Best affordable city for filmmakers in the US?

[James McBee]

I don?t know if this is the best place for this, but it didn?t seem to fit in any of the other groupings. I?m looking to get out D.C. where I?ve lived for the last few years. In my experience DC is sort of a film wasteland if you?re not into documentary, and don?t have the contacts to get work on the big Hollywood projects that occasionally shoot here when they need to have the capital building in the background for one of their political thrillers. I?d like to stay on the east coast, and preferably move north rather than south (I like the cold, or rather dislike the heat) but I?m not married to either preference. I?m looking to do the whole indy thing, and I want to find somewhere cheap that has a good arts scene. I decided a long time ago that moving to NYC or to LA would be the wrong way to go about things?at least for me. I think if you go to one of those places you are just one of a huge number of people trying to get noticed, and people are a lot more cynical about banding together and doing something on their own. So I figure if I can find a more affordable place with a decent amount of like minded individuals it would be a good start. A decent job market wouldn't hurt either. So where should I be considering?

 

Thanks for your thoughts.