All hail the cabs: Pittsburgh has a chance to ride in big-city style

This is great news for the city! It’s hard to really enjoy everything downtown has to offer if you don’t have a car.

In New York or Washington, D.C., people complain that it's hard to get a cab when it rains. In Pittsburgh, people complain that it's hard to get a cab in any weather, unless the rider is at a hotel or the airport.

Pittsburgh just isn't a cab town. Several theories abound but, whatever the reason, the lack of taxis is a legitimate complaint of visitors who are used to better service elsewhere. The city has great hotels, fine restaurants and lively communities to visit -- if you have your own way to get there and back.

In a city where it is not the custom for cabs to be hailed from the street, it's not just visitors who suffer. The dreams of Pittsburgh being a true destination point are parked at the curb. Fortunately, that may change.

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Transportation Group --which includes Yellow Cabs, shuttle vans and coaches and limousines -- announced a service by the new Pittsburgh City Cab, which will offer short runs between Downtown and nearby neighborhoods, such as the North Shore, the South Side, Mount Washington and Oakland.

The six black-and-white cars are not cabs to catch for a trip to Pittsburgh International Airport -- and that's not the only big difference from usual practice. Jerry Campolongo, director of Yellow Cab Co. and Pittsburgh City Cab, said riders can hail these taxis from the curb if they are not occupied. (Next year, regular cabs might be allowed to stop for hailing customers.)

The new idea is to promote service in the city's core, connecting restaurants and other businesses with desirable destinations nearby. Cars will be added as needed, so there is a Field of Dreams element to the plan -- provide it and they will come.

We hope the riders do come, filling more cabs and patronizing a service that other great cities have and Pittsburgh deserves.

Read more at The Post Gazette.

You Can Hail A Cab In Pittsburgh Now?

Pittsburgh has made a lot of progress over the years. But this takes things to a whole new level. Who else is psyched for more cabs downtown??

City Cab is a new taxi service serving downtown Pittsburgh and many of its surrounding city neighborhoods.

The fleet of six black-and-white cabs was launched into service on Tuesday morning by Pittsburgh Transportation Group, which also runs Yellow Cab.

City Cab provides service to downtown Pittsburgh, Oakland, the Strip District, the North Side, the South Side, Uptown, the West End and Mount Washington.

"It's going to bring more people in here. They're going to feel like, 'Hey, it doesn't matter that I have to go to the Strip District now. If it's raining, I don't have to walk. I can take a city cab,'" said Jeremy Waldrup, of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

Potential riders said the cabs may help ease recent cutbacks to the Port Authority's bus service.

"All the routes being taken away, I think it'd be a big benefit to a lot of people -- students, people employed down here in the city," said Jeff McGee of Oakland.

Director Jerry Campolongo said they will adjust their service areas, based on demand. He realizes that it may lose money at the beginning, but they see a future in it.

He also cracked a joke as he acknowledged the historic difficulty of hailing a cab in the city.

"Here's the deal in Pittsburgh," Campolongo said. "Up until today, if you put your hand up and wave for a taxi cab, the cab driver will wave back at you and keep going. After today, you hail these guys, they're going to pull over, they're going to take you for a ride."

"I'll be looking for better customer service with my customers, to try to get them local places. I'm looking forward to being a more reliable service," City Cab driver Danny Waajid said.

City Cab is expected to add 14 more vehicles by the end of the year.

"A lot of people can't get taxicabs. I send them over to the hotel every day for a taxicab. We need good people like this," said Ken Price, who works at a parking garage.

Read more: http://www.wtae.com/news/30723525/detail.html#ixzz1pyJVyXpp

Lights, cameras ... : Action at a new studio keeps Pittsburgh on film

Love seeing news like this!

Pittsburgh is used to street closures and traffic jams due to movie shoots. Whether doubling as Batman's Gotham City or providing scenic backdrops for the new Tom Cruise film, Pittsburgh has become an ideal place for shooting movies and TV shows. The state tax credit, the skill and flexibility of labor unions and the diversity of architecture and terrain have worked to the region's advantage.

Since 2009, movie shoots have pumped $300 million into the regional economy, so it makes sense to attract more high-tech and post-production work here, too. Last Monday, Pittsburgh entered a new phase in its relationship with Hollywood. Four movie-making entities announced an alliance that will make the region even more appealing to future productions.

The 31st Street Studios in the Strip District will host Paramount On Location, the special effects giant Knight Vision and classes for Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center. CMU students will work on high-tech movie productions in a 300,000-square-foot space on 10 acres along the Allegheny River.

