Posted 30 September, 2007 in NJ News
New Jersey is luring moviemakers with some big tax incentives
Sunday, September 30, 2007
BY ABBY GRUEN
Newhouse News Service
You can read New Jersey ’s future in the stars. Stars like Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, Kevin Bacon, Angelica Huston, Matthew Broderick and Paul Giamatti, all of whom have worked on film productions here this year.
Moviemaking has come back to New Jersey in a big way because of a new 20 percent tax credit program, and aggressive outreach by the state’s film commission.
New Jersey , like dozens of other states that have recently started offering generous tax incentives, wants to host filming projects because they generate millions of dollars in economic activity with little effect on the state’s infrastructure, said Steven Gorelick, associate director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission.
The appeal of New Jersey extends beyond lower taxes. It benefits by its location next door to New York City ’s media and production companies; its experienced work force; and by local specialized vendors, such as ARRI of Secaucus, which is one of the largest suppliers of lights and cameras to the industry.
“This is the first full year the 20 percent tax credit has been in effect and the interest has been through the roof,” Gorelick said. “Last year, 941 productions spent $92million in the state.”
New Jersey has joined a rush of states, more than 35, that have either passed or enhanced existing tax credits in the past five years, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
New York City began to offer 15 percent filming credits, using a 5 percent contribution from the city on top of 10 percent from New York state, in 2005. New Jersey and Connecticut followed the next year with 20 percent and 30 percent tax credit programs.
GARDEN STATE
“A single production, such as ‘Be Kind, Rewind,’ a Jack Black comedy, spent just under $10million in the state in an eight-week period last fall.” Gorelick said. “And when ‘Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’ recently shot 14 episodes, they spent $24million in the state.”
Tax credit programs are thought to generate economic activity equivalent to three times the production company’s expenditures, said Steven Katz, co-founder of the Center for Entertainment Industry Data and Research in Los Angeles .
This summer, Lori Keith Douglas produced an HBO movie in New Jersey called “Taking Chance,” the true story of a Marine lieutenant colonel who escorts the body of a 19-year-old private killed in Iraq to his hometown in Wyoming .
“This was my first foray into shooting an entire movie in New Jersey ,” said Douglas who also produced the movie “The Namesake.” “We could have done this in and around Philadelphia , or in and around Baltimore , but we wanted to get into production really quickly without having to scout a lot of states.”
Scenes that actually took place in other parts of the country were filmed in a home in West Caldwell; a VFW hall in Fairfield; Bergen Community College in Paramus; Newark Liberty International Airport; and Kean University in Union.
“The beauty of New Jersey has always been that there are a lot of different looks in the zone,” said Douglas, referring to an industry term used in determining overtime charges for union crew based on proximity to New York City . “You can have beautiful suburban houses, an urban environment, an airport, schools and churches. Plus, a lot of the crew lives in New Jersey and always has. It’s great when they can sleep in their own beds, as well as our lead actor and director, who live in the city.
“We employed 150 for this production, maybe 30 to 50 were from New Jersey ,” said Douglas, who also lives in New York City . “We bought food; set dressings; rented and bought materials and equipment; we rented vehicles; hired extras and spent as much as we could here.”
More than 350 extras were hired for the film at an open call at Bloomfield College .
THE COLOR OF MONEY
“I’ve been in casting for four years and since the tax breaks, projects that used to film in Toronto and elsewhere are now filming around here,” said David Waldron, a senior casting associate for Grant Wilfley Casting in New York City , which handled the “Taking Chance” casting. “Now, at busy times like ‘pilot season’ in March, we are scrambling to find people.”
The professional services offered by the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission give the state an edge with producers. The film commission has five full-time and one part-time staff members who assist producers in finding locations and personnel for their projects and troubleshoot during the entire length of the project.
Currently, the state has a $10million cap on the tax credits that can be allocated in any one year as well as a requirement that each production spend at least 60 percent of their budget in New Jersey . The film commission has already reached the cap for this fiscal year.
The state legislature passed a bill this summer to lower the 60 percent requirement to 50 percent; raise the cap to $30million of total tax credits allocated per year, from $10million, and to combine “certain digital media content” with “film production expenses” for the first time.
” New Jersey has been at the forefront of tax incentives from the start,” said Vans Stevenson, senior vice president of state government affairs, for the Motion Picture Association of America, “and if the governor approves adding digital media, it will continue to take a forward, visionary approach.”
The governor has not signed the bill into law yet, and may not. No action is required until the senate is back in session in November, said Brendan Gilfillan, a spokesperson for Gov. Jon Corzine, who said the governor has concerns about the cost, and whether the state would get an appropriate return on investment in terms of job creation.
In the meantime, the film commission is keeping its fingers crossed, because some productions that might like to film in New Jersey may not be able to wait until more tax incentives become available in two years.
“We are hopeful that the legislation will be signed into law because we have a lot of customers for it,” Gorelick said. “It will generate a lot of film productions for the state.”
© 2007 The Times of Trenton
© 2007 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Posted 30 September, 2007 in FilmUSA
Posted 30 September, 2007 in NJ News
Cost concerns stall digital media tax break
Sunday, September 23, 2007
By HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER
Compared with the often glacial pace of the New Jersey Legislature, the digital media bill moved like a speeding bullet.
Introduced in February, the bill — which would grant tax breaks to digital media companies that spend $2 million in the state — cleared both legislative houses on June 21.
It was guided by Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, who said NBC provided the “impetus” for the bill, approaching him for help in creating a digital media center in the Englewood Cliffs offices of CNBC.
Today, the legislation sits on Governor Corzine’s desk, stalled by his concern that the state can’t afford the $20 million-a-year price tag.
Yet the bill’s swift passage reflects both a vigorous lobbying effort by the digital media industry to secure a tax break, and the industry’s attraction to states trying to lure new companies and create jobs.
A fast-growing industry
What is digital media?
It generally refers to information stored or produced in digital form and includes CDs, DVDs, video games, e-books and other documents, Web pages, video for the Web.
What sectors are included?
Film, TV and video production companies, makers of animation and games, e-learning companies
What are the jobs?
Web design, video editing and production, scriptwriting, software development, computer graphics and animation design, multimedia design
Where is it based?
There is no industry center, but there are pockets in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Calif., Florida, Texas and elsewhere.
How big is it?
PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates the value of the global industry at $945 billion in 2004, and growing at 10 percent a year.
How big is the digital media workforce in New Jersey?
Ernst & Young estimates there are 1,045 digital media workers in 2007.
