What’s in the cards for 2015? Generally it appears most everyone is happy to see 2014 go and 2015 is already being heralded as a much more business friendly year. Read what those who work in the industry have to say.
Don Packer
Co-Owner/Editor
Engine Room Edit
I predict that 4K TV’s will sit on store shelves like old DVD players until the price comes way down. But, I predict 4K Editing will be running full bore by the end of 2015.
I predict that the new Massachusetts’ administration is going to realize that the Department of Revenue (DOR) numbers are just that, numbers. And realize that you have to look at the tangents to get the really big and really rewarding financial picture for the film tax incentive.
I predict (and I’m going out on a limb here), that the Packers and the Pats will be in the Super Bowl. Oh god please.
I predict and imagine that Carol Patton will recover and come back stronger than ever and we will all realize more than ever how important she is to our community.
And just to share, this is how good I was in 2007. Pretty much nailed it (accept for the cell phone thing)
2007 Prediction:
First, I predict that anything I say will be wrong. Secondly, I predict that HD will continue to claw its way into the world and that the tipping point might even be here by the end of the year as far as Standard vs. HD in the commercial world. I also predict that standards are going to become less clear to every producer but they won’t figure that out and that I personally will lead the way to their new garden of knowledge. And finally I predict a new makeover/game/award show starring a lounge singer, a retired cop and a skateboarder, all shot, produced and delivered on a cell phone. In the end I predict that I’ll be even more stupid than I was before. But that’s okay, because nobody else knows what they’re talking about either.
Steven Feinberg
Executive Director,
RI Film & Television Office
The Rhode Island Film Industry will continue to grow and prosper.
There will be at least one Academy Award nomination for the currently non-titled Woody Allen Summer Production 2014.
BLEED FOR THIS, the inspirational story of boxer Vinny Paz, will be a triumphant success and receive Awards.
There will be record-breaking crowds at this year’s Rhode Island International Film Festival because of the wonderful films and surprise guests.
A new television series will commence production in the summer of 2015.
At least one Rhode Island television star will win a Golden Globe and an Emmy!
There will be more jobs on more films and shows this year than ever before in our state’s history!!!
A new theater production will premiere in Rhode Island, before going on a national tour.
Three local filmmakers will have break-out years and their careers will catapult to new heights.
Two major studio productions will arrive and commence production, offering opportunities for our local crew and talent pool!
It’s going to be a banner year for Rhode Island Film! Those are my predictions and I can’t wait to see them come to fruition.
Happy and Healthy 2015!
Marianne Leone and
Chris Cooper
Writer/Actor/Imaginnaire and Academy Award/Golden Globe Award Recipient, respectively.
Though we aren’t on the distribution side of the business, we have friends who are, and they all say the metric is changing almost too fast to chart, with indies opening smaller in theatres and concentrating on VOD. On the television side, it looks like a lot of good writers are gravitating to television, where it is possible to tell a more subtle story than in blockbuster films, which are created to sell in world markets.
Tom Sprague
National Boston
2014 is almost over. Good riddance I say. A year best described in words not fit for print. Others have said the same. Maybe it was the government shutdown? Maybe the Polar Vortex? I think the elections bought up all the media!
Elections didn’t help us much. Getting that work is way too political! 2015 seems to be a totally different animal. Lots of real work on real projects for real clients. Some with real money! One of our guys thought there might be too much? Why the change, we just don’t know. In 2014 we did start buying full pages in IMAGINE. That’s it! It must be IMAGINE!
Carl Hansen
Director, Production, Fox Sports Original Programming
2015 is the year that television, specifically that box in your living room, will officially start to transition into more mainstream(ing) ”Over The Top” content provided by the likes of Netflix and Hulu. The broadcast and cable networks are getting in on the action with “GO” services like HBO GO and ABC GO. Google and Apple are investing in smart televisions.
Content will always be king, it’s just how you will watch will continue to evolve.
After a renaissance of top-name producers, directors and actors gravitating more towards content made specifically for television, the word “television” will just mean the physical display screen in your living room. Big talent will focus on making great content for all the devices in your life, from your smart phone or Google Glass to your tablet or your Apple Watch. I can’t wait for the first show to premiere on the Apple Watch – “for the first time on a wrist, the premiere of [insert your show name here]!”
It’s an exciting time for content creators who can tailor their materials based on specific viewing habits. Gone will be the days of formatted programming for commercial breaks and timeslots – how TV shows on DVD, On Demand and Over The Top networks are being seen already. Product integration and placement will become much bigger business and the old soap opera model of one company/brand sponsoring a show will continue to grow.
