Nikki Finke reported on Tuesday that Massachusetts' filmmaking tax breaks produced only $0.15 in revenue for every $1.00 the program paid out, and that only 18 percent of the wages generated from the tax breaks went to local workers. That's bad news for a state facing a big deficit even accounting for stimulus money from the federal government. But I think it depresses me for a more complicated reason: it's really unfortunate that states and localities have to use tax breaks to get filmmakers to consider making movies in cities other than New York and Los Angeles in the first place. But if they end those programs because they're not financially viable, American-made movies could end up looking even more homogenous than they do now.
I was sitting on a plane in early June that was playing He's Just Not That Into You as the in-flight entertainment, and I found myself glancing up at the screen occasionally because the movie just looked different. The color palatte was brighter than movies set in New York, lots of light blues and warm bricks, and the townhouses looked more modest, and more real, than movies set in Los Angeles typically do. The movie isn't ever one I would have watched for fun, but the different locale really caught my eye, something the filmmakers apparently intended.
New York and Los Angeles are aspirational cities, for better or for worse, and I can understand why filmmakers set movies there. But shooting there over and over again makes it hard to find something visually original in them--it's literally a poverty of vision. I'm always happy when people shoot in Washington, D.C., or Boston, not simply because it's a good reminder that other people live there, but because the movies end up with their own visual style, even if they're indifferently shot. The main drag in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of D.C. looks great set against a clear blue sky in State of Play (look for the shot at 0:52). Ditto with the Fenway Park scenes in Fever Pitch. That's obviously a limited sampling, and there are a lot of other parts of the country to shoot in. But it's a start. And a break on the eyes.