Knight Vision is best known for its spectacular digital effects on "Avatar," the highest-grossing film of all time. Knight Vision 31, the Pittsburgh division, promises even more innovation. The company's founder was attracted to the project because of the opportunity to work with CMU's Entertainment Technology Center.

Paramount On Location, a division of the Paramount Studio Group, will be the regional base for supplying lights, rigging and equipment to movie shoots in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. Together, these four groups bring a formidable alliance of skills, resources and experience.

The region has been fortunate to have the leadership of the Pittsburgh Film Office laying the foundation for this alliance by attracting so much business in the first place. The administrations of former Gov. Ed Rendell and now Gov. Tom Corbett also deserve credit for helping the film industry bloom in Western Pennsylvania.

Read more at the Post Gazette.

Matt Damon and Christian Bale movies may start filming here in spring

Pittsburgh’s filming schedule is really starting to pick up! Are any of you working on these new movies?

April will be anything but the cruelest month for filmmaking in Pittsburgh.

"Promised Land," a Gus Van Sant movie starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski and Frances McDormand, is looking for office space and advertising for crew on the Pittsburgh Film Office website and could start production in late April.

In addition, "Out of the Furnace" directed by Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart") and starring Christian Bale and Robert Duvall is headed to Braddock and elsewhere, according to the film office and State Rep. Paul Costa, D-Allegheny. "Out of the Furnace" is also accepting resumes for crew, according to the job listings portion of the film office site.

Mr. Costa issued a press release Tuesday afternoon touting the 250-plus full-time jobs the $45 million movie will bring. "Filming will begin this spring and run for approximately 16 weeks," he said.

However, Relativity Media, which is producing "Out of the Furnace," had no comment Tuesday afternoon. The trade publication Variety has pointed out that producers are aiming for a late spring start but Relativity has not yet green lit the picture or firmed up deals with the actors, including Mr. Bale, Mr. Duvall and Zoe Saldana, in "early talks" for the project.

Variety has described the movie as a gritty throwback to 1970s movies, originally based on Brad Ingelsby's script "The Low Dweller" and revised by Mr. Cooper. It's about an ex-convict torn between his freedom and the temptation to avenge his brother's death.

Mr. Cooper directed Jeff Bridges to an Oscar as a broken-down country singer in "Crazy Heart" and helped Maggie Gyllenhaal score a nomination for supporting actress.

Talking about Mr. Damon, who came here in 1998 to make "Dogma" with director Kevin Smith, film office director Dawn Keezer said Tuesday, "We're happy to welcome him back to southwestern Pennsylvania."

Mr. Damon, who won an Oscar for co-writing "Good Will Hunting" with Ben Affleck, had planned to direct the movie but changed his mind due to scheduling issues, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He co-wrote the drama with Mr. Krasinski, best known for "The Office" but a big-screen actor with credits such as "Big Miracle," "It's Complicated" and "Away We Go."

The trade publication says Mr. Damon will portray a salesman who arrives in a small town, only to have his life changed.

Mr. Van Sant is an Oscar-nominated director for "Milk" and "Good Will Hunting" -- movies which earned Academy Awards for Sean Penn, supporting actor Robin Williams and their screenwriters. "Having the acclaimed director Gus Van Sant in town is great. We're thrilled to have him for this production and hope he comes back for many, many more," Ms. Keezer said.

The return of Mr. Damon and, perhaps, Batman minus cape and cowl is the message the film office wants to send. "What it does is it tells the story that we always say, once people come to Southwestern Pennsylvania, see it and experience it, they want to come back. We're getting to showcase that now."

She anticipated no problem providing crews for both movies.

"We've been running four and five productions at a time. Thanks to the success of the Pennsylvania film tax credit program, we have quadrupled our local crew base and as the amount of work continues to increase in the film industry, we expect the crew to grow as well."

Both movies are expected to take advantage of the tax credit which, in the past, lured such projects as "One Shot" and "Perks of Being a Wallflower" to Pittsburgh.

One movie that has dropped off the radar, however, is Charlie Kaufman's "Frank or Francis," a musical satire about a film director and an online blogger.

" 'Frank or Francis' is not starting production at this point. We're hoping they may put this deal together and still make the movie at some point in the near future but at this point, it's not shooting in Western Pennsylvania," Ms. Keezer said.

That scenario proves that until the cameras roll, nothing is ever definite.

