On a film set in 2007, Seth Rogan and Elizabeth Banks danced down a city street in the snow. Flanking the area were craft service people, grips, lighting professionals, sound engineers, and those guys that hold those snapping chalk boards and yell, "action!"
This could have been any set in Hollywood or New York. But somehow, a movie about broke, slacker twenty-somethings at the bottom of the barrel wouldn't quite fit in those somewhat sexier locations. In short, Zach and Miri Make A Porno is a film with a little dirt under its fingernails. It belongs in a city that does, too.
The star-studded comedy was set in Pittsburgh, using Pennsylvania labor and creating hundreds of local jobs--if only for the period of shooting. And while Pennsylvanians are happy to finally get a taste of Hollywood, perennial Jersey boy Kevin Smith would have most likely preferred to direct, as he has done so many times before, in his hometown.
So how did Hollywood wind up in Pittsburgh? And how do we get them to keep coming back?
In the fall of 2004, Pennsylvania began to offer tax exemptions to movie productions that spent a certain percentage of their budget in the Commonwealth. Signed into law by Gov. Ed Rendell, the sales tax exemption was a small nod to directors looking for a new place to shoot. Soon, as production dollars began to flow in, the tax program was expanded, and in 2007 the sales tax exemption was lifted in favor of a more expansive, $75-million tax credit program.
With this announcement came more major film and television productions--and studio development deals from Pacifica Ventures and Paramount to bring films, as well as film production, to the state of Pennsylvania.
A lot of the credit for fostering this burgeoning industry goes to the executive director of Pittsburgh's film office, Dawn Keezer. Her work with directors and film crews have helped take Pittsburgh from a post-industrial Midwestern city to a go-to film destination, hosting such films as Ellen Page's Smart People and the critically-acclaimed miniseries The Kill Point.
Some of the recent productions include: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Smart People, The Bridge to Nowhere, the Spike TV series The Kill Point, Adventureland, Homecoming, Trapped, Zack & Miri Make a Porno, The Road, She's Out of My League, Shelter, Hollywood and Wine, My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Shannon's Rainbow, In NorthWood, Sorority Row, Warrior, Three Rivers (pilot), Justified (pilot), Unstoppable, starring Danzel Washington (pictured), Love and Other Drugs and The Next Three Days.