Growth of NYC's film industry leads to reel jobs
Aug 4, 2014 12:35:13 GMT -5
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Post by AtlanticFilmGear on Aug 4, 2014 12:35:13 GMT -5
Thanks to the city's booming film industry, behind-the-scenes workers are in the money.
Less than three years ago, Fern Gnesin, a set dresser on film and TV shoots, was collecting unemployment and having trouble working enough hours to get her union's health insurance. The stress of it all was making it difficult for her to breathe.
Now she works constantly, making enough to pay the mortgage on the home she shares with her husband in Delaware and her apartment in Manhattan. She doesn't worry about health insurance anymore. In one recent week alone, she worked on Person of Interest, Alpha House and The Good Wife. "There hasn't been a day in the last two and a half years when I haven't gotten work if I wanted it," she said. "Everyone I know is working now in this industry."
The production boom in New York City, fueled by a $400 million dollar annual state tax incentive, has changed the lives of the more than 130,000 local workers in the film and TV business. People who just a few years ago were wondering where their next paycheck would come from are now turning down jobs.
Many longtime production workers say they have never enjoyed such job security and are making major personal decisions, such as buying a house or getting married, because of it. A nonunion production assistant brings in $600 to $750 a week, and a set dresser, belonging to the studio mechanics' union, Local 52, earns anywhere from $1,600 to $2,000 per week.
The roughly 4,000 small businesses that serve the industry are thriving as well, and are adding staff and increasing their inventories.
"We are flooded with business," said Richard Slavin, vice president of Arenson Prop Center in Manhattan. Mr. Slavin, who hired six staffers last year, says his business of renting props and setting up production offices is up 40% from a couple of years ago.
The boom in the local film and TV business stems from a 30% state tax incentive, which was originally put in place in 2008. But when the funds for the program ran out in less than a year, TV shows like Fringe gave up on New York, and movie production came to a standstill. After a major lobbying effort by the industry, the program was renewed through 2014, and earlier this year the state extended the credit through 2019.
'Record levels'
Number of TV series produced in NYC:
2010-2011: 18
2013-2014: 27
2nd Quarter 2014: 59
Number of films shot in NYC:
2011: 188
2012: 267
2013: 311
The longevity of the credit has brought in a flood of TV shows, which always plan for multiple seasons. A record 27 television series are slated to shoot in New York during the 2013-2014 season, up from 18 three years ago and just nine a decade ago, according to the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. And 267 films were shot in New York City last year, a major jump from the 188 shot just the year before.
"We've seen tremendous growth in television series based in New York City, and this season we expect to be at record levels," said Katherine Oliver, the city's media and entertainment commissioner. "That's especially good news for the crews who base their careers here because television can provide steady, long-term work."
In one case, a hit show has even turned one of its behind-the-scenes crew members into a celebrity. Beth Kushnick, the set decorator on The Good Wife, has been in the business for 30 years. She has seen more than her share of ups and downs, lived through bouts of unemployment, and was a key organizer during the industry fight for the tax-credit program. But once The Good Wife became a hit, she started getting mail and phone calls from fans asking how they could get their apartments to look like that of lead character Alicia Florrick. Ms. Kushnick now has 3,700 Twitter followers and a daily blog, and is a celebrity insider on social-media shopping site OpenSky, where she has 137,000 followers. Last year, she launched a furniture line with designers Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams based on the look of the show. It sold more than $1 million worth of products in its first year. She expanded the line this year and just signed a similar deal with a French company called Madura for curtains and other upholstered goods. "I've been a set decorator for 30 years, but I've never been in the public arena like this before," said Ms. Kushnick, whose show began its fifth season Sept. 29. "I feel like I've branched out to a place that gives me more stability now that I've been established as a design expert."
Sense of stability
NEW TO NYC
Freshman TV series currently filming in the city:
Alpha House, Amazon
The Blacklist, NYC
Broad City, Comedy Central
Hostages, CBS
The Knick, Cinemax
The Michael J. Fox Show, NBC
Taxi: Brooklyn South, French television
Us and Them, Fox
Even regular crew members who haven't had a brush with fame are feeling a newfound sense of stability. Santos Cornier, a location assistant/scout on The Good Wife, said he hasn't felt this secure in his seven years in the production industry—so much so that after being engaged for five years, Mr. Cornier just got married. He also recently bought a house.