Sources: PriceWaterhouseCoopers; Ernst & Young; various industry sources
* * *
The digital media bill
Here’s what it would do:
• Amend a law granting a combined total of $10 million in tax breaks to film and TV companies that work in New Jersey.
• Allow digital media companies to get the break, and increase the combined total of breaks to $30 million for the film, TV and digital media industries.
• Grant companies a corporate or gross income tax credit equal to 20 percent of the amount spent in New Jersey on production.
• To be eligible, a company would have to spend $2 million on production in New Jersey.
Source: New Jersey state Legislature Web site
|
New Jersey is one of several states offering incentives in the hope of creating a digital media hub, or cluster of companies, that will grow as the fast-moving industry does.
Florida, Texas, Massachusetts and Connecticut have all passed similar bills in the past two years. Sarlo and others say the New Jersey bill could create thousands of highly paid jobs and boost the state’s struggling economy.
“The digital media market is a very hot market right now,” Sarlo said. “And I don’t want us to miss the opportunity.”
The market is also broad. New Jersey’s bill targets the makers of “digital media content,” which could include everything from developers of games, music, film and television products, to digital publishers, Internet education sites, Internet access companies and online advertising companies.
$1.4 trillion prediction
A 2006 PriceWaterhouseCoopers report valued the global industry at $965 billion in 2004, and predicted it would grow 10 percent a year, reaching $1.4 trillion by 2010.
In the U.S., digital media companies are concentrated in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Florida, and Austin, Texas, and elsewhere.
Florida wants to attract more companies to the Orlando area, boasting that that it already has 1,200 digital media companies with a combined workforce of 30,000 and revenue of $9 billion. The state says the sector grew out of film and television production and theme park industries, and technology companies such as Lockheed Martin.
A study completed for NBC estimated there are 1,045 digital media workers in the state.
Supporters of the New Jersey bill say the state’s highly educated workforce could prove fertile ground for digital media employers.
“The market is going to be exploding,” said Assemblyman Upendra J. Chivukula, D-Somerset, who sponsored the bill. “We are in the initial stages. And by investing money now, we can capitalize on that.”
That view prevailed in the Legislature, where all but eight members backed the bill. But Corzine, and some other state officials, have yet to be convinced.
“We have voiced concerns about the fact that it doesn’t give us much return on investment as far as job creation,” said Brendan Gilfillan, the governor’s spokesman, who declined to comment further on whether Corzine would sign it.
His assessment echoes that of the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services, which said it couldn’t document significant financial benefits to the state from the bill.
“In my view, it’s corporate welfare being given to folks from Hollywood who have friends in New Jersey,” said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Mendham, an opponent of the bill. “This thing was wired. The powers that be decreed that this thing was going to go through quickly.”
The bill grew out of legislation passed in 2006 that granted corporate business and gross income tax credits to film and television production companies working in the state.
Companies are eligible for a tax credit equal to 20 percent of their in-state expenses if at least 60 percent of their production budget was spent in New Jersey.
The law, which expires in 2015, capped the value of breaks granted to all productions at $10 million a year. And state officials say the incentive is so attractive that applications for the break already exceed the annual limit for the next two years.
Steve Gorelick, associate director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, said that although the state has attracted a rising number of productions in recent years, the number would decline without the incentive due to the fierce competition between states.
“Producers do not work extensively in states where there are no economic incentives available,” he said.
Expanding eligibility
The digital media bill would amend the TV and film production law, increasing the amount available from $10 million to $30 million a year. And it would broaden the eligibility criteria to include companies that spend at least $2 million on digital media production in New Jersey, including wages and salaries, production costs and rental expenses for equipment and facilities.
Bill supporters say that unlike the movie and TV production companies, which tend to move on once the production is complete, digital companies would likely stay here and create permanent positions.
Sarlo said the “impetus” for the bill came from NBC after the film and television and movie bill passed. He said the company “approached us and said, ‘Listen, we are looking to expand’ ” in Englewood Cliffs.
The effort comes at a tricky time for NBC: It is pushing for a new tax break less than a year after a subsidiary, MSNBC, closed a 400-employee Secaucus office opened with the help of a $10 million tax break in the mid-1990s.
Sarlo introduced the digital media bill in February, and held a press conference to promote it in April, citing a report on the bill’s impact prepared by Ernst & Young at the request of NBC.
The report concluded that the bill would create 1,550 new digital media jobs by 2012 — 60 percent more than if the credit was not available — and an additional 2,800 jobs in supporting industries. The new taxes generated by the bill would offset its $20 million cost, the report said.
A week later, NBC’s lobbyist William Pascrell III said the company would soon announce a plan to move a “significant” number of digital media jobs to New Jersey. The announcement was never made.
The apparent cat-and-mouse game continued after the bill passed. As it sat on Corzine’s desk, NBC said in July that it was creating a digital media center at its CNBC site that would mean an undetermined number of jobs. The company has yet to reveal the number of new jobs to be created, and did not respond to a request for comment last week.
State records show that NBC lobbied the governor’s staff and other state economic development officials on the bill. Also lobbying were the Motion Picture Association of America, the New Jersey representative of AeA, a national trade group that represents the technology industry, and the Entertainment Software Association, a Washington, D.C.-based group that represents the computer game industry, state records show.
Sarlo said the bill was amended at the software association’s request, removing a section that restricted the beneficiaries to companies that make digital media for the Internet. The association wanted the change because games are generally not Internet-based, and association members couldn’t benefit from the original bill, he said.
State records show that within two weeks of the change, the association gave a $500 campaign donation to Sarlo, and $3,000 each to the Democratic Senate and Assembly PACs.
Sarlo’s chief of staff, Chris Eilert, said the contribution had nothing to do with the amendment, which was first discussed months before it was approved. He said the Entertainment Software Association later bought a ticket for a fund-raising event.
“We were firm believers of this legislation because of the potential for bringing thousands of jobs to New Jersey,” Eilert said, after consultation with Sarlo.
“And expanding it to include the video game industry simply increases the potential for job creation.”
Also supporting the bill were Cisco Systems Inc., Google and Yahoo, said NBC lobbyist Pascrell.
In August, Sarlo trumpeted Ernst & Young’s update of its earlier report, which increased the estimated number of new jobs created to 2,446 in the industry, and 4,404 support jobs.
The senator said the new benefits cited in the report “more than justify” the bill’s enactment.
Yet the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services, in its review of the bill’s effects, concluded that the revenue gain to the state was “indeterminate.”
“The OLS cannot project the value of the offsetting positive economic activity the $20 million might generate,” the agency wrote.
