The Birmingham Connection
As commissioner of District 2, Smoot has oversight of community and economic development affairs for the county, as well as roads and transportation. The Michigan native compares an economy with a limited base for expansion to a one-trick pony.

“When it comes to economic development, I don't believe we should put all of our eggs in one economic basket. I remember well when the automotive plants started to shut down in Flint, Mich., where I was raised and where my father and his friends worked,” Smoot recalls. ”It was devastating, and there was no back-up plan for economic development.”

The commissioner says she supports investing in any venture that keeps the county on the cutting edge economically.

“I want to always be one step ahead of the potential for the loss of jobs and quality of life,” Smoot says. “Lots of industries make money. We need to target more than automotive when it comes to economic development. That's why I am looking at bio-tech, tourism, transportation and, yes, the film industry.”

Birmingham City Councilman Bert Miller is also willing to roll out the red carpet for Hollywood. Through his Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Committee, Miller has named a seven-member board to revive the Birmingham Film Commission. A board that has long lain dormant, Miller believes bringing it back to life will translate into cold, hard cash for the city’s tax base.

“I’m tired of people going to Atlanta to seek out entertainment, to go to auditions,” Miller says. “We want filmmakers to come to Birmingham to use our hotels, use our rental cars, use our restaurants.” Miller adds that his and Smoot’s efforts will dovetail, benefiting not only the city and region, but also the whole state.

“It’s just like an octopus, because with all those arms, everybody’s going to have to work together. This is not about politics. We have to put forth the effort,” Miller says.

Trickle-down Economics
Recruiters in Southern states realize the financial potential of marketing their states to the film industry. Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina and Texas are throwing out big lures to catch the attention of film location crews.

Louisiana, in particular, seems to be leading the pack, aggressively lobbying its legislature for the necessary bait. Hefty legislative incentives stamp government approval on the union of local private enterprise and the movie industry.

Filmmakers are offered a labor tax credit (10 percent of the total aggregate payroll) for employing native Louisianans, while corporate sponsors receive a 10 percent state income tax credit for financially anchoring film projects. If investors sink more than a million dollars into a single project, the credit is raised to 15 percent. Other perks beckoning Hollywood to the bayou include a sales tax exemption and special statewide bulk-rate deals for lodging, a costly element in the filmmaking equation.

Big Fish photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Reeling In the Big Fish
Alabama recruiters have done their part to attract Hollywood to the land of Dixie. Recent evidence of their success is last month’s release of Big Fish. Directed by Tim Burton, Big Fish is based on the novel of the same name by Alabama native Daniel Wallace. Featuring such high-wattage stars as Jessica Lange, Danny Devito and Albert Finney, Big Fish was filmed last year in the Montgomery area, leaving behind a hefty wad of money in the local economy.

That coup came under the leadership of Brian Kurlander. Now living and working in Birmingham, Kurlander was serving as director of the Alabama Film Office (AFO) in Montgomery when he first got wind that Tim Burton was shopping for film locations.

“I’d had it with hearing about movies about Alabama that were filmed in other states,” Kurlanders says, listing Fried Green Tomatoes, Sweet Home Alabama and the aforementioned Forrest Gump as examples.

Kurlander ordered his staff to go home, watch at least two Tim Burton movies and come back the next day with ideas on how to land Big Fish. His team did not disappoint, snagging the scouting crew with what he calls an “intensive” effort.

There’s gold, it turns out, not only in the hills of California, but also in the landscapes of the South. “At every location, they would jump out and put up their camera hands. They would say ‘this is the most picturesque thing I have ever seen in my life’,” Kurlander recalls.

Brian Kurlander addresses film-lovers at Highland Coffee Company.

Having lodging and sales tax abatements in place were part of the package that filmmakers for Big Fish bought into, Kurlander insists. Hunter agrees, but insists that more are needed. “Awareness by a whole lot of people is certainly a good start, but we have to have a couple of governmental officials to make it happen, because until that happens, you’ve got nothing but talk,” Hunter says.

The AFO also scored in 2002 with a made-for-television movie about Civil Rights pioneer Rosa Parks. The movie was filmed in Montgomery – where Parks staged her famous “sit-in” on a city bus – and starred actress Angela Bassett and Dexter King as his late father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

AFO officials are currently chasing projects of varying scales for the state, some in Birmingham. Despite rumors to the contrary, employees insist budget cuts won’t force its doors closed. However, a director still has not been named since Kurlander’s departure last year, and the AFO website button marked “governor’s greetings” remains “under construction.” Hunter says whether the Montgomery office closes or not, Birmingham has the resources necessary to serve as the state’s hub for bringing Hollywood dollars to Alabama.

“There’s never been more momentum about the film business. It doesn’t mean that the film business is active and healthy right now; it means that a lot of people think it’s a groovy damned business to be involved in. They just haven’t quite grasped how to do that,” Hunter says. “At least we’ve started the conversation and the conversation is pretty healthy.”

Previous Page