I hope you saw the editorial in Sunday's Democrat about this very issue. For many reasons, Natchez is a great location for making movies. The State of Mississippi recently passed a very attractive incentive package. The only problem is we have to market ourselves.
I recently received a copy of the Location and Production Guide 2007-2008 put out by the Mississippi Film Office. There is a list of movies filmed in Mississippi since 1916. The years 1993-2001 were banner years - 6-10 movies a year. There was only one movie each year in 2004-2006. What happened?
You can blame it all on Louisiana. In 2002, Louisiana became the first state to offer a tax incentive for movie production. That year, $11.8 million was spent filming movies and TV shows in Louisiana. The next year, the total jumped to $212 million. In 2005, the figure was $514 million. Today, Louisiana is third in the country in film production, after California and New York. Louisiana modeled itself after Canada, which had $430 million in 1998 before they introducted tax incentives. In 2005, Canada had $1.3 billion in film production. Five years later, Mississippi is joining in - along with 34 other states. However, I understand that ours is more generous and flexible.
Somebody in Louisiana was smart! But I bet it wasn't easy to get that passed. I bet political critics and opponents were complaining about the money they spent traveling to Hollywood. It's just like what is happening to Sammy Cauthen (Supervisor 1). No matter what Sammy, the paper, or anyone else says, these naysayers keep carrying on.
Here's a direct quote from a flyer that just arrived at my house from Mike Lazarus:
Pleasure trips have been passed off as recruiting industy.
(This is in all caps and bold print.)
What an idiot! What does he know about recruiting industry? Nothing! Sammy's been in the movie business for years, and he knows lots of people. Sending him to Hollywood to sell Natchez was one of the smartest things we've done.
By the way, that Mississippi Location & Production Guide has a whole section of Production Personnel & Services, which tells movie producers who they can contact for everything from Accountants to Video Resources. Guess who listed under Animals/Wranglers? Of course, it's Sammy.
If we want to improve the economy of this County, we've got to be willing to be creative. And we've also got to be willing to make an investment in our future. Sammy Cauthen and Joe Eidt are absolutely the right choices to move Adams County forward. (If you want to remain an old stick in the mud, vote for those other guys.)
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14 comments:
Casey, do you really think that an animal wrangler has any pull with major studios in Hollywood? Give me a break!!!
To 10/26/07 10:12,maybe not,
I'm sure Mike Lazarus has plenty of pull in Hollywood!!!!
GIVE ME A BREAK.........
A vote for Mike Lazarus is a vote for Henry Watts and Peter Rinaldi.
3 peas in a pod. Let's vote them out.
I don't know Mike Lazurus at all so I can't attest to whether he would be a good or bad supervisor. Incumbents have the disadvantage of having a record of service....sometimes it may be an advantage. I have attended MANY supervisor meetings (never seen you at one, Casey)....and I'm not impressed with Sammy Cauthen at all. And what's the big deal about him and Hollywood? From what was discussed at the supervisor meeting, he met with game show production assistants and was told they were not interested in Natchez. I think there should be term limits in city and county government. New blood, new ideas, and lack of dependency on that salary. Didn't the supervisors vote themselves a pay raise this year?
If you've never seen Casey at a supervisor meeting, then you don't know what she looks like!!
o.k, why does everyone hate Renaldi. He seems smart to me and also seems to tell the truth.
Rinaldi may be smart, but I doubt it. Everybody hates him because he does NOT tell the truth. He's hurt a lot of people with his lies and half truths, and he doesn't even care. Unfortunately, people like you seem to fall for his propoganda, which makes him dangerous.
since people seem to know, what lies has Rinaldi told? The democrat sure doesn't report all the news and Rinaldi doesn't run. People like you are the ones who doesn't want to know the truth.
Rinaldi has admitted that he only helps/supports those who advertise with him. To me, that removes any objectivity that he may have had. He claims to be pro-taxpayer, but yet he never attacked a public official that stole from taxpayers. That just doesn't make much sense. Whether you like Cauthen or think he is impressive, he is by far the better choice than his opponent.
Wait...Binky advertises with Rinaldi and I don't recall reading very many flattering comments in his paper about him!
So...you can throw out your "objectivity" claim against Rinaldi.
You can't recall reading flattering comments about Binky from Rinaldi??? Where were you? He was totally supportive of Binky.
Why even debate the "honor" of Renaldi? He LOVES to think of himself as some kind of Woodward or Bernstein. Unfortunately, he should more aptly be compared to the writers for the National Examiner (the National Enquirer is way too classy).
Woodward and Bernstein WERE examples of how good journalism can uncover despicable acts. Renaldi is just a wanna-be who will always find fault, just for the sake of finding fault. What a bottom-feeder!
Mr. Renaldi--and it's abundantly clear that you read this blog--I beg of you to turn a new (and truthful) leaf. The entire town reads your papers merely for a laugh. If you TRULY used your rags as a voice for the little guy and not as a source to support your advertisers, people might actually take you seriously.
ok,first of all the election is over and it seems that the people in adams county would like to beleive things that are not true and if they were to just ask for the proof, they would have gotten it,
the connections in hollywood are long standing, including the one with mr. shehan, this man is one of many connections sammy has for the hollywood scene, along with others, such as the randle family (a well respected family who happens to train horses and are professional wranglers in california- they trained trigger, silver, and the horse in blazing saddles, not to mention the horse in the black stalion with mikey rourke, rex peterson who worked on the movie dreamer, and yes several "stars" have worked along side and played along side sammy, these include the likes of kris kristofferson, the great ali, robert duval, patrick swayze, meridith baxter, john taylor thomas, to name only a few,, these people where here in natchez for various movies, and while they were here, they were treated like family.
granted natchez needs to take full advantage of the assests it has, i agree with the fact that natchez itself needs a group of people familiar with the area, history, and local experience that can be offered, sammy has been doing this for years, and even though mike l's flyers and radio ads would have you believe the total trip was repaid to sammy is a joke, there are certian things that have to be approved for repayment, and sammy has been in that office long enough to know what he can and can not ask for repayment for, oh the claim ticket happens to be listed on his web site which is still up as of today
adams county you made your choice, have a fun four years and i hope you enjoy your choice that was made.
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