One reason, the office said, is the difficulty of separating digital media spending sparked by the tax credit from expenditures that would have come to the state anyway.
Another reason, the OLS said, is the difficulty of predicting how much money would remain in the New Jersey, and how much would be spent in other states after the workers move on.
Indeed, the bill may not boost the growth of the digital media industry in New Jersey at all, because it doesn’t specify how much of the $30 million should go to each of the digital media and film and TV industries.
It’s possible, for instance, that all the breaks could go to film and TV production, which tends to create temporary work, and none toward the creation of permanent digital media companies.
Sarlo said Corzine’s staff has indicated he will veto the bill and request that the digital media industry be added to the original motion picture and television bill without increasing the size of the available break.
The senator said he thinks that would stifle the state’s ability to compete for digital media jobs.
“It makes no sense to me,” he said.
E-mail: morley@northjersey.com
Posted 29 September, 2007 in FilmUSA
There are two sides to strong Canadian dollar
template_bas
template_bas
Residents visit the U.S. for bargains, but their nation’s tourism and film industries suffer
By Jason Chow, Special to The Times
September 29, 2007
TORONTO — When Canada’s dollar reached parity with the American currency last week — for the first time in 31 years — the nation erupted in a very un-Canadian bout of chest-thumping.
Television crews aired footage of gloating citizens cheering the “fantastic news.” Newspapers ran headlines such as “Canadians getting ‘richer’ ” and “The loonie soars; the eagle falls.” Some shoppers headed south of the border to treat themselves to bargains.
The Canadian loonie — the nickname comes from the bird on the face of the country’s dollar coin — had long been worth so much less than the U.S. dollar that it had earned the nickname the “northern peso.” In 2002, a Canadian dollar was worth 62 cents in the U.S.
But amid the recent bravado were stark reminders that the appreciation of the Canadian currency wasn’t good news for everyone here — particularly manufacturers, those in the tourism business and the Canadian film and television industry. A rising Canadian dollar makes Canadian goods more expensive for Americans.
“The personal sentiment really depends on what you’re working in,” said Craig Alexander, an economist with TD Bank in Toronto. “Manufacturing and tourism are feeling a big negative impact, as [is] anybody who depends on the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, and they’re probably not feeling too happy.”
In Toronto, the hub of the nation’s film and television industry, overall production spending was 700 million Canadian dollars last year, a drop from a high of 1 billion in 2000. The industry has blamed the slide on the competitive tax incentives of other jurisdictions as well as the soaring currency.
In the province of Ontario, foreign production — mostly from the U.S. — declined by 30% in the last two years alone, to $338.7 million Canadian from $486.3 million.
“The dollar is a big issue right now,” said John Weber, president of Dufferin Gate Productions, a services company that caters to many U.S. productions. “Hollywood is looking at other places to shoot. Where they used to go straight to Canada, because of the Canadian dollar, they’re now looking elsewhere.”
At the moment, many in the Toronto industry say American production spending in Canada has remained similar to last year’s levels because major studios have ramped up production to stockpile material in anticipation of potential strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild. But insiders say that after the current run of U.S. production is finished, the Canadian industry could go quiet for a while.
“We’re busy until June” 2008, said Ken Ferguson, president of Toronto Film Studios, the largest studio operator in the city. “The major Hollywood studios are ignoring market conditions right now, but we’ll see what happens next year. Hopefully, the Canadian dollar will have come down by then.”
Despite the slowdown in film activity in Canada, Hollywood unions remain concerned about runaway production north of the border.
The Screen Actors Guild, the Teamsters and several unions representing Hollywood’s technical workers recently filed a petition with the U.S. trade representative alleging that Canadian government subsidies that target U.S. film and TV productions constitute unfair trade practices and violate Canada’s obligations under World Trade Organization rules.
The Canadian dollar has risen 16% against the greenback just in the last nine months. Part of the reason is economic weakness in the U.S. (the dollar is down against many currencies), and part is Canada’s booming exports of commodities including natural gas, gold and oil, the price of which has lately been at a record high.
Samantha McWilliams, a 30-year-old Toronto lawyer, drove to upstate New York with her brother last weekend to take advantage of the reversal of fortune.
Her brother went full tilt, spending more than $700 on a new wardrobe, while she watched. The cause for her restraint: She had spent about half that on a similar U.S. shopping trip earlier in the summer.
“It’s incredible,” McWilliams said. “We went on Monday, just after the loonie hit parity, and you could see that some stores were clearly out of things. The Canadians went through it all.”
The shopping spree isn’t only in the border towns. U.S. online retailers also are noticing a jump in Canadian sales. According to Canada Post, the volume of shipments from U.S. retailers rose 38% last year, and economists expect that number to increase even more dramatically during the Christmas shopping season.
The cross-border spree is amplified by the fact that Canadian retailers haven’t adjusted their prices of imported goods to reflect the rising Canadian dollar. A 4-gigabyte iPod, for example, costs $149 on Amazon.com but is listed for $169.99 Canadian on www.futureshop.ca, which is run by a Canadian electronics chain. The difference in prices is more acute for luxury goods. A study by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants showed that the average luxury sports car was $13,694 more expensive in Canada.
Canadian retailers are certain to feel the pinch from the rush across the border, but some economists in Canada wonder whether the euphoria about the increased spending power of the higher dollar is overblown. Practical considerations such as transportation and taxes still stand in the way.
“Somebody was saying to me the other day that there’s huge savings to be had if you want to buy household appliances in the U.S.,” said Alexander, the economist. “But who is going to rent a van just to drive a fridge across the border? Is it really worth the hassle?”
Posted 29 September, 2007 in FilmUSA
Soaring loonie causes uncertainty for Canadian film and television production
By Keith Doucette, THE CANADIAN PRESS
HALIFAX - A steadily soaring dollar coupled with increased tax incentives in the United States has people in the film industry asking if the race to attract film production will intensify as Canadian producers struggle to keep business.
In a bid to attract film production, Nova Scotia recently did what many Canadian provinces are doing to help the industry as it enhanced its tax-credit system.
Premier Rodney MacDonald used the opening night gala of the just-concluded Atlantic Film Festival to announce the province was boosting its labour-based film tax credit to 50 per cent from 35 per cent. An additional 10 per cent will be tacked on for films shot in rural areas of the province.
The province already had an additional five per cent credit in place for companies that shoot three or more films over a two-year period.
The increase was the second in just two years and was in large part dictated by the improved tax regimes that have been introduced by British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, P.E.I., and New Brunswick.
John Barrack, executive vice-president of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, said while tax credits are welcome, competition is fierce.
