While Connecticut, especially Storrs, might seem like a lackluster, low-key place for residents over the summer, the prospect of seeing celebrities like Robert DeNiro, Harrison Ford or Winona Ryder walking into a local store or a film crew shutting down a busy street to film a scene might change that perception.
With movies beginning to film in Connecticut, the state has earned the nickname "Hollywood East." And surely it has become so with the influx of movies using Connecticut as its backdrop.
But why Connecticut exactly?
"Connecticut legislature was interested in creating jobs in sustainable industries, so the film industry was a good candidate," said Ellen Woolf, the Senior Program Associate of Production Services of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism's Film Division. Sustainable industries, like film, can also lead to growth in Connecticut's economy.
Woolf explains that when films come to Connecticut and crew members, actors, etc. are living here, they are spending money in the state's economy; boosting the local economy with their costs of living. Woolf also states that the more films that come to Connecticut, more jobs are created both in the short term and long term.
This jump in film production in Connecticut began, according to ctfilm.com, when in 2006, the Connecticut General Assembly established a 30 percent tax credit program that would encourage production of both digital media and films in the state. "The legislation makes it possible for eligible production companies to receive a tax credit of up to 30 percent of qualified digital media and motion picture production, pre-production and post production expenses incurred in the state."
And the tax break seems to be working. Over the past year, films of all sizes and genres ranging from the big budget studio blockbuster, like the upcoming "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," to be released May 22, in the streets of New Haven to the family comedy "College Road Trip" on the school campus of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford and Stamford to the small indie flick "Company Retreat" in the parks of Litchfield County, have filmed all across the state.
Other movies that have filmed in Connecticut over the past year include "Revolutionary Road" starring Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet; "Dancing with Shiva" starring Anne Hathaway; "The Life Before Her Eyes" starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" starring "Gossip Girl's" Blake Lively and "Ugly Betty's" America Ferrera; "Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day;" and "Righteous Kill" starring Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro.
An exciting aspect of films be produced in Connecticut is that anybody can get in on the action. You can be an extra or even a production assistant ("PA," as those in the know call it) on a film. Ctfilm.com is a gold mine of information regarding casting calls, crew calls and jobs on films and other forms of digital media.
Jared Christopherson a 10th-semester computer science engineering, math and entrepreneurship triple major, spent a week as an extra in the new Indiana Jones film.
"It was really awesome, kind of surreal," he said. "I'm not an actor or anything so I kept screwing up and Spielberg yelled at me. He put his arm around me and was like 'just pretend like you're taking notes in class, don't look so nervous.' After that they moved the camera to the other side of the room so I don't think I have a close up anymore."
The web site provides links to other websites that offer extra casting such as gwcnyc.com/casting.shtml, (which even has a satellite office to the New York City-based Grant Wilfley Casting Agency in Stamford and holds open registration every Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.) and sylviafaycasting.com.
"Ctfilm.com is one of the best ways to see what's filming here and how to get in contact with [the films]," says Woolf. Films currently searching for Connecticut-based extras are "Farlanders," "Everybody's Fine," "The Secret Lives of Pippa Lee" and the upcoming Wes Craven horror film "25/8."
Another treasure-trove of information regarding getting extra, acting or crew jobs in Connecticut can be found on web sites such as entertainmentcareers.net, mandy.com and craigslist.com under the Connecticut sections.
Even now, there are about five films currently in production in Connecticut:
"All Good Things," starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling, started filming in mid-April in such locations as Waterbury, Brookfield and Bridgeport. According to imdb.com, the film is mystery drama about a detective trying to "unravel a missing-persons case that looks to spell doom-and quite possibly death-for the heir to a New York real estate dynasty."
"Confessions of a Shopaholic," based on the novel of the same name by Sophie Kinsella about a college grad who lands a job as a financial journalist in New York City to support her shopping addiction, stars "Wedding Crashers'" Isla Fisher. Currently winding down production, it has filmed in such locations as Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwalk and Fairfield.
"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee," written and directed by Rebecca Miller, the daughter of famed playwright Arthur Miller, starring Robin Wright Penn, Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, began filming April 14. It's mostly filming in Danbury, but also in locations such as Newtown, Southbury and Stamford.
"Everybody's Fine" stars Robert DeNiro. This is a remake of an Italian film about a widower trying to reconnect with his adult children through an impromptu trip. Starting its filming on April 17 in Hartford, it most recently filmed scenes in New Haven from April 24 to April 30. Other filming locations include Fairfield and Stamford.
"Farlanders" is the second film Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes has filmed in Connecticut. It has a top notch cast with "The Office's" John Krasinski, "SNL's" Maya Rudolph, and many others. A comedy, it stars Krasinski and Rudolph as a couple expecting their first child, traveling around the country in order to find the perfect place to start a family. It has already filmed in such locations as Wilton, Stamford and on May 5 and 6 will be filming a scene in Watertown that requires college aged students (18-22) as extras.
Contact Natalie Abreu at Natalie.Abreu@UConn.edu
Be the first to comment on this article!