National Perspectives
Filmmakers Say Hooray for Cleveland
September 10, 2006 - The New York Times
By LISA CHAMBERLAIN
IF asked to name a budding film community, most people would not put Cleveland first on the list, or even second or third. But one of the few loft developments in the country geared toward filmmakers and animators is located in an old working-class neighborhood of Cleveland called Slavic Village.
Just south of downtown, with views of an operating steel mill, is Hyacinth Lofts, a sturdy historic red brick building that was once a warehouse for the city's Board of Education. Now it is home to 51 loft apartments; 20 percent have built-in soundproof editing suites. Residents also have free use of a 1,600-square-foot windowless "black box" and green screen to create film sets; a two-story loft space for casting calls and film release parties; and a back lot for outdoor shoots. And for those people whose apartments are not equipped with a separate editing space, there are two more fully wired, soundproof editing suites available.
The apartments are not too shabby, either.
Kate O'Neil and Kevin Kerwin, producer and director, respectively, of Authentic Films, pay $1,100 a month for a 1,450-square-foot loft. From their 20-foot-long bank of north-facing windows, they can see the pilot flame shooting out of the flare stack at the steel mill, lighting up the nighttime sky like a tapered candlestick. It is not the view they originally sought — the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles was more like it — but sometimes the layover becomes the final destination.
After leaving New York two years ago, the couple stayed temporarily with Ms. O'Neil's family in Chagrin Falls, a small town east of Cleveland, while they finished their project, "Filmic Achievement," a kind of spoof about film school.
They had run out of money and space to finish it in New York (Mr. Kerwin has a master's degree in film from Columbia University). So the plan was to do postproduction work at Ms. O'Neil's parents' house before moving to Los Angeles.
But Ms. O'Neil and Mr. Kerwin found their skills in demand in commercial film production, and their business began growing. "Filmic Achievement" was accepted by the Cleveland International Film Festival, the first of 18 independent film festivals to screen their movie.
Then, they heard about Hyacinth Lofts.
"We were like: 'Are you kidding? A loft building for filmmakers — here?' " Ms. O'Neil said. "That sealed the deal."
"We realized we could stay, make a living and be happy," Mr. Kerwin said. "I look at some of my friends in L.A. and it takes seven or eight years for them to get a film made. Here you can focus because it's not such a scramble. And when we show the film at festivals around the country, we pitch our commercial reel to agencies in other cities. We don't intend to be a local production company, but a national one that happens to be based in Cleveland."
Coincidentally, one of Mr. Kerwin's classmates at Columbia's film school also lives in Hyacinth Lofts. Konnie Peroune, originally from Cleveland, met her husband, Gary, in New York and moved into Hyacinth Lofts with their two children, Cheyenne, 5, and Maya, 3, to focus on filmmaking. (Mr. Peroune works for the city.) But when high-functioning autism was diagnosed in their elder daughter, Ms. Peroune's film career took a different turn.
She noticed that Cheyenne, who is shy and has trouble making direct eye contact with other children, would watch children intently on television and talk back to the screen in a way she did not with real children. It occurred to Ms. Peroune to develop an educational DVD geared toward autistic children. She used the building's community space to cast local children, whom she then filmed on the back lot and around the neighborhood, doing ordinary things to stimulate speech and social behavior.
She then played the footage for her daughter and another friend's child who also has autism. Their responses were encouraging, so Ms. Peroune is now developing a whole series called "See Me Be Me" based on different instructional themes, such as understanding body parts, which she will market to distributors at toy shows.
"I could never undertake this project if I had to rent all the space I use for free here," said Ms. Peroune, who has a two-bedroom 1,100-square-foot apartment that rents for $800. It is one of the apartments without a soundproof editing room, so Ms. Peroune expects to use one of the two free spaces as "See Me Be Me" progresses.
"The other thing is," Ms. Peroune continued, "just being here stimulates ideas and synergies." Philip Hughley, a musician living in the building, is scoring the series.
That is precisely the effect that David Perkowski, the building's developer, was hoping for.
"Sure, the amenities are nice, but it's the creative energy that really makes it work," said Mr. Perkowski, president of Tower Press Development. He had previously developed a historic building in downtown Cleveland with more traditional apartments geared toward fine artists. With the success of that building, he began looking around for a similar project but wanted to do something a little different. Mr. Perkowski undertook the seemingly risky venture of a filmmakers' building using historic tax credits as well as tax abatements from the city. The building, which was completed in the fall of 2004, is 92 percent leased.
Mr. Perkowski has bought an adjacent property, a large garage, that will be converted into a soundproof practice and recording space for musicians.
A third property across the street, a former dairy plant, will be redeveloped by Mr. Perkowski as living and work space for people in stage productions, with wood flooring for dancers and other performance artists.
But it is the film community that is booming here. The Greater Cleveland Film Commission, started in 1998, recruited the location manager of "Spider-Man 3" to shoot action scenes in downtown Cleveland. When the shoot was over, the location manager, Peter Martorano, packed up his family and moved to Cleveland from Los Angeles. On his heels is Ivan E. Schwarz, the location manager for the HBO series "Entourage" and co-producer for "Band of Brothers," who will also be relocating his family to Cleveland from Los Angeles after accepting a job as the vice president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission.
Mr. Perkowski said he hoped that Hyacinth Lofts would continue to be a magnet for smaller filmmakers who could then take advantage of the larger productions being nurtured by the commission.
At least one more Columbia film school graduate, Jon Greenwald, is relocating to Cleveland and is looking at Hyacinth Lofts.
"There seems to be a developing film scene there," said Mr. Greenwald, 36, who grew up in a suburb of Cleveland and completed film school in 2005. He thought he had to be either in the New York or Los Angeles area to be in the film industry, but he and his wife, Kate Lansbury, and two dogs will move to Cleveland from Ridgewood, N.J., by the end of the month.
"I've become more comfortable with the idea of being a filmmaker in Cleveland," he said. "Even two years ago, I wouldn't have even considered it."
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