“When you take the benefit of the dollar away and you’re going head-to-head on credits, obviously an enhancement like Nova Scotia introduced is going to get noticed and it likely will generate work,” he said.
But Barrack, whose organization represents nearly 400 Canadian film and production companies, believes the industry is entering an uncertain time as increasingly competitive American states join Canadian provinces in upping the ante.
Indeed, alarm bells were sounded earlier this month in Toronto, where officials blamed the high Canadian dollar and competition from other jurisdictions for a dip in production spending.
Figures show that spending had fallen to $700 million in 2006 from $1.2 billion in 2000.
“I don’t think there is any guarantee that the Canadian production community will see the pieces of the pie, at least in order and magnitude that they’ve seen in the past,” Barrack said.
“You see states that were never in the film game now are very much in the film game. You look at what New Mexico’s doing and Louisiana and Connecticut. These are not traditionally large film centres and they are now.”
New Mexico is considered a leader in its ability to win business through its tax incentives. The state currently offers a 25 per cent tax rebate on all production expenditures, including local labour.
As well, productions costing $2 million or more can qualify for an investment loan of up to $15 million. Another program offers a 50 per cent reimbursement of wages for on-the-job training of New Mexico residents.
“If the dollar had stayed down around 67 or 70 cents those incentives in the states wouldn’t necessarily have touched where we were at with the double benefit,” said Barrack.
He said the challenges facing the industry have also been complicated by a shrinking domestic marketplace that is the result of media consolidation. Barrack singled out the acquisition of film producer Alliance Atlantis (TSX:AAC.A) by CanWest (TSX:CWM.UN) and CTV’s purchase of CHUM radio’s assets as examples.
Meanwhile, the more competitive landscape is not going unnoticed by those who are in the business of promoting their provinces or cities as a place to shoot.
“The combination of the increased value of the dollar, less U.S. work coming to Canada and the other provinces competing more aggressively for the smaller amount of work meant we were starting to feel a reduction in the industry,” said Ann MacKenzie, CEO of the Nova Scotia Film Development Corp.
MacKenzie said the 2006-07 fiscal year saw the province register $136 million in production activity, which was actually “one of its better years.”
But she said it was clear through the first six months of 2007 that the ground had shifted.
“We really didn’t have much production going on,” MacKenzie said of what is generally considered the province’s peak period.
“By the end of July we wouldn’t have had quite $20 million in production activity and ordinarily we would have been at $60 million plus at that stage.”
In the last 10 years, Nova Scotia has ranked fourth in film production behind such leading centres as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
MacKenzie expressed confidence that the proposed tax credit would also help local producers who have recently had problems securing Canadian broadcast commissions. She estimated Nova Scotia’s access to the Canadian Television Fund was down 35 to 40 per cent in the last year.
“With this tax credit the local film makers will be able to entice some of those broadcasters to start commissioning work here again,” she said.
But one province’s gain may be another province’s loss, said a New Brunswick film producer.
Tim Hogan, the founding partner of Dream Street Pictures based in Moncton, wondered where the tax credits will end.
“The short-term solution is to match or better it,” said Hogan. “Will that result in more business? I don’t necessarily think so.”
New Brunswick currently offers a 40 per cent refundable labour tax credit, but Hogan would like to see more help to promote ongoing relationships with producers and to encourage the development of creative ideas.
But he concedes the stakes remain high in an industry where competition has increased for content and for a return on the dollar. He said there is a lot of pressure on producers to be able to come up with additional funds.
“An extra 10 per cent here or 15 per cent there can mean the difference between having a star that sells your program all around the world versus not,” said Hogan.
A recent economic profile by the national association put the total volume of film and television production in Canada at $4.8 billion, including $1.7 billion in foreign location shooting.
Posted 29 September, 2007 in FilmUSA
SAG Divided Over Canada Approach
Members disagree on whether challenging Canada will stem outsourcing.
September 20, 2007
By Lauren Horwitch
Nine years of hard work and careful politicking came to fruition for the Film and Television Action Committee on Sept. 4, when the grass-roots nonprofit organization filed its 301(a) petition with the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In a 114-page petition, accompanied by 3,447 pages of supporting documents, FTAC made its case that Canada’s tax breaks and other subsidies unfairly lure American film and TV productions north, costing U.S. workers thousands of jobs annually.
Gretchen Koerner, chairwoman of the Screen Actors Guild’s National Legislative Committee, along with reps from a handful of local L.A. trade unions, stood with FTAC leaders during a Sept. 5 press conference at SAG’s Hollywood headquarters announcing the start of what Teamsters Local 399 business agent Steve Dayan said needs to be “an intense lobbying effort.”
Koerner told reporters SAG has signed the FTAC petition because actors are among the thousands whose jobs are “senselessly outsourced in an industry that is thriving and currently setting box office records for summer releases… . That not only greatly diminishes my ability to make a living as an actor, but it affects the health and well-being of my family and my community.”
She continued, “A very few of our members who are recognizable names and celebrities travel with productions to Canada to work — one, two, three, perhaps four actors on a production — but the vast majority of our members do not go. Supporting players, co-stars, guest stars, day players, stand-ins, background actors, stunt performers, singers, dancers — we stay at home and watch American producers take American films across the border and employ Canadian performers.”
However, some SAG members are not fully on board with their union leaders’ decision to back FTAC’s effort. Critics raise questions about who is genuinely affected by runaway production to Canada and whether FTAC’s petition is the best way to keep production stateside
A Lack of Unanimity
Some SAG members support the petition but doubt it will make much difference. “FTAC [is] a long shot in my estimation, but there’s little else we can do,” Brad Blaisdell, a member of several SAG committees, wrote to Back Stage via email. “I think threatening Canada will only keep them more resolute, and we have a pretty good idea how our government will react.”
One actors’ union in Canada made its views known right away. Stephen Waddell, executive director of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, said in a Sept. 4 statement, “This complaint is without merit or substance and won’t succeed under any trade agreement.”
Rather than blame Canada, Blaisdell and others believe, FTAC should back additional domestic production tax-incentive programs, already enacted in more than 30 states. “The only thing that seems to work are the tax incentives,” Blaisdell said. “I believe that is where our focus should be for Hollywood right now. If California leaders are not willing to help the movie industry survive, then we will continue to see the work spread all over the world and away from Hollywood.”
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which did not sign FTAC’s petition, seems to agree. “I don’t think there’s a uniform approach to addressing the problem of runaway production,” said Thomas Carpenter, AFTRA’s general counsel and national director of legislative affairs. “The members on our Legislative Committee really have chosen to focus on the issue of creating opportunities in the U.S. rather than creating penalties and barriers.”
