Behind the local lens, collaboration to the rescue

The eyes of the moviemaking world turned to Boston after the 2006 hit "The Departed" took home an Academy Award for best picture.

It was the latest in a long and illustrious string of Boston-based Oscar winners -- from "Love Story" to "Mystic River."

But Boston is more than just another scenic backdrop for LA entertainment conglomerates, it's a hub for film and television producers from all over New England.

Regional auteurs will converge on the city Friday for Making Media Now, a conference focused on the production and distribution of film and video content using the latest digital technology.

"Our focus is bringing people up to speed on what's really current, mainly around using the Internet," said Bonnie Waltch, executive director of the Filmmakers Collaborative, a regional alliance that is sponsoring the event.

The conference is representative of a recent trend toward collaboration in the local media community, sparked in part by a slowdown in regional film and TV production during the first half of the decade.

"People were leaving because there were no jobs, no production happening," said Waltch. "There was no work."

In response, regional filmmakers began sharing information and resources through new groups, such as the Massachusetts Production Council and the Alliance for Independent Motion Media. A new tax credit for moviemaking also significantly helped spur development.

Today, the industry is bustling and even more local and regional organizations have arisen to support new productions.

"People from New York have looked at us, and said, 'Wow, you guys are really coming together. There's a lot of collaboration. This would never happen where we come from,' " Waltch said.

That doesn't mean local producers march in lockstep. Although tightly knit, local filmmakers are an independent lot.

"The local film community here is tremendously diversified, culturally very sensitive, and very vibrant and energetic, " said Joe Maiella, with the Massachusetts Production Coalition. The diversity is reflected in the projects being made here.

Local filmmakers are covering "topics and subjects that clearly are important and would otherwise not be unearthed or seen," he said.

Socially relevant filmmaking is a natural outgrowth of the region's dominant media force: WGBH. The public television station is responsible for the biggest part of Boston's professional media output, said Waltch, thanks to nationally acclaimed programs such as "Frontline," "Nova" and "American Experience." GBH works with independent filmmakers to create most of its shows, in addition to nurturing aspiring documentary-makers with its WGBH Lab program.

Many of those producers have gone on to start their own companies, selling their work into public television and cable markets. As a result, documentary filmmaking dominates the professional media landscape in Boston, Waltch said.

But there's also a rising tide of independent creators, many breaking ground in the rapidly growing arena of online programming. Boston-based Midnight Chimes Productions recently won a contract to create exclusive content for Sony's Grouper.com video-sharing service.

The company is named after "Chimes at Midnight," a 1965 Shakespearean movie independently produced by Orson Welles on a shoestring budget. MCP founder Kevin Anderton will sit on a panel for the Making Media Now conference. Anderton has created about 60 short comedy films and is coproducing a documentary about Boston theater.

Anderton's hometown pride shows when he discusses the local indie scene. "I've been all over the Web looking at stuff," he said. "The best stuff is coming out of Boston."

Anderton also credits collaborative spirit for much of the region's success.

"We don't really have the resources that somebody from New York or LA would have," Anderton said. "But you'll find that everyone kind of pitches in."

He said production houses in the city will often lend a hand to independent producers, a vital advantage in a city where the industry is smaller. He pays it forward by trying to help local filmmakers he encounters.

"The more that people around here succeed, the more that I succeed," he said. "Because more eyes will be on Boston."

Registration for Making Media Now closes Wednesday; visit filmmakerscollab.org. Midnight Chimes Productions films can be seen at midnightchimesproductions.com. Other local film resources online: Massachusetts Production Coalition, massprodcoalition.com; Massachusetts Film Office, mafilm.org; the WGBH Lab, wgbh.org/lab; Social Networking For Local Filmmakers, filmmakersworkshop.ning.com.