Author: Angie Sykeny

From the 1981 classic On Golden Pond to parts of this year’s Oscar-winning Sound of Metal, New Hampshire has been a filming location for a number of movies. Since 1998, the New Hampshire Film Bureau has assisted filmmakers eyeing the Granite State for their films, serving as the connection between them and the state government and communities. But if the latest state budget proposal is approved, that resource may not be around for much longer. People from the New Hampshire film industry discussed what’s at stake if the Film Bureau is dissolved, and why New Hampshire is a film destination worth fighting for.

The reel deal

Gov. Chris Sununu’s proposed state budget for 2022-2023 includes the defunding and elimination of the New Hampshire Film Bureau, currently allocated a $123,000 annual budget.

The budget proposal has been passed by the House and now heads to the Senate, which is scheduled to meet on June 4. If it’s approved, New Hampshire will become one of only five states without an official state film office.

Matt Newton, the New Hampshire Film Bureau’s director and only employee, declined to comment on the office’s future and directed media inquiries to the Division of Travel and Tourism Development, which emailed a statement on behalf of Business and Economic Affairs Commissioner Taylor Caswell:

“While the workload of the Bureau of Film and Digital Media has declined for the past several years, the Governor’s budget proposal ensures that the Division of Travel and Tourism Development will retain sufficient resources to meet the needs of New Hampshire’s film industry,” the statement said. “Further, this consolidation of services ensures a more comprehensive approach, spearheaded by the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, to promote the development of New Hampshire’s travel and tourism industry.”

Jack Northcott, a Hollis resident and senior director of sales at Avid Technology, a media production software company in Burlington, Mass., said he is skeptical that the Division of Travel and Tourism Development will continue the Film Bureau’s work.

“That claim … is very disingenuous, because they aren’t articulating whether or not the Film Bureau will remain in name and the Film Bureau website will still be supported,” he said. “Will there be somebody there who actually cares?”

When the Hippo pressed the Division of Travel and Tourism Development for confirmation that the “consolidation of services” would mean the elimination of the “New Hampshire Film office” in name and as a direct point of contact for filmmakers, Division of Travel and Tourism Development communications manager Kris Neilsen replied via email, “Correct, [filmmakers] will reach out to the NH Travel and Tourism office.”

Tim Messina of Studio Lab, a video production studio in Derry, also expressed concern about the Department’s ability to take over the Film Bureau’s role.

“[How is] someone from the Travel and Tourism department, who doesn’t have any experience in our industry … going to [answer] very industry-specific questions that come up?” he said.

The benefits of having a film office

Tim Messina of Studio Lab said he utilized the Film Bureau a few weeks ago when a filmmaker friend of his asked him where to get permits for shooting at Mount Washington.

“The Film office … told me exactly where to go and who to talk to,” he said. “It was a less-than-five-minute conversation.”

Tyler York, senior producer at Big Brick Productions in Manchester, works on commercial and brand video content and short form documentary-style videos for regional, national and international clients, such as New Hampshire Lottery, iRobot, Hasbro Gaming, Red Bull, ESPN, Fox Sports, Chobani and more. He said state film offices are “crucial” to his job as they provide a connection between the film industry and state legislators, municipalities, police forces and town and city officials.

“We do productions all over, and when we’re shooting [in another state], we traditionally reach out to that state’s film office for help with sourcing location permits and things like that.”

Chris Stinson, a producer and line producer at the Portsmouth-based film production company Live Free or Die Films, said he also has depended on the services provided by state film offices for his work. Stinson worked as the line producer for the 2020 film Sound of Metal, which includes a driving scene shot on New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway. The film was nominated for six Oscars and won two — one for Film Editing and one for Sound — at the April 25 awards ceremony.

Stinson recalled a time when representatives from the Massachusetts Film Office joined him at a meeting where he pitched Massachusetts as a shooting location for the 2019 film Knives Out.

“[The filmmakers] were considering shooting it in London, but we convinced them to come to Massachusetts,” he said. “If the Massachusetts Film Office hadn’t helped, that movie definitely would have gone to London.”

In the 2018 Hippo story “Going professional: How to take your creative hobby to the next level,” Newton explained how the Film Bureau assisted and advised filmmakers in hiring a crew, securing a shooting location, and marketing and distributing their films. The Bureau also maintains an online directory of local hireable film crew and film services, including camera operators, directors, editors, casting and talent resources, hair and makeup and wardrobe professionals, sound specialists, stunt people, production managers and assistants, payroll and production accountants, public relations and more.

The Bureau’s primary job is acting as the official liaison between filmmakers and New Hampshire communities and state government, to help filmmakers find shooting locations and acquire permits necessary for road closures and access to public spaces.

“If you have a small film, closing a road might sound like a big deal,” Newton said in the 2018 story, “but working with [the Film Bureau] lends more credibility to your project. We can open doors that you might not be able to open by yourself.”

Losing a NH booster

Northcott said the state has offered little explanation about the reasoning behind the proposal to eliminate the Film Bureau.

“We just haven’t been able to get a lot of feedback or dialogue from them,” he said.

Having worked with more than 30 state film offices over the course of his career, Stinson said he sees no reason New Hampshire wouldn’t be able to maintain its film office.

“A lot of these other states’ film offices don’t have a big budget either; a lot of them are one-person offices, too,” he said, “but they’re still incredibly enthusiastic about bringing productions to their state. New Hampshire doesn’t even offer that.”

Ian Messina, director of virtual production at Studio Lab (and Tim Messina’s nephew), said he, too, is at a loss.

