By Annunziata Gianzero
A cop car pulls up to a parked police car with a smashed rear window. A young baller holds the culpable baseball bat. A uniformed cop stands next to a bloodied kid.
“Everything OK here?”
A voice from behind a camera replies, “Yes Officer Huertas, everything’s fine. We’re just shooting a scene about a cop beating up a gay Latino kid for being…gay…and…Latino”.
“OK, great, let us know if you need anything”.
And this exchange, in my opinion, is an example of the most compelling reason to film in New York. They get what we’re doing. The stories are colorful and the characters are real and gritty. Traditionally, NY is a place where a lot of provocative stories can get told.
Next the company moves to a scene where two local hookers (one trans, one not) lament the homogenization of the West Village, nostalgically and comically reminiscing about the “real sex and the city”, before the “normals” settled in. It’s 102 degrees at midnight in the summer and the neighboring landlord provides a space at a deep discount, so the actors and crew can get some relief.
What a great place to be an artist. Life as a filmmaker in the Biggest of Apples!
Gentrification, racism, LGBT discrimination—all issues which resonate in the hotbed of downtown New York City. Stories that beg to be told to the rest of the world. People who need to be understood.
But it gets better. The landmarks are iconic. The neighborhoods are multi-cultural. The actors are well-trained talents. The permits have been simplified and streamlined. The “Made in NY” card discounts local resources.
And…if you’re remotely related to the film industry, you’ve already heard of it…THE TAX CREDIT. In short, it’s a 30% credit for hiring New York crew and utilizing New York production resources. And it’s working. It has brought in $21.1 billion spending* to NY State since its inception in 2004. Steiner Studios is adding 6 more soundstages in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. While 29 full-time scripted shows filmed in the 2014-15 season, that number jumped to 46 in 2014-15 and has grown to 52 in 2015-16.
Could it get any better?
It almost did…
Senate bill 5448a (nicknamed the TV diversity tax credit) is a bill which went through a number of iterations with bipartisan sponsorship by Assemblyman Keith Wright and Senator Kemp Hannon—which would basically allot $5 million of New York’s $420 million credit for film and TV production to projects that hire women and minority writers and directors. The current credit doesn’t deem writers and/or directors to be “qualified production costs” at all. We are in the enviable position of being able to use the success of the tax credit toward constructively addressing two undeniable problems at the forefront of our culture today—racism and sexism. An opportunity to (as the bill, itself states) “recognize[s] that providing tax incentives to enhance diversity in the ranks of television writers and directors will also enhance the diversity of stories and casts”, with the added benefit of fostering a vibrant NY-based writing community.
Who better to pioneer this effort than the center of diversity and tolerance, itself? If it passes, New York will be the first state with a film tax credit that includes a diversity clause. Nearly 500 letters were delivered to the Governor, written by local writers, directors, and producers in support of it. Notably, many of them were not people of color or women, which indicates how well endorsed this bill was by our own film industry; people who, like me, cherish the unique value of filming in New York.
So what happened? The legislative session ended without action on the bill. And a lot of people are up in arms about that. In our next issue, we will follow the progress of the bill and the local response to it.
*According to the ESD, a portion of these figures are based on recently submitted applications where actual spending has yet to be verified. However this accounts for a very small percentage of the overall number.
