“I think storytelling is the oldest profession.”
So said Michelle Damis of St. Helens, who is an actor, stunt person, writer, and producer, to the St. Helens Rotary Club, explaining, “We need to be able to share a story.”
Damis is also union local president of SAG-Aftra (Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) for Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The story to be told, said Damis, is that of Oregon as a potential leader in attracting tourism and moviemaking. The tourism and film industry, she said, brings over $200 million a year to Oregon, but the industry goal is $1 billion annually.
One state, Georgia, has embraced efforts to attract the film industry creating $5 billion a year in revenues, that Damis said is just money collected from filmmaking.
Damis told the Rotary that Oregon has advantages over the South, especially Louisiana and Georgia.
“In New Orleans,” she said, “it never cools down at night. It rains far more there than here.”
More producers and decision-makers need to know that Oregon has much to offer, such as its terrain, no sales tax, a better climate than the South, and two more hours of daylight in summer than Georgia and Louisiana, according to Damis.
However, Damis added that negative views of Oregon remain because of the recent Portland riots.
“The heart of getting productions” she told the Rotary, “is the film incentive.”
The film incentive is administered by Oregon Film Office, a state agency that offers tax credit financing for animation, commercials, documentaries, feature films, game shows, pilots, reality television, scripted television, and video games. Location production needs are ocean beaches, cities, deserts, forests, lakes, rivers, mountains, river areas, snow, and suburbs. Incentives amount to rebates from 20% to 26.2%.
Damis said that the Oregon Film Office and Travel Oregon are state agencies that regularly work together on film tourism. This, she says, includes the development of the Oregon Film Trail, which is the first of its kind in the United States and now has nearly 40 signs statewide, directing people to Oregon attractions. The agencies also provide local tourism offices and apps like SetJetters to publicize the connection between films/television and destination tourism.
Ways for Columbia County to attract filmmaking production, she said, are to provide infrastructure and basecamps for projects, provide incentive dollars, and be proactive in reaching out to projects that would align with such events as Halloweentown to infuse them with new projects and therefore visitors. She also urges fast permitting processes.
Damis made her presentation to the Rotary Sept. 21 at the Country Inn in Warren.