“New Hampshire has so many different pockets of small businesses, and filmmaking is one of them, so why shouldn’t it have the same resources that other businesses have?”

York said he believes a lack of awareness is to blame.

“Many people, [including] legislators, don’t know that there’s a film industry happening here and that there’s potential and opportunity for the film industry to grow here,” he said.

Losing the Film Bureau would be detrimental to the state’s film industry in a big way, Tim Messina said.

“Without [a film office], we just lose our sense of direction as a state in the film world,” he said. “We can make it work [independently] to an extent, but the state is still a big part of it.”

A fear being echoed by many people in the New Hampshire film industry is losing credibility that comes with having an official state film office.

“It’s so much cleaner when you can say, ‘I’m calling from the New Hampshire Film office,’ as opposed to, ‘Hey, I’m Joe Schmo off the street, and we have a production coming to town,’” York said.

Eliminating the Film Bureau may also disadvantage young and aspiring filmmakers looking to stay in New Hampshire, Northcott said, or prompt them to move to another state that has more opportunities and a more prominent support system for filmmakers. As a member of the advisory committee for a Nashua-based film education program for high school students, Northcott said he’s seeing it happen already.

“You have all these students who are just dying to get into television and film production, but there’s no outlet for them locally, or they’re very limited in what they can do,” he said. “WMUR can only hire so many people.”

Location, location

While New Hampshire remains largely untouched by out-of-state filmmakers, its southern neighbor boasts one of the most active and fastest growing film landscapes in the country.

“There are four or five movies and TV shows filming in Massachusetts as we speak,” Stinson said. “It just seems crazy to me that New Hampshire gets zero of that action.”

One of Massachusetts’ biggest selling points as a film destination — and the reason New Hampshire is often overlooked — is the 25 percent tax credit it awards filmmakers, Stinson said. New Hampshire, though it offers no tax incentives, has other perks that filmmakers would value just as much as, if not more than, Massachusetts’ tax credit, he said, but most filmmakers never take the time to research New Hampshire or never even consider New Hampshire as an option in the first place.

“They see ‘25 percent tax credit’ and that’s all they’re focused on,” Stinson said.

While filming Knives Out in Massachusetts, Stinson said, the crew stayed in a mansion for three weeks, costing them $500,000. If they had been filming in New Hampshire, he said, he is “absolutely sure” they could have found a comparable mansion for between $50,000 and $100,000.

“By going to a cheaper location you’ve saved 50 percent more money than [you would have saved] with the 25 percent tax credit in Massachusetts,” Stinson said, adding that lodging in New Hampshire usually costs 30 to 50 percent less than in Massachusetts.

Crews would also save money on permitting fees and on parking, which could cost up to $3,000 or $4,000 in Massachusetts, compared to between $500 and $1,000 in New Hampshire.

Massachusetts’ robust film office is also a major contributor to the success of its film industry, York said — and New Hampshire should take notes.

“With Massachusetts performing at the caliber that they are, it’s disappointing and, in my opinion, shortsighted,” York said, “for New Hampshire to forego a film office at this point.”

Banding together

According to Tim Messina, more than 100 people who work or have an interest in New Hampshire’s film industry have signed on to a grassroots effort to preserve the state film office in some capacity, including acclaimed documentary filmmaker and New Hampshire resident Ken Burns.

“If it does have to [merge with] another department, one of the best solutions would be to create a board of directors — people who are in the industry and understand it — that can help administrate what that [merge] would look like and how it’s going to function,” Tim Messina said.

Some members of the group have been volunteering their time and resources to improve the Film Bureau since before it was at risk of being eliminated.

Stinson, for example, has spent more than a year independently creating a visual database of filming locations in New Hampshire — a project normally shouldered by a state film office, he said.

“When a filmmaker is considering shooting in a state, they go to that state’s film office website to look at film location pictures, so having a location database is huge,” he said, “and if I have to do it on my own, I’m willing to do that.”

Northcott said the group has even gone so far as to offer to fund the film office themselves.

“There are a lot of people who are interested [in] and supportive of the Film Bureau,” he said. “I know we could raise the private funding easily.”

The Division of Travel and Tourism Development “gave no response and had no interest” in the proposition, Northcott said. (Reached shortly before press time, a spokesperson for the Division said they would need time to formulate a comment and couldn’t do so by press time.)

Tim Messina is also seeking the general public’s support in preserving the Film Bureau. On the Studio Labs website (studiolab.community/post/helpsavenhfilm), he outlined a four-point strategy that includes reaching out and advocating to the governor, the Senate Finance Committee, local senators and film and media organizations in the state. He urged advocates to explain how the issue affects them and include financial data about the film industry’s contribution to the state’s creative economy.

New Hampshire film highlights
Here’s a look at some of the most notable movies that were filmed or partially filmed in New Hampshire, according to IMDB and Wikipedia.

• The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968, starring Steven McQueen and Faye Dunaway, scenes filmed in Salem
• On Golden Pond, 1981, starring Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn and James Fonda, scenes filmed at Squam Lake in Holderness
• The Good Son, 1993, starring Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood, scenes filmed at Mirror Lake in Jackson
• Jumanji, 1995, starring Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst, scenes filmed in Keene
• The Skulls, 2000, starring Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker, scenes filmed at Dartmouth College in Hanover
• The Brown Bunny, 2003, starring Vincent Gallo and Chloë Sevigny, scenes filmed in Keene
• Live Free or Die, 2006, starring Aaron Stanford, Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel, shot in Claremont
• Sound of Metal, 2020, starring Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke, scenes filmed on New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway. Chris Stinson of Portsmouth served as line producer for the film.