Independent Local Producers

The following is an edited, personalized version of the original article written by Nelson Bradshaw. Excerpts from the original article appear as written.

The economic and cultural landscape of the Catskill Mountains is increasingly dotted with production companies these days. Entrepreneurs, skilled in the arts and crafts of making feature films, videos, commercials and industrials, have been setting up shop and carving out niches here in recent decades. Most of them had already been successful in the business in New York City when they discovered the Catskill Region as a weekend retreat. They fell in love with their second homes. They wanted to live here full-time, without giving up the business. Technological advances in communications, computers and production equipment have made it possible. The growing presence here of others, with show business skills, has made the move seem ever more practical.

Okay—what comes next in the original article is copy about some folks who sound very nice in their own right, doing good work, etc. Unfortunately, for our purposes, they are not me. So, in the interest of conserving your reading leisure time, I did a little editing and cut right to the chase below. People have such a short attention span these days....

There is a new feature film producer in the Catskill Mountains, Steve Monosson of Sidney Center. In just the last year, Steve has done a lot of research, has inaugurated a production company he calls Log Movies, Inc. and has begun filming his first full-length movie—Logjam. Steve has done a couple of shorts before. But, he is really very new to the business. Yet, he is certainly game. Steve is involved in the acting, directing, writing and producing of this feature. The movie is set in Delaware County and New York City in the future. At that future time, Delaware County has been officially closed due to flooding and devastation to the dairy industry caused by a superior milk cow genetically engineered by the Japanese. A character in Logjam, who is himself a Delaware County producer, makes a film about a log. It runs for two-and-a-half hours and shows a log sitting on the ground. The action in this movie spikes dramatically when a dog runs by the log. The movie in Logjam becomes a great hit, attracting cult status. There are blogs written about it. There are “log” discussion groups formed. Steve estimated that 35% of the movie has been filmed. He said that filming has now been suspended while he seeks financing for the rest of it. There has been action for some local actors in the making of the film. In particular, there are five principals and about a hundred extras that have worked on it.

And then there was some more stuff about somebody else, and then it ends like this....

The several independent producers glimpsed above do not constitute the whole picture of their industry in the Catskill Mountains. But the know-how, energy and vision emanating from this handful alone seem to brighten the economic horizons of our region. They are, perhaps, a harbinger of better times to come.

I do want to thank the Catskill Mountain Guide and Nelson Bradshaw for including me in the article. If you'd like to read about the other good folks mentioned, you can access the full article by clicking here.