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Local production company American High has remained afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a project with Hulu and safety assistance from Visit Syracuse.

The pandemic has upended the film industry, with production hiatuses and postponed theatrical releases, but Liverpool film company American High has continued to produce films. Movie theaters have also been closed statewide since March 16.

Eric Vinal, vice president of film, TV and entertainment for Visit Syracuse, said movie theaters such as Regal Cinemas and AMC are deciding for themselves whether reopening would be worth it for them, as streaming services have increased what they offer in terms of film viewing. The savings are significant for families when comparing the cost of a streaming service and film package versus paying $15 to $20 per ticket per person, Vinal said.

Despite the current theater closures, business for drive-in theaters has ramped up, due to the ability to better maintain social distance protocols, Vinal said. American High’s “The Binge” premiered at the New York State Fairgrounds as a drive-in viewing, which Vinal estimates 800 cars attended.

“People just wanted to get back to see a movie in kind of a group setting, and this was the safest manner possible,” Vinal said.

Richard Breyer, a Syracuse University professor of television, radio and film, said the cost of movie production is much cheaper in Syracuse, adding that SU’s base of film professionals have helped the city become a viable place for production to grow.

Student filmmakers and recent graduates, though, have faced financial difficulties with the shutdown of production.

“It was sometimes tough to make things work just month to month. I had to get a little (creative),” American High producer’s assistant Matt Sacca said. “When a world of possibilities after graduation is at your fingertips, the last thing you’d want is to feel stifled, and that’s what COVID was like.”

Since film production decelerated with the pandemic, Sacca said American High pivoted to mask and face shield production and donated the personal protective equipment to first responders. The production company helped create over 25,000 face shields and masks, said Will Phelps, co-founder of American High.

American High’s “The Binge” premiered at the New York State Fairgrounds as a drive-in viewing. Around 800 cars attended. Daily Orange File Photo

To keep movie production workers safe, Visit Syracuse is working in collaboration with air purification company Intellipure to provide cleaner air in qualified movie production facilities. The organization is also coordinating with less traditional venues to act as production facilities, such as The Oncenter, the New York State Fairgrounds and Redhouse Arts Center, as opposed to solely the Greater Syracuse Soundstage, Vinal said.

Movie viewing is now evolving to be on the “small screen,” Phelps said. This is largely due to widespread access to smartphones and the popularity of streaming websites such as Netflix and Hulu.

Breyer said the movie theater industry was not doing as well as it had been in previous generations before the pandemic, especially in less populated areas such as central New York. The economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the sole eliminator of traditional movie theaters but have definitely accelerated their natural decline, he said.

“Culturally, (movie theaters) are just not the center of things as they were in the previous generation,” Breyer said. “I don’t think that in most communities, the multiplex and the downtown theater is going to survive.”

Breyer said that though the film industry has always been competitive, student filmmakers who are trying to break into the film industry during the pandemic are entering the industry in a time when there is an opportunity to make changes to production and distribution.

“It can be looked at as the glass-half-filled/glass-half-empty,” Breyer said. “There’s opportunities because there’s a whole new way of producing and probably. There will be new ways of distribution and everything in between as a result of not only COVID, but just all of the dramatic things that are happening in the communications industry.”

Published on October 5, 2020 at 10:38 pm