A Challenge to Davis Entertainment - WHY NO ELMIRA?? WTF?

Chill out. They don't really show much of his life in Elmira. More so of Pennsylvania, then they move ahead to him being recruited while at Elmira. Basically just show him on the field, and at his home being talked to by Schwartzwalder. There was no need. His life after Elmira is the main focus of the movie. They really only showed maybe 2 minutes of actual Syracuse University as it is, and only filmed there on the last day of production.

1)Perhaps it isnt soley Davis Ents fault. They may have tried to film in Elmira & were denied. Elmira might be gone from the title bc your town wanted to be paid 2 much 4 use of their name. This is 2k8, nada is free & nada comes cheap!

2)Also, what is New Salem starts complaining? Ernie was born there & lived there til age 12 afterall.

3)& if Elmira needs a boost, Elmira needs 2 advertise itself more like all these Cali commercials Im seeing all the time.

4)Ernie isnt the sole thing outta Elmira. Do u challenge
Tedd Arnold ,John Arnot, Jr. ,Geoff Bodine ,Olivia Langdon Clemens ,Frederick Collin , Eileen Collins , Jacob Sloat Fassett , Henry Friendly ,Charles Tomlinson Griffes ,Tommy Hilfiger ,Andy Hilfiger ,John W. Jones ,Charles Thomas McMillen ,William P. Perry ,Beth Phoenix ,Jeanine Pirro ,Hal Roach ,Jane Roberts ,Francis Asbury Roe ,Joel Dorman Steele ,Art Sykes ,Mark Twain ,Brian Williams ,Don Zimmer . . . . . 2 boost Elmira?
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IndiaArie,TESTIMONY VOL 1:LIFE&RELATIONSHIP

I have to say that as an Elmira resident, I was, at first, disappointed to see find out that nothing was being filmed here. However, upon seeing the film, I can understand why. Yes, I wished there were a few more Elmira scenes as it would have been nice for our little town, but I realize the movie was not really about our town. We were just lucky enough to be mentioned. But our town does not quite look the way it used to when Ernie Davis lived here, and trying to recreate the town as it was when he lived here would have proved an improbable, if not impossible, task had it been done here. I think Hollywood did the right thing in choosing not to film here.

But I am also an SU grad and was extremely glad they filmed there. They portrayed the campus beautifully.

It is possible that the real culprit is Universal Studios, not Davis Entertainment. DE probably sold what rights it had to Universal, who financed the movie through its slate deal with Relativity. Universal made a budgetary decision to to shoot the film in Illinois not only because of the football facilities, but also because the Illinois State Film Tax Incentives, at the time of shooting, were much better (and still are) than those offered by the great State of New York.

In Illinois, a production company can obtain a 20% transferable tax credit for all of its Illinois production spend. On a $40 million budget, that's $8 million that it can either pre-finance for a discount, utilize for its own Illinois State tax liability or sell to another Illinois corporation or resident and take some action on the sale.

In NYS, in 2007, if Universal decided to shoot the film in Elmira (or anywhere outside of New York City for that matter), the tax incentive would have only been a 10% non-transferable tax rebate, not a credit, and the 10% does not apply to any of the above-the-line expenditures (i.e., star salaries, etc.), only "certain" below-the-line expenditures. Further, it would have been difficult to pre-finance because, it being a non-transferable rebate (cash), as apposed to a transferable tax credit, there would have been no market for it if Universal wanted to sell it. What this means is that the 10% ends up being more like 6% or 7% which, on $40 million, is only about $2.8 million at most.

Therefore, the actual budget for Universal in Illinois was probably more like $32 million. In NYS, that budget would have been $37.2 million. That $5.2 million is the reason why Universal (i.e., Davis Entertainment) shot in Illinois instead of Chicago.

The NYS program was changed by Albany in May 2008. The NYS tax rebate is now 30%. This puts it on par with Connecticut and Massachusetts, which have two of the best programs in the Northeast. The new program is not much better for upstate NY however. Although the percentage of the rebate went up by 20%, the program heavily benefits the networks and studios (i.e., Dick Wolf) who get an extra 5% (i.e., 35%) if they shoot their projects in NYC. Also, the rebate is still only on "certain" below-the-line deductions AND it is still a rebate and is non-transferable.

The failure of NYS to add above-the-line deductions as part of the rebate and to make the inventive a transferable tax credit instead of a rebate, will keep most independent projects (and studio) going to NYS's sister states because of the better programs offered by those states. Connecticut is 30% on all expenditures, and the credits is transferable (although the market for the credit is small). Massachusetts is 25% on all expenditures and the credit is transferable. Coupled with the fact that it is cheaper to shoot there instead of NYS, both Massachusetts and Connecticut have a deep crew basis that will keep productions from coming to NY.

MOST films are not shot on location. Much bigger and better-known American cities have been portrayed by Toronto or other Canadian cities, because it's cheaper to film there.

It just doesn't make financial sense to film what, a few scenes, in Elmira, especially if the town doesn't look anything like it looked then. And I'm a Syracuse native.

As for the title, I don't even recall Davis being referred to "The Express" at all during the movie, so I wondered why they had that as the title. But if that's what they chose, they want to have a snappy title, and "The Elmira Express" just isn't. They aren't obligated to title it the way you want it.

If you are going to make a movie about an Elmira hometown hero, you have an obligation to that town in some manner.

If they have such an obligation, they met it by making it clear that Davis came from Elmira. The only real obligation is not to slander a town, and they didn't. The West Virginia folks have more right to complain, because there really is slander there.



You must be the change you seek in the world. -- Gandhi

That would've been interesting to see. I also wish they had some Elmira scenes in the movies. I'm from Georgia, but I went to Elmira once with a friend of mine. It was a great town.

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As a former Elmiran, I challenge you to answer...

You're a clown.