The Statesman Journal features Hinge and EP Roland Gauthier. The article follows the unique culture of the Oregon Film Industry Finding its Place with a Changing Hollywood.
“Oregon is no Hollywood. But the state’s growing film industry has found a niche in a changing era for film producers.
The blockbusters for Oregon film producers are more likely to be a Netflix television series or production deal for a Cartoon Network show than a big-budget Hollywood production.
It’s a dynamic that reflects Oregon and the broader film industry. It’s now the golden age for streaming services like Netflix and Hulu with television series and mid-level films.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s film incentive program is relatively modest compared to Georgia and Canada, places with massive incentives that have historically attracted major studio film productions
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Hinge, a Portland-based studio, has been around for about a decade. Roland Gauthier, the company’s executive director and a partner, said Hinge’s “core and first love is character animation and visual effects.”
The company’s participated in the incentive program for Toonami, a show on the Cartoon Network show’s Adult Swim offerings for several years.
The incentive program has helped the company “bring on additional full-time artists that we wouldn’t otherwise have the funding to do,” Gauthier said.
Benefits can extend beyond a production company.
The incentive program encourages productions to do business with Oregon-based vendors so that expenses can qualify as expenses for incentives. As a result, Gauthier’s company switched from a California-based company to an Oregon broker to purchase production insurance.
Hinge also uses Oregon-based software providers for that reason.
“The more that we can be on the map and in people’s psyche as a really strong place to be able to produce and post-produce content, the more that we can grow the industry, get more talent up here and get more producers to come here,” Gauthier said.
Film incentives also cover interactive games. For film production companies that means the incentives pave the way for companies to grow and enter related areas, like augmented reality technology.
“It’s not just your traditional film production or TV show production,” he said. “It’s also game production and new media content.” “