American Cinematographer - December 2004 - 117

New

Studio, Tax Incentives Make New York More Alluring

by John Calhoun
Stage 3 at
Steiner Studios,
which

recently
opened in
Brooklyn, is
billed

as

the

largest
purpose-built
soundstage in
the Northeast.

Thanks to two recent developments,

things might just be looking up for
New York film production. First, the
280,000-square-foot Steiner Studios,
the first major production facility to be
built in the city in many years, recently
opened in Brooklyn. The first feature
scheduled to film there is an adaptation
of the hit Broadway musical The Produc¬
ers

(which, of

course,

started life

as a

Mel Brooks movie in 1968). The second

development, announced at
conference

Stueocdinuorfstre.sy

byJPhSotFs,

at

Steiner

a press
Studios in

September, is the main reason The
Producers is shooting in New York: state
and city tax incentives that were signed
into law, on the spot, by New York Gov.
George E. Pataki and New York City
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
At the press conference, Mel
Brooks noted, "I made the original
Producers right here in New York City-
at Lincoln Center, all over Times Square,
down in the Village - and it was break¬

ing

heart to think we would have to
go to Bucharest or Toronto to somehow
[re-create] the city. Without the tax bene¬
my

fit, the movie would have been made in
Kabul."
The state incentive, the

"Empire
Program,"
offers a 10-percent credit on qualified
(mostly below-the-line) production costs
to feature films and episodic television
spending at least 75 percent of facilityrelated expenses at a New York produc¬
tion facility. The city's "Made in New
York Incentive Program" offers an addi¬
tional 5-percent tax credit, along with a
marketing credit, specialized concierge
services and "Made in N.Y." branding.
State Film Production Credit

There is
million

a

city

facility and services, built on a 15-acre
section of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard,
Steiner Studios also hopes to give Holly¬
wood a run for its money. "Before we
[created] it, we canvassed people in
New York and L.A. who make movies,"
says Jay Fine, Steiner Studios president
and CEO. "And by that, I mean every¬

body, from the guy who puts nails in the
producers who are going to
rent the stages." Naturally, IATSE Local
600 (cinematographers) and Local 52
(grips, electricians and other studio
mechanics) were among those
floor to the

consulted. "We asked, 'What would you
like to see? What don't you like?"'

$25 million state and $12.5

Filmmakers' recommendations,

the benefit for each

scrupulously followed on Steiner's five
soundstages, included "large, open,
column-free space; wood grids to allow
productions to use pipes and chains to
hang their own lighting grids; big load-in
doors; and 28-by-20-foot elephant doors

cap on

calendar year.

"Why we're really here is to send
Vancouver and Toronto,
pretend to be New York,
that they're not," Pataki said at the
message to
the cities that
a

conference. And with its state-of-the-art

American

Cinematographer 113
American Cinematographer - December 2004

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