Volume 17, Issue 4

The following is the expanded version of an article that appeared in the October Issue of "Imagine"

During the past several years the legislatures of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island signed into law production incentive packages with the highest tax credits and lowest qualifications of any region in the country. It seemed as if the regions investment in building a production industry was finally beginning to pay dividends this last spring with nine major motion pictures filming in New England. But, even before Hollywood Producers exposed a frame of film, there were disturbing signs that the steep rise in fuel prices threatened to offset the incentives offered by the region’s tax credits - making it all the more imperative to pass legislation offering tax credits for local production infrastructure development.

A well-known Hollywood producer once said he would “shoot on the moon if he could get a 20% tax credit”; but that was before the price of rocket fuel doubled. For a Hollywood Producer New England is a distant location just slightly closer than the moon and just as unfamiliar. There is a perception on the West Coast that filming in New England is more expensive then filming on a Hollywood studio back lot because the region lacks an established production infrastructure and production equipment packages must be brought in from outside the region. The tax credits offered by New England states, plus the fact that Universal’s back lot set of a New England Town Green was destroyed by fire in 2007, make it more economical to film on location for now. However, if the experience of recent productions shooting in New England are any indication, the rise in the price of fuel is beginning to tip the scale in favor of studio back lot sets.

To sustain film production in New England, it is important for the local production community to understand how rising fuel costs effect filming on location and why the development of a regional infrastructure is all the more urgent. Here are the stories of two recent feature productions whose budgets would have been severely strained by the unexpected rise in fuel costs if not for the efforts of one local lighting and grip rental vendor.

Craig Ayers, the Production Supervisor of the Tony and Ridley Scott (Scott Free Productions) film “TELL TALE” had planned to rent the electrics package for the film from Hollywood Rentals in Charlotte, NC. Filmed in Providence, RI in April, “TELL TALE” was directed by Michael Cuesta (SIX FEET UNDER) and stars Josh Lucas (AMERICAN PSYCHO) and Lena Headey (300). A contemporized adaptation of the classic Edger Allan Poe story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the film seemed to be adequately funded at 20 million dollars. However, when Craig Ayers assessed the effect of the sudden rise in fuel costs in February to his budget, he was no longer sure.

It is not unusual that Craig Ayers planned to truck the production equipment package for “TELL TALE” all the way from North Carolina. The prevailing business model for feature film production in this country is based upon inexpensive transportation costs - the result of historically cheap fuel. Feature productions on the east coast generally get their lighting and grip equipment packages from vendors located in the Mid Atlantic states (Georgia, North and South Carolina) and sometimes even farther. Recent films shot in New England, such as “EVENINGS,” “ASCHLIFF,” “THE WOMEN,” “THE SURROGATES,” and “THE EDGE OF DARKNESS” trucked their production packages from as far away as Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and even Los Angeles. Like gypsies, a handful of production equipment rental companies that specialize in renting feature film packages travel to wherever the films are shot. One grip rental company based in North Carolina even goes by the name of “Gypsy Grips.” But, now that the cost of fuel has nearly doubled, and shows no signs of going down again permanently, this business model is rapidly running out of gas (oil magnate, T. Boone Pickens projects that after this temporary drop in price, oil will go as high as $150/barrel in the near future).

To fully appreciate how urgent is the need for local infrastructure development, one must first understand how the rising cost of fuel effects the budgets of films like “TELL TALE.” For example, it costs more to rent equipment from a distant rental house than the cost of the fuel to transport it to location. There is also the air fare o fly crew to the distant vendor to check-out the equipment at the beginning of the show, and then again to check it in at the end of the show. Between the cost of air fare, hotel accommodations, crew per diems, drivers wages, road accommodations, and fuel, the cost of renting equipment from a distant vendor can add upwards of $17’000.00, or more than 40%, to a production equipment package for a film like “TELL TALE.” Here is a detailed breakdown of these costs and an explanation of each.

