Shopping for a New City

Hey all,

I'm a filmmaker currently residing in Madison Wisconsin, and though the film scene here is fun (fairly close knit, but also small), I'm thinking it might be time for a change of scenery.

So...how is the scene in your city? I'm primarily looking for somewhere in the United States, but international isn't totally out of the question (if you don't factor in things like visas and whatnot). Being that this is a fact-finding mission right now, I don't want to put too many restrictions on it, so let's say that for the moment that anywhere that speak English is fair game.

Do you like your city's film scene? Why or why not? And what advice do you have for someone that might be thinking of moving there?
 
Pittsburgh's not bad. We get some big productions that come through, if you're interested in a day as an extra to network a bit. The 48 hour film project gets a good turn out every year. The local film school (Pittsburgh Filmmakers) does some great stuff; in addition to classes and the 3 Rivers Film Fest, they have regular local showcases and a few theaters around town that show classics and indies. There are lots of local filmmakers doing shorts, features, webseries, etc. There's a bit of a horror bias, being the hometown of George Romero and H.G. Lewis, but plenty of non-genre stuff being done. That said, I'm horrible about meeting people and networking, so there's much more going on than I ever know about! The city in general I love very much.

And oddly enough, a good friend of mine from here is in Madison right now getting her doctorate!
 
There is, of course, tons going on in the NYC area, ranging from student films to low budget indies and big budget Hollywood movies. Of course, the competition is fierce and the cost of living is high.

If you decide to try it, you'll probably want to live outside of manhattan - many are now priced out of Brooklyn as well, and are trying Queens. I live in Jersey City, which is convenient and becoming increasingly popular/expensive.
 
If you want to make movies and you're willing to spend the money and expend the energy to move - you might as well move to LA. The student, indie and pro filmmaking communities there are all vibrant.

I live near SF, and there are plenty of places to rent cameras here, for example, but nothing compared to LA. If/when I ever get serious about filmmaking, I'll move down there.

Good luck!

Bill
 
For film making, L.A. is a great place to be.

There is sooo much talent here be it acting side or crew side. Whatever you need. Ditto gear houses, prop houses, post prod houses. Everything...

But is L.A. a nice city to live in? Depends...
 
Everywhere I've ever lived there has been some sort of film community. Once you know someone who does it, you meet so many people.

I've been toying with the idea of moving up to Seattle. My best friend lives there now and in two years has become involved in so much filming up there (independent stuff and stuff for local organizations). I've been there a few times and I love the city, the people, the food, the beer, the housing, the mountains, the water, the everything. I did my undergraduate degree in LA. I learned to love LA, but at the same time, I'm happy I don't live there anymore. It didn't feel right once I was done with my degree.

I guess it depends what you really want to do though. If you are serious I would recommend going to a few of the top places on your list to see if you can actually live there. There's no point in moving somewhere to do work if you are going to be absolutely miserable with the city itself. At least that's my perspective on it.
 
You go where the work is. Many make good careers travelling to work. Many European DPS for example, travel often to the US and London for the work. Many also struggle to make a living doing what they want to if they don't travel. Of course, many do.

You'll be looking into the 'hubs' - LA, NYC, and London, and then incentive areas - Georgia, Louisiana, and to a perhaps slightly lesser extent Vancouver.

IMO, the nature of the work is very nomadic. If you want to be working in big shows, and not merely surviving on the low budget work in your own town, you need to be prepared to temporarily move around based on work.

In addition, there are many who are living in areas they don't particularly like, because that's where then work is.
 
You'll sometimes hear that Vancouver, BC, Canada is the third-largest movie-production centre in North America, after Los Angeles and New York. But it's only somewhat true.

There is no movie-making industry here in Vancouver. What there is, rather, is the American TV industry. There are no Producers here in Vancouver. What there are, rather, are production companies who exist so that American companies can partner with them to get Canadian tax credits.