Tom Ligon, a member of SAG’s New York board and the guild’s National Legislative Committee, said domestic incentives are the best solution. What’s more, FTAC’s petition doesn’t have much of a chance without the support of AFTRA and other above-the-line organizations such as the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the Motion Picture Association of America, Hollywood’s main lobbying arm in Washington. None of those groups signed the petition. Carpenter called the petition impractical, noting that not only is the industry ambivalent about the 301(a) but the guild is not unanimous in its support either.
Ligon said he was the only New York delegate in the room when the national board voted to support FTAC at the October 2005 plenary meeting. The other New Yorkers, who left the meeting in protest over the firing of then-CEO Greg Hessinger, missed the vote, which was preceded by a presentation by FTAC leaders and Pamm Fair, SAG’s deputy national executive director for policy and strategic planning. “The so-called unanimous vote there didn’t involve half of the guild,” said Ligon, who added that he was too inexperienced at the time to know he had the option to object.
Fair responded, “The vote was unanimous because that’s who was in the room…. I can’t decide that something has not enough support because not enough people were in the room. We go forward accordingly…. It was on the agenda, and we got to the part of the agenda where it came up, and that’s just the way it was.”
However, Fair noted that the SAG vote to give $50,000 to FTAC’s Washington, D.C.-based representation, trade law firm Stewart and Stewart, in October 2006 wasn’t unanimous. The vote passed with 80 percent support.
Extras Support
Ligon said Membership First, the party whose membership includes SAG president Alan Rosenberg and Koerner, has exaggerated runaway production’s impact and has strong-armed the board to support FTAC as a means of appeasing background actors, who, according to Ligon, are the hardest hit by productions moving to Canada. New York delegates have often clashed with L.A.-based Membership First members over issues, but this case is not a matter of East versus West. “There is no New York versus Hollywood or Membership First in this instance. It’s Membership First versus the rest of the country. Most emphatically so,” Ligon said.
“I don’t know that that’s true,” Fair responded. “There’s support for this from a lot of corners in the union, and there are people who will tell you they support it, but they’re not sure it will work. I don’t think any of us can be sure that it will work…. It’s just another tool in our toolbox.” She added that SAG will continue its efforts to support domestic tax incentives.
Fair said the union knows for a fact that fewer members across the board are traveling to Canada with U.S. productions: “We know that the companies will take fewer folks at the top of the call sheet over the border with them, and there are infrastructures, especially in Canada, where they can hire actors to fill those roles. It’s not about background actors only, although clearly they feel this pinch. It’s about the middle-class actors like Gretchen…. She gets left behind.”
More Movies, Fewer Incentives
Tim McHugh, executive director of FTAC, said the effects of runaway production are indeed damaging and real. He cited a study released in 2006 by the Center for Entertainment Industry Data and Research that found Americans lost 47,000 jobs per year and approximately $23 billion in economic benefits from 1998 to 2005 due to feature films moving out of the states.
A visual effects supervisor who worked most recently on Into the West and DOA: Dead or Alive, McHugh has seen industry jobs fizzle firsthand. “In the ’90s we were all working so much, we couldn’t read the scripts fast enough. It was a great time. Then the work trickled to Canada, and somewhere around ‘98 the floodgates opened up. The phone just stopped ringing,” he said, adding that FTAC’s position on creating more domestic tax incentives, especially in California, is, “We’ll try to encourage anything that keeps jobs here.”
Trying to keep jobs in California has been particularly harrowing; several attempts to pass a tax-incentive bill have been unsuccessful. Most recently, a provision that would have provided $70 million in nonrefundable film-production tax credits and $5 million for commercials shooting in the state was dropped from the state’s latest budget.
However, McHugh’s personal outlook differs. “I feel, ultimately, subsidies are a terrible idea. They’ve only driven down wages and working conditions, and they’ve pitted countries, states, provinces, and cities against each other,” he said. “Everyone likes to think they’re creating jobs. But the only way you create a job is to make more movies…. What subsidies do is take [the] same group of films and just disburse them around the globe to different locations…. It’s not like suddenly there’s 20 percent more movies getting made. That would be great.”
McHugh acknowledged the petition is unique in that it does not have the support of the entire industry. “Generally when an industry goes to the federal government for this kind of help, it’s the owners of the industry and the workers together…. This is unique because the owners of the corporations that finance the film industry, they’re saying there’s no problem here…but the workers, who have lost their houses and their pensions and their health care and their marriages and in some cases their lives, have a different opinion.”
He added that MPAA and DGA members are more aligned with the producers and studios that benefit from filming in Canada: “The power in [Hollywood] likes things to run the way they’re being run right now, because they’re getting a cut of it. It’s the rest of us, the workers, who are all being chopped off.”
Representatives of the MPAA, DGA, and WGA declined to comment.
McHugh could not predict whether the absence of those groups or infighting among SAG members will hurt the petition’s chances of convincing the USTR to investigate Canada’s incentives. “We’ll find out what our odds are in the next 45 days.”
USTR will rule on whether to investigate Canadian subsidies by Oct. 18.
Lauren Horwitch can be reached at lhorwitch (at) backstage.com.
Posted 29 September, 2007 in NM News
Facilities fuel New Mexico production boom
By Wolf Schneider
Sept 18, 2007
When Paul Haggis began searching for locations to shoot his intense Army drama “In the Valley of Elah,” he knew he wanted a place in the South with a 1960s-style motel adjacent to a diner and an Army base nearby — and, of course, in a state with generous tax incentives. Although he had booked scouting trips to New Mexico, Louisiana and South Carolina, he landed first in Albuquerque and quickly discovered he’d found the perfect spot to begin production.
“Within an hour and a half, I’d locked in four locations! Not found them — I mean, locked them,” Haggis says. “I said, ‘It’s great. It’s perfect. Move on!’ So that was just remarkable. I really found a terrific variety of architecture where I thought I’d just find unending adobe.”
The Oscar-winning writer-director-producer isn’t the only filmmaker who’s been lured to the Land of Enchantment recently. Since Gov. Bill Richardson, now a presidential candidate, pushed through an aggressive package of tax rebates and no-interest loans in 2002, New Mexico has become one of the top five filmmaking destinations in the U.S. More than 80 feature film and television projects have been made in the state since then, and annual direct expenditures from film and television production have skyrocketed from $3 million in 2002 to $159 million in 2007. This year alone, the state has attracted more than 30 feature films and television projects.
