Post-Gazette Editorial Praises Recent Film Progress
Take 2: Call it 'Hollywood-on-the-Mon, the Sequel'
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In Pittsburgh's recent past, it wasn't hard to stumble upon a movie being shot in the corner of a neighborhood.
Parts of "Silence of the Lambs" were filmed around town. Production on "Lorenzo's Oil" and the remake of "Diabolique" tied up traffic in Squirrel Hill. Even the Post-Gazette newsroom had its first screen test when it doubled as the Washington Post in "The Mothman Prophecies" in 2001.
Film productions became so common that Pittsburgh took to calling itself "Hollywood-on-the-Mon." Then, somewhere along the line, business began to dry up as other places competed for the dollars of the movie biz.
Toronto, for instance, became a place to shoot great exteriors for filmmakers on a small-to-midsize budget. When director George Romero filmed "Land of the Dead," the latest installment of his zombies-in-Pittsburgh franchise, in Canada a few years ago, the sense of loss was palpable. Directors insisted that, for as much as they liked filming in Western Pennsylvania, economics dictated going to where the tax and labor incentives were.
Post-Gazette reporter Tim McNulty chronicled a resurgence of film production in Pittsburgh after a bit of a lull, much of it predating the tax credits to movie makers approved by the General Assembly in July. In the last year, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," "Smart People," "Bridge to Nowhere" and the Spike TV mini-series "The Kill Point" were filmed locally.
Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Steeltown Entertainment Project, plus the Pittsburgh Film Office, helped revive the region's fading fortunes with Hollywood. Another sign of a turnaround is the upswing in members of the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 489, which now has enough film crew types to mount two productions at once.
Suddenly, the region has another chance to prove that it's a great place to make movies. With diverse landscapes, a large pool of industry pros and business incentives from the state, Pittsburgh is again ready for its close-up.
Original Article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07255/816611-35.stm
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