Last week Greater Boston had an interesting feature on film production in Boston. Essentially, the piece focused on two recent trends as a collective sign of Boston’s up-and-coming status as a force in the film industry. First, local producers, in particular Scout Productions, have scored big-time hits (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) and prestige gambits (Fog of War). Second, the demise of the Teamsters’ iron grip has taken Massachusetts off the no-location-shooting list, leading to a slate of recent locally-shot features. As Greater Boston’s Jared Bowen puts it,
Especially in light of Scout’s success, it seems just recently Massachusetts has become Hollywood East. The state is currently on the big screen in Spartan. That’s right on the heals of last year’s Mona Lisa Smile and the Oscar-winning Mystic River. And big box office means big business for the state.
And, the piece adds,
By successfully upending Hollywood’s production model and basing themselves here, Scout now has the industry’s attention. “In today’s world,” says Scout’s Williams, “anyone can make a film, anyone can make a video and be creative and write and show something for cheap.” He expects that as affordable technology becomes even more widely available “people across the country will realize they can do it in Mississippi. They don’t have to be in a production center.”
Hold on there. I know that hyperbolic language is part and parcel of this kind of news feature, but “upending Hollywood’s production model”? It’s common for niche cable television shows and documentary films to be made outside the auspices of major (or mini-major) production companies. When network pilots are made in Mississippi you can talk to me about upending production models. Certainly, the successes that Scout Productions have had are a great thing and will likely enable the company to take on bigger projects. But don’t other cities have a comparable creative force or two? And isn’t it a sign of our small-time status that we’re taking one success story as proof of a culture industry renaissance? Boosterism here is getting in the way of perspective.
Similarly, while the recent location shooting here is a positive development, I’m not sure that we’re getting more than Florida or North Carolina or other cheaper production sites. Certainly, we can’t compare with Toronto or New York. There is a story here of course, but it’s one of Massachusetts (and Rhode Island) getting back to the level where we should be, after a time of being shunned. Boston - and New England in general - does have a lot to offer for film locations. I can forsee a future in which the city and region get a disproportionate share of productions shot here. But as of now I’m not seeing evidence that our current share is enough to qualify as an industry story outside Boston.
To make the city’s film and creative industries a real story, will be a challenge, requiring us to nurture the assets that Boston has (its educational and cultural capital) and think of new ways to market them. Fortunately, the Mass Film Bureau’s Robin Dawson comes across as the right combination of boosterish enthusiasm and level-headedness to lead the state in the right direction. It’s also refreshing to see a state official who’s not there out of political nepotism or machinery - then again, that could be why the Bureau’s budget was cut to zero. Given the money proposed for biotech - or thrown at touchy-feely arts education for that matter - might we consider nurturing Boston’s fledgling culture industry?
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