Read more: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/12067/1214877-60-0.stm?cmpid=newspanel0#ixzz1odeahIe8

31st Street Studios brings in Paramount, ETC

Exciting news for Pittsburgh!

31st Street Studios is ready to bring some high-powered and high-tech partners into its 330,000-square-foot former steel facility that it expects will further solidify its goal to make its Strip District facility a world-competitive movie and video game production hub.

Led by Principal Chris Breakwell, the company announced a three-way arrangement that will bring in Hollywood-based Knight Vision Studios, the motion-capture studio whose principal provided the computer-generated animation and digital production for the blockbuster movie "Avatar," to establish its capabilities at 31st Street. The studio does so in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center, which also will establish a presence in the Strip District facility, beginning to house some of its classes at the studio facility this semester and giving its students a graduate-level curriculum and exposure to the latest in motion-capture and digital filmmaking.

On top of the motion-capture agreement, 31st Street also has established a long-term agreement with major Hollywood player Paramount Studio Group and its Paramount On Location division, which will offer production support services for such regular film production demands as lighting, grip and transportation. James Knight, the founder of Knight Vision, which he launched after a three-and-a-half year assignment on "Avatar," a film that’s considered groundbreaking for its extensive use of computer-generated film techniques, said in a prepared statement that the opportunity to work with 31rst Street was a unique one.

“The environment at 31st Street and the cooperation with CMU’s ETC make this a unique opportunity,” said Knight. “We’re going to do things no one else is doing anywhere.

Don Marinelli, executive producer of the ETC program, described enormous potential for the Knight Vision technology to be set up at 31st Street that converge in different industries and in ways that have yet to be fully explored.

“The digitization of filmmaking provides myriad opportunities for the creation of new forms of visual expression, immersion, storytelling and gaming,” he said in a statement. “Having Knight Vision System at 31st Street Studios will give ETC students a tremendous opportunity to advance filmmaking in Pittsburgh.”

The deal with Paramount comes after the studio spent months using the facilities at 31st Street in shooting the Tom Cruisemovie “One Shot,” as well as after the studio facility hosted the last installment of the Batman franchise last summer, a Warner Brothers production.

No specific terms of all the financial agreements involved were divulged. No estimated cost for installing the new motion-capture capabilities was disclosed, either.

Randy Baumberger, president of Paramount Studio Group, described the 31st Street facility as ”the perfect gateway to many of our major partners across the East Coast,” calling the complex an “ideal location” in which to expand its production services.

Breakwell, whose Gateway Entertainment Studios LP bought the studio property in May, said the partnerships will play an important role in making Pittsburgh a key destination for filmmaking in the years to come.

“Our idea from the beginning was to create the best facility of its type in the country," he said. "We’ve gone a long way toward that goal in our first year, and these partnerships will continue to help cement Pittsburgh as a production environment unrivalled throughout North America.”

Breakwell does so with the firm support of Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who welcomed Paramount on Location and Knight Vision Studios to the region and expressed hope to see the region continue to bring more productions to the region, further helping to boost the local economy.

Read more at bizjournals.com/pittsburgh.

Bill Hinzman, First Zombie from Night of the Living Dead and more

Carl Kurlander wrote this great piece for Community Voices about Bill Hinzman, the “first zombie” of Night of the Living Dead.

Bill Hinzman passed away earlier this month, leaving behind quite a legacy in Pittsburgh. Best known by some for playing the first zombie to appear in the classic 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, Bill was loved by fans for his eagerness to show up to all sorts of horror film events and conventions, dress in costume, and tell stories. But I first met Bill in 2002 when I first came back from L.A. to teach at the University of Pittsburgh at a gathering which I will never forget on Halloween night where he and some of the other cast and crew had graciously agreed to speak to students of a new club called "Pitt In Hollywood" that I was faculty advisor for. 

Truth be told, I had never seen the Night of the Living Dead when growing up as I was afraid of scary movies. I, like the makers of Night of the Living Dead, had watched Chilly Billy Cardille on the local NBC. And my mother actually appeared in one of George Romero's movies, Hungry Wives (which I have never seen for fear she may be naked in the movie.) But one of my students wanted to get a guy named Bruce Campbell to speak on campus, and we didn't have any budget, so I heard Pitt had an original print of Night of Living Dead which seemed like it might be a good special event.  Then another student suggested getting the cast and crew to attend.  When I asked how, someone got a phone book and we remarkably discovered that many of those involved in the movie still lived in Pittsburgh. 

