By Rebecca Sowell for UP Magazine Winter Issue 2018
A man with thick salt-and-pepper hair walks along the hallways of Miami University’s Farmer School of Business, passing pristine crown molding and shining plaques naming notable donors. Once he reaches the primary atrium, he stops and places his hands on the polished brass railings.
He surveys the room, lost in thought. Before he walks away, he glances down at the crowd of eager students staring intently below him. He offers a quick wave. The group erupts in giggles and nervous chatter. One student squeals, “I love you!” and he chuckles. Actor George Clooney is no stranger to people fawning over him, but he was a new acquaintance to Miami’s campus.
In 2011, the filming of the movie “The Ides of March” brought Hollywood powerhouses George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Evan Rachel Wood to Oxford. But why Miami?
Kristen Erwin Schlotman, a Miami alumna ’96, is the executive director of Film Cincinnati, a nonprofit organization that encourages moviemakers to film around the Cincinnati area. The cast of “The Ides of March” had already been filming in Cincinnati for a few weeks, and when Schlotman heard the movie needed to shoot in a college setting, she advocated for Miami to be the primary location.
“My initial introduction of Miami to George was somewhere around Millville,” Schlotman said in the Miamian Magazine. “He said, ‘This is way too far.’ I kept telling him, wait a minute. Then we got there, and he said, ‘This is perfect. Now I know exactly why you drove me this far.’”
While Miami students were thrilled to sneak a glimpse of Hollywood magic on campus seven years ago, many students fail to realize that major blockbuster movies are frequently filmed right down the road in Cincinnati, Dayton, Hamilton and Northern Kentucky. In fact, the greater Cincinnati area has become an increasingly popular setting for major motion pictures.
It started in 1988 when actors Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman took up residency in Cincinnati to film “Rain Man,” which later won four Oscars, including Best Picture. This was the first major film that was shot in Cincinnati, inspiring many others to follow suit.
Since then, over 50 major films have been shot in the Cincinnati area, including “Carol,” “Killing of a Sacred Deer,” “Marauders” and “Traffic.” Local records were broken in 2016 when eight major movies were filmed in the area within one year. In 2017, film legend Robert Redford shot his final movie “The Old Man & the Gun” in Cincinnati before his indefinite retirement.
Yet one may ask: Why would filmmakers need to come to Cincinnati when they have New York and Los Angeles in the palms of their hands? Although Ohio’s enticing tax incentives definitely draw moviemakers (Hello, $40 million motion picture tax credit!), many of them are attracted to Cincinnati’s quaint architecture. As one of the largest urban historic districts in the country, the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is a popular filming spot because it resembles 1950s New York City.
Not only has the influx of Hollywood films benefitted the Ohio economy, but it’s also had a positive local impact. According to Film Cincinnati, during the filming of Zac Efron’s upcoming movie “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,” the production team donated leftover catering to homeless shelters around Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky at the end of each day.
It’s exhilarating to walk around Miami’s campus knowing that George Clooney and Ryan Gosling strolled along the same paths not too long ago. Hollywood’s new affinity for the Cincinnati area challenges the worn-out stereotypes of the Midwest being a colorless and unremarkable place. Oxford is so much more than just cornfields. Cincinnati isn’t just a bland second-tier city. The area is becoming more and more of a cultural center that people are interested in.
The world’s eyes and ears are captured by Cincinnati. And boy, does she shine.
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