By: Paul Gauvin
Source: http://www.barnstablepatriot.com
Category: Film School Online
Let’s get this straight.
Cape Cod workers clean hotel toilets, make beds, dig ditches, paint houses, flip burgers, wash dishes, pilot planes for peanuts, drive buses and otherwise wait on wealthier epicureans and then pay a state income tax so the state can give movie makers a 25 percent tax credit worth millions of dollars?
That revelation surfaced earlier this week as former Barnstable resident Daniel Adams, no relative of John Quincy or Samuel, was indicted for allegedly screwing the above struggling taxpayers out of $4.7 million in tax credit deals that supposedly include Wal-Mart and other names better known than those of the aging actors in his box office lemons.
Adams has been billed as a “director and producer” of movies and now it turns out he is quite an actor too, allegedly posing as a legitimate film maker but acting more like a wheeler-dealer of the Madoff ilk.
One line in press reports of Adams’ arrest particularly grabs one’s attention as it notes actor Richard Dreyfuss was paid “only $400,000” while Adams’ signature is on tax paperwork declaring he paid Dreyfuss “$2.7 million” ostensibly in order to up the tax credit and evidently garnish his own pockets with green.
What is particularly vexing is the “only $400,000” payment made to Dreyfuss. Has anybody seen these movies? To think the actors in it were paid more than $45 an hour for mouthing a few words is beyond belief…just like the movies. It probably wasn’t their fault since there didn’t seem to be much inspiration on the sets.
Who would have thought, back a few years ago, that the local ballyhoo about Adams’ filmmaking as an art form was to morph into a scheme to generate some bucks doing something that beats cleaning toilets, like directing a movie, hobnobbing with the stars, attracting clutches of groupies and dribbling money like water to transform reality into make-believe.
This column spent a few hours at one of the movie sets where the West Barnstable railroad station was transformed into its heyday years by switching signs rather than rail tracks, hauling in sand to cover blacktop, hiring work horses and other antique theatrical paraphernalia to turn the clock back to the authenticity of simpler times.
On that sunny day, as actors Rip Torn, David Carradine and Bruce Dern chatted with local residents and assorted groupies while waiting for the aging train to deposit a mail-order bride to marry one of the trio, there was nary a clue as to what was really going on, except maybe, idle whispers that the production needed more financial backing.
Otherwise, it was interesting to experience how production crews could create scenic unreality so well for the cameras, while an opiate of hope for a box-office winner rode in on the rails as well. All that work, one muses, for a few seconds of film time.
More touching, however, was a scene at the annual Barnstable Land Trust auction a few years ago where Adams was recognized for his generosity in allowing the trust to auction off non-speaking cameo appearances in the movie.
What sort of contribution Adams was making at the time by getting unpaid extras while also banking a big bag of good will for his production begs explanation where there seemingly is none.
If memory serves correctly, there was spirited bidding in August 2006 to the point that Adams, who strolled blithely about the gala affair, consented to allow for several such cameo slots as bidding reached an unsustainable ascent at $3,000. Three people had the same bid – netting $9,000 for the land trust - and one of them was Debra Dagwan of Hyannis, a teacher by profession and a current town councilor by civic-minded obligation. Dagwan later told this column she enjoyed the experience despite its cost.
Adams has only been indicted, not found guilty of any misdeeds, just accused of them. The prosecutors and defense lawyers will have a go at the allegations at trial. His case, however, has opened the eyes of the public about the 25 percent multi-million-dollar tax credits available to moviemakers.
That leaves open a question, however, of how many times a movie fan in this state is supposed to pay for a 105-minute film. Movies have become somewhat expensive, particularly if one includes $8 boxes of popcorn and over the edge cost of candy and beverages inside the theater.
It also leaves open the head-scratching wonderment of why professional actors command such huge salaries for what appears to be such little, fun work.
We assume the tax credit is a concession to the film industry for bringing some of its work to the state and creating a few short-term jobs now and then... and, of course, providing the potential opportunity for shafting the system, as is now alleged in Adams’ case. What this means is that taxpayers are subsidizing the moviemakers and paying for the tickets too while the industry walks off with the cash.
