When the producers of the Academy Award-winning film The Departed were searching for sets to film their dramatization of Boston’s seedy mob underworld, they found their location in an unlikely place: New York. Aside from a few outdoor scenes depicting the Boston skyline and other distinctive Massachusetts landmarks, the rest of director Martin Scorsese’s crime drama was shot on sets and streets around the Big Apple. The embarrassing rationale: the tax incentives in New York made Boston much more expensive to shoot in, so the filmmakers recreated Beantown in the city to the south.
State lawmakers finally seem to have come around, however, after they expanded tax credits for filmmakers last July, effectively rolling out the welcome mat to filmmakers from around the world. The most recent proposal in this spirit would upgrade the decommissioned South Weymouth Naval Air Station into a film and television production park, where several production studios could eventually turn out shows and feature films on a regular basis. Legislators should continue this constructive trend by approving the base’s conversion, lest thousands of artists and technicians spend their dollars elsewhere.
Even during the past year, the results of expanding tax credits to filmmakers have been dramatic. From big-budget feature productions with A-list actors like Kevin Spacey in 21 to medium-budget films like the drama Gone Baby Gone, Massachusetts has already become an entertainment hub rivaling Canadian production centers like Vancouver and Toronto, which picked up on the trend years ago by luring Hollywood producers with generous tax incentives and cheap production sets. Many more independent filmmakers have shot usually low-budget features around the area for years. Still, there is room for even more creative people to bring the benefits of their trade to the commonwealth.
The unused South Weymouth Naval Air Station offers several advantages to potential filmmakers that state lawmakers may never again be able to promise. Just off the South Shore, the site lies less than 20 miles outside Boston, with easy access to the many diverse urban and rural settings New England has to offer. Gritty cities, colonial-era towns, picturesque universities and bucolic farmlands are just a few of the photogenic locales directors have already used to shoot a variety of films. Film studios could tap into these resources even more easily if they had a nearby location to contain the large, noisy disruptive logistics of the filming process.
Perhaps more importantly, the site would save both parties millions of dollars, much of which could be passed on to Massachusetts residents. Despite the unknown costs of retooling the military installation for studios and sound stages, the converted naval air base could cost less than any other alternative designed to attract filmmakers to the state. Television and film producers would pay much cheaper rates to use the facility, attracting even more of their colleagues and possibly repaying the fixed costs to taxpayers by bolstering the state economy.
The state economy could certainly use the shot of adrenaline major motion pictures could provide. In a state distinguished for losing workers while the rest of the country gains them, according to a Dec. 10, 2006 Boston Globe article, any investment that provides competitive, lasting jobs to local communities proves well worth the cost. Most manufacturing jobs have long since left the state, and medical and high-tech industries have proven unable to produce economic growth on their own. Movie making would not only provide jobs to thousands of production workers — not to mention the companies that provide them with logistical support — it would also diversify an economy on the verge of stagnation.
Most of the resources needed to make the state a film hub have already fallen into place. The region boasts one of the most educated populations in the nation, from experienced crew members to fresh college graduates. The picture is almost complete. Gov. Deval Patrick has already approved the strengthened tax credits the state needed to lure filmmakers and prevent another embarrassment like the opportunity missed by The Departed. All that remains is a cheap, non-remote location where films can hold their productions while not on location.
