Township aims to be film-ready

Sparta is taking steps to become a film-ready community, with hopes of attracting production companies - and their dollars - to the township.

Mayor Neill Clark said the effort was inspired by the filming of “Emerald Ties,” a short film by Kevan Ali of Newton, at the Lake House Cafe in Sparta.

Clinton Mayor Janice Kovach, a member of the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission, and David Schoner, associate director of the commission, spoke at the Township Council meeting March 26.

Even small productions spend money at local businesses, Kovach said. She recalled that comedian and actor Pete Davidson filmed a project for a month in Dover in 2022. “They spent half a million dollars in Dover between coffee shops, gas stations, lumber yards, hotels. Anything and everything they needed was all right there.”

New Jersey started a tax credit for film productions in 2018 and has expanded it since then, she said. In 2022, 53 tax-credit projects filmed in New Jersey, spending $623 million and creating an estimated 15,411 jobs.

She noted that most of the film crews who work in New York live in New Jersey. “We’ve got the built-in crew. We’ve got the built-in services all right here for these productions.”

While the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023 shut down production for half of the year, “it’s coming back this year stronger than ever,” Kovach said.

The state commission’s film-ready program teaches municipal officials the basics and what to look out for, she said, and the commission’s staff can help resolve problems between towns and production companies.

”It’s all about communication,” said Schoner, who has worked in the state’s film office since 1985.

“A lot of times, stuff comes up that a municipality may have never encountered or may not know about and I’m there to kind of bridge that gap.”

To be designated a film-ready town, officials must attend a workshop, designate an employee as a liaison with production companies, adopt a formal permit process, submit multiple photos of at least 15 locations that may be used for filming in the town to the state commission’s location library, and submit a list of at least five local businesses that may offer services to production companies.

Sparta has formed a committee to help with those tasks.