The Hollywood movies that have been filmed in Cleveland recently have created buzz and the hope of being cast as an extra or rubbing elbows with a star. But when a film is made in Northeast Ohio, jobs are created across virtually every industry.

“Film productions in Cleveland have all sorts of goods and services that we don’t think of as normal film industry jobs,” says Ivan Schwarz, executive director of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission. “But whenever a film production needs an alley cleaned, they hire a crew to power wash and disinfect it.”

The need is for everything from seafood distributors to cleaning crews and sign makers. “The owner of FastSigns was blown away by what they wanted,” Schwarz says of a recent film project. The Film Commission is helping to tout the many opportunities films bring to Cleveland through workshops on everything from production to how to become a vendor to writing workshops.

The idea is to illustrate how many opportunities come with a film production. “Some of the companies made 50 percent of their revenues on movies this summer,” says Schwarz. “Vendors alone spent $100,000 a week on fuel.”

All of the workshops are listed on the Film Commission’s website. Schwarz is working with Cleveland State University to illustrate the economic development benefits to the region. “It’s really about building and creating ancillary jobs that support the industry,” he says. “The idea is to build an industry that is ongoing.”

Source: Ivan Schwarz
Writer: Karin Connelly