County makes strikes in the filmmaking business

By Jenn Smith
Berkshire Eagle
July 25, 2010

Berkshire County has a good-looking head shot, with Mount Greylock and the Taconic mountain range at its crown and Gilded Age mansions near its nape.

Since the county already has a presence in the motion-picture industry, what would it take to bring those appealing looks to the forefront of the screen both big and small in a big way?

Filmmakers and other proponents of creating a local production base say aggressive marketing, tax incentives and accommodations, and educating people about films would be good building points. Luring movie stars to the county also would be a plus. But ultimately it depends on the culture of the community.

“I think this area has a great fan base and a potential artist base,” said Lenox filmmaker Marc Maurino, who has made four short films in Berkshire County, two of which were produced with a professional cast and crew.

Diane Pearlman, executive director of the nearly year-old Berkshire Film and Media Commission, agreed. “It’s not New York City. It may never be New York City. But I think we have enough resources here that we can certainly be competitive,” she said.

Amy Zuckerman, an Amherst-based author who formed the group Hidden Hollywood in the Berkshires, has held conferences to promote the idea of building the area’s film industry labor pool and attracting more movie-making businesses to the Berkshires.

“Film is a key element in cultural development and the creative economy,” said Megan Whilden, Pittsfield’s director of cultural development. “It’s very exciting that all of this energy is here.”

‘Pretty Poison’

Filmmaking in the county has operated at a steady pace since “Pretty Poison” became the first major motion picture made in Berkshire County. It was shot in 1968 in North Adams and Great Barrington and was followed a year later by “Alice’s Restaurant.”

This past spring, two out-of-town filmmakers came here to shoot low-budget short feature films:

*New York City resident Anna Kerrigan did her drama “Roost” predominantly in Stockbridge but also in Lenox. Ryan Etzel, who just moved to Chicago, took residence at Hancock Shaker Village to shoot his Nathaniel Hawthorne-inspired love story “Come Life.”
*For two days in June, former and current Berkshire natives brought up-and-coming comedian Godfrey (“Zoolander,” “Soul Plane”) to Pittsfield venues such as Shawn’s Barber Shop and the Madison bar to shoot a pilot called “G” for the Comedy Central TV network.

And in a July 7 article in Mass High Tech, also known as the Journal of New England Technology, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull — a Berkshire resident whose credits include “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” — said he’s working to compose a new science fiction film that would be produced entirely in Western Massachusetts. (Trumbull was traveling overseas and couldn’t be reached for comment by The Eagle.)

Just across the border, in New Lebanon, N.Y., Oscar-winning director Ang Lee filmed the major motion picture “Taking Woodstock” two summers ago, providing a short-term economic boon for the Berkshires in the form of casting paid extras and generating lodging and dining revenue.

Specifically in the Bay State, there was big film news more recently, as the Massachusetts Film Office last month heralded the release of two Hollywood films made in eastern Massachusetts.

“Knight and Day,” an action movie starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, was shot in Boston, Bridgewater, and other locales; and comedy flick “Grown Ups,” featuring Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, Kevin James and Rob Schneider, was filmed extensively in Essex.

In February, a University of Massachusetts at Boston study on the impact of the film industry in the state estimated that in 2008, the industry created about $1 billion in economic activity.

“The report has a map of films and transactions made by geography. You look at it and see that it’s all out east. We don’t want all of [the industry], but we want a little chunk, a little piece of the action,” Pearlman said.

This year, that action has come mostly from young, independent filmmakers such as Kerrigan, Etzel, and “G” writer/producer/director and Berkshire native Jesse Adams.

Smaller projects in mind

Pearlman said other film and video shoots done in Berkshire County in the past year include the season finale of the Bravo TV “docuseries” titled “9 By Design,” done in Great Barrington; Vantage Press shooting a series of 30-second commercials in the Stockbridge Public Library; and the filming of Theodore Collatos’ feature film “Tom Collins,” which was shot in Pittsfield in the fall.

Pearlman said that although it would welcome major motion picture offers, the Berkshire Film and Media Commission was initially developed with smaller, independent film and video commercial projects in mind.

“In my experience, this was the absolute perfect place to make an ultra-low-budget film,” said Etzel, who shot “Come Life” for his senior thesis project as a student at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.

