Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal | April 15, 2024 | wbjournal.com BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Staff Writer W orcester residents are no strangers to the occasional peculiar site when out and about. But since 2018, the city has seen two men being thrown through a third-sto- ry window of a hotel, a woman on a motorbike perched on top of a police van speeding through downtown, and a crowd at Mechanics Hall suddenly breaking into song and dance. ankfully, this bizarre behavior has an explanation: ese activities were the respective results of the films "Hon- est ief ", "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", and "Spirited" being shot in the area, a few of the dozens of productions filmed in Central Massachusetts since 2006, when the state created a tax law favorable to moviemaking. Once a production desert, Central Massachusetts has seen a large increase in Hollywood-related activity in the past 15 years, helping foster the creation of a cottage industry providing props, labor, and locations for moviemaking. But that came before the 2023 actors' and writers' strikes essentially shut down Hollywood productions all over the world, including in Central Massachu- setts. In the two years before the strikes, 16 movies were shot in Worcester, but last year only saw one. "e strikes are now over, and I think we all felt that it was going to come back with twice the force. at has not been the case," said Edgar Luna, the City of Worcester's business development manager. "It's not just Massachusetts; it's happening everywhere. I hope we will continue to move forward." Yet, another potential Hollywood strike looms on the horizon. Lights, camera … action? Luna, the City's point person for production, has witnessed a bit of a roll- ercoaster ride since 2020. e COVID pandemic shut down Hollywood for months, but productions resumed with a bang, desperate to produce content for the millions of American who were suddenly spending more time at home and wanting to be entertained. en, the strikes came. e Writers Guild of America headed to the picket line in May 2023, with actors in SAG-AF- TRA joining them in July, the first time in 63 years both unions were striking simul- taneously. e situation wouldn't resolve until November, creating a loss of $5 billion across the country, according to Camoin Associates, a New York economic devel- opment consulting firm. With the strikes looking more and more unavoidable, studios began pulling back on production even before actors and writers headed to the picket line. e beginning of 2022 saw record levels of production volume around the world, according to a January 2024 study released by ProdPro Analytics, a New York-based firm analyzing the film and TV space, but the first quarter of 2023 in the run-up to the strike saw the amount of committed production dollars decline 13% from the prior year. is disruption happened just as Worcester was seeing more movie action than ever before, as 11 major produc- tions filmed in Worcester during 2021, as many as the previous 10 years com- bined, according to data from a 2023 Worcester Film Commission Report. at number would drop to five in 2022 and just one production in 2023. "e strike brought everything to a halt," said Luna. "ere was nothing we could do." ProdPro nationwide stats show 27% of crew members had to find alterna- tive work during the strike, and 54% of vendors serving the industry conducted layoffs or furloughs. Two deep to seven deep Before COVID and the strikes, Massa- chusetts saw a large increase in available crew members. "When we first got involved [in 2012], the understanding in the industry was Massachusetts was what they call two deep in crew, which is shorthand that the state was capable of doing two major film projects at the same time," said Gary Crossen, general manager of New England Studios, a Devens-based production soundstage. "Now they gen- erally view Massachusetts as seven deep, because the number of people in the industry has increased exponentially." Nearly 100 major films and television shows have shot scenes in Central Mas- sachusetts since 2006, according to the Massachusetts Film Office's website. "I understand [filmmaker's] interest in going to the Central Mass. and the Worcester area because you have defi- nitely built an infrastructure," said Meg Montagnino-Jarret, director of the Mas- sachusetts Film Office, the state agency promoting the state to the industry. at infrastructure includes compa- nies like Sir Loin Catering in North- borough or Above e Line Production Rentals, a business founded in 2012 providing transportation services and truck rentals on almost every shoot in the area. "Mass. has always been great for films, but with the tax incentive in place, that was a driver of more long-term atten- tion to the area," said Lizzie Fullerton, production manager at Above e Line, which has locations in North Reading and Tyngsborough. First introduced in 2006, legislators made the state's Film Incentive Tax Credit permanent in 2021, cementing a system where any production spending HollyWoo production, halted e cottage industry built around Central Mass. moviemaking reached new heights in the early 2020s, before 2023 pressed pause (Left) Westerman Props employee Alex Mader examines a painting in the company's expansive prop warehouse in Worcester. (Right) Westerman General Manager Dan Diaz (right) examines a binder of photos from the various productions that the company has been a part of. PHOTOS | EDD COTE Edgar Luna, Worces- ter business develop- ment manager

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