Dept. of Commerce Issues Report on Runaway Production

June 4, 2001

Dept. of Commerce Issues Report on Runaway Production

Last year Congress asked the U.S. Dept. of Commerce to study the impact of runaway productions on the U.S. film industry. The report has now been completed and it findings are no big surprise: the number of films shot abroad for economic reasons increased dramatically from 100 films in 1990 to 285 films in 1998, an increase of 185% over eight years.

The report states that there are many reasons that American films are increasingly produced abroad including incentive programs offered by foreign governments. An entire 15 page chapter is devoted to the incentive programs offered by leading destination countries. The reports contains a useful two-page chart detailing the 30 programs offered in Canada.

The report is titled “The Migration of U.S. Film and Television Production: Impact of Runaways on Workers and Small Business in the U.S. Film Industry,U.S. Dept. of Commerce,” and is available at http://www.ita.doc.gov/media/filmreport.htm

Congratulations to Our Clients

With the threat of possible WGA and SAG strikes, many of our filmmaking clients have been rushing to get into production before possible strikes could take place. Congratulations to producer Harvey Kahn who began production of “Pressure.” The feature is a thriller starring Kerr Smith (Dawson’s Creek) and Angela Featherstone, and is directed by our client Richard Gale (“The Proposal”) and written by our clients Gale and Craig Brewer.

Writer/Director Daniel McCarthy has began production on the feature film “Irish Eyes Are Crying” a drama starring Daniel Baldwin. The shoot takes place in New Brunswick, Canada, and is produced by McCarthy and Julian Valdes.Congratulations also to Dennis Fallon who begins production June 4th on “Silence” starring Christine Swanson and Vincent Spano. The shoot takes place in Kansas City, Missouri and is directed by Tom Whit