Today Mayor Vincent C. Gray and DC Office of Motion Picture and Television Development Director Crystal Palmer will participate in a series of meetings with cable network executives in New York to attract more cable production to the District. Mayor Gray and Director Palmer also hope to encourage network executives to develop programming for their network around the subject of DC Statehood.
“These meetings in New York are a continuation of the effort we began earlier this year in Los Angeles with major studio and network executives, which were extremely beneficial to our efforts to attract more film production to the District,” stated Mayor Gray. “We also believe that our DC Statehood movement is a fascinating topic for film and television and it is certainly a remarkable story that needs to be told.”
Mayor Gray and Director Palmer will meet with cable production executives from HBO, Food Network, Comedy Central, and A&E to attract more major television productions to the nation’s capital as part of Mayor Gray’s economic development effort and to educate the viewing public about the topical issue of DC Statehood.
Mayor Gray held successful meetings with executives of major studios and networks in Los Angeles in late July to discuss how to attract more Hollywood business to the District. As a result of meeting with approximately 20 executives from studios and networks such as Paramount, Warner Bros., HBO, and NBC, several potential projects for the District became a reality, including HBO’s new television series Veep, NBC-TV’s The Firm, Paramount Pictures’ G.I. Joe, and the new Warner Bros. feature film starring and directed by Ben Affleck, Argo.
Major feature film and television productions filming in the District have historically served as a source of local production jobs and a boost to the economy at-large. In Fiscal Year 2011, revenue generated from television production alone totaled $12 million. During the same fiscal year, television production also provided more than 2,300 jobs to local residents ranging from production assistants to extras.