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Tuesday, October 15, 2019
The 'streaming wars' bring more film production to PGH than ever. Expanding PA tax credits could spark even more.
www.nextpittsburgh.com: To fill their respective libraries and attract eyeballs, content-hungry conglomerates like Disney, AT&T and Apple are spending billions of dollars to create new movies and television programs. They’re busy launching online video services to compete in our rapidly changing entertainment economy.
Although the streaming wars are particularly frustrating for media-viewers who have to pay for what seems like 50 various streaming services, it’s a good thing that it seems to be positively benefiting the film-making industry, especially in my hometown. While this makes the industry bigger as a whole, it also allows for those wanting to get involved a chance to stretch and test the industry out. For instance, if you look on Facebook casting pages, one can see plenty of casting calls across a wide variety of time periods, physicality, and more. From this, aspiring actors can become extras in films or locally-filmed television shows. Additionally, if one is interested in becoming an intern for a film or media company, the wide variety of shows filming and being produced so close allows for a simpler connection to the industry, opening the door to network for anyone interested and driven enough.
It is so great to hear that the film and television industry is doing so well in, and for, Pittsburgh. This trend has been seen in many places, and with the right tax incentives, it can really take a somewhat struggling, lower-working-class economy, and give it a huge boost. There are actually a couple of things working in Pittsburgh's favor here: the fact that the interest to film in Pittsburgh has been growing for awhile now, and they already have a number of projects lined up, is a really good sign that this is not merely going to increase the number of local jobs and income temporarily, but that bringing the filmmaking industry to Pittsburgh is guaranteed to bring continued financial and economic success to the city and its inhabitants. Additionally, similarly to Buffalo, I can imagine that the city of Pittsburgh offers many attractive qualities for filming, such as the multitude of landscapes within easy driving distance: city, country, suburbs, water, land, hills, flat land. The location, plus the low cost of living and purchasing, offers many attractive qualities to film companies. I think that increasing the tax break to draw in more, and larger, offers to film could only improve the health of the city in the long-run.
Filming locations are always a tricky business. You want the location to have the right feel, look, and mood for the film (or you need to be able to adequately manipulate the location to be as such), but then the business side comes in. Pittsburgh does seem like an ideal filming location for a wide variety of products; the area has the feel of Appalachia, the Midwest, and the Northeast, depending on the weather or what side of town you are on. With the rush of content being produced and created in this age, and the efforts of companies to own the content that they distribute, cities must take the initiative to drive film and television business to their area. Pittsburgh is doing the right thing by pushing to raise the limit on filming tax credits, which will serve as an incentive to filmmakers and producers scouting for locations for projects.
3 comments:
Although the streaming wars are particularly frustrating for media-viewers who have to pay for what seems like 50 various streaming services, it’s a good thing that it seems to be positively benefiting the film-making industry, especially in my hometown. While this makes the industry bigger as a whole, it also allows for those wanting to get involved a chance to stretch and test the industry out. For instance, if you look on Facebook casting pages, one can see plenty of casting calls across a wide variety of time periods, physicality, and more. From this, aspiring actors can become extras in films or locally-filmed television shows. Additionally, if one is interested in becoming an intern for a film or media company, the wide variety of shows filming and being produced so close allows for a simpler connection to the industry, opening the door to network for anyone interested and driven enough.
It is so great to hear that the film and television industry is doing so well in, and for, Pittsburgh. This trend has been seen in many places, and with the right tax incentives, it can really take a somewhat struggling, lower-working-class economy, and give it a huge boost. There are actually a couple of things working in Pittsburgh's favor here: the fact that the interest to film in Pittsburgh has been growing for awhile now, and they already have a number of projects lined up, is a really good sign that this is not merely going to increase the number of local jobs and income temporarily, but that bringing the filmmaking industry to Pittsburgh is guaranteed to bring continued financial and economic success to the city and its inhabitants. Additionally, similarly to Buffalo, I can imagine that the city of Pittsburgh offers many attractive qualities for filming, such as the multitude of landscapes within easy driving distance: city, country, suburbs, water, land, hills, flat land. The location, plus the low cost of living and purchasing, offers many attractive qualities to film companies. I think that increasing the tax break to draw in more, and larger, offers to film could only improve the health of the city in the long-run.
Filming locations are always a tricky business. You want the location to have the right feel, look, and mood for the film (or you need to be able to adequately manipulate the location to be as such), but then the business side comes in. Pittsburgh does seem like an ideal filming location for a wide variety of products; the area has the feel of Appalachia, the Midwest, and the Northeast, depending on the weather or what side of town you are on. With the rush of content being produced and created in this age, and the efforts of companies to own the content that they distribute, cities must take the initiative to drive film and television business to their area. Pittsburgh is doing the right thing by pushing to raise the limit on filming tax credits, which will serve as an incentive to filmmakers and producers scouting for locations for projects.
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