In our ongoing effort to keep the pressure on Olympia to include the film incentive in the final budget, we’re excited to publicly debut this year’s legislative movie poster! Elvis fans may note a striking resemblance to the poster for one of Washington State’s early claims to silver screen fame, It Happened at the World’s Fair. The difference? The starring roles on our posters go to the prime sponsors of the film bill, Randi Becker (2, R) and Marcus Riccelli (3, D). Look closer and you’ll see the credits are populated with many names of the legislators who’ve shown support for the bill. In Olympia, like in the film industry, it takes the commitment of a team to see a project through to completion. 

Earlier this month, the Keep Film in WA campaign hand delivered one of these posters to each and every legislator in Olympia! With our professional lobbying efforts hammering home the importance of the film bill, we thought we would add something new to the conversation with our legislative movie poster.

CALL TO ACTION:

Help us by sharing this eye-grabber across social media, with friends and film supporters. And while you’re at it, please take a few minutes and share this image with your legislators and ask them to support the renewal of the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program, set to expire on June 30 of this year (just over a month from now).

It has been made clear to our campaign that the only way the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program will get included in the final budget is if constituents reach out to their elected officials. Please use this poster as a vehicle to do so today!

We learned today that House members will no longer be in Olympia on Wednesday, May 17th, so we have put our House Lobby Day on hold. Don’t despair though, there are still ways to act today!

The Keep Film in WA team is organizing a handful of meeting for key legislators. Do you live or work in one of our targeted districts?

District 3: Represents the heartland of the downtown Spokane area, extending to the North Side and South Hill.

District 38: Represents part of Snohomish County including Everett, Marysville and Tulalip.

District 47: Represents part of southeast King County including part of Kent, Covington and Auburn.

District 48: Represents part of King County including part of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, and all of Medina, Clyde Hill, Yarrow Point and Hunts Point.

If you live in one of these districts and would like to participate in these very important meetings, please email Washington Filmworks Executive Director Amy Lillard at [email protected].

It has been made clear to the Keep Film in WA campaign that the only way the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program will get included in the final budget is if constituents reach out to their elected officials. If you aren’t in one of the districts listed above, don’t let that stop you. Please write and call your Senator and Representatives and ask that the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program get included in the final budget.

“I wear two hats as part of the film industry—I am a composer of film scores and I teach people to compose music for films. Even though I live in Seattle, my music is heard around the world. I made the choice to make Seattle my home and want to be able to maintain a creative career here. Through my teaching, I train tomorrow’s film and video composers. Many of them have to relocate after completing the training because there simply is not enough work locally, so I am behind any government efforts to help support and grow the Washington film industry so that more of our local talented individuals can make a living through making films.”

– Hummie Mann

“Washington state is blessed to have a very talented group of people in the film industry here, both those who work in front of the camera and behind it. However, if the state doesn’t get the much-needed incentive, these resources will go to other states that understand the importance of supporting the film industry. I recently finished shooting my short film that looks at mental trauma brought on by domestic violence. I would not have been able to make this film without the various sources of support that are currently available to me as a filmmaker in WA state, and because of this support I was also able to get some big businesses to donate to my film, one of which was Verizon.”

– Melinda Raebyne