Q&A With Local Film Professionals
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — It may seem like the film industry is a career that can only be achieved by going to places like Los Angeles, New York City or Boston, but that is not the case.
We spoke with three local film professionals — Deborah Sims, Mark Farrell, and Terri See — who recently worked on the film "Blood Knot" starring Michael Douglas and have continued their film careers when moving to the Berkshires.
Even during the pandemic, the local film industry was flourishing, the trio said. Between them, they have worked on four feature films since fall 2021, two of which have had recent 2023 world premieres at Sundance and Tribeca film festivals.
As an avid film lover, my curiosity during an an interview about their experience working on "Blood Knot" led to a discussion on the film industry in the county. Here is how that conversation went:
Question: What's it like being in the film industry in the Berkshires?
Mark Farrell: "I think it's wonderful and unexpected. I kind of came up from running a production company in New York and thought I was gonna relax up here and the film industry just kind of took me in and it's bloomed and it's really great. There's a lot going on up here. So it's really nice."
Farrell has worked in Los Angeles, New York, and now the Berkshires. He has produced, directed and written for various genres. He is known for producing the films "Z Rock," "Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Nantucket Film Festival's Comedy Roundtable," and more. He is the fourth generation to work in showbusiness.
His great-grandparents were Vaudevillians. His grandmother, Glenda Farrell, was an actress in the '30s and '40s, appearing in "Girl Missing," "The Adventurous Blonde," "Gold Diggers of 1937" and more.
His father, Tommy Farrell, was a character actor and comedy writer and performer. He wrote jokes for actors and comedians like Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Red Buttons, and Lucille Ball and was in Westerns and films like "Singing in the Rain."
"I grew up on the set or kind of learned how to read scripts and so I really couldn't avoid it. It's kind of the family business … My dad actually told me if I ever acted he'd break both my knees because that's a horrible job, so of course the first thing I did in high school was join play production and acted."
Deborah Sims: She has been in the Berkshires for more than 25 years but is originally from Charlottesville, Va., and "various and sundry places in between." She has worked in theater and product development for a long time which eventually led her to filmmaking.
"For me, sort of, producing is producing. It can be producing theater…producing new products for a company. It's the skill set of making things happen within a certain timeframe and within a certain budget with a whole bunch of creative people and putting out a product."
Terri See: She has a background in art and worked as an antique dealer for many years. She got her start in the industry when HGTV approached her at her antique shop and worked with the channel procuring items and was on one of their shows to rehab her house.
"But then coming forward over here and being in film, I feel like it's the best use of all my skills because I know how to find things. I also know how to make things. And I love it when I can be on a film as a set decorator but also get the rare opportunity to build something that's going to be in the movie and I've been able to do that a couple times too."
She moved to the Berkshires from New York's Hudson Valley about eight years ago. She worked on a few television projects as a set decorator prior to moving to the area as well as on the films "Cold Wallet," "The Secret Art of Human Flight" and "Stroke of Luck."
"I just didn't think about [working in film] when I moved to the Berkshires so I was doing other things for a while and it's interesting because quite honestly, I feel like it's much more active here than in the Hudson Valley."
Q: Why film in the Berkshires versus Los Angeles, New York, Boston or Vancouver?
The state's Film Incentive Tax Credit, locations in the Berkshires, and the area's atmosphere makes it an ideal and feasible place to bring stories to life, the three said.
See: "The Massachusetts tax credits for film has to have a big influence on productions coming here, not only the landscape, the beauty of the area, and the talent that we have, but the tax credits I think are a big impact on productions coming here from California."
Sims: "Yeah, so pretty much everybody has taken advantage of the Massachusetts film tax credit … I certainly know a lot about that so that's one of the things they always ask me about when they make the initial call. And yeah, it's pretty attractive. These are all independent films that we've worked on of a certain size so that tax credit is really important to make ends meet ultimately."
Farrell: "It's actually a rebate program that has more to it than just tax. It's a full on rebate program that promises money back for what you spend in Massachusetts, so that's a really nice thing."
More information on the rebate program here.
Farrell: "[Los Angeles] looks like L.A. and New York looks like New York and Boston looks like Boston but a lot of people when they write a movie, they want it to feel universal. They want to feel like it could be any town anywhere USA. And what's great about Western Massachusetts is that it has all those looks. It has the farm look and the small-town look and woods look and it's got a bunch of different looks, but it's also only three hours from New York and three hours from Boston."
Q: What is it like being on a set on a major production like 'Blood Knot'?
Farrell: Stars bring their own "entourage" and their "handlers" have their own "expectations" on how they get treated. So, when working on a production as big as this one they have to make sure that everything is meticulous and precise.
"Other than that it's other actors. And it's interesting on a set, it's not just the actors that are artists. Everybody's an artist on the set, whether they're doing construction, or the electric department, or the wardrobe department, or the hair and makeup department, or the line producing, or the art direction. Everybody who does those things can do them out in civilian life or they could do them on movies and be a part of something. Everybody that comes to work on a movie, they come to be a part of a piece of art."
Sims: Independent filmmaking is a very word of mouth business, Sims said. In her experiences all of the jobs that she has gotten as a line producer, or in this most recent film, Massachusetts production supervisor, has been because someone recommended the production team consider Western Massachusetts.
"It's talking to someone who knows how to make that happen on the ground can make it happen pretty efficiently and those people who can be hired for the crew and put all the pieces together. So I think that's why ['Blood Knot' was filmed here.] It's all been word of mouth. Obviously, it must be good word of mouth."
See: "Each person in a crew especially like our small crew, here, we all have our resources and connections that we bring. So, it might look like three people here, or four or five of us but then we have our resources like myself as an art director, set decorator, I instantly can think of all these people that I can pull from as resources for that film, depending on the needs of the film."
This collaborative spirit is part of the joy of filmmaking, See said. It is like a big art project that requires long hours and intense work. It's a nonstop process that goes by in a blur that once the project is complete it's a surreal thing.
A common misconception is the amount of time it takes to complete a film. See has had friends reach out inquiring when they are able to see the film she has been working on expecting it to only be a couple months and find out that it is actually more like a year to sometimes two years.
Farrell: "What's great about this business is you never know what's around the corner."
What advice do you give to aspiring filmmakers?
Sims: "We're always looking for really good PAs, production assistants, always. And that's really a good place to start. Because you kind of have to do anything and everything when you're a production assistant.”
Working as a PA also allows an aspiring filmmaker to learn what it is that they are interested in doing in the field, Sims said.
When producing a film, Sims will sometimes use the site Nextdoor to advertise production jobs or to look for locations, props, etc.
See: "It's a way to observe. It's a way to get in, get paid a little bit of something and observe."
Farrell: "I think being on the set is the most invaluable lesson there is and so you just have to figure out how to find out how to get on a set and the only way I really know is the Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative as a center place to kind of be aware. Kind of at least follow them to be aware of what's happening."
Tags: filming, Q&A,