In order to account for missing and damaged items (M&D Costs) at the end of a show it is necessary at the outset for the best boys of both the grip and electrics department, along with additional hands, to check out the equipment package at the rental house before it is loaded on the trucks and to check it in when it is returned. This necessary practice requires that at the start of production, at least four crew personnel be flown to the rental house, put up in a hotel for at least two nights, and a car to be rented to transport the crew from the hotel to the rental house and back, at a total cost of roughly $3’714.90 when you add in the per diem each crew member would receive for being on a distant location (these costs would not be incurred if the production rented their equipment package from a local vendor).

As is the case with many films, “TELL TALE” planned to rent its’ lighting and grip equipment from one company and the tractors and trailers to transport the equipment to set from another. This standard practice adds to the cost of renting the equipment the expense of the additional day the drivers standby while the grips and electrics load the trailers. Thus far, renting from a distant vendor has added $4’214.90 to the cost of the equipment package even before it hits the road.

Once the equipment hits the road, there are costs other than the cost of fuel. They include the daily wage, road accommodations, and per diems for the two teamsters that drive the trucks (one for the grip trailer and one for the electrics trailer). These costs can run upwards of $5000.00. By the time the equipment finally reaches location, it has cost the film roughly $8’500 more to rent their package from a distant rental house. The same costs are incurred all over again when the equipment is returned to the rental house at the end of the show. The total cost of renting equipment from a distant rental house can add upward of $17’000.00 to the cost of renting the equipment package. Here is a detailed breakdown of the costs:

Check Out and Transportation Costs One Way:

- Air fare and two nights lodging: $725/person* x 4 = $2’900.00
- Car Rental: $47.45/day x 2 day check out = $94.90
- Crew Per Diem: $60/day/person x 12 = $720.00
- Drivers Wages: $250/day x 2 drivers x 2 days on road = $1000.00
- $250/day x 2 drivers x 1 day standby during load-out = $500.00
- Drivers Per Diem: $60/day/person x 6 = $360.00
- On road lodging: $80/person/night x 2 drivers = $320.00
- Standby lodging:$80/person/night x 2 drivers = $160.00
- Cost of Fuel: 214 gal/truck x $4.85/gal x 2 trucks = $2’075.80
- Return Air fare for Drivers: $226/person* x 2 = $452.00

Even before the cost of diesel fuel doubled, renting equipment from a distant rental house wasn’t cheap. So, why would a film do it? When fuel was cheap, the added expense of transporting production equipment a thousand miles amounted to a small percentage of the cost of renting that equipment when you considered that it was rented for months at a time. But, now that the higher cost of fuel has increased the cost of everything - from the air fare to fly actors and production crew to location, the cost of the food to feed them, to the cost of generating power to run lights - independent film productions can only afford to go out on location for shorter periods of time - usually no more than four weeks. Since the cost of transporting equipment is now amortized over a shorter period of time, it makes up a higher percentage of the overall rental. Given the abbreviated production schedules of independent films today, the cost of doing business the old way has risen to the point where it can add more than 40% to the cost of a production equipment package.

For example the lighting and grip equipment package for “TELL TALE” cost about $10’500.00 per week, or roughly $42’000.00 for the four weeks that they were on location. Transportation costs of $17’500.00 would be a reasonable percentage of this cost if “TELL TALE” was on location for months at a time, but since “TELL TALE” could afford to go on location for only four weeks, the cost of transporting a production equipment package from Hollywood Rentals would add 42% to the cost of their equipment rental – more than offsetting the 20% in tax credits they would receive for that production expenditure under the Rhode Island program. Where the cost of doing business the old way more than doubled with the sudden increase in fuel, Craig Ayers approached ScreenLight and Grip (SL&G), in Dedham, MA (just one half hour from Providence) to see if he could get a competitive bid for the electrics package that didn’t involve transporting equipment.

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