State tax credit aiding Upstate New York film industry - Spectrum News

Since 2004, the New York State Film Production Tax Credit has helped grow film production jobs in Central New York by 55%. Recently, Gov. Hochul extended the film tax credit for three more years.

Though the program doesn't bring in much money from a tourism standpoint, it means people from the area that are interested in film don't need to automatically move out of state. Those jobs are here.

When you think of filming a movie, Los Angeles or California mostly comes to mind. For "American High," however, filming is in Syracuse.

“So of all the high schools in Upstate New York, this is the only one that has the freedom to make up how we want it," explained Heath Cottengim with American High. "It is also surrounded by a crew that has been working on shows that we’ve filmed before.”

Since 2017, American High has made over a dozen films in this former school building in Liverpool that's been turned into a film production company.

Heath Cottengim, the director of operations at Syracuse Studios, and Jeff Clark, the assistant prop master, both worked on Hulu’s new movie, “Crush,” an LGBTQ- high school romantic comedy.

Cottengim and Clark are both from upstate New York. Clark grew up in the Syracuse area and went to SUNY Oswego for film.

"Pretty much my assumption when I graduated college, is like I’m gonna have to move to a big city to work and film, and then it turns out I work at a production company that’s 15 minutes away from my house where I grew up, which is cool," said Clark.

Being able to produce films in Syracuse and other upstate New York cities, is largely because of the New York State Film Production Tax Credit. The tax credit offers an additional 10% credit towards labor costs and now accounts for 45% of all NY film productions.

"We do a lot of purchasing whenever we need food or buying from local restaurants and local vendors, whatever we need custom printing done," explained Clark. "We buy local as much as we can. That definitely helps with the tax credit."

Earlier in April, Governor Hochul passed a three-year extension of the tax credit through 2029.

"When the movie is in full swing we have 50 to 150 people working," said Cottengim.

Since it was introduced in 2004, nearly 50,000 film production jobs have been added each year for New Yorkers.

"We do have a very tightknit community of workers here and like a lot of people that work up here tend to come back for every job," Clark added.

When films wrap, with help from the film tax credit, it’s not a "goodbye" for the crew, but a “see you soon.”

The extended film tax credit also allows "American High" to provide production services, under the name "Syracuse Studios," to third-party films. They also run "The Academy at Syracuse Studios," which is a program that trains the next generation of skilled film crews in Central New York.

Other movies American High produced include "Big Time Adolescence," "I Love My Dad," and "Looks that Kill."

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