New opportunities beckon Maine filmmakers
photo/Amber Waterman/Sun Journal
Laurie Notch, president of Wasted Minds Media Group, says providing infrastructure for Maine's growing filmmaking community was the motivation for opening The Maine Studios in Portland
It’s only been four weeks since the doors opened at The Maine Studios, the Portland studio space proponents hope will spur the growth of Maine’s burgeoning film industry, but its organizers have already rented 11 of 12 available offices to local companies and are mulling expansion options. “We’re trying to be a hub for the creative community, especially with the entertainment and visual and audio media,” says Laurie Notch, president of Wasted Minds Media Group, which spearheaded the project. “We’re trying to create the proper infrastructure that has been lacking in Maine.”
On top of the rush for office space, the studio has fielded roughly 50 phone calls from production companies (most from California) interested in renting studio space for film and commercial productions, according to John Seymore, acting executive of the studio and COO of Portland-based Wasted Minds Media Group. Most of those calls, he says, are coming from people who have some sort of connection to Maine, whether they grow up here or vacation here. “Who knew, right? You always hear of the Patrick Dempseys and Liv Tylers, but you never hear of the little people behind the scenes who’ve been working in LA for all these years,” he says. “It’s been very encouraging.”
The Maine Studios opened with fanfare Aug. 25. The grand opening attracted nearly 200 people who watched Gov. John Baldacci cut the ceremonial 16mm film-cum-ribbon to mark the event. The studios consist of 43,000 square feet of production and office space spread over three warehouses. The property is owned by Nappi Distributors, who for now, provides the space free of charge to The Maine Studios. Besides providing production space and housing film companies, audio engineers, photographers and set constructors, the studios will also be the home to the nonprofit Maine Film Co-Op, which was formally created last week and will support, financially and otherwise, Maine’s film industry.
According to a 2008 report commissioned by the Maine Film Office, the visual media industry in Maine had an economic impact in 2005 (the most recent data available) of $630 million, including direct, indirect and induced spending, and employed 2,113 people. The report also found that for each $1 million spent in Maine by out-of-state production companies, about $150,000 in state and local government revenues are generated.
Notch says the issue is attracting investors to spend that money. The state is lacking two things, she says: incentives and infrastructure. The hope is The Maine Studios and the Maine Film Co-Op will solve the latter, offering everything a production company from California would need to shepherd a project from pre- to post-production. “Build it and they will come — that’s really what we’re doing,” she says. “It’s the ‘Field of Dreams’.”
The irony is that The Maine Studios was born from unwelcome news for the Maine film industry. Earlier this year, a bill in the Legislature that would have increased tax incentives for filmmakers to make their movies in Maine was tabled. Notch says she had four projects lined up with financial backers in the wings that fell through as a result. “We lost $20 million in one day,” she says, adding that the projects were moved to Connecticut, Michigan and Florida.
In her role as president of Wasted Minds Media Group, which she founded in June 2008, Notch says she talks to financiers from Hollywood and New York all the time. Having something like The Maine Studios will be a great card to play in those talks. “We’re not out in the Wild West anymore — it’s bricks and mortar now,” she says. “This is real. We’re not just pulling it out of our behinds. You really should invest in us.”
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