"Before the tax credits, I bounced around from job to job and sometimes didn't have anything for more than a month," he said. "I feel much more financially stable now."
Still, many workers have been burned before and find it hard to completely believe that the good times will last. "Now we're busy and everything's great, but I tell my members to be careful with your $30,000 pickup truck because next year it might not be there," said John Ford, president of Local 52.
Yet for the time being, at least, Mr. Ford said his union is busier than it ever has been. The majority of its 4,000 members are employed, and newcomers—about 100 a year—are joining the ranks. In fact, crew members are marveling at something they have never experienced before—having to pick among multiple offers. Jonathan Arkin, art director on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie, said he now considers it a plus that his show shoots only four months of the year instead of the typical 10 of a network series. "It allows you to keep your name in circulation and work on other projects," said Mr. Arkin, who worked on a few pilots and the Liam Neeson feature A Walk Among the Tombstones when Nurse Jackie wrapped last spring. "The list of available people nowadays has shrunk to next to nothing. It's a totally different environment."
Sidebar: Getting a helping hand - New York City's film and TV production boom is attracting newcomers to the industry.
New York's film and TV production boom is attracting a lot of newcomers to the business, and the city is trying to help further this trend—especially among the underemployed.
In 2009, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and Brooklyn Workforce Innovations—a nonprofit that helps poor New Yorkers develop careers—launched the "Made in NY" Production Assistant Training Program, a selective four-week course that has produced more than 430 graduates to date. Getting in is not easy, but it can be life-changing. Teena Marie Delerme-Lugo of New Brunswick, N.J., worked as a bartender and did other odd jobs before a friend told her about the program. She was one of 15 people chosen out of 300 applicants for her class in 2009. The day she graduated, she got a job as a casting recruiter for the Food Network show Chopped. That led to a two-year stint on The Wendy Williams Show. Now her phone doesn't stop ringing. Currently a lead production assistant on Law & Order: SVU, Ms. Delerme-Lugo, now 28, has worked on a slew of shows, including Glee, Blue Bloods and Smash. She has shuttled A-list actors like Debra Messing and Denzel Washington through hair and makeup and kept them to their schedules. Even with the 16-hour days, she feels like she's living a dream. "I get to work with amazing people, amazing directors," she said. "With this industry, you just want more for you and your family. You can go from being a bartender to being a production assistant to being an assistant director to being an Oscar-winning director."
Less than three years ago, Fern Gnesin, a set dresser on film and TV shoots, was collecting unemployment and having trouble working enough hours to get her union's health insurance. The stress of it all was making it difficult for her to breathe.
Now she works constantly, making enough to pay the mortgage on the home she shares with her husband in Delaware and her apartment in Manhattan. She doesn't worry about health insurance anymore. In one recent week alone, she worked on Person of Interest, Alpha House and The Good Wife. "There hasn't been a day in the last two and a half years when I haven't gotten work if I wanted it," she said. "Everyone I know is working now in this industry."
The production boom in New York City, fueled by a $400 million dollar annual state tax incentive, has changed the lives of the more than 130,000 local workers in the film and TV business. People who just a few years ago were wondering where their next paycheck would come from are now turning down jobs.
Many longtime production workers say they have never enjoyed such job security and are making major personal decisions, such as buying a house or getting married, because of it. A nonunion production assistant brings in $600 to $750 a week, and a set dresser, belonging to the studio mechanics' union, Local 52, earns anywhere from $1,600 to $2,000 per week.
The roughly 4,000 small businesses that serve the industry are thriving as well, and are adding staff and increasing their inventories.
"We are flooded with business," said Richard Slavin, vice president of Arenson Prop Center in Manhattan. Mr. Slavin, who hired six staffers last year, says his business of renting props and setting up production offices is up 40% from a couple of years ago.
The boom in the local film and TV business stems from a 30% state tax incentive, which was originally put in place in 2008. But when the funds for the program ran out in less than a year, TV shows like Fringe gave up on New York, and movie production came to a standstill. After a major lobbying effort by the industry, the program was renewed through 2014, and earlier this year the state extended the credit through 2019.
'Record levels'
Number of TV series produced in NYC:
2010-2011: 18
2013-2014: 27
2nd Quarter 2014: 59
Number of films shot in NYC:
2011: 188
2012: 267
2013: 311
The longevity of the credit has brought in a flood of TV shows, which always plan for multiple seasons. A record 27 television series are slated to shoot in New York during the 2013-2014 season, up from 18 three years ago and just nine a decade ago, according to the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. And 267 films were shot in New York City last year, a major jump from the 188 shot just the year before.