And it looks as though Hollywood is here to stay. Infrastructure is now solidifying in this artists’ mecca of high chaparral and low population density, striated by the southernmost Rocky Mountains. The crew base has deepened to almost 1,500 — or four to five crews — with homegrown training programs at schools like the University of New Mexico cranking out a new generation. Sustainability is the strategy now, with three seminal events coalescing in the last year.
First, Albuquerque Studios, a $74 million 28-acre site, opened its first six soundstages in April and is already fully booked up.
Second, Sony Pictures Imageworks broke ground on a 100,000-square-foot satellite facility at Albuquerque Studios. It’ll open in June 2008 with 100 jobs in animation, visual effects and digital media, eventually growing to 300.
Third, the “sunset” clause on the 25% tax rebate was removed, so that rebate is now permanently in place. What’s more, the loan fund has been increased so it now holds about $280 million that can be outstanding at anytime — and the state is about to receive its first profits on the loan program from Lionsgate, which advanced $500,000 against the profits of 2006’s “Employee of the Month” and ABC Family’s “Wildfire,” according to state investment council topper Greg Kulka.
Entertainment attorney Peter Dekom helped structure the up-to-$15 million loans that protect the state’s principal since the qualifications include a solid guarantor, distribution in place and the hiring of New Mexico residents for 60% of the below-the-line crew payroll. Mind you, Dekom doesn’t actually read any of the 50 to 100 scripts a year he puts into serious evaluation; his forte is assessing deal elements — which is why the political comedy “Swing Vote” obtained a loan with just foreign distribution in place, plus a personal guarantee from star Kevin Costner, who’s also producing it with Jim Wilson. In midproduction now, the picture just got a domestic deal with Disney.
“Kevin’s an amazing guy,” comments Dekom. “Kevin is in it so deeply. It’s his money that guaranteed the letter of credit that guarantees us. And I think he’s going to make a lot of money on it.”
In return, Costner says, “I have several films that feel like they could work here. I feel like there is a great crew base here.”
“Swing Vote” writer-director Joshua Michael Stern explains of his film: “It’s about the presidential election coming down to one vote, and it had to come from a swing state — a state that was sort of independent, that was a free-spirited, free-thinking kind of place. So I set the script in New Mexico.” Stern imagined his setting to be “a little desert town like in (1971’s) ‘The Last Picture Show.’”
Producer Wilson found that sleepy town in Belen — complete with an area they could use as a backlot. Wilson found everything else in the script here, too. “It was like, I need some stately buildings for the capitol — that’s in Santa Fe,” he recounts. “I need large warehouses. I need chicken factories. I need something that looks like Vermont for Dennis Hopper’s character’s palatial house — we found a big A-frame home in the Sandia Mountains. I need Santa Barbara for where Kelsey Grammer, (who plays) the incumbent president, can live — that’s in Corrales.”
Wilson knew New Mexico, having teamed with Costner on 1994’s “Wyatt Earp.” “The industry has come a long way here in the last 10 years. There’s an infrastructure now that’s capable of handling numerous movies,” he observes.
Albuquerque, with a population of half a million, is New Mexico’s biggest production center — though Santa Fe and other points north attract the atmospheric Westerns, like New Line Cinema’s “Appaloosa,” directed by and starring Ed Harris. “That area seemed right for what we were looking for. It was the dramatic quality of the landscape, I guess you’d say — the water, the cliffs, the sky, the clouds,” says Harris, who also considered — then nixed — Canada, Texas and Arizona, because “the great rebate situation is difficult to pass up.”
The master strategist behind those 25% tax rebates (which are true tax rebates on New Mexico spends, not tax credits as so many other states offer), and indeed the whole production boom, is Eric Witt, Gov. Richardson’s director of media arts and entertainment development. Since Richardson took office in 2003, film production has brought the state $409 million in direct expenditures. “The key now is our reputation and the relationships we develop, and because of that, companies like Sony Imageworks are relocating on a permanent basis here as opposed to sending individual productions,” evaluates the savvy Witt, who was vp finance at Dino De Laurentiis Communications before donning his cowboy boots.
“Yes, we are a case study in a general economic development sense,” allows Witt. “But the film business doesn’t always make sense for every state.” Hosting film and television productions requires more than just varied locations and, in the case of New Mexico, 300 days a year of sunshine, Witt elaborates: “You have to design your program in way that makes economic sense for your state, and that largely depends on your tax structure and your job base. Do you have crew? The reason we are able to give a 25% tax rebate and still make money — we are one of, if not the only state that makes money on its rebate program — is because of our gross receipts tax and personal income tax and corporate income tax.”
“States that don’t have that tax structure — like Nevada or Texas — can’t just take New Mexico’s model and co-op it lock, stock and barrel,” he continues.
With 15 projects either here or coming, New Mexico is now the busiest ever. Two futuristic films both in the $50 million range are headquartering at Albuquerque Studios: Lakeshore Entertainment’s “Game,” in which a fictional prison institutes a process whereby convicts can commute their sentences by participating in a deadly game, and Lionsgate’s “The Spirit.” Other projects include Paramount Pictures’ latest installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, USA Network’s drama series “In Plain Sight” and AMC’s crime series “Breaking Bad.” “The Burrowers,” a sci-fi thriller about underground creatures who prey on the inhabitants of a 19th century Western town, just wrapped, as did the Cuba Gooding Jr. action thriller “Linewatch,” which was promptly picked up by Sony Pictures Entertainment, and there’s talk about a Taylor Hackford movie coming.
State film commissioner Lisa Strout observes, “To have the infrastructure with a major company like Sony here on the ground has already spurred other people to want to be here too in a sort of media cluster.”
“We’re scouting a lot these days for Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan on the western face of the Sandia Mountains and the Florida Mountains near Deming,” Strout adds.
Anticipating more activity, producer Lance Hool is in advanced talks to open a soundstage complex in Santa Fe County called Santa Fe Studios, and Lionsgate has a soundstage in the planning for north of Albuquerque. Says Lionsgate executive vp Mark Manuel, “We are looking at numerous options for our film studio. If anything, we have seen the volume of production in New Mexico pick up dramatically over the past few months.”
It’s enough to make Dekom punningly promise, “You’ll never get a chile reception in Tamalewood!” And to drive it home with “We can keep our crews busy all the time — we are a hot tamale.”
Posted 29 September, 2007 in NM News
New Mexico heating up
Albuquerque Studios phase one completion slated early ‘07
Some studios look better on the architectural drawing board. Just ask Hal Katersky, chairman and chief financial officer of Pacifica Ventures, which will own and operate New Mexico’s Albuquerque Studios, a new facility skedded for phase one completion early next year.”There are lots of announcements, but few materialize,” said Katersky, whose Pacifica Ventures also owns and operates Culver Studios.
