A special effect:
From doughnuts to dry cleaners, businesses across the region are counting new revenue from the state’s growing movie industry. (Part 2)

A special effect:
From doughnuts to dry cleaners, businesses across the region are counting new revenue from the state’s growing movie industry.

Brian and Joe Girard of Worcester, Mass. spent their summer working on Gus Van Sant’s film “The Sea of Trees,” starring Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts and Ken Watanabe.

“Gus Van Sant is one of my favorite directors of all time. And I’m thinking if Gus Van Sant is coming in, I don’t care what I’m doing, I am not leaving this town. I am working on this movie,” said Brian Girard.

‘The Sea of Trees,’ scheduled for release in 2015, is a film about a suicidal American man, Arthur Brennan, getting lost in a dense forest at the base of Mt. Fuji. In the forest, Brennan (played by McConaughey) encounters Takumi Nakamura (played by Watanabe), a Japanese man who is also lost, and together they search for a way out.

This Sunday, Olive Kitteridge, a four-part mini-series, will debut on HBO.
It tells the story of a middle-aged school teacher in a coastal community in Maine.

There are currently 42 U.S. jurisdictions and 31 foreign jurisdictions offering strong film/TV incentives, but the most attractive perks involve consistent laws, processing, funding, infrastructure and favorable exchange rates. To explore the best offerings worldwide, P3 Update aliened with the Entertainment Partners division EP Financial Solutions, which provides production finance/incentive advice and services to film, TV, commercial and new media producers around the world. The alphabetical lists below explores the U.S. and international jurisdictions offering the most lucrative and reliable incentives along with a jaw-dropping buffet of cinematic scenery.

The first cheers at a Wednesday night sneak preview of “The Judge” starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall were not for the film’s stars, but for a spectacular aerial view of nearby Shelburne Falls.

Franklin County went to the movies Wednesday night to see what so many people had only seen in bits and pieces last summer — “The Judge,” starring Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, and, of course, Shelburne Falls.

Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, is a thousand miles away from southwestern Indiana, but its beauty and charm made it a shoe-in for the filming locale of “The Judge,” said director David Dobkin.

Hundreds gathered to the Greenfield Garden Cinemas Wednesday night to be part of “The Judge” premiere, which was shot partially in Western Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Film Commissioner Lisa Strout was honored with the Arthur M. Loew Jr. Crystal Vision Award at the Association of Film Commissioners International annual Cineposium.

More than a year after filming concluded, folks in Shelburne Falls, Dedham and other Massachusetts towns will finally see how much of their communities – and possibly themselves – made it into “The Judge”.

A warehouse in the shipyard has been converted into a makeshift movie studio for filming of Disney’s “The Finest Hours,” which is based on the real-life rescue mission that occurred off the coast of Cape Cod in 1952.

PRODUCTION IS SET TO BEGIN IN SEPTEMBER ON “THE FINEST HOURS” STARRING CHRIS PINE, CASEY AFFLECK AND HOLLIDAY GRAINGER

The reviews are in and the cast of “The Judge” gives two thumbs up to the people of Shelburne Falls.

On a hot day earlier this summer, members of the Boston University Band gathered for a scene they’ve enacted countless times. The musicians were decked out in their trademark scarlet and white uniforms. The drum line kept rhythm. The color guard twirled flags. A hundred students marched in perfect unison down a city street.

Three films shot in Massachusetts with big name stars attached to them will be featured at the largest film festival in North America. Much attention had been paid to “The Judge,” which stars Robert Downey Jr., because it kicks off the 10-day festival tonight.

Whether it’s Fenway Park in “Fever Pitch,” the Bunker Hill Memorial in “The Town” or the Fairmont Copley Plaza in “American Hustle,” a lot of us get a kick out of seeing Boston on the big screen.

It takes an army of professionals to cast, prep and secure places around Massachusetts for their turns on film, but one person plays a particularly critical role in the creative and logistical gauntlet that comes with the territory.