Tertiary Activities: Support Services

Although not currently recognized as Film business, tertiary activities are the kinds of locally-based businesses that are not film specific, but can readily adapt their services to meet film industry needs. These include (but are not limited to):

• Accommodation owners
• Taverns, bars, and restaurants
• Transport – taxi services, tours, trips, airport and other transfers
• Incidental services such as florists, hair salons, beauty parlors, craft shops
• Laundry services -ironing only, full laundry, sewing, and repairs
• Portering, courier & freight services
• Rugs, wall hangings, furniture, textiles, art
• Saddlery, saddles & leather goods
• Construction – collection of materials, thatching, building trades
• Maintenance services – vehicles, plant and equipment
• Metal workers
• Environmental services – gardening, bush clearing, composting
• Tour operator services
• Travel agencies
• Tour guides / Chaperones
• Marketing services
• Booking services
• Training services

This is a huge generalization, but nevertheless; the chances are that most if not all the above-the-line expenditures will be contracted and concluded even before a production comes to your jurisdiction. Above-the-line expenditures include rights for the material on which the screenplay is based, the salaries for the screenwriter, director, producer, and the headlining stars. You are likely to have much more luck with the categories of production that fall into below-the-line costs. This includes the salaries of the non-starring cast members and the technical crew, as well as the use of the film studio and its technical equipment, travel, location, and catering costs. Significant variables in below-the-line expenditures are the number of days or weeks producers have to pay workers or rent equipment; and the production design – sets, costumes, effects shots and anything else that needs to be created for each unique project. These are the kinds of opportunities you can prime your community to be ready to undertake.

Your workforce development activities can, of course, potentially address each of these areas: how to make sure tertiary activities are able to cross over into the film sector on demand, how secondary activities can be improved to such as degree that filmmakers do not need to bring their own, and how primary activities can be developed to the level whereby local people are creating their own films and stimulating economic activity locally.