And so on October 31, 2002, Bill Hinzman joined screenwriter John ("Jack") Russo, producer Russ Streiner (who also utters the classic line "They're coming to get you Barrbarra", and actors Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman.   They shared with us how Night of the Living Dead came to be, a story that is now somewhat legendary in the world of independent film. Shot on a budget of sixty thousand dollars, with cameramen filling in as zombies, a automobile borrowed from Streiner's mother, and chocolate syrup used as blood, the film represents a unique group effort that embodies the spirit of the Pittsburgh film scene.   Because of their low budget, Bill and his cohorts had to be creative.   For instance, if you look at the graveyard scene, the lightning only appears in close-ups.   And if you watch closely when Barbara's car crashes, their is a dent before it hits the tree-- because Russ Streiner mother had had an accident with her car between days of shooting.   

But what really came across that evening was the wonderful comraderie that still existed between the filmmakers.   They had not just made this film on a whim.  They had worked for years on their craft, doing commercials, working on the legendary Rege Cordic radio show.   They had collectively chosen to write a horror script because they could be done on their budget.   Everyone did whatever had be done on the set-- including Bill helping out as on camera-- as he would go on to be a DP and a director of his own films.   

There is also a wonderful story of how Bill ended up saving the brother of Russ Streiner, Gary Streiner who was doing sound, when his arm accidentally caught fire during a special effect mishap.  Bill, in full zombie make-up, tackled Gary to the ground and helped put out the flames.

What came across most when I finally did get to watch Night of the Living Dead with that crowd was how wonderfully the movie holds up.   It is far more than a horror film.   Though it was not planned while they were making it, the film held great meaning in the era of the 60s with the Vietnam War and Civil Rights movement in full swing.   But it also speaks to the importance of us working together in crisis-- that all we have is each other.

Ironically, or perhaps because of Pittsburgh, when we were filming My Tale of Two Cities in a Steelers bar in Burbank, I got to meet a nice young woman named Heidi Hinzman-- Bill's daughter who has worked on many shows in L.A.   Pittsburgh is everywhere.

Although more and more mainstream films are beginning production in Pittsburgh, the film community here remains tight-knit and collaborative. Myself and the rest of those involved in this community are saddened by the loss of Bill Hinzman, but grateful for all the things he contributed to Pittsburgh and the world.

P.S.

Shortly after this, I learned that Russ and Gary's mother Josephine also passed away just shortly after Bill.   We send along our deepest condolescences to both families.  

Read more: http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/arts-entertainment-living/six-degrees-of-pittsburgh/31897-night-of-the-living-dead 

Film Notes: Film Office's Oscar party stocked with auction prizes

Are you going? Tickets are still available!

The winner of, say, the Oscar for best actress won't be the only contest at stake at this year's "Highmark Presents Lights! Glamour! Action!" party.

A poster for "The Dark Knight Rises" autographed by director Christopher Nolan along with actors Gary Oldman, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is among the nearly 150 items partygoers can bid on at the Feb. 26 gala.

The mix of entertainment, sports, Pittsburgh and pampering prizes includes two tickets to a summer Poison concert, the chance to watch the show from the side of the stage and to meet Bret Michaels.

Both of those items carry hefty minimum bids, but partygoers can bid on a copy of the book "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" autographed by writer-director Stephen Chbosky along with stars Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Logan Lerman, Nina Dobrev and others.

A collection of T-shirts and posters from "Abduction" ($25 minimum bid) will be on the block along with an autographed script for "The Good Wife," a collection of DVDs signed by Denzel Washington, along with two seats from the Civic Arena, a Hines Ward autographed football, Steelers tickets, a trip to Walt Disney World and a "Dancing With the Stars" VIP experience.

The 12th annual Oscar party, a main source of support for the Pittsburgh Film Office, will be held at Heinz Field. The telecast will be streamed live on a big screen at the event, which is black tie optional.

Tickets, still available, are $250 per person and include entry at 6 p.m., a VIP champagne reception and valet parking; $125 gala ticket provides admission at 7:30 p.m.; and Oscar tickets, $75 if six or more ordered, with admission also at 7:30 p.m. The gala will feature food stations, a bar and live music.

To order or for more information, call the film office at 412-261-2744 or go to www.pghfilm.org.

Honorary event co-chairs are Dr. Tony G. Farah, president and CEO, WPAHS Physicians Organization, and his wife, Dr. Katie Farah. The film office, which is coming off the biggest year in its 22-year history, markets the 10-county southwestern Pennsylvania region to Hollywood.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12048/1210748-60.stm#ixzz1mgRDZTDu