Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) – The five month film and TV writers strike may be ending soon, and Buffalo Niagara Film Commissioner Tim Clark couldn’t be happier.
“Many small to medium size movies got pushed into 2024 and we lost at least
one pretty good size production to an overseas market, but we’re optimistic
that Writers Guild members will ratify this and the Screen Actors Guild will do the same soon after,” said Clark on WBEN Tuesday.
He confirmed that a lot of independent and big studio movie scouts have been coming through Western New York in a bid to prepare to return.
“But it’s like turning the Queen Mary around,” noted Clark. “It’s not as easy as
firing up the cameras, getting the crew together and shooting a movie. There’s a lot of prep work. There’s location work and it’s just going to take time to ramp up and get ready. We’re anxious to put this in the rear view mirror and move ahead at 90mph.”
There is something else that will sweeten the pot for film makers.
New York State has a tax credit incentive program that kicked in this year.
“This new tax credit is going to make it more lucrative to shoot here, than in Atlanta, which is a hotbed of production,” added Clark. “So we’re waiting for a tsunami that’s going to happen here sooner than later.”
Clark said film makers love to chase tax credits. They go where they can get the best bargain. He said upstate is now number one in the nation right now.
“We’ve got giant sound stages and Buffalo Film Works in South Buffalo, plus Great Point Media getting ready to open on Niagara Street. I toured there last week and they gave me an estimate of a possible November opening. If you told me ten years ago that we would be building that in the city, I would have said you’re crazy. This is a real jewel for the local economy.”
Cabrini update:
In the summer of 2021, for 45 days, Buffalo was the main setting for a 19th century film about an unknown American legend named Frances Xavier Cabrini. It involved 31 principal actors and 3,200 background actors, a Western New York record.
Clark updated plans for its release.
“It got picked up by Angel Studios, the same people who did “Sound of Freedom,” which was so successful. They’re anticipating a really solid release in March of 2024.”
He said it’s going to be a big deal in Buffalo with theatre bookings.
“This will be a postcard to the period look of Buffalo and Western New York. I think studios will really take notice of what architectural assets we have here for different periods. Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro noticed it. But other directors have said the same thing. You can shoot anything in Western New York in any time frame.”