“I think storytelling is the oldest profession.”
So Michelle Damis of St Helens, an actor, stuntman, writer and producer, explained to the Rotary of St Helens: “We need to be able to share a story.”
Damis is also the local president of the union for SAG-Aftra (the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The story to be told, Damis said, is that of Oregon as a potential leader in attracting tourism and filmmaking. The tourism and film industries bring in more than $2 million a year to Oregon, but the industry is targeting $1 billion a year, she said.
Georgia has worked hard to attract the film industry, which generates $5 billion a year, which Damis says is just money collected from filmmaking.
Damis told Rotary that Oregon has an advantage over the South, especially Louisiana and Georgia.
“In New Orleans,” she said, “it’s never cool at night. It rains a lot more than here.”
According to Damis, more producers and policymakers need to know that Oregon has a lot to offer, such as its topography, no sales tax, better climate than the South, and more summers than Georgia and Louisiana. Two hours of daylight.
However, Damis added that negative perceptions of Oregon remain due to the recent riots in Portland.
“At the heart of getting the work,” she told Rotary, “is the motivation of the film.”
Movie Awards is administered by Entertainment Partners, a state agency that provides tax credit financing for animation, commercials, documentaries, feature films, game shows, pilots, reality shows, scripted television and video games. Location production needs are ocean beaches, cities, deserts, forests, lakes, rivers, mountains, river areas, snow and suburbs. The reward amount is a rebate of 20% to 26.2%.
Damis said the Oregon Film Office and Tourism Oregon are state agencies that often collaborate on film tourism. That includes the development of the Oregon Movie Trail, the first of its kind in the U.S., and now has nearly 40 signs across the state directing people to Oregon attractions, she said. These agencies also offer local tourism offices and apps like SetJetters to promote the link between film/TV and destination tourism.
She said Columbia County’s approach to attracting filmmakers is to provide infrastructure and a home base for projects, provide incentive funding, and aggressively reach out to projects that align with events like Halloween Town to infuse them with new projects, thereby attracting tourists. She also urged speeding up approval procedure.
Damis made a presentation to the Rotary Club on September 21 at the Country Inn in Warren.
