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Film Production Company to Build New Facility in DeWitt

Set photo of a camera man adjusting equipment at night
Tamara podolchak (Own work)
/
Wikimedia Commons

Students working on a degree in television or film in Central New York will soon have access to unprecedented technology and training opportunities. This week, Governor Cuomo announced the formation of the Central New York Hub for Emerging Nano Industries, which should create at least 350 new high-tech jobs and 150 construction jobs in our area.
The facility in DeWitt will provide a cutting-edge visual production technology and research center that will specialize in providing advanced visual production to the area's growing film and television industry. will rent space to startups. The center’s first tenant, California-based company The Film House, will move its company headquarters, production, post-production, and distribution operations to Syracuse. 
 
Syracuse University film program coordinator Owen Shapiro says it changes everything about hands-on training for his students:
 
 
 
 Shapiro says another major benefit to working and shooting in our area is that it’s cheaper for film producers and more accessible than some major metropolitan areas. The new facility will be close enough for students to get involved, far enough from congestion and noise to allow movie makers their creative space, and centrally located for a wide variety of filming locations:

 

FilmHouse-Shapiro2.mp3
Shapiro says Central New York is full of resources necessary for shooting films: a very well-trained talent pool, a wealth of locations close-by that could transport viewers anywhere in the world, and plenty of space for easy set preparation

The facility will be led and partially funded by The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, a part of the SUNY system, and is based on a seven-year growth plan. Onondaga County has invested $1.4 million on site work, ensuring the entire business park is shovel ready, and the county IDA has programs in place to assist the new tenants. Construction should be finished by early October at the Collamer Crossings Business Park. 

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Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.
Hannah vividly remembers pulling up in the driveway with her mom as a child and sitting in the car as it idled with the radio on, listening to Ira Glass finish his thought on This American Life. When he reached a transition, it was a wild race out of the car and into the house to flip on the story again and keep listening. Hannah’s love of radio reporting has stuck with her ever since.