Sounds like a plot for a movie
Source: http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27265&Itemid=112
Source: http://www.barnstablepatriot.com
Category: Film School Online
Let’s get this straight.
Cape Cod workers clean hotel toilets, make beds, dig ditches, paint houses, flip burgers, wash dishes, pilot planes for peanuts, drive buses and otherwise wait on wealthier epicureans and then pay a state income tax so the state can give movie makers a 25 percent tax credit worth millions of dollars?
That revelation surfaced earlier this week as former Barnstable resident Daniel Adams, no relative of John Quincy or Samuel, was indicted for allegedly screwing the above struggling taxpayers out of $4.7 million in tax credit deals that supposedly include Wal-Mart and other names better known than those of the aging actors in his box office lemons.
Adams has been billed as a “director and producer” of movies and now it turns out he is quite an actor too, allegedly posing as a legitimate film maker but acting more like a wheeler-dealer of the Madoff ilk.
One line in press reports of Adams’ arrest particularly grabs one’s attention as it notes actor Richard Dreyfuss was paid “only $400,000” while Adams’ signature is on tax paperwork declaring he paid Dreyfuss “$2.7 million” ostensibly in order to up the tax credit and evidently garnish his own pockets with green.
What is particularly vexing is the “only $400,000” payment made to Dreyfuss. Has anybody seen these movies? To think the actors in it were paid more than $45 an hour for mouthing a few words is beyond belief…just like the movies. It probably wasn’t their fault since there didn’t seem to be much inspiration on the sets.
Who would have thought, back a few years ago, that the local ballyhoo about Adams’ filmmaking as an art form was to morph into a scheme to generate some bucks doing something that beats cleaning toilets, like directing a movie, hobnobbing with the stars, attracting clutches of groupies and dribbling money like water to transform reality into make-believe.
This column spent a few hours at one of the movie sets where the West Barnstable railroad station was transformed into its heyday years by switching signs rather than rail tracks, hauling in sand to cover blacktop, hiring work horses and other antique theatrical paraphernalia to turn the clock back to the authenticity of simpler times.
On that sunny day, as actors Rip Torn, David Carradine and Bruce Dern chatted with local residents and assorted groupies while waiting for the aging train to deposit a mail-order bride to marry one of the trio, there was nary a clue as to what was really going on, except maybe, idle whispers that the production needed more financial backing.
Otherwise, it was interesting to experience how production crews could create scenic unreality so well for the cameras, while an opiate of hope for a box-office winner rode in on the rails as well. All that work, one muses, for a few seconds of film time.
More touching, however, was a scene at the annual Barnstable Land Trust auction a few years ago where Adams was recognized for his generosity in allowing the trust to auction off non-speaking cameo appearances in the movie.
What sort of contribution Adams was making at the time by getting unpaid extras while also banking a big bag of good will for his production begs explanation where there seemingly is none.
If memory serves correctly, there was spirited bidding in August 2006 to the point that Adams, who strolled blithely about the gala affair, consented to allow for several such cameo slots as bidding reached an unsustainable ascent at $3,000. Three people had the same bid – netting $9,000 for the land trust - and one of them was Debra Dagwan of Hyannis, a teacher by profession and a current town councilor by civic-minded obligation. Dagwan later told this column she enjoyed the experience despite its cost.
Adams has only been indicted, not found guilty of any misdeeds, just accused of them. The prosecutors and defense lawyers will have a go at the allegations at trial. His case, however, has opened the eyes of the public about the 25 percent multi-million-dollar tax credits available to moviemakers.
That leaves open a question, however, of how many times a movie fan in this state is supposed to pay for a 105-minute film. Movies have become somewhat expensive, particularly if one includes $8 boxes of popcorn and over the edge cost of candy and beverages inside the theater.
It also leaves open the head-scratching wonderment of why professional actors command such huge salaries for what appears to be such little, fun work.
We assume the tax credit is a concession to the film industry for bringing some of its work to the state and creating a few short-term jobs now and then... and, of course, providing the potential opportunity for shafting the system, as is now alleged in Adams’ case. What this means is that taxpayers are subsidizing the moviemakers and paying for the tickets too while the industry walks off with the cash.
Sounds like a plot for a movie
Source: http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27265&Itemid=112
