Highlights of the Apr. 8 AIVF Jefferson
County Salon meeting
Some grant information was given out.
There was some discussion about doing workshops in
connection with a film school.
A few announcements about some auditions.
Some discussion about projection equipment.
Some discussion about Scott Lumpkin and the union
situation on his last film.
A lot of discussion about the recent events concerning the
Birmingham Film Commission. A couple of days before the Salon meeting it was
announced that the Film Commission was back on again after being dissolved by
Councilman Bert Miller. This makes for the 3rd/4th incarnation of the Film
Commission since 2000. In going back over the Salon discussions that have
been ongoing since 1997, we revisited the topic of a larger Film Commission, a
Birmingham-Jefferson Regional Film Office.
Based on the Salon discussions from 1997 to now, the
Birmingham-Jefferson Regional Film Office will need to have just one person as
commissioner, a board made up of local media business people can lead to too
much infighting and problems with favoritism. The Commissioner will need to be
knowledgeable about the film business but will need to not have a business of
his own or business dealings with other family members to avoid a conflict
of interest. The Film Commissioner will need to be paid full time.
The municipalities in Jefferson County will need to
participate (or at least be asked to participate). Many of the smaller towns in
the county have excellent exterior locations and could prove to be more valuable
for filmmaking than Birmingham. The participating towns will have one
person designated to be the film liaison person to the Birmingham-Jefferson
Regional Film Office. They could also serve as a supplemental staff
gathering information about the talent and services in their
respected areas.
The Commissioner would serve the local filmmaking needs by
creating a database for filmmakers to use. The Commissioner would also work with
the Alabama Film Office in attracting outside productions to film
here.
One thing that was a concern was employment of the local
talent for these outside productions. To give tax breaks to productions
that bring in all the crew and cast from another state produces economic loss
instead of gain. Even though the current pending film incentive bills sounds
good for movie making it needs to be coupled with something like the Alabama
Point System so that we don't give away the barn with the horse.
It was discussed that there were a couple of precedents to
show that some of these elements have already been successfully implemented
in the state.