2008 Woodie Awards
Connecticut Is Hollywood's Newest Rising Star
Natalie Abreu
Issue date: 5/2/08 Section: Focus
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.
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.
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Internship
posted 10/24/08 @ 8:00 AM EST
An interesting post on Connecticut and its strong relation with the Hollywood industry.Good to know that Indiana jones and the kingom of crystal skull was filmed in the city. (Continued…)
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