NYC Production & Post News

New eBook Aims to Help Save Money by Leveraging Film Tax Credits Etc

2010-03-18T21:40:55Z

Producers realize that there’s a lot of help available with various competing state and local tax incentives for producing a film. But gathering all the relevant info about what’s being offered–and just how to take advantage of the credit–can be difficult. StudioDaily looks to help with its new downloadable PDF Production Incentives.

This eBook Special Report offers tips on maximizing your film production dollar by learning just how to take advantage of tax credits and other incentives, monetizing credits at different stages of production and post, and learning “how to entice equity partners”.

Contributors, who are all claimed to know what’s good for you, include Brian Drewes, Remora Filmgroup; Vinca Liane Jarrett, Esq., FilmPro Finance LLC; Christine Peluso, Tax Credits LLC; and Jeff Stern, S3 Entertainment Group.

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Tax Breaks Every Small Business Owner Should Know About

2010-03-17T19:36:04Z

The Business Insider has a breezy but possibly useful look at new tax breaks cooked up last year. Aimed at small businesses, these are part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 .

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You Knew This Already, but NYC Film Industry Second Only to California

2010-03-18T21:25:31Z

As reported on Crain’s New York Business.com website, a report released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says the city’s film and TV production industry employed 63,000 and pulled in $5 billion in wages in 2008.

Those numbers lag only California, which, you might rightly figure, has lead this race for a while. California, however, has been slipping in its lead over the past few years as other states, including New York, up the competition with tax incentives and other economic ploys.

Currently, Albany must decide whether or not to extend the tax credits (you know they will) and whether to expand them as Gov. Paterson wants to (who knows with our deficits).

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Apple’s Wearable Computer Move?

2010-03-16T21:13:12Z

From Apple’s U.S. Patent Office filing

Nick Bilton on the Time’s Bits blog jumps in on the now time honored exercise of speculating about future Apple products from the background of recent high-level hires. Wearable computing inventor Richard DeVaul, who helped start AWare Technologies, might be inventing iViz (don’t know if that’s copyrighted, okay?) sometime soon.

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Leitner’s In-depth Take on Sony’s PMW-350

2010-03-13T17:43:19Z

Photo by D.W. Leitner
David used Carl Zeiss’ DigiPrimes on the PMW-350 as part of his test.

Take this link to a real education by D.W. Leitner on Sony’s recently released PMW-350 camcorder.

As is typical with one of David’s reviews, you not only get a unique, many-faceted take on the latest technology, but benefit from his many years in the business as he compares this camera to the original breakthrough of Sony’s first CCD camcorder, the PVM-200, in 1989.

If you appreciate David’s intelligent, far-ranging tech musings like I do, you’ll also want to check out his latest column on Walter Murch’s presentation at January’s Sundance. Again, you’ll see how Leitner’s own knowledge and interest in the origins and meanings of cinematic arts matches Murch’s ontological musings. Not to be missed.

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Bobbie O’Steen Podcasts on the Editing Life

2010-03-13T07:05:32Z

Here are a couple of interesting podcasts with film editor, screenwriter, and author Bobbie O’Steen. I spoke with her and editor Tim Squyre recently on an evening film and interview detailing his work on Altman’s Gosford Park.

These one-on-one interviews with Bobbie are a good backgrounder if you want to delve into the editor’s world, one she explicates so well in The Invisible Cut: How Editors Make Movie Magic.

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World Goes 3D, Indies Unimpressed

2010-03-18T21:24:11Z

The success of the 3D versions of Avatar and now Alice can have only whet the appetite of major TV set manufacturers as they ready a push into a new, untapped home market.

Panasonic begins selling a new series of 3D-enabled HDTVs at Best Buy this Wednesday. According to the Wall St Journal and other reports, the company will discount its 3D TVs as much as 50% in the US compared to Japanese pricing in order to rack up big sales quickly.

Analyst firm DisplaySearch forecasts 3D-ready TVs will grow from 0.2 million units in 2009 to 64 million units in 2018, with the first hurdle already gained: the tech specs for the Blu-ray 3D spec was recently completed.

Progress means different things to different groups in the industry, of course. Take TV set manufacturers. Sure, over the years better technology raises all their boats, but if you make widgets for a living you face a mean reality since technical and manufacturing improvements wipe out any differences among competing products. Thus the flip side of easier and cheaper production consists of living with ever thinning profit margins.

According to industry researcher DisplaySearch average selling prices for TVs in 2009 were expected to fall for the first time since the flat panel TV transition began.

So while the changeover to a new technology standard can be hazardous, it can also raise your bottom line. Building and selling 3D parallels what HDTV gear did for the industry: give reasons to raise money, invest in factories and marketing, all to slake the tech needs of a new batch of consumers who want the some of the buzz that they’ve felt from the latest and greatest movies.

