Just days after announcing a major initiative to lure businesses to New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie is seeking to add NJ to the half dozen states that offer no incentives to the film and movie industry – an industry which annually delivers hundreds of millions of dollars to small businesses in NJ while creating thousands of jobs.
Oakland, Franklin Lakes, and Wyckoff have all played host to film crews in the past. Oakland, home to the late Sidney Kingsley who organized the first Film Commission for the state, has been the location for a variety of feature films. Franklin Lakes has also been captured in a an assortment of feature films including School of Rock and Lean on Me.
Franklin Lakes & Oakland in the past, and the present, have played host to The New Jersey Housewives. The film Lyme Life released last year was filmed in Oakland and Franklin Lakes, as was the documentary on Les Paul. Oakland was also the location for lesser known films such as the Fight the Panda Syndicate and The Altruist. Short films shot in Oakland include Devil Tree, Down That Road and Back, The Invisible Dog, Children in the Woods. Franklin Lakes was also used as the backdrop for the film Fortunes, as well as a short film entitled Blindfold.
Lyme Life Filmed in Oakland & Franklin Lakes
Wyckoff prefers a quiet neighborhood to the occasional disruption that a film crew can cause, and so the township purposely discourages it. IMDB.com lists Bloodhounds, a TV movie, and a short film entitled Escape from the Night as having been filmed in Wyckoff.
Governor Chris Christie, continuing a bipartisan tradition of making New Jersey unfriendly to business, is planning to trash a tax credit that has helped lure numerous productions to New Jersey. The credit, implemented in 2006, is credited with helping to increase the number of industry jobs by %15.
The MPAA estimates about 7,000 jobs were related to production in New Jersey in 2008 alone, an increase of 1,000 jobs from 2006. Businesses in New Jersey earned approximately $507 million from production companies, compared to $387 million in 2007. The numbers are impressive for a state with one of the highest costs of living and unemployment at over 10%.
Sopranos Filmed in Oakland, NJ
As described on the MPAA.com website, New Jersey offers:”Production Incentive: New Jersey’s production incentives include a 20 percent transferable tax credit. This tax credit is available to producers who spend 60 percent of their budgets in New Jersey, excluding post-production costs. The credit is both saleable and transferable, and it may be carried over to subsequent tax years. There is a corresponding credit for digital media productions and both programs are capped annually.”
The film & movie industry is dominated by contract and freelance workers with skills in acting, writing, filming, editing, as well as innumerable less glamorous positions required behind the scenes. The towns of Oakland, Franklin Lakes and Wyckoff all have residents and natives deeply involved in various production roles, and like the overwhelming number of industry members, they work on a contract basis.
School of Rock filmed in Franklin Lakes
The press release provided by the governor’s office states that,”The Film/Digital Media Tax Credit…did not create full-time, permanent jobs..” While understandable that government bureaucrats would be unfamiliar with the realities of private enterprise and independent contractors, the press release also failed to address the tangential impact of film crews bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to small businesses.
New Jersey is home to Thomas Edison, inventor of the movies, but as of July 1st it may become the 7th state in the nation not to offer some type of tax credit to film production companies – leaving the film industry only 43 other states, or Canada, to stand in for New Jersey.
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