Albuquerque Studios, originally planned for the city’s historic railyard, ran into environmental issues and difficulties surrounding the demolition of buildings on the site.
“It was beautiful, but costly,” said Nick Smerigan, VP of Albuquerque Studios.
According to Katersky, support from New Mexico’s state and city government, in addition to its unique incentives, allowed the project to remain viable and relocate to Mesa Del Sol, five minutes south of Albuquerque Intl. Sunport.
“It’s the finest incentive package in the U.S….a rebate, not a credit,” said Smerigan. “You actually get a 25% return on what’s spent in 45-60 days. Their film financing program lends up to $15 million with a four-year interest-free loan if your film has a million-dollar budget. It makes sense for production in the state.”
Phase one of the $74 million, 28-acre studio complex will consist of eight soundstages (four 24,000 square-foot stages with 55 feet of clear height and four 18,000 square-foot stages with 45 feet of clear height), office space, backlot, mill storage and set construction space, post-production suites, production support services and retail space. The first two of the 24,000 square-foot stages are slated to open in January, with additional stages opening every three weeks thereafter. Phase one completion is slated for spring.
Recounting his decision to build Albuquerque Studios, Katersky said, “It’s the incentive program to begin with, and the fact that Albuquerque is only an hour and a half from Los Angeles.” The state, he said, “wants this kind of business and is aggressive about this kind of business — makes it a good environment for everyone.”
Phase two plans consist of an additional 28 acres to be developed for production and post-production use, eventually creating a 54-acre production campus.
“We’ll have the ability, because of the interior wall system we’re using, to open the soundstages into 48,000 square-foot and 36,000 square-foot stages,” added Smerigan. “Every conceivable production that could be done on a soundstage in L.A. could be done here.”
Pacifica has engaged Build New Mexico as the developer for Albuquerque Studios, with Amalgamated Bank of Washington D. C. and Commonwealth Realty Advisors Inc. of Chicago as its partners in construction funding.
Film production for the state has generated over $650 million since 2003, when Gov. Bill Richardson took office. Recent pics include “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Into the West,” “The Longest Yard” and “The Missing.”
* * *
Tyler Perry is expanding on his production capital to launch his 60,000 square-foot Atlanta-based Tyler Perry Studios (TPS). The facility, formerly Atlanta Stage Works, was purchased solely by Perry in June 2006 for $7 million and is the first film studio of its size in Georgia.
“TPS will establish a footprint for increased production of film, television and theater projects in this city,” said the multihyphenate. “I hope this is just the start of making Atlanta even more of a movie town.”
Scenes from Perry’s upcoming “Daddy’s Little Girls,” due out in February, were being shot during renovations and 100 episodes of his syndicated sitcom “House of Payne,” as well as his next two feature pics, are skedded to shoot at the studio.
While plans for TPS’ three-acre site include an acting school and theater company, Perry has also purchased additional land to build a more permanent studio in two or three years at another Atlanta location.
“In the first six months of 2006, the film and video industry has had an economic impact of over $200 million to the City of Atlanta,” said Mayor Shirley Franklin. “Through the establishment of Tyler Perry Studios, the city will be an even more viable location for this industry. As a producer-director and actor, Tyler has been one of the leading forces in encouraging film and video production in Atlanta.”
Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117950275.html
Posted 29 September, 2007 in TX News
Attracting two big network TV shows would be considered a success for any film commissioner, but the Texas Film Commission learned earlier this year that keeping primetime series in its state requires an equal amount of dedication.
Although the Lone Star State had two current series — Fox’s “Prison Break” and NBC’s “Friday Night Lights” — shooting in Dallas and Austin, respectively, the previous four years had seen shows flowing out of Texas like black crude and into regions that offer attractive incentive packages, from neighboring states New Mexico and Louisiana to countries such as Canada and Australia.
By the Texas Film Commission’s count, during that time 32 film projects that scouted Texas shoots chose to shoot elsewhere, 12 of which had stories set in the state. The loss of those projects cost Texas an estimated $327 million in project spending, 4,600 jobs and no small amount of pride.
In order to prevent the remaining two Texas-based primetime series from leaving along with the others, the film commission knew that the Texas Legislature had to approve a pending bill (HB 1634) that would fund an incentive program of the state’s own.
“These TV productions were ours to lose. They weren’t a ‘maybe’ down the road,” points out Texas Film Commission director Bob Hudgins. “These were real jobs and real crews that were standing there saying, ‘We want to work next year.’”
The prospect of losing “Friday Night Lights,” a show set in Texas against the backdrop of one of its most beloved institutions, high school football, was particularly disturbing for the community. “The thought that there would be a TV show on the air about Texas football shot somewhere else was just pardon-me-very-much? Now, we’re talking heresy!” Hudgins says. Grips and best boys didn’t exactly take to the streets shouting, “Remember the Alamo!” but it did spur people into action.
Legislators were schmoozed with visits to the set, and NBC Universal senior vp tax counsel Brian O’Leary was flown out to Texas to speak before the house’s Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee on how vital the incentives were to not only the show’s continued presence in Texas, but the health of the state’s film and TV industry as a whole.
It’s impossible to gauge what effect their efforts had on the outcome, but the $22 million bill was overwhelmingly approved by the legislature and signed into law by Texas Governor Rick Perry on June 7. Still, after the ink had dried and the hubbub had died down, it was unclear whether people in Texas’ film and TV production community should rejoice or cry. Because while Texas’ new incentives were enough to keep “Friday Night Lights” (and “Prison Break”) in the state, O’Leary says, “the program on the books today is just not competitive enough for us to push other shows there.”
Texas’ Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, as it is known, offers a grant equal to 5% of a production’s spend in Texas up to $2 million for a film, $2.5 million per season for a TV program, $200,000 for a commercial or series of commercials, and $250,000 for digital/interactive media productions. Projects that complete at least 25% of their shoot days in an underused area (basically, anywhere but in and around Dallas or Austin) are eligible to receive an additional 1.25%. To qualify, films must spend at least $1 million in Texas, shoot at least 80% of the project within state borders and hire at least 70% of actors, crew and extras in Texas. For commercials, infomercials, interstitials, music videos and video games, the minimum spend is $100,000. In contrast, Texas’ neighbor to the northwest, New Mexico, offers filmmakers a 25% tax rebate, while across its eastern border in Louisiana, a 25% tax credit can be had.