And with the proliferation of small, easily portable and inexpensive cameras (built into your phone, Go Pros, etc.), professional content creators will be coming from everywhere and anywhere. Keep an eye out because the kid down the street with his smart phone could be making the next ad for Doritos that’ll be seen during the Super Bowl.
Angela Peri, CSA
Owner
Boston Casting
In 2014 Boston Casting worked on eleven films! My prediction for 2015 is that two television series will shoot here. Boston is totally on the map as a go to shooting location and it is only a matter of time before we get a series back in Boston.
Mick Cusimano
IMAGINE’s Professor of Surrealism and Creator of ImagineNation
With New England Studios, Red Sky Studios, Charles River Studios and tax credits we have the infrastructure in place for more films being made in New England.
There are also many people making short films locally and there should be more venues to screen them. Last year I went to the Clement-Ferrand Film festival in France where they showed short films by mostly unknown filmmakers from around the world for a week. 160,000 people came to watch these films. There is an interest in short films. We just need to find a way to get them seen more often.
David Kleiler
Local Sightings
That the line between independent and commercial films becomes increasingly nebulous. For the last few years “independent” films have dominated the awards season for instance, BOYHOOD, BIRDMAN and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING.
BOYHOOD will dominate the awards season, meanwhile St. Vincent, and the thoroughly atrocious MONUMENTS MEN, play both the mega-plexes and art houses and this is likely to continue as the only slightly upper brow Weinstein’s continue to put out films which art house goers mistakenly thought of as great.
In spite of the trend of decreasing quality of the films at Kendall Square, I truly believe nonprofit independent houses such as theaters like the Brattle will continues to program as well as rescue under promoted movies like SNOWPIERCER. “mishandled by the Weinstein’s” and BABADOOK, “also dealt roughly the Weinstein’s.”
In spite of the change of regime at the Statehouse the Mass Film Office will continue under its current excellent leadership and Massachusetts as a location will continue to be a desirable, vital place for film production activity, and the tax incentive will remain intact. IIMAGINE will continue be a unifying source for the film production community, that documentary film production, for which Massachusetts is so widely known, will only continue to increase in its ability to attract audiences. A film by a Boston based producer will have multiple Oscar nominations in 2016.
Joseph Conforti
Writer/Director/Producer
Sumner Redstone will be one year closer to his goal of living forever.
Leslie Moonves and CBS will just keep getting stronger, especially online.
Sony will be renamed Puny after capitulating to the Hermit Kingdom.
The eight episode series, i.e. HBO’s True Detective structure, will get even more popular.
IN PLAIN VIEW will finally get made.
Steve McGrath,
Senior Broadcast Engineer
HB Communications
JJ Abrams’ STAR WARS will be fantastic. It will be so fantastic that people will feel safe having the franchise in Disney’s hands knowing that it will live on for their kids and grandkids. The looming threat of the movie bombing and JJ forever being known as Jar Jar Abrams will be extinguished.
Vines still won’t matter to anyone over 23. You can’t tell a story in seven seconds. And the constant looping of the video clip causes a jump cut that is too irksome. It will motivate YouTube to try to have better video streaming, so it will be a net gain for us.
A new filmmaking trend will emerge. It will be a “minimalist special effects” movement. More emphasis will be pushed toward solid story-telling.
GoPro will make a camera just for police. Then people will want those cameras to not only capture video, but stream in real time. GoPro will accommodate and make a streaming model.
The first major invasion of privacy lawsuit with someone attaching a camera to a drone will happen. Now that drones are in the public’s hands, we will have our first “incident.”
People will feel empty without an annual sequential date such as 12/13/14. So when 5/10/15 comes, people will lose their minds.
Carol Patton will close out the year by appearing with Barbara Walter’s “10 Most Fascinating People” list.
Other channels will see the success of HBO’s streaming service and more major players will jump into the exclusive streaming. The typical cable TV model will crumble. The compromise will be 20+ apps on our mobile devices…one for each channel we watch regularly.
Google Glass and Apple’s watch will fail to make waves. Oculus Rift, on the other hand will boom.
Judith Laster
Festival Director
Woods Hole Film Festival
2015 will continue to be a strong year for film festivals such as the Woods Hole Film Festival and all of the other festivals in the region. Festivals will develop even stronger relationships with Art House cinemas and smaller distributors and will offer a viable opportunity for filmmakers to get their work seen theatrically.
The Massachusetts Tax Credit will remain intact and will continue to attract larger budget studio films to be made in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Film Office, in cooperation with the city of Boston and the Massachusetts Cultural Council will create a plan to support the independent filmmaking community by making it easier for indie filmmakers to make their films in Massachusetts.
Finally, MassDigi and the Massachusetts Film Office will host the first film and gaming summit as part of the newly established Mass Film Week, a new venture that highlights the work of the Mass Film Industry.
