Forum: Plant seeds to grow film industry

CLOSEUP: Steven Feinberg, executive director of the R.I. Film & TV Office, speaks with filmmaker Amy Redford, daughter of actor and director Robert Redford, during the R.I. International Film Festival's recent film forum in Providence. / COURTESY RIFF
CLOSEUP: Steven Feinberg, executive director of the R.I. Film & TV Office, speaks with filmmaker Amy Redford, daughter of actor and director Robert Redford, during the R.I. International Film Festival's recent film forum in Providence. / COURTESY RIFF

Most Rhode Islanders knows that “Dumb and Dumber,” the 1994 movie by brothers Peter and Bob Farrelly, was partially filmed in the Ocean State thanks to shots of The Big Blue Bug and the Providence skyline. The same could be said for a few other films, including “The Great Gatsby,” released in 1974 and shot at the Rosecliff and Marble House mansions in Newport.
Specific scenes in “Dumb and Dumber” were set in Rhode Island. “The Great Gatsby” was shot here but meant to take place in Long Island, N.Y.
“You can find a lot of different looks [in Rhode Island]. It’s got a lot to offer,” said Colin Walsh, a Jamestown-based, film-location manager. “I don’t know of anybody who’s ever come here and felt like it wasn’t enough.”
The trick, of course, is to keep getting filmmakers coming here and, more so, to get more of them to film movies in Rhode Island. Walsh and others spoke about that very topic on a panel during the Rhode Island Film Forum on Aug. 9, part of the recently concluded 2012 Rhode Island International Film Festival. Other topics at the forum included film exhibition and transmedia technology.
The festival, according to producer George Marshall, this year drew 176 exhibiting filmmakers from all over the world. Included among those filmmakers was Amy Redford, daughter of actor and director Robert Redford, who screened her film “Delivery” at the festival, held Aug. 7-12.
“Amy also was scouting the state for a feature film,” said Marshall. “That’s another part of what the forum does. It’s a nexus in which people can link up and network.”
Walsh, part of the forum, most recently worked on the state’s latest claim to film fame, the Wes Anderson movie “Moonrise Kingdom,” which was shot entirely in Rhode Island over spring 2011 and opened the festival.
“I think [the state] does a pretty good job of sort of marketing itself,” Walsh said. “It’s a very film-friendly place to be, once productions are here.” However, he said, there’s an issue with the state’s film tax credit, which was overhauled in the fiscal 2012 budget with a $5 million per-project credit cap to go along with the $15 million total cap on film tax credits that can be issued within any year.
The move was seen by some as anti-Hollywood, as the low per-project credit might dissuade some filmmakers from shooting in the state.
“The reality is, when you had competitive film credits, it was busy and when the tax credit isn’t competitive then it doesn’t matter how film-friendly any office or municipality is,” Walsh said.
But Rhode Island and its capital have a lot going for it, including the ability to offer a variety of settings within a relatively small area.
Walsh has been in projects that shot in Providence as a substitute for Philadelphia and New York City.
“Even if you want to shoot a picturesque farm, you still need hotels and you still need infrastructure to support the film company,” he said. “If you can have that type of support but also be able to be close to nice farms, nice beaches, the islands. … [People] are sort of always amazed at how much [Rhode Island] has to offer in such a small geographic area.”
The goal, Marshall said, is to capitalize on all that and start doing so from the ground up. The ground, in this case, means the state’s higher education system.
The University of Rhode Island, which was a sponsor of the film forum, and the Rhode Island School of Design, he said, both have exceptional film programs.
But the system should be looking to provide students both a more well-rounded education and the inspiration to remain in the state after graduation.
Creating a hybrid program where students could take different courses between schools would help, said Marshall, who joined a panel discussion.
“[It’s] about having everybody on the same page and realizing that this creates jobs and brings more business in the state,” Marshall said. •

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