CITY OF NEWBURGH – First, the backstory.

Major film and television productions using Umbra, the City of Newburgh’s highly regarded soundstage, have to shell out extra money to house production crews from outside the area because of a dearth of local people with the skills to prepare cameras, lights and sets.

Now, for the first scene: A well-traveled tech guy living in Newburgh hears about the shortage of local film talent and decides to organize a free “boot camp” for young people interested in becoming production assistants for film and TV – jobs that can start at $175 to $250 a day.

Scene 2: Local businesses and residents donate to fund the camp at Umbra, which is managed by film and theatrical production company Choice Films.

Scene 3: SUNY Orange freshman Alex Avila and 11 others survive a grueling four-day camp to graduate with enough skills to become entry-level crew members on productions. Some of them are now interning on a current production in Newburgh.

“What I learned in those couple days would probably take someone a whole semester to learn,” said Avila, 17, a City of Newburgh resident.

It was Michael Muyot, who is the well-traveled tech guy, and Choice Films founder Summer Crockett and Tony Glazer who decided to train local people; Blacc Vanilla café owners Jerrod Lang and Melanie Collins who helped find local youths; and businesses like insurance company William A. Smith & Son Inc., who contributed.

During two weekends last month, a dozen local residents up to age 25 were introduced to skills involving grip – camera, lighting and electrical setup – and other areas of behind-the-camera film work.

Their graduation is considered a win-win: creating a local film and television workforce that will not only give local people access to good-paying jobs but also attract cost-conscious productions to Hudson Valley soundstages like Umbra.

The camp’s success has spurred visions of additional training sessions and an expansion into carpentry, set design, wardrobe and other skills used by film and TV.

“These jobs pay really well,” Muyot said of the production assistant positions.

“Once you get a couple of years under your belt, you can receive $600, $700, $800 a day.”

Orange is one of the counties able to offer a powerful incentive to productions: a 40 percent state tax credit available to movie and TV productions.

Soundstages like Umbra also consider the presence of local film talent to be another key to attracting a larger share of the film and television business.

“Production companies will be more inclined to film here if they know there is a strong crew base locally,” Glazer said.

“So it really works to everyone’s advantage.”

Muyot raised $15,000 in cash donations for instructors, transportation and food.

The camp received another $30,000 worth of in-kind support, equipment and actors who volunteered for the end-of-camp live shoot in which Avila and others had to set up props, lights and cameras.

Avila and fellow graduate James O’Connor, 18, have both helped out on “The Sit Down,” a movie now filming in the City of Newburgh.

The boot camp graduates have helped clean vintage props for the film, which takes place in 1957, and set up for scene shoots.

O'Connor, a SUNY Ulster student and New Paltz resident, has been interested in film for years.

“They definitely set me up with a lot of connections to get started if I wanted to,” he said.

lsparks@th-record.com