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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > April > 26 > Entry
Kevin Riley: Reds movie project could be start of something big
The plan to make a movie in southwest Ohio about a fictional Cincinnati Reds player is picking up supporters. The Reds have gotten behind the idea, and the project could be part of larger efforts to bring more movie makers to Ohio.
Phillip J. Castellini, chief operating officer of the Reds, said this week he believes making “Last at Bat” would be a “great thing for the Reds” and offered to make the team’s stadium available to the film’s producers. Initially the Reds had reacted cautiously to the project, which is the brainchild of Dayton native Mark Donahue.
Castellini also said he will help Donahue navigate agreements that might be required by Major League Baseball and other teams to make the movie.
Donahue is a 1971 Wright State graduate who became a successful real-estate developer in Florida. His hobby is writing fiction.
One of his works, “Last at Bat,” is a novel about the rise and fall of a star Cincinnati Reds player, and much of the story occurs in this region. A friend of a friend got the story into the hands of Hollywood producer and director Demian Lichtenstein.
Donahue said Lichtenstein has been to the area to scout locations to shoot the movie and liked what he saw.
Naturally, support for the idea is strong in Dayton, with the Dayton Dragons and other organizations offering help.
Donahue’s push has coincided with efforts by FilmDayton, a group formed as part of the region’s “Creative Class” initiative. These local film fans want to grow a regional film industry.
As part of their efforts, they’ve organized a three-day film festival that will be held next month, and they were also instrumental in bringing the recent premiere of HBO’s “They Killed Sister Dorothy” to Dayton. That acclaimed documentary is about Sister Dorothy Stang, a Daytonian who was murdered for her work helping Brazil’s poor and preserving the rainforests there.
These and other activities have highlighted opportunities to create a local film industry (a push, incidentally, that’s happening in states and cities across the country).
Lichtenstein says Dayton has some great “underutilized assets” that Hollywood types need. He gets no disagreement from people in FilmDayton and at Wright State University’s film school, many of whom have been saying this for years.
Lichtenstein, for example, points to Dayton’s diverse architecture, and he notes that, within a short driving distance, a director can shoot a suburban, farm or small-town scene. In Hollywood, studios have to spend enormous sums to build a set to look like Lebanon.
Of Dayton, Lichtenstein said: “What I saw was this well-put-together city and underutilized assets for film-making.” He cited WSU’s film school as a source of young technical talent. He also said that movie sets require skilled labor, such as electricians who might have worked in an automotive assembly plant.
But there are hurdles.
Compared with other states, Ohio lags in offering tax incentives for filmmakers. And everyone involved in this effort emphasizes that films are about making money. After our recent front-page story about Donahue, among the dozens of calls he received was one from a representative of Michigan. That state wants him to make “Last at Bat” there; it offers huge financial incentives to cover production costs.
Donahue and Lichtenstein would both like to make the movie here, but the numbers have to work.
After initially being reluctant, Gov. Ted Strickland supports putting some tax breaks for filmmakers in the pending budget bill. Speaking here Thursday, he said, “Do I believe Ohio should get in the ball game and have a rational approach (to wooing filmmakers) that will not be too threatening to our budget situation? Yes. … I think that’s what we’re going to do.”
Ohio’ doesn’t have to throw money at the film industry to be competitive. It just has to make sure filmmakers don’t have to pay a huge premium to do their work here. The goal should be to build a sustainable industry, rather than spend a lot of money attracting just a few projects in the short term.
(Strickland was emphatic that he would veto any so-called transferable tax credits, and he wants a limit on the total spending for breaks to filmmakers that can be given each year.)
If the state and the right people show a little interest — backed by real money — “Last at Bat” could help spur the development of a new industry.
As Lichtenstein said, he wants to make “Last at Bat” because “America needs a great story.” So does Ohio.
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