There are five kinds of movie-makers in Vancouver:

1) Students, who have to make short movies for their programmes. They have the luxury of drawing from a pool of equipment (the school’s) and crew (their fellow students). Once they are out of school (graduate, drop out, flunk out), they rarely make another movie, although they usually spend a few years in a futile quest to raise money for a project. They sometimes move into the second group.

2) Dilettantes, who make short movies that they pay for out of their own pockets. (Nobody makes features, because cast and crew can't work for a solid month with no income.) These movies are rarely completed. If they are completed, they are rarely seen by anyone outside the family and friends of the principal movie-maker. In those rare cases where the principal movie-maker actually follows through on his promise to give copies to his cast and crew, the audience increases by the precise number of family and friends of the cast and crew. This doesn’t say anything about the quality of these movies; a small minority of them are actually quite good.

3) Professionals, who work on American productions. Canadian indie producers can’t afford to hire them. Every wannabe movie-maker in Vancouver aspires to join this group. It is interesting that these wannabes never consider that they won’t get to make their own movies; they’ll always be working on other people’s projects.

4) Videographers, who shoot weddings and corporate events and perhaps TV commercials. There are fewer opportunities in this field all the time, as the equipment available today has advanced to such a degree that an amateur with a Canon T3i and a copy of iMovie or Windows Moviemaker can do a good enough job at capturing that speech by the Vice President of Corporate Morale.

5) Pornographers, who are usually three friends: one guy who owns a camera, one guy who’s excited at the idea that he’ll get to fuck a random girl, and one friend who’s been dragooned into helping. To judge by the postings on Craigslist, for some reason these guys seem to have difficulty finding actresses.

Vancouver is not a good city for the independent, micro-budget movie-maker.

If you want to act, you can work for free on lots of short movies, some of which may even be completed. You do these until you have enough of a showreel that, with a little talent and a lot of luck, you can get paid to play a character in a scene or two on an episode of Arrow or Psych. Just don’t come to Vancouver expecting that you can make a living acting.

If you are a cinematographer with your own state-of-the-art camera -- and, even better, your own lighting kit as well -- you can be working for no pay on every weekend you have off from your day job.

If you want to make your own movies, don’t come to Vancouver at all. There’s no point.
 
Some places I've lived...

NYC: Obviously a lot of film production, both independent and studio (TV too!). Can be very expensive for an independent filmmaker to shoot there though, and even more expensive to live there.

Westchester County, NY- This is a county, not a city, located above NYC. It's nice because you still have a lot of NYC's resources to work with but without the same crazy city living. Houses and apartments can be expensive, but apartments are probably a little cheaper than NYC. May I suggest Peekskill, NY which is about 45 minutes north of NYC and has a budding art community?

Albany, NY- About 2.5 hours north of NYC. Decent sized film community, but most here make short films and web series. Not too many features, maybe a couple a year. Several film festivals and film groups like Upstate Independents. VERY cheap to live and shoot. Some studio films (namely Salt and The Other Guys) have shot in downtown Albany and pretended it was NYC. Some other great nearby cities like the historic Saratoga Springs. This is where I learned to make movies and I'm glad it was there.

Rochester, NY- Home of Kodak, Rochester has seen some better film days. Still, nearby RIT houses many film students and there are still several indie theaters and film festivals in that area. Close proximity to other cities like Buffalo and Syracuse. CHEAP CHEAP living and shooting. Really far away from NYC... like 6 hours far.

Boston, MA- Still figuring out this scene as I currently live here. On my web series, I worked with two great actors and a few crew members. Some studio films shoot here, and there seems to be other Independent Filmmakers though I haven't met too many of them yet. I'll have to check back in with you on this one, but I think there is definitely some potential here. Even if I am a Yankees fan in enemy territory.
 
Good question - I've been looking to relocate for the past few years, until the financial crisis put a stop to my plans.

In terms of film, LA is the best place to be, but California was hit very hard, and government cutbacks have hurt everyone. So other places may be good, but NYC has weather extremes while Atlanta, GA is too hot in the summer.

I guess you have to decide which city you want to live in.
 
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