Etzel said all of his cast and about half of his crew were composed of Berkshire County-area residents, and that Hancock Shaker Village was accommodating. He spent time at Shaker sites in Hancock and New Lebanon. Hancock Shaker Village even offered to host a premiere for Etzel and his film.

“The doors [of the museum] were totally open to us,” Etzel said. “That’s part of the coolness of the Berkshires. Folks are not as pretentious as they can be in a city, but they’re still smart and pretty savvy about film.”

Kerrigan said she found a wealth of support for shooting “Roost.” Much of the 90-minute drama was shot in and around the Stockbridge home of Cathy Deely, and makeup and application was supplied by Great Barrington-based Jane Iredale Cosmetics.

Kerrigan said she found a wealth of support for shooting “Roost.” Much of the 90-minute drama was shot in and around the Stockbridge home of Cathy Deely, and makeup and application was supplied by Great Barrington-based Jane Iredale Cosmetics.

Kerrigan enlisted advice and help from Stockbridge Police Chief Richard Wilcox, who appears in the film, and also from state Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatell, D-Lenox.

Kerrigan, who also has done acting at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, said the film was inspired by her Berkshires visits and by her time living and working in the county. “I decided to shoot here, too, because it’s so hospitable,” she said.

The filmmaker described the area as “a place that wants to foster young artists.” Pignatelli agreed. “We need to be cultivating the Anna Kerrigans of the world,” he said.

Pignatelli serves on three joint legislative committees tied to filmmaking: the committee for tourism, arts and cultural development; economic development and emerging technologies; and higher education.

“I definitely think there is an opportunity to grow this industry in the Berkshires, but we also don’t have the infrastructure in place to land a blockbuster film,” he said. “As a county, we don’t have an understanding of the benefit and the inconvenience that goes with [making a blockbuster film]. We still have people that complain about traffic for James Taylor.”

Legislatively, the biggest boon for filmmaking in Massachusetts came with the 2005 passage of a tax credit that, in part, offers incentives to filmmakers who incur at least $50,000 of production costs in the state.

Pignatelli called the legislation a “landmark” action, noting that several states have since approved similar tax incentives. He said the Berkshire Film and Media Commission will play the most integral role in the development of film industry in the county.

“They really need to take inventory of what our assets are and to make it easy for folks like Nick Paleologos [director of the Massachusetts Film Office] to tell filmmakers this is what the Berkshires has to offer,” Pignatelli said.

Area film professionals say the county has shortcomings to overcome if it wants to reach the next level in the industry. Among the amenities the county lacks are a competitive equipment-rental company; grants and other local funding for filmmakers; late-night catering/restaurant hours (after 10 p.m.); and multiple editing facilities.

Area film professionals say the county has shortcomings to overcome if it wants to reach the next level in the industry. Among the amenities the county lacks are a competitive equipment-rental company; grants and other local funding for filmmakers; late-night catering/restaurant hours (after 10 p.m.); and multiple editing facilities.

Some filmmakers say that although they were able to find some skilled local film production assistants and crew members, the population was limited.

“I absolutely think local schools — from high schools to community colleges to four-year colleges — should consider [filmmaking] programs for multiple reasons,” Maurino said.

“Programs here would open doors for what I imagine are a great number of people who would like to learn and make their own films here, but don’t know where or how to start.”

For example, much of the talent Jesse Adams used for the taping of the Comedy Central pilot included Berkshire natives who relocated to places such as New York City and Los Angeles because they thought they couldn’t find high-quality work opportunities in the county.

“You’ve got almost everything you need here,” said J.P. Lipa, the pilot’s co-producer and a former Pittsfield resident.

“But the infrastructure isn’t really being set up,” said his brother, Chris Lipa. The two recently worked on the production of the Michael Jackson documentary “This is It.”

“We left to go to a film mecca because we need bigger people like Zack Snyder to step up and move in to help set things up,” Chris Lipa said, referring to the former Pittsfield resident, who directed blockbuster action films “300” and “The Watchmen.”

Until that happens, Pearlman said, the local film commission will continue to develop its network and market its presence from the East Coast to Hollywood.

“We want to help foster productions that are just starting out in the Berkshires,” Pearlman said. “The rest is naturally evolving.” 





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