Will Higher Fees Push Filmmakers Out of NYC?

NYC is nothing but a location shot, just like LA. The real production and post production work is happening in places like New Mexico. Even Canada is losing work thanks to a strong currency. And yeah, it's only a matter of time before the dream factory packs up and moves to China.

they spent all the money already?????

so basically they want a hand out. again.

if it's not a hand out, then what is it?

who cares if they film here or not, there's nothing really special about NYC anymore.

They tried duplicating NYC with Toronto, but it didn't work. The attraction is still the city and we're entitled to whatever the traffic will bear.

Thanks filmmakers, for making the bike lane your front yard. Notice the splendid spatial awareness of whoever parked the trucks, as they encroach on the 3-4 foot wide white lines separating the parking spot from the street. Later in the afternoon the bike lane featured tables and stairs into the campers.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7893/dsc00619p.jpg

omg, i hope gossip girl can keep filming here.

It seems NYC has been hell-bent on committing cultural suicide over the past decade, and this latest discussion shows that there's no end in sight.

It's true that NY doesn't exactly have the space to support full-scale film shoots and it's annoying to be inconvenienced on your way to work by some morons who just show up one morning and start telling you where you can and cannot walk.. but on the other hand that media is really what put this city on the map in the public consciousness. Sad to say, I think most people who visit expecting that kind of experience leave disappointed these days.

And not a day too soon!!! Good riddance. They are so rude and obnoxious.

Shoot in Rochester, and get the best of both worlds.

Mayor: The, er, city has just passed another tax on puffy directing pants.

Director: But I don't wear puffy pants!

Mayor: I meant a tax on not wearing puffy pants.

Director: We're shutting down production.

Assistant: Yeah, well, we only have $1000 left anyway.

Mayor: Uh, there's a $1000 leaving town tax.

The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor,and it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws! (well done)

I love this thread.

One day soon enough New York will learn its lesson from the fees and taxes they have in this state.

This is an old story- why do you think that all of the manufacturing left the city?

I work in production and NY has been pretty much a dead zone for the last 2 years. This is going to be the nail in the coffin. Sorry, freelance production people who derive their entirely livelihood from it, You don't register on Bloomberg's to-do list.

Film crews bully pedestrians, block traffic, intrude on bike lanes, interfere with other businesses and expect us all to stop what we're doing while they go about their business. Good riddance, I say!

Thanks Jen Carlson.

Yes. Such fees will push out what remains of the currently viable production industry in New York City. It will become no different than say, Chicago or Atlanta (htough perhaps scarcer due tot he high costs of shooting here). In may in fact push Broadway out of NYC as well. Here's how it will happen:

1. Permit fees mean next generations filmmakers can't afford to do work here. As a result, they will go to wherever the commerce and opportunity takes them -- to LA.

2. As a result of a shrinking market of talent, bits and pieces of the New York market migrate to LA.

3. The snowball effect takes hold. The fewer creatives and production personnel are available, the fewer want to be here due to lack of opportunity.

4. NYC eventually becomes a place where filmmaking is almost never done due to the extra expenses associated with producing union films away from the main residences of union talent (this includes all actors and most crew) and due to advancements in 3D Computer Graphics.

5. REAL actors leave NYC en masse for LA, where much of the commercial production industry has moved to by this point in our woeful story. Playwrights, producers, screenwriters, etc. all move to LA.

6. LA LA land becomes the undisputed cultural center of the United States, at the very moment that Beijing is breaking out as the cultural capital of the world.

FML, as if that midget tyrant wasn't ruining my life in NYC already, he will now drive a stake through the heart of my livelihood.

This man will pander to everyone and serve no one; but he will tax the hell out of every working class citizen that chooses to stick it out. Thompson will be a joke, but lets look at him as a placeholder until we get Obama out and a real candidate for Mayor. Expect recovery, national and local, in approx. 5 years - because if we don't by then learn chinese or farsi.

A feature film being shot in NYC is really a business

worth 50 - 100 million dollars that incorporates here

and then disolves when the production is finished.

Mayor Bloomys office has hated "Filmakers" and has done

everything to discourage work here.

No the fee for shooting #3500.00 dollars is peanuts

knowing the above ,the tax incentive is worth really

millions of dollars to this economy.

I would hope the IATSE union starts screaming a lot

about the imminent loss of wages because of Mayor

Bloomy.

Canada and Mexico and yes!, Michigan are getting the work.

prob not... i can see ticket prices going up tho.