RHINEBECK >> Town Board members are being asked to take a welcoming approach to the local film industry, seeing it as a boost to the region’s economy.
At a board meeting Tuesday, Hudson Valley Film Commission Director Laurent Rejto said the business of making movies locally involves competing with other areas that are being granted tax breaks.
“The Hudson Valley has been put in the position where we get much less film production now than the rest of the state because of film tax credits,” he said. “Anything that’s north and west of Albany now gets an additional 10 percent.”
Rejto said there is an impression by officials in some municipalities that film production is a good revenue stream.
“Three or four towns think there’s a lot of money in films,” he said. “There’s less money in films than ever before. It’s like the music industry; it’s lost its financing due to bootlegging and the Internet; due to many reasons.”
Rejto said during 2014 there were 67 productions in the Hudson Valley, with 40 of the companies providing some or all data about the amount of money spent during planning and filming.
“We plead with towns to be as lenient … (and) accepting of films as possible,” he said. “Everything should be dealt with on a one-to-one, case-by-case basis. Everything is different. We work with a lot of student films … up to major films in the $30 million range.”
Information from the 40 productions showed $7 million in direct spending in the area from more than 384 days in production and 290 days spent on location scouting. According to the commission, 210 locations were used, 232 non-acting part-time jobs were created, and 6,456 rooms were rented for lodging.
“Most towns in New York state have absolutely no fees for film production,” Rejto said. “The reason they have no fees is because when a film comes in, they spend a ton of money. They hire the police, they hire local vendors, they hire local actors. There’s about 50 local crew members and actors who live in Rhinebeck who want to work as close to home as possible instead of getting on the Amtrak and having to work in the city two hours away.”
Town Attorney Warren Replansky said the board should consider adopting regulations to avoid creating liabilities for the municipality.
“I did draft a film law,” he said. “I think it was for Rhinebeck. It was never passed.”
Replansky said there were no fees attached to the proposed law.
“It was not fee-driven,” he said. “It was driven to encourage film production and to make sure that we were protected in terms of fire protection and police protection.”
