by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
The golden age of the silver screen has passed, but a growing number of people is determined to steer the city back to that future.
And when those movie-makers return, with ready cash for needed goods, small businesses need to make sure they’re in a position to profit, said Todd Roobin, chief of the Jacksonville Film & Television Office.
“Why do we market this industry?” Roobin asked at a meeting last week at the Beaver Street Enterprise Center. “Because the economic impact is quite significant.
“The state of Florida did an assessment and there was about a $3.9 billion impact in the state for 2002.
“We want to have a slice of that economic impact.”
Several entrepreneurs whose businesses are taking shape at Beaver Street filled out forms so that they may be included in the film office’s online website production guide. The guide is a compilation of practically every local speciality and service that a movie company may need when it moves out of its own back yard.
Sections include production companies, stages/attractions/
location assistance, crew technicians,equipment and supplies, post production and support services.
Copies of the guide are available for studios considering filming here. They’re also available to local businesses that want to get involved in upcoming projects.
The film office hotline (630-7247) is available for information about new projects.
There are more than 3,500 film-related businesses in Florida and more than 39,000 people who work full time in the industry. The average in-state salary is $51,000 a year for all those workers whose names fill the credit rolls at the ends of movies.
Roobin’s job is to market this area to filmmakers wherever they may be found — Los Angeles, New York, Chicago. He and his staff do it by distributing a promotional CD that includes comments by well-known producers and directors, keeping the website updated, advertising in specific trade publications and mailing a regular newsletter.
“Over the years, we’ve established an exceptional relationship and rapport with the folks who are the decision-makers in the industry,” he said.
Once film crews are here, his office becomes a liaison among government officials, production companies and the community — cutting through red tape, keeping minor twinges from becoming major pains.
Several motion pictures have already been recruited for this area since Roobin became chief of the Film & Television Office. They include “Sunshine State,” “The Devil’s Advocate,” “G.I. Jane,” “Basic” and “The Manchurian Candidate,” due out the end of this month.
He has also promoted the area for numerous network television movies and commercials.
Roobin used examples from the film “Basic,” starring Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, to show the effect movies have on communities.
Among the small businesses that benefited during the filming at Cecil Commerce Center were a janitorial service ($15,000), security ($11,300), building materials ($121,000), two paint companies (a total of $20,000), tools that were bought or rented (almost $18,000), office supplies (nearly $14,000) and military apparel ($60,000).
“There’s no business like show business,” Roobin said. “And there’s no question small businesses are impacted.”
Beginning in 1907, more than 2,000 silent films were produced here, said Roobin.
The mayor, city council and chamber of commerce “courted this industry, promoting Jacksonville to be THE location for silent films,” he said. “Filmmakers came down and set up 30 studios during the winter months.”
Seasonal visitors brought jobs and welcome cash to North Florida.
Local interest continued into the 1980s, when Mayor Jake Godbold formed the City’s film commission, the second one established in the state.
Then the tide went out.
Productions wound up in states that were offering incentives to the studios. Films that would have been ideal for Florida were being shot in places such as New Mexico, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia.
The Florida Legislature responded last year when it approved $2.45 million for its own incentive package. Studios that qualify will get 15 percent refunds on what they spend on Florida people and products.
State Rep. Don Davis was the person in Tallahassee who pushed for those incentives.
“We have the best sites; we can accommodate anybody,” Davis said at the Beaver Street meeting. “We’ve got better access to equipment; we’ve got better sound stages.”
Many of the 39,000 Floridians who work in the film business have been unemployed during the past two to four years, he said.
“That’s costing the state a lot of money,” said Davis. “When we put these people back to work, we take them off the unemployment rolls. So, in addition to the economic impact, we’re saving the state a lot of money.”
The numbers Davis has seen suggest that, for every dollar in incentives, the film industry returns $60 to the locales.
“I’m going to take that data back with me to the next session of the Legislature and tell my colleagues we need to put a little more money into this pot,” he said.