Texans argue it’s unfair to make a superficial comparison of those numbers. First of all, tax rebates and credits aren’t directly comparable to a grant. Secondly, prior to enacting the new incentive package (which went into effect on Sept. 1), Texas already had other incentives on the books, including a sales tax exemption for manufacturers that applies to fees for postproduction services and the purchase, rental or lease of film equipment. Besides, some of Texas’ most important cost-saving features can’t be explained using percentages and mathematical formulas, like the rich array of locations in and around major metropolitan areas such as Austin, Dallas and Houston — from biggest of big-city skylines and Middle American suburbs to prairies and barren deserts — that enables productions to capture a wide variety of looks without having to worry about travel expenses or per diems for the crew.
It’s this topographic diversity that drew “Prison Break” to Dallas last summer to shoot its second season. The series was originally based in Chicago, but at the end of the first season, the storyline followed a group of escaped inmates heading towards Mexico, necessitating a broader palette of locations for Season 2. Producer Gary A. Brown says they determined that to get the Middle American looks needed for each episode, the production would have had to travel an hour and a half to two hours outside of Chicago, and for scenes set in Panama late in the season, they would have had to leave the state completely. They considered shooting half the season in Illinois and half in another state, but eventually they decided it was best to pull up stakes and relocate between seasons.
“We looked in New Mexico, and we certainly found some unique locations there, but really Santa Fe and Albuquerque have kind of one look,” Brown says. “They don’t really have the Middle America look, and it would’ve been too much for us to travel to Las Vegas and New Mexico to get two different types of towns to facilitate a whole season.”
The show went on to scout in Florida, Arizona and Louisiana before finally deciding on Dallas, where Brown spent six seasons (1996-2001) as co-producer/line producer of the series “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
“We could’ve done (Panama) successfully in Shreveport (La.), but Dallas gave us the opportunity to not only have the prison environment and the outside jungle environment, but also the backdrop of a big city, so we can jump back and forth to the United States in the story when we need to without having to travel,” he explains.
According to Hudgins and other Texas film commissioners, another cost-saving benefit that doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet is the speed and competence of their large, experienced crew base.
“‘Friday Night Lights’ is (in Austin) because the crew is amazingly efficient,” says Hudgins. “They’re able to finish their work always on time, always under budget. Even if this wasn’t the cheapest place they could do the show, they realized that there was a true value to the crew, because there was not the unknown variable of losing days and not getting their work done. That’s when it gets really expensive.”
The fact that Texas has been able to maintain a crew base and a viable production infrastructure while film and TV productions have flocked to other states is a testament to its strength as a TV commercial production hub, which can be attributed to the presence of a large number of major ad agencies in Dallas and Austin, including TM Advertising (Nationwide Insurance, Texas-based American Airlines) and the Richards Group (Home Depot, Fruit of the Loom).
In a roundabout way, Texas’ success with commercials is luring back business from Hollywood studios. Dallas-based Reel FX Creative Studios, which built its business doing CGI animation for TV spots, has branched out into feature film work, doing effects for films like 2002’s “Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams” and creating the opening sequence for Disney’s 2006 animated feature “The Wild.” They’re currently in negotiations with DreamWorks to create an animated feature for the studio.
“We’ve had Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Weinsteins and a lot of other people who’ve flown here to visit and said, ‘We’re hearing all kinds of buzz about you guys,’” says Reel FX vp business development Chuck Peil. “Ten years ago, it was like, ‘Dallas? … I lost my luggage there on a commercial flight once.’”
But even as Texas is reaching out to and reconnecting with Hollywood, it’s pushing it away with a clause in the incentives that declares the state “may deny an application because of inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.” However, most see the clause as a symbolic political gesture that will have little or no practical effect on the grant process.
At the end of the day, the bottom line for Hollywood studios is still the bottom line. While the Texas film commissioners are optimistic that the incentives are generous enough to put them back in the game, O’Leary believes that if the state really wants to score more projects, the legislature will have to increase the size of the grant when funding for the program comes up for renewal in 2009.
“There are things about Texas and certain cities in particular that make it very attractive for filming, so we’re not talking about the state having to buy its way in,” O’Leary says. “They’ve taken a terrific step forward, which is funding a program, and now they’ve just got to modulate it enough to make it competitive.”
Posted 29 September, 2007 in MO News
Shining the spotlight on Missouri
By Mindy Honey
BDN Staff Writer
mhoney@bransondailynews.com
Branson could be well on its way of having more exposure like what it had over the summer through NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and CBS’ “As the World Turns.”
Two weeks ago, Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation to increase the Missouri Film Commission’s tax credit amount.
“When the governor signed legislation to increase our tax credit amount from $1.5 million amount for $4.5 million amount, that helped a lot,” director of the commission Jerry Jones said.
Jones said that by offering financial incentives to film makers, it makes coming to areas such as Branson very attractive. Currently, there are 34 states which have incentives for filmmakers and Jones said he hopes the much heftier amount Missouri now has to spread around will only increase exposure for Branson and the rest of the state.
“We have been utilizing what tax credit we have had heavily,” Jones said. “In fact, what we really expect and what we hope to happen next is to get more production in and as a result of that, grow our infrastructure.
“By our infrastructure I mean talent pool, the crew, the equipment, the other resources film makers need when they come. It is much cheaper for a film maker to find everything locally.”
On Monday, the commission met in Branson for its quarterly meeting. This is the first time in a couple of years that the commission has met in Branson, but the nine members of the board are all familiar with Branson.
Lynn Berry, director of public relations for the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce said the more familiar they become with what Branson has to offer, the better.
“It is important to the Branson area that the Missouri Film Commission be well aware of what we have to offer people that are seeking locations, seeking workers to work in the industry, seeking places to come and teach people how to be a good part of this industry,” Berry said. “Of course with our brand new convention center, we offer more amenities now than ever before. Many members of this commission have been here since Friday night, and we arranged for them to see shows, and see some of our attractions so that they would be more familiar with what Branson has to offer and I understand they have enjoyed themselves.”
Jones said it is the cooperation that the commission gets from Branson officials that makes Branson so easy to work with and an attractive place to direct people in the film making industry.
“Sometimes we will go into communities that have a lot of things going, but if the community itself isn’t responsive, it isn’t going to help,” Jones said. “There are a handful of handy communities in Missouri and Branson is at the top of the list.”
Jones said the tax credit is just one way the commission can entice the film industry to Missouri and believes that new amount will have them very busy. He said meeting in Branson was a “no brainier.”
“It fits into what we do,” he said. “We are economic development, but we are also the entertainment industry.”
« Previous
