This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 21, 2009 - OK. Deep breaths.
Repeat: George Clooney is not here yet. He won't be coming for a few more months. I will not quit my job to wait tables at a bar and hope he sees me and falls in love like he did with that Vegas waitress.
Not yet anyway.
Even though the Oscar-winning star has created lots of buzz with news that his new movie, "Up in the Air," will be filming in St. Louis, the media have gotten a little too breathless about the whole thing, thinks Gary Hansen, manager of the IATSE 493, the studio mechanics's union.
"They've been acting like a bunch of immature little small-town country bumpkins," Hansen says.
Calm down, media.
"They will not be shooting any film until late February, early March."
Even then, Clooney won't be in town for the entire eight weeks.
And maybe there's more to get excited about here, from the economic impact during tough times, to the city attracting the biggest movie studio in more than 50 years.
Nah, it's still Clooney.
But since, as Hansen says, that's a story for a few months from now, let's talk about the other stuff anyway.
WE'LL SCRATCH YOUR BACK...
Before the cameras start rolling and the stars roll into town, lots of work gets done. And before the pre-production, happening now, lots more work happens, too.
It has been for years, actually.
Maybe the biggest job, to date, has just been getting a big studio to film in St. Louis. Independent filmmakers use St. Louis often, says Jerry Jones, director of the Missouri Film Office. And many scenes have been shot here for bigger movies, including "Fever Pitch," at Busch Stadium in 2005, "Silence of the Lambs," at Lambert International Airport in 1991, "Planes, Trains & Automobiles," at Lambert in 1987 and "National Lampoon's Vacation," in East St. Louis in 1983.
But "Up In the Air" isn't just stopping at the airport for a day or so. This is the first time a big studio, Paramount and DreamWorks, will do a full production in Missouri since the filming of "Jesse James," in 1939, Jones says.
"This is probably one of the biggest studios that we've had here, if not ever, probably for a very long time," agrees Hansen.
So why St. Louis?
Missouri might not be warm now, or particularly glamorous, but we've got some lures of our own.
To begin with, and this is pretty sexy, so get ready: taxes.
EXTRAS, EXTRAS
According to a Jan. 6 posting from the Missouri Film Commission, "Up In the Air" will employ about 2,100 extras. Go to the Website for more details on how to apply.
In 1999, Missouri was the first state to offer tax incentives to film studios, Jones says. Back then, it was a million dollars. In 2002, Louisiana and New Mexico followed, and in the last six or seven years, Jones says, 43 states have begun offering tax incentives to attract Hollywood productions.
Now, Missouri offers $4.5 million in tax credits. Sounds nice, but states like Illinois, Louisiana and New Mexico have no limit to what they offer in tax credits.
Still, the credit does attract studios, basically offering a 35 percent discount.
Here's how it works: Studios can apply for tax credits with receipts of up to 35 percent of what they spent in Missouri, up to $4.5 million. Since they won't be paying Missouri taxes, they then sell that tax credit and wind up with about 90 percent face value of the money, Jones says.
Other attractions of the state are the local talent base and local infrastructure, like equipment rentals. The less studios have to bring from Los Angeles, including people who need housing, etc., the better.
So, after much hustling, Hansen says, the state's attracted a big fish.
Still, some states out-offer and outspend us, Jones says. Illinois has the advantage of Chicago, with an established industry.
"We're still an unknown quantity," he says.
He's hoping that will change soon.
... IF YOU'LL SCRATCH OURS
This year, the award for people who will actually make some money during a recession goes to ... basically anyone involved with filming of "Up In the Air."
Six years ago, the Missouri Film office studied the economic impact of "The Game of Their Lives," a soccer movie filmed here and in Brazil.
The impact, says Jones, was between $55 million and $58 million.
"I'm going to guess that this movie will approach that," he says.
And he expects that money to go pretty far, too, from the 2,000 extras expected to be hired (see box for more) to electricians, grips, makeup artists, hotels, people in food service, doctors, pet groomers, florists, hairstylists...
"You name it, it's on there," Jones says. "So they really spread the money out over a wide area."
And that matters, especially to Hansen's union in a time that's usually pretty slow, not to mention the current state of the economy.
"The most exciting thing to me is we have a little bonus business thrown at us in a time when we most need it."
FREQUENT FLYER
OK. So we're calm now.
"Up in the Air," the George Clooney film also starring Vera Farmiga and directed by "Juno's" Jason Reitman, is just in pre-production.
It will be great for the local economy. It could mean the possibility of more big studios coming in the future.
And why wouldn't they? Aside from the incentives, St. Louis is like no place else and that makes it a great place for story telling, right?
Nope.
"St. Louis is a really interesting city in that it can easily adapt itself to be anywhere," says Cliff Froehlich, executive director of Cinema St. Louis. "It manages to sort of easily serve as somewhere else."
So ... we're special for our un-specialness? Not exactly.
"In the movie business, it's all about smoke and mirrors," says Hansen.
And making one place look like another isn't hard. During production of "The Game of Their Lives," part of Old St. Charles actually served as 1930s New York, he says.
Because of the variety of buildings in the city and the variety of landscapes, St. Louis can actually serve as a pretty good backdrop.
The other thing we have is a slow airport. Lambert will be used for some of the filming of "Up In the Air," which is about a businessman trying to earn 1 million frequent flyer miles. Lambert can often depict three or four different airports, Hansen says, and because it's not a major hub and therefore not super busy, it's easier to film there.
Other locations in town are still being looked at, he adds, including hotel lobbies, but again, calm down. Clooney won't be here for the entire eight weeks of filming, remember?
And even if he were and you could bribe someone to get you on set underneath one of those food service carts?
Bo-ring, says Froehlich.
"Unless you're a part of the production, it can be pretty technical watching it from the sidelines."
But still, Clooney, jobs, extra money, the chance have a tiny part in a movie filmed in a city that isn't known for making movies at all?
It is a little exciting.
Kristen Hare is a freelance writer in Lake St. Louis.