Film Office Research Paper

Vitali Vasilevich

With this short but nonetheless exceedingly interesting and informative class, I have just scratched the surface of what it takes to make a film. I have also learned why certain production companies choose the cities that they do. In this paper, I will bring to attention what goes into the consideration of the location where a film is made.

The film office I chose to examine is the Pittsburgh Film Office located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of the most interesting reasons films are chosen to shoot there is the city’s location. Pittsburgh sits between three rivers: the Ohio River, Allegheny River, and the Monongahela River. Pittsburgh offers a variety of features since it used a steel town, ranging from warehouses, ports,

offices, and other locations suited for film settings. Pittsburgh also offers a wide range of urban and suburban locations that can be filmed to suite any the requirements of any film production (CNN, Pittsburgh reinvents itself...).
The Pittsburgh Film office offers a special incentive for films to be shot in its city.

First, the offer of a 25% tax break if 60% of the film budget is spent in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a major appeal. Shooting in Pittsburgh offers a cheap and high quality labor force ranging from carpenters, to caterers, to supplies, and human resources. The film office provides additional breaks on living expenses if the space is used for over a period of thirty days. These breaks offer filmmakers the opportunity to use the money saved on additions to the film, cast, crew, effects, and other film related expenses (Inside the Pittsburgh Film

Office).
Some of the films that came out of the Pittsburgh Film Office include Robocop, The Dark Night Rises, Striking Distance, I am Number Four, and Brother 2. Robocop, directed by Paul Verhoeven in 1987, used many of the city’s urban as well as steel mill settings in downtown Pittsburgh to complete the shooting of the film. Much of the film’s urban settings take place on the streets and in many office spaces that Pittsburgh had to offer at the time.
Striking Distance directed by Rowdy Herrington in 1992 used the riverfronts of Pittsburgh as well as bridges and local town settings in the filming of this movie. Pittsburgh had a lot to offer for the filming of this movie. The waterfront, warehouses, bars, parks, and more which were shown in the movie. The film had a great plot which offered the use of different locations for the movie. We see bridges, docks, as well as the cabin where Tom Hardy, the hero of the movie, finds his “dead” cousin who allegedly committed suicide in the beginning of the film by jumping off a bridge.
In 2000, the Russian movie Brother 2 directed by Alexsei Balabanov came out. The international film crew took the Pittsburgh location to film most of the movie since the hero goes to rescue his brother, who, at the time, is playing hockey for the Penguins. The film used the high rise buildings, a hockey rink, city streets, and construction sites. The international film crew chose to use Pittsburgh for the tax credit as well as the special arrangements with the Penguins to use their rink and to feature some of the players in the film. Personally, I come from a Russian background and have watched this movie in the native language as well as the English translation. Although I think that based on the story of this movie, this could have been filmed in any city without changing the story or plot of the film. However I must add that Pittsburgh did offer many locations that stand abandoned in the suburban parts of the city which played an important role in the film and offered unique scenery to the audience in Russia who have never been to the United States.
In 2010, the film I am Number Four was shot in Pittsburgh, directed by Eagle Eye Helmer DJ Caruso and executive producer Steven Spielberg. This film used over twenty locations in the metropolitan areas of Pittsburgh. DreamWorks primarily chose the Pittsburgh location because of the Pennsylvania Film Production Tax Credit and some of the settings that were found in the city to help shoot the film, such as a school that was primarily one floor, had a stadium, and was near a wooded area. The film had a fictional city called “Paradise, Ohio” but the city was filmed in Vandergrift Pennsylvania, a small town about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh.
The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan in 2012, chose Pittsburgh as a setting for his film’s imaginary city “Gotham”.

The city offered a wide selection of scenic locations like old abandoned warehouses, bridges, watermarks, and city streets. Pittsburgh only served as part of the setting that was needed for the filming. Other cities such as Los Angeles, Newark, New York, Glasgow, London, and many others around the world were used in the making of this film. Some of the shots made in the film were taken from the Mellon Institute and Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University located in Pittsburgh. The Dark Knight Rises had one of the largest box office sales, making $1 billion in ticket sales globally(The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Box Office Mojo). I think that since most of the city was shot in the night setting, Pittsburgh served as a great location offering a gothic setting as well as bringing just enough light to film the

movie.
The Pittsburgh Film Office was used to film over 120 motion pictures and television productions since 1990. Many film makers choose the Pittsburgh location for many features like tax breaks, great locations that offer a large variety of landscapes, as well as the fee-free locations (locations that the film-makers do not need to pay for). The only thing filmmakers pay for in these fee-free locations is the demolition or building of structures. Another key reason filmmakers choose this city is for the use of the labor force and the skill level of the working unions. In recent years, Pittsburgh’s film industry has been a center of rapidly increasing success as more and more filmmakers choose to use this city for their film production.

Work Cited

"Pittsburgh Film Office." Pittsburgh Film Office. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

"Inside the Pittsburgh Film Office." Inside the Pittsburgh Film Office. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

PITTSBURGH (CNNMoney) -- Once Known for Its Steel Mills. "Pittsburgh Reinvents Itself as the New Hollywood for Film."CNNMoney. Cable News Network. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

"The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Box Office Mojo." The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Box Office Mojo. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.