Happy New Year everyone. As we often do, we’d like to give you some highlights from the past year as well as a small dose of “Looking Forward.”
For those of you who don’t know, Oregon Film, sometimes called the Oregon Film & Video Office (OFVO) other times called the Governor’s Office of Film & Television, is the oldest US state film commission that we know of. Founded in 1968 our mission is to develop, grow and support the film and media industry here in Oregon.
Late in 2023 we published an updated Economic Development report put together for us by EcoNW. This report dug into the broader “media economy” in Oregon not just projects that have come through our incentive programs. This is the first of these “broader” reports we have done in some time (our past few reports focused solely on incentivized projects). In short, the The Economic Contributions of Oregon’s Visual Media Industry in Fiscal Year 2023 report found:
“The growth of the film and video sector in Oregon has been nothing but explosive.”
To put that into context:
“In 2004, we [EcoNW] wrote an economic impact report of Oregon’s film and video sector. We found that in 2002, the sector’s direct output was $177.7 million, and its total contribution was $357.1 million. Compare that to what we calculated in this report for FY2023—$1,249.9 million in direct and $2,041.9 million in total contributions. Therefore, in 20 years, the sector’s direct output rose 603 percent and its total contribution rose 472 percent. These are extraordinary increases. And they far outpaced the whole economy of Oregon, which grew about 158 percent over that time.”
This long term growth is something that often gets lost in the short term ebbs and flows of projects and producers that have chosen to produce their work in Oregon. There have been some lean years of late and there are numerous reasons for this that we don’t need to list here. Suffice it to say that these short term issues have impacted both the wider entertainment industry worldwide (e.g. strikes, corporate downsizing and consolidation, increased reliance on foreign-based production, etc) while some have had a specific impact locally to Oregon (e.g. safety perception, crew influx and emigration, lack of infrastructure, etc).
What is clear from this recent report is: the growth and impact of our industry on the Oregon economy is significant. In fact, the last calendar year was one of the busiest that we’ve seen in a decade.
- We worked with 55 different projects in our incentive programs
- We responded to 200+ project information requests (locations, contacts, permits, etc)
- We tracked more than $160M in direct spending from incentivized projects
- And that impacted 4,000 jobs resulting in $120M in Oregon-based payroll.
Overall, there was a 65% increase in the number of incentivized projects from four years ago.
But in addition to this data-driven growth, we’ve also managed to support several other programs that have benefited our state and our industry.
#Oregon Made projects
During the 2023-2025 biennium, the Oregon Film & Video Office successfully retained, recruited and assisted numerous film and television projects here in Oregon. The 2023-2025 biennium is on track to see more then $300M of direct in-state spending from incentivized projects impacting more than 8,000 jobs. These included “The Night Always Comes” (Netflix), “Let’s Have Kids” (MRC), “Wildwood” (LAIKA) and “Criminal” Season 1 (Amazon). It also included regional productions “Alma & the Wolf” (Tillamook), “LifeCycle 63” (Salem), “Getting Lost” (Eugene) and “Breakup Season” (La Grande) as well as festival hits like “My Dead Friend Zoe” (SXSW) and “It’s What’s Inside” (Sundance).
Oregon Film Trail
Working with several strategic partners like the SetJetters, Oregon Made Creative Foundation, Travel Oregon, Oregon State Parks, the Eastern Oregon Visitor’s Association, the Willamette Valley Visitor’s Association and the cities and towns of La Grande, Hines, Baker City, Eugene and Canby (amongst others), Oregon Film was instrumental in launching the Oregon Film Trail. The Film Trail consists of more than 40 physical signs placed in close approximation to iconic shooting locations. It supports and highlights the cultural significance to Oregon’s history as well as encourages local tourism into smaller communities. The most recent sign was installed in La Grande celebrating the recently released “Breakup Season” which was shot in La Grande and materially developed and recruited through the programs and hard work of our friends and colleagues at the Eastern Oregon Film Festival.
Oregon Film Festivals
OFVO also directly supported several of the state’s premiere film festivals in places like Ashland, Bend, McMinnville, Hood River, La Grande, and Klamath in an effort to not only highlight local talent working within the state, but bringing producers, filmmakers and projects into the state for the first time.
Animation
Since the 1970’s, Oregon has cultivated a hub for quality animation. And now it is a recognized leader in the animation community worldwide. Leading the way is LAIKA who is working on its sixth feature film, “Wildwood,” while ShadowMachine won an Oscar for “Pinocchio” and saw their series “In the Know” on Peacock. Other leading animation studios based in Oregon include House Special, Bent Image Labs and Hinge Digital who continue to create quality, award winning animated content for a rapidly growing audience. Animation is now an internationally recognized export commodity for Oregon, and even established companies are finding a home here.
Grants and Opportunities
Creating opportunities in the media industry has been a driving force in OVFO’s efforts and, to this end, we have worked closely with the non-profit Oregon Made Creative Foundation and with the newly established Creative Opportunity Program to identify partnerships and funding sources for a series of grants given out to local creators. This includes the very successful Pathways training and placement program which has now placed 60 different talented trainees into 100 paid positions on the sets and in the studios working in Oregon. Most recently OFVO has partnered with more than 30 different entities and directly aligned with OMCF and Travel Oregon to award two“Outdoor Adventure Film” Grants ($45,000) and two “Tell Your Story” Grants ($30,000).
Strategic Partnerships
OFVO has relied on many strategic partnerships to create opportunity and recognition for the creative industry as a whole. These partnerships include both financing and resources being shared. Organizations like the Portland Events & Film Office, Outside the Frame, Desert Island Studios, Travel Oregon, Travel Portland, Oregon State Parks, Central Oregon Film Office, Film Southern Oregon, Klamath Film, Lane County Studios, the cities of Baker City and LaGrande and The Confluence Project (just to name but a few) have all partnered with OFVO in some form to bring money and opportunity to our community and industry.
Production Incentives
We also administer the state’s incentive programs that provide rebates for projects large and small, local and from out of state, and we work with local producers to help them navigate their way through these programs. In addition, dedicated funding is held each year for locally produced, lower budgeted projects as well as production work outside of the Portland Metro area.
New Look Online
We launched a new website in 2024 that boasts a beautiful image based “front end” while supporting nearly 100 articles in an informational Knowledge Base behind-the-scenes.
Looking Ahead
2025 will be a continuation of our collective momentum. Series, features, documentaries, short films, animation and commercial production are already confirmed and lining up for the first and second quarters of the year. While we are bound by ongoing confidentiality provisions in our discussions and contracts, we will be sharing more specific news about these projects (and how to contact them) on OregonConfluence.com as and when we can.
You can find out more about all of our work on OregonFilm.org.
