In The News

The producers of Hollywood blockbusters and arthouse films alike are on the lookout for the most cost-efficient locations. Recent examples include several of the year’s Oscar nominees, from “Aftersun,” which shot in Turkey; “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” which went to Budapest; to “Elvis,” in Australia.

The professionals who discover where a movie is shot are some of the first people to be hired on a production — and a film’s success rests on their keen eyes.

This year, the Academy Awards will honor outstanding achievement in film for the 95th year. Directors, actors, production designers, editors, costume designers, writers, composers and more will be celebrated for their artistic vision, yet one of the greatest visionary roles in film — that of location scouts — will once again go unrecognized. A film’s locations are among the most essential creative building blocks of film, and the scouts who find them are artists deserving of recognition by the Academy.

James L. Dolan, the interim executive chairman of AMC Networks, has been perking up some ears with his frank assessments of the state of the entertainment business as studios and TV giants adjust to the realities of streaming. “The current mechanisms for monetizing content are not working,” Dolan said. “The content industry needs to reorganize itself. We’re seeing this now with most media companies beginning to course correct to better monetize content and improve the economics of their business.”

The last time I talked to Portland filmmaker Noah Bessey in May of last year, he’d just wrapped on his second, Maine-made short film. Our second phone interview, less than a year later, sees Bessey telling me all about writing his first-ever feature film, which has just hit streaming services everywhere.

It’s the sort of feel-good Maine moviemaker tale you’ll want to hear.

The streaming economy — and the writer’s place in it — will be a central theme of the upcoming talks between Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America. The union’s current contract expires on May 1,with the industry bracing for a major battle and what could be the first strike in 15 years. That has the entertainment business growing increasingly anxious that production could grind to a halt. If that weren’t enough, the entertainment companies also must reach new agreements with the major unions representing directors and actors, who might also take to the picket lines if their terms aren’t met.