So while we’re only on the cusp of the changeover to 3D in the home, expect to still hear plenty of noise about the technology over the coming months from Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, et.al. Scoring top position early on can be crucial to owning a sector of the market. Or at least that’s what tech companies have come to believe.

Here’s a quick look at some of the most recent news:

PCWorld reports that Sony will begin selling 3D TVs in Japan on June 10 and worldwide at about the same time. A PlayStation 3 firmware upgrade, meanwhile, will add 3D support to that platform.

The Financial Times describes as “ambitious” Sony’s stated target of selling 2.5 million 3D televisions in nine months starting from that June launch. This indicates how important 3D will be to the company’s bottom line, says FT.

Sony’s Mr. Ishida said they aren’t concerned by Panasonic’s head start since there is still so little 3D content available.

Jumping out quickly with new product, however, could backfire, as some standards—such as fully interchangeable 3D glasses among the various makes of 3D TVs, haven’t been set. “For the 3D TV industry, if you want fast adoption, or a nice, seamless, easy consumer experience, you want to work as hard as possible to make sure that everybody’s glasses can be used at a friend’s house,” says DisplaySearch TV analyst Paul Gagnon.

Everybody needs to show they’re studying the 3D situation very intently. ESPN and Sony have set up 3D test facilities. Panasonic, meanwhile, trumpets its 3D Blu-ray authoring facility in Hollywood.

ESPN’s Innovation Lab at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, will be its hub for developing 3D technology. ESPN launches its 3D channel this summer to cover the World Cup. Sony and CBS opened a 3D research center and screening facility in Las Vegas at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino to focus on “consumer perceptions toward 3D programming”, as well as ways to deliver 3D content in and outside the home.

Ending on a more cynical note is Peter Bart in his Variety article Movie biz doing the splits. Bart sees an ever-widening gap between tentpole pics like Avatar and other expensive 3D productions—which continue to suck up more and more of the money that’s out there–and smaller, Indie fare ala Hurt Locker, Precious, and An Education, for which money and distribution keep drying up.

Considering how much of New York film and TV production fall under that latter Indie banner, that doesn’t make for a very heartening glimpse of the future, 3D or not.

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Hurt Locker’s Abel Cine Connection

2010-03-18T21:24:20Z

The Hurt Locker, of course, pulled in a raft of Oscars, Golden Globes, and other awards. But its connection to Abel Cine might not be as well known. Turns out the film relied on gear provided by the rental/sales house including Aaton (XTRprod and A-Minima 16mm film cameras) and the Phantom high-speed digital camera.

Digital Cinema Report features a story on it, including an interview with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, a long time Aaton user.

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Streaming Production and Flash Delivery Workshop

2010-03-18T21:24:30Z

Lisa Larson-Kelly and Jan Ozer lead the workshops.

At the FIT campus on Tuesday, March 23rd you’ll have the chance to take two half-day workshops on streaming web production and Flash to be taught by Lisa Larson-Kelly and Jan Ozer. One class shows how to create workflow for streaming video production and delivery, while the other details what you need t do to set up successful Flash delivery, still the most prevalent multimedia Web technology.

These two half days are about all the time you’ll need to get up to speed, as both these experienced teachers have produced plenty of their own work, and know most of the pitfalls you’ll come across.

Jan, as he notes on his website streaminglearningcenter.com, has “produced and encoded video since the CD-ROM days (1992).” I remember recruiting him to write for millimeter and then Digital Content Producer magazines. I had been reading his articles in PC Mag, and thought they were smart, cogent explanations of arcane technology. He wrote too in a refreshing, plainspoken manner that’s still not, unfortunately, the norm in many how-to tech articles.

If you want to go beyond learning one specific technology or software app to start to comprehend the whole streaming media machine of the Web, you’ll want to attend. If you want to directly sign up, go here.

Highly recommended.

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Tim Squyres & Bobbie O’Steen Discuss Editing Altman’s Gosford Park

2010-03-18T21:24:40Z

Tim Squyres and Bobbie O’Steen (Photo: Courtesy Editors Guild)

I had a great time last week attending 92YTribeca to interview Tim Squyres on his editing work and challenges of working for Bob Altman on Gosford Park.

Squyres gave an enthusiastic account on the complex challenges of editing for that great and unique artist (no standard shot/reverse shot structure for Altman, of course, but constantly prowling cameras that left Tim digging for matching shots and cut-aways..sometimes he found them, sometimes he had to invent something).

Bobbie O’Steen, an author of two well-received books on editing, ably set up explanations of Tim’s puzzle piece. By giving his work more context, she gave a good sense of the real challenges laying behind the hidden work of an editor.

My story for the Editor’s Guild website, which includes Bobbie’s helpful explication of several of Tim’s edit decisions, can be found here.

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