By SHOOT Staff

Tax Credit Generates Funding For WCNY Academy 
Empire State Development (ESD) announced that WCNY, located in Syracuse, Onondaga County, has been awarded $499,766 from the State’s Entertainment Workforce Diversity Grant Program for its new WCNY Entertainment Academy. The Academy will train the next generation of television and film production engineers, electricians, set designers, sound mixers, and camera operators to help support the growing entertainment industry in Central New York.

The award comes from the first-in-the-nation New York Entertainment Workforce Diversity Grant Program, which funds job training and workforce development across New York State’s entertainment industry and is financed by a percentage from New York State’s Film Tax Credit program. The program is designed to further diversify the industry by targeting residents in economically distressed areas of the state and creating a pathway to permanent jobs in film and television production. The grant will complement more than $300,000 that WCNY, the region’s leading public communications organization, will contribute to launching the Entertainment Academy.

The WCNY Entertainment Academy, which will open this fall, will train a diverse group of people ages 25- to 39-years-old in one of three annual 14-week training sessions with approximately 16 trainees per session. The curriculum will be taught by local union reps, experienced staff at WCNY, and adjunct faculty members and guest lecturers from across the entertainment industry. IATSE Local 52 will collaborate with WCNY to provide instructors for the program and offer a real-world baseline of knowledge and specific skills in grip, electric, video, sound, and shop craft.

Grads will earn certifications, including OSHA and Aerial Lift certifications, and will develop relationships that may lead to union membership and job placements. They will also have an opportunity to gain professional and life skills in multiple areas centered around comprehensive TV and film production roles, and, in the process, to earn an enduring path to self-sufficiency.

ESD president, CEO and commissioner Hope Knight said, “WCNY has been educating Central New York communities for decades and we are pleased to support the new WCNY Entertainment Academy that will create a pipeline for well-trained workers in the entertainment industry. The individuals who graduate from this program will have vital skills and connections needed for new careers and brighter futures.”

As part of the fiscal year 2024 budget, Governor Kathy Hochul secured a historic expansion of the New York Film Tax Credit. As part of the budget, New York State raised the film tax credit’s annual cap to $700 million, added a capped credit for “above-the-line” salaries alongside the existing credit for “below-the-line” salaries, restored the credit to 30% for qualified expenses, and increased upstate filming up to 40% and added production costs. 

"Spiral into the Yellow Void" Wraps Lensing 
New Mexico Film Office director Amber Dodson announced that the feature film Spiral into the Yellow Void wrapped shooting in and around Santa Fe.

Spiral into the Yellow Void, starring Monique Candelaria (Breaking Bad), Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood), and Kelton Jones (Passion of the Christ), directed by Levin Garbisch (Miranda Veil), and produced by Jordan Henderson with Planet Forth and Maggie Brown with Purple Magnet Productions (Yellow Wallpaper), is the story of a psychic healer who heals other people’s trauma while battling her own personified depression.

“My films often deal with real-life issues while being very strange and otherworldly,” Garbisch said. “I moved to New Mexico during the pandemic and found the scenery and serenity very beautiful as the backdrop for this story.”

The production incorporated Native American diversity in casting, and employed 35 New Mexicans–25 crew members and 10 principal actors.

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