It’s not every day that Fairfield county residents get to see Leonardo DiCaprio running down the street.
“It was a really hot day, and 500 people were there watching it,” said Fairfield resident Carrie MacAdams.
MacAdams, like many other Connecticut residents, are becoming accustomed to catching glimpses of the Hollywood elite since the state started giving film productions a 30 percent tax incentive for filming starting this past July.
DiCaprio was in town to film “Revolutionary Road,” teaming up with Kate Winslet for the story of the struggles of a 1950s family living in Connecticut.
In the last year and half, 26 films have been created in Connecticut. The “Constitution State” is quickly becoming a Hollywood hot spot with many people dubbing it “Hollywood East.” The new movie boom has brought stars including Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Eva Mendes to Connecticut.
The state’s push for filming is not out of the norm, with other states such New Mexico also raising the tax incentive to 30 percent.
Speaker of the House in Connecticut James A. Amann told the Connecticut Post, “We shook up the industry by offering 30 [percent] for us because New York had them, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vancouver.”
With once-big filming state Louisiana – which offered a 25 percent tax incentive – out of the picture since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, other states have been quickly stepping up to take over.
The title of “Hollywood East” was once given to North Carolina, but with a lack of incentives to film in the state, North Carolina is quickly slipping off the filming radar.
Connecticut is a prime spot for filming partly because of its close proximity to New York City, making it an easy commute for actors and crew.
The relationship between filming and the state is symbiotic; the production companies save money while the films bring in millions of dollars to the state’s economy. Films in Connecticut have brought in $400 million in the past year and a half.
This money not only supports the local filmmakers but also hotels, restaurants and tourism.
Many residents said they are happy to have to have the filming.
“I think the best thing [is] it helps the economy,” said MacAdams. It also doesn’t hurt that residents can actually meet big stars like America Ferrera, who filmed “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” in Bridgeport this summer.
“I met America Ferrera; she was just walking, so I stopped her,” MacAdams said. “They don’t want to talk much. I just talked to her for a second and took a picture. She seemed pretty nice.”
Fairfield University has not been left out of the celebrity action. The two-hour television special, “Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom’s For One More Day,” was filmed on campus during the summer. The film stars Michael Imperioli, from “The Sopranos,” and tells the story of a suicidal, former baseball player who is granted one more day with his deceased mother, played by Ellen Burstyn from “The Exorcist.”
Assistant Vice President for Public Relations Martha Milcarek told The Mirror, “We’re delighted to have played host to this production company for the made-for-TV film.
“There is a state-wide initiative by Governor Jodi Rell to bring such film production to the state for economic development purposes, and we are pleased to help support this initiative.”
If the tax incentives don’t keep the productions coming into the state, Connecticut is working extra hard to establish a panel of college professors, film executives, lawmakers and trades people to make sure that outside production projects keep coming in and enough existing filmmakers remain in the state.
Having a solid base of skilled film workers saves production companies from bringing people in while making the state even more attractive for production.
Kevin Segalla, the founder of the Connecticut Film Center, told The New York Times, “We saw an opportunity to grow a new industry in the state, and we jumped on it.”
With many new films slated to be shot in Connecticut in the next year, there seems to be no stopping the movie boom.
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