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44 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2015 Film, TV & Digital Media INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › By Matthew Broderick L ong before he produced his first movie, Andrew Gernhard, the 37-year-old co-founder of Synthetic Cinema Inter- national, a Rocky Hill-based film production company, was pursuing money. In fact, were it not for a $20,000 video production scholar- ship he went aer as a senior at Norwich Free Academy, Gernhard may never have started in the film industry. "No one in my school seemed to be pur- suing the [scholarship] money, so I applied and won," said Gernhard, who co-founded his company in 2004. He's been seeking out funding for his projects ever since. "When we started our company 10 years ago, we were initially focused almost entirely on corporate and commercial video produc- tions," he recalled. "e movies were more of a sidebar business." But as the company grew from two full- time employees to six and found the capital to create its productions, Synthetic Cinema's focus shied nearly exclusively to feature films. Over the past decade, his company has produced 16 films — mostly low-budget hor- ror, and all filmed entirely in Connecticut. at's been good economic news for the many Connecticut towns that have benefited from Synthetic's film shoots. "We typically film in smaller towns across the state," he explained, noting each production usually involves between 35 and 50 people during filming. "When we rent 30 rooms for 30 nights, that's great business for some small town hotels and area restaurants." For a $1 million production — the larg- est production that Synthetic has ever done — Gernhard estimates nearly 90% of that money, roughly $900,000, gets infused back into the local economy. "We're buying our supplies at local hardware stores and eating at local restaurants. It feels good to have a positive economic impact on the state." at economic relationship with the state has historically been a two-way street, he ex- plained. Synthetic Cinema has taken advan- tage of the state's film tax credit, established by the state legislature in 2006 and designed to attract more TV and film productions to Connecticut. In 2013, a moratorium was en- acted (until July 2015) that prevented feature filmmakers from claiming the credit, which can be as much as 30 percent for productions of $1 million or more. But Synthetic Cinema has faced big- ger headwinds, from the evolution of the video and DVD market to, most notably, the disappearance of rental chain giants like Blockbuster, which closed its remaining stores nationwide in January 2014 aer being acquired by DISH Network Corporation in 2011. Big chains were a cash cow for low- budget companies like Gernhard's. He cites one of his first success stories — a campy, low-budget spoof of Steven Spielberg's Jaws — as an example. "A friend of mine and I parodied every scene from Jaws in a film called Trees," Gernhard explained. "It was a terrible movie, but it was released to coordinate with the 25th anniversary of Jaws in 2000." Blockbuster, it turns out, took the bait. "Every one of the 8,000 Blockbusters [nationwide] ordered two copies of Trees," Gernhard said, noting that oentimes his film was chosen by customers if all the cop- ies of Jaws had been rented. ese days, film distribution has shied substantially to television outlets like Life- time (part of A+E Networks), NBCUniver- sal's Syfy channel and specialty channels like Chiller, which focuses on horror films. Syn- thetic Cinema has sold movies to all three, which then oen own theatrical release and Video on Demand rights and distribution. "Some of our films have had some success with limited theatrical releases in major cities, like New York and Los Angeles," Gernhard said. "And when our company's first production — Banshee — aired on the Chiller network, ratings went through the roof ." at type of success has helped to fuel the funding pipeline and keep Synthetic Cinema busy. "We can survive on one production a year," Gernhard said. For the past few years, he noted, his firm has been handling an aver- age of three productions per year, with each taking about eight months to complete from scripting to post-production. at's a lot of juggling schedules, budgets and actors, which Gernhard says is the biggest challenge in his role as executive producer. But it's "the people" that keeps him inspired. "Our [production] crews are like a small family," he said. "It's great that a lot of Movie Magic Rocky Hill-based Synthetic Cinema Making Films, Economic Impact The company's newest release Wishin' and Hopin', was filmed at Gernhard's alma mater, Norwich Free Academy. PHOTO/SYNTHETIC CINEMA