The year 2003 will be a pivotal year for the Film Industry. The Speaker, The Senate President, and the Governor working together are the only ones who can restore confidence in Hollywood that Massachusetts is a great place to spend their money. Working with Speaker Tom Finneran and Carol Patton at Imagine, I have filed a bill to restore State funding for a New Film Office, and have the backing of many important players on the Hill.

This will be a key element in creating new jobs and revenues to help the State balance its books. Only a State sponsored Film Office encouraging production through outreach and marketing to established Film, TV and Commercial Productions, including scouting locations throughout the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth, will provide the results we need.

I will also fight to maximize the utilization of local film and film related companies in the Commonwealth to get our industry moving again. If we can build a new model of State support, 2003 can be a great year for all of us.

2003 will be an exciting year for film in Boston. Hollywood is becoming increasingly more decentralized every year. Celebrities are starting to champion the cause for new talent by instituting democratic portals like Kevin Spacey's Triggerstreet.com and Matt and Ben's Project Greenlight. For years, talented Boston filmmakers have made exciting, original work. The missing link has been getting noticed in this part of the country.
Thanks to new distribution mechanisms and online festivals, our filmmakers have a better shot at getting recognized outside of New England. Recent speakers at the Dudley Film Program such as Peter Broderick (former President of Next Wave Films), Larry Meistrich (The Film Movement) and Peter Belsito (Film Finders) have made a point of coming to Harvard to speak because of their belief in the potential of the Boston independent film scene. I am eager to see how we face these new opportunities together as a community of scholars, artists and film professionals.

The 1990's were the decade of digital video, as the 1980's produced digital audio. What will this decade bring? The great promise is low-cost digital distribution of media, including feature-length films. But the reality is that streaming media at DVD quality will probably not be with us until the end of the decade and the widespread availability of fiber-optic connections to the home.
In the meantime an independent filmmaker can produce a DVD in a Mac with Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio or a Sony PC with Click to DVD. That DVD can be sent priority mail to anywhere in the country faster than it can be downloaded over today's best broadband connections.
So just as Netflix and DVD rentals have revolutionized watching films at home, filmmakers will be able to deliver their films the same way. Low-cost digital media distribution will be a 37-cent stamp for the next few years.

"The election of Mitt Romney as governor will result in either a new chapter being written for the TV & film industry in Massachusetts or its death knell. The Romney administration must work hard to re-establish the Massachusetts Film Office (or something like it), develop a private/public infrastructure through the state tourism office which will sustain TV and film work, and avoid political pitfalls such as embracing the Teamsters while turning a blind eye to the corrupt practices of some of its members. If Romney fails to act or at least recognize the value of having a TV/film industry in the Bay State, the loss of talent to parts north (Canada) and west (Hollywood) will only accelerate to the detriment of Massachusetts."

I predict that all the important media stories for 2003 that I want to read will be found in the pages of Imagine.

Whither Harvey: Where has your rabbit gone?
The king of independents, savior to neophyte producers, writers, directors, power broker to the stars par excellence, super ego to everyone in the room with him, may be in the crosshairs of the big mouse. Yes, all the rumors are true: GANGS OF NEW YORK, Martin Scorsese's extravaganza on the Irish gangs of 1850s New York is truly an epic only in terms of directorial miscalculation and budget overruns not seen since the days of Michael Cimino and HEAVEN'S GATE.

Disney (parent company of Miramax) is in a revenue squeeze due to amusement park attendance worldwide dropping over 20% since 2000. This fact combined with ABC TV network, Disney's prime network jewel, getting farther and farther behind NBC and CBS with concurrent drop off in advertising revenue. Disney stock is in the tank and Eisner is under attack from Wall Street for earlier over optimistic financial projections and for not having a succession plan in place. Eisner's team is sniping at Weinstein and his Miramax honchos over their lack of control over Scorsese and his production of the film.

What will be the result of the Disney-Miramax tension? Me thinks that a big mouse shoe is about to drop on Miramax after the reviews of GANG comes out at the end of December. Look for staff layoffs, demotions, and new tight financial controls on the Miramax ability to green light projects. Harvey not only needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat, the failures of GANGS OF NEW YORK at the Box office will make it difficult for him to buy a hat without Eisner's permission.

For Massachusetts the film MYSTIC RIVER injected an estimated $25-30 million into the local economy during its shoot here in 2002. This high profile film brought great visibility for Massachusetts to the west coast and here, which is now equally important. Director Clint Eastwood, in addition to actors, Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Lawrence Fisburne, Laura Linney and local actor Kevin Chapman generated excitement for residents of Boston who spotted them dining, shopping and enjoying the Bay State's many offerings.

The extensive press coverage highlighted the many economic benefits of production business to legislators, businesses, and voters. As a result of this year, I anticipate stronger support from the Legislature and new Governor Mitt Romney in support of this invaluable source of revenue. The innovative new funding mechanism the privatized Massachusetts Film Bureau is seeking, is setting a trend amongst international film commissions and arts organizations. There will be collaboration between the various indigenous cultural and business film and television groups following the severe budget cuts this year.

After the release of MYSTIC RIVER and MONA LISA SMILE we'll see a significant impact on tourism to Massachusetts that will help to strengthen the local economy. The year 2003 will realize a major increase in production business.

With the exception of MYSTIC RIVER being shot in Boston, 2002 was not a good year. The closing of the Mass Film Office, the downturn in the economy, and the vacuum of leadership caused this to be a dreadful year for the film and video community. So, one prediction is certain: 2003 will be better.
I say this in spite of the fact that:
(a) there will be probably no new state film office;
(b) George Cashman will land the job of Chief of Staff for Mitt Romney;
(c) the Boston Catholic Church scandal will be filmed in Toronto, and;
(d) more Canadian films will be shown on screens in New England.
On the other hand:
(a) Lynne Adams', Tony Shaloub's, and Mark Donadio's MADE-UP will get a limited theatrical release;
(b) short films will get more public exposure;
(c) several regional film festivals will get greater national attention,
(d) another producer with a real estate background will emerge as a force in the area, and;
(e) more New England films will be shown in Canada.
So, again, 2003 will be a better year for the film and video production community. There is nowhere to go but up.

Stealthy increase in the number of homes and offices with broadband Internet connections. Cable-TV is finding this bandwidth more profitable to sell than its regular services because they don't need to buy any programming to fill it up with. More and more online media, including humor and satire from media-savvy funsters, media archives like AdCritic, product tie-ins like BMWFilms.com, and lots of scientific, historical and educational media posted by academics, researchers and hobbyists for specialized audiences.
More hard times for hardware manufacturers as the industry consolidates. DV camcorders, DV editing systems (especially turnkey packages like Macs with Final Cut Pro) and the new cheap projectors will sell well, specialized corporate video production gear will continue to decline as these users continue to move over to high-end consumer equipment. Web-streaming equipment market will continue to grow quietly and more than people expect: Expect new products here to allow automatic posting of footage, live multi-camera webcasting, etc.
Professional operations like TV stations will continue to replace tape-based infrastructure with servers - this technology gives them more flexibility and increased automation.

I see the quality of digital filmmaking drastically improving for audiences, with the more widespread use of formats such as HD and widescreen Digital Betacam. It will be harder and harder to go see a film in a theater and come to the realization that it was actually shot on video. In addition, video will not just be a format that gives indie filmmakers a chance to work on a low budget, it will be a viable alternative to large budget studio filmmakers who want to shoot and post-process completely in a digital realm.