While St. Louis Mayor Frances Slay's office couldn't send a representative to our Townhall "State of the Industry" meeting last March, they did schedule a private meeting for me with the mayor.
 
The meeting started off well.  The mayor knew my cousin Brad, who was former Governor  Mel Carnahan's Chief of Staff. So, that gave us a bit of a personal connection.
 
I had three broad areas I wanted to explore with the mayor, and his Chief of Staff, Jeff Rainford, who was also at the meeting:
 
-- Reinstatement of the St. Louis Film Commission.
 
-- Other steps the city can take to support the production industry, both by enticing more production to come here and by discouraging high-end commercial production from leaving.
 
-- Mayor Slay's support for strong film tax incentives at the state level.
 

 

A New St. Louis Film Commission?

 
As MO Film Commissioner, Jerry Jones, pointed out in our March meeting, St. Louis and Kansas City are the two biggest cities in the country without a film commission.  A local film commission could help both local filmmakers and those who come here from out-of-town.
 
The problem is that there are many special interest groups competing for funding and support from the city.  The previous St. Louis Film Commission was funded by four entities:  The City of St. Louis, RCGA, St. Louis Convention  & Visitors Commission, and St. Louis County.
 
Mr. Rainford suggested looking at the St. Louis Sports Commission as a model.  It's privately funded through corporate partnerships; memberships; revenue from events and fundraisers; and civic grants.  Its purpose is to bring amateur sports to the region; the job of a film commission is to bring film production.  So, he said, there might be ways that the local film industry can adapt the Sports Commission's approach -- and get public funding after significant private funding and support is already in place.
 

How the City Can Support the Film Industry
 
I gave Mayor Slay and Mr. Rainford copies of an article on the Cleveland Film Commission, which is aggressively courting film producers to shoot in that city.  You can see a copy of the article here: http://www.clevelandfilm.com/incentives.html.  As you can see, Cleveland provides free transportation and lodging for filmmakers for development and scouting, free use of its convention center to film productions, hotel tax breaks, and a host of other juicy enticements.
 
Obviously, Cleveland is doing a lot.  Mr. Rainford had some questions about how they were funded, which I'm planning to research for him.
 
Perhaps it would be best for St. Louis to start slow and build up to what Cleveland is doing.  The city has lots of empty office space.  Could this be used to provide a free production office for film productions?  Richmond, Virginia does this -- and provides a small soundstage, as well.  Philadelphia has an old Navy pier that's been transformed into a municipal soundstage -- and available to film productions on a first-come, first-served basis.  Some cities give hotel tax breaks, and other goodies, to film productions.  St. Louis is generally very accomodating to filmmakers, but there's even more that could be done, even without having a local film commission.
 
We briefly discussed another issue -- and that's runaway commercial production.  The large companies that are headquartered in St. Louis -- and their local advertising agencies -- are notorious for going to LA to make commercials.  They could make the commercials just as easily here, but the agency bigwigs apparently like the perk of  having a free trip to glamorous tinseltown.
 
The new film tax credit, which can be applied to commercials, might provide some inducement for a few of them to stay here.  But there's certainly more that could be done to discourage local companies and ad agencies from leaving town for their commercial production. (If you have any ideas along these lines, please let me know).
 

Will the Mayor Support a Strong State Film Tax Incentive?
 
We didn't have to opportunity to talk about it much, but he said that he would.
 
Certainly,  St. Louis would benefit hugely from a robust state film tax incentive.  In fact, if it's strong enough, we could see a major LA studio build a feature film soundstage here.  It's happened in Louisiana, New Mexico, Connecticut, and other states.  If Missouri is willing to show Hollywood that we support the film industry, Hollywood will start pouring money into the state.
 
While I received no promises from Mayor Slay, I did get the impression that if we (meaning the film industry and its supporters in St. Louis) get the ball rolling, the city will get on board.  Most important, we need to get some "influentials" involved -- civic leaders (from either the private or the public sector) who will lobby aggressively for the film industry's agenda.
 
What's important is that a dialogue with the city has begun.  We need to keep pushing ahead.  The city will NOT hand the film industry anything on a silver platter. We have to promote our agenda with them at every opportunity, to whomever will listen. 
 
There are hundreds of special interest groups vying for attention from the city and state.  In politics, as in much of life, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.  The St. Louis production industry -- especially through organizations like MCA-I, MOMMA, Cinema St. Louis, IATSE, SAG, AFTRA, AEA -- needs to push harder.  We need to get help from other entities -- like the RCGA and the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission.  These organizations need to act together to push for our common goals. 
 

If you have influential contacts  in city or county government -- friends, relatives, business associates, friends of friends -- it's time to put those contacts to work.   If the film industry is to grow in St. Louis, we need to start building coalitions and developing allies and making sure our voice is heard.