“What I love about Buffalo is that it’s timeless. You can shoot stuff that looks midwestern, that looks like Chicago or New York City. You can have a set from the 20s or 30s or 40s. The architecture and location is a huge selling point.”
Andrew Gernhard has produced films across the U.S., Europe and even Fiji.
But when he looks at the rubric of a successful production hub – tax incentives, crew depth, architecture and a robust local supply chain – he sees something special in Buffalo.
That’s why Gernhard has set up a small production office at Buffalo FilmWorks, and why he shot two recent moves in Buffalo for the Hallmark Channel, including A Newport Christmas and Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love story.
As the successful head of Synthetic Cinema who specializes in holiday-themed TV movies, Gernhard expects to be coming back soon.
“Buffalo has become one of our top locations,” Gerhhard said. “The people are great. The film office (Buffalo Niagara Film Commission) is amazing. They’re definitely building an ecosystem up there.”
Series B is largely focused on high-growth startup companies that can pave the way for a new era of growth in Buffalo. The film industry is a different take on that ethos. It leverages our natural environment and architectural legacy to create an entirely new industry that can pull economic activity and investment into Buffalo.
Gernhard’s attention on Buffalo is no accident. The region has emerged as a production hub for several reasons.
Tax incentives: Newly adopted New York state subsidies for productions considerably more lucrative than they were, covering up to 40% of the costs for a film shot in Upstate New YOrk. Gernhard called them the “best incentives in the nation.”
Years of capacity-building: From newly-established production hubs like FilmWorks and Great Point Studios to a deep bench of experienced film crews and companies.
Fungible environment: In Gernhard’s words, “What I love about Buffalo is that it’s timeless. You can shoot stuff that looks midwestern, that looks like Chicago or New York City. You can have a set from the 20s or 30s or 40s. The architecture and location is a huge selling point.”
A place where people like to be: Gernhard pointed out Buffalo’s quality-of-life, with its mix of modern social-cultural amenities combined with affordability and access.
Restaurants, walkable neighborhoods and a welcoming culture contribute to morale during multi-week shoots.
"I'm a foodie and the food in Buffalo is amazing," Gernhard said. "Crews and producers will move a shoot to a place just for the food scene, which is kind of funny."
Not long ago, all the work that went into preparing Buffalo for this moment looked to be tenuous. The pace of productions slowed dramatically over the course of pandemic restrictions and prolonged strikes by Hollywood actors and writers unions.
But Tim Clark, commissioner of the Buffalo Niagara Film Commission, said that uncertainty has washed away over the past two years, led by the new incentives.
Today, multiple films are shooting in and around Buffalo simultaneously, Clark said. The region now has the depth to support overlapping productions without straining labor pools or facilities.
The goal now is to extend the impact beyond Buffalo’s city limits, from Niagara Falls to Lockport to Chautauqua County and other parts of Western New York. Clark pointed to Atlanta as an example of how a regional production hub can lift an entire area’s economy.
“This is already taking off beyond what anybody imagined, and it’s both sustainable and growable,” he said. “We have the infrastructure and the crew base to make Western New York a sustained production boom.”
