bring the picture in on budget.
That was a challenge for the movie that strived for authenticity. While many movies shoot in three or five locations, Into the Wild was filmed in 36 locations in the U.S. and Mexico, retracing the McCandless’s journey.
The opening sceneshows McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, being dropped off into the Alaskan wilderness. The driver is not an actor, but the actual man who gave the hitch-hiking McCandless a ride.
Hirsch wore McCandless’ own gold watch throughout the movie.
While ending in Alaska, the young man’s journey took him through much of Arizona. Scenes include the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Bullhead City, Parker, Page and Yuma.
The young adventurer had bought a kayak in Page and launched himself into the rapids of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
The film crew even shot a scene of McCandless’s car swept away in an Arizona flash flood a half mile from the actual site.
Although the goal was to deliver authenticity, Kelly said he was pleased to see the final cut include shots of Arizona, such as Hirsch floating under a sign for Topoc Gorge.
“You work on a lot of movies,” Kelly said. “Some are jobs and some are relationships you don’t want to end. Into the Wild was among the latter.”
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