"We've seen tremendous growth in television series based in New York City, and this season we expect to be at record levels," said Katherine Oliver, the city's media and entertainment commissioner. "That's especially good news for the crews who base their careers here because television can provide steady, long-term work."
In one case, a hit show has even turned one of its behind-the-scenes crew members into a celebrity. Beth Kushnick, the set decorator on The Good Wife, has been in the business for 30 years. She has seen more than her share of ups and downs, lived through bouts of unemployment, and was a key organizer during the industry fight for the tax-credit program. But once The Good Wife became a hit, she started getting mail and phone calls from fans asking how they could get their apartments to look like that of lead character Alicia Florrick. Ms. Kushnick now has 3,700 Twitter followers and a daily blog, and is a celebrity insider on social-media shopping site OpenSky, where she has 137,000 followers. Last year, she launched a furniture line with designers Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams based on the look of the show. It sold more than $1 million worth of products in its first year. She expanded the line this year and just signed a similar deal with a French company called Madura for curtains and other upholstered goods. "I've been a set decorator for 30 years, but I've never been in the public arena like this before," said Ms. Kushnick, whose show began its fifth season Sept. 29. "I feel like I've branched out to a place that gives me more stability now that I've been established as a design expert."
Sense of stability
NEW TO NYC
Freshman TV series currently filming in the city:
Alpha House, Amazon
The Blacklist, NYC
Broad City, Comedy Central
Hostages, CBS
The Knick, Cinemax
The Michael J. Fox Show, NBC
Taxi: Brooklyn South, French television
Us and Them, Fox
Even regular crew members who haven't had a brush with fame are feeling a newfound sense of stability. Santos Cornier, a location assistant/scout on The Good Wife, said he hasn't felt this secure in his seven years in the production industry—so much so that after being engaged for five years, Mr. Cornier just got married. He also recently bought a house.
"Before the tax credits, I bounced around from job to job and sometimes didn't have anything for more than a month," he said. "I feel much more financially stable now."
Still, many workers have been burned before and find it hard to completely believe that the good times will last. "Now we're busy and everything's great, but I tell my members to be careful with your $30,000 pickup truck because next year it might not be there," said John Ford, president of Local 52.
Yet for the time being, at least, Mr. Ford said his union is busier than it ever has been. The majority of its 4,000 members are employed, and newcomers—about 100 a year—are joining the ranks. In fact, crew members are marveling at something they have never experienced before—having to pick among multiple offers. Jonathan Arkin, art director on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie, said he now considers it a plus that his show shoots only four months of the year instead of the typical 10 of a network series. "It allows you to keep your name in circulation and work on other projects," said Mr. Arkin, who worked on a few pilots and the Liam Neeson feature A Walk Among the Tombstones when Nurse Jackie wrapped last spring. "The list of available people nowadays has shrunk to next to nothing. It's a totally different environment."
Sidebar: Getting a helping hand - New York City's film and TV production boom is attracting newcomers to the industry.
New York's film and TV production boom is attracting a lot of newcomers to the business, and the city is trying to help further this trend—especially among the underemployed.
In 2009, the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and Brooklyn Workforce Innovations—a nonprofit that helps poor New Yorkers develop careers—launched the "Made in NY" Production Assistant Training Program, a selective four-week course that has produced more than 430 graduates to date. Getting in is not easy, but it can be life-changing. Teena Marie Delerme-Lugo of New Brunswick, N.J., worked as a bartender and did other odd jobs before a friend told her about the program. She was one of 15 people chosen out of 300 applicants for her class in 2009. The day she graduated, she got a job as a casting recruiter for the Food Network show Chopped. That led to a two-year stint on The Wendy Williams Show. Now her phone doesn't stop ringing. Currently a lead production assistant on Law & Order: SVU, Ms. Delerme-Lugo, now 28, has worked on a slew of shows, including Glee, Blue Bloods and Smash. She has shuttled A-list actors like Debra Messing and Denzel Washington through hair and makeup and kept them to their schedules. Even with the 16-hour days, she feels like she's living a dream. "I get to work with amazing people, amazing directors," she said. "With this industry, you just want more for you and your family. You can go from being a bartender to being a production assistant to being an assistant director to being an Oscar-winning director."
You're just, awesome ... ~xo 