Posted 29 March, 2008 in MS News
Governor Haley Barbour has signed Senate Bill 2997 to provide additional and improved incentives for the film industry. The bill was unanimously passed by the Mississippi Legislature during its 122nd Session. It is effective immediately. Under the new legislation, rebate incentives offered to filmmakers will increase to 20 to 30%, depending on the production’s local spend. The bill also creates an additional 10% rebate on out-of-state worker wages. Although no minimum spend is required, the legislation caps the rebate at $5 million for each individual project.
Posted 29 March, 2008 in CO News
The 25% tax credit was DENIED. They currently have is 10% tax incentive with a $650,000 cap.
Posted 29 March, 2008 in IL News
No status change – Still in the Senate, Legislation returns to session on April 1. They are hoping to get the senate vote that day and wrap it up by April 4, 2008
Posted 29 March, 2008 in GA News
The bill has passed in the House, and is now in the Senate. They expect to know something by April 11, 2008
Posted 29 March, 2008 in MI News
Incentive was passed through the senate and the house, awaiting signature with the governor. They are hoping to announce on April 7th.
Posted 29 March, 2008 in AK News
No Status change on pending incentive – It is currently in the House Finance Committee & will be reviewed on Friday, March 28th at 1:30P. When approved it goes to the House for vote, if passed, then off to the Governor for signature.
Posted 29 March, 2008 in NY News
LINK TO ARTICLE
Posted 22 March, 2008 in IA News
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — To make his movie, “South Dakota,” Bruce Isacson turned to Iowa.
The Los Angeles-based filmmaker has chosen the town of Earlham — about 30 miles west of Des Moines — as the setting for his new movie about a couple of high school students who end up with a surprise pregnancy.
“After visiting Iowa, I decided it was the perfect South Dakota,” said Isacson, a New York City native. “It has everything I envisioned.”
A portion of the story that takes place in Pennsylvania will also be shot in Iowa.
Not only is Iowa good at doubling as other places, it also offers large tax incentives that are attractive to independent filmmakers like Isacson. The state passed a law last May, offering 50 percent tax credits for films shot in Iowa with budgets of at least $100,000.
Half the credit amount goes toward helping film crews regain in-state expenses like hotel rooms and meals. The rest benefits the project’s original investors.
“When we found out (about the incentives), we almost called twice to make sure,” said Robert Gibson, production manager for “South Dakota.”
Gibson said incentives are a huge help for their budget, which is between $2.5 million to $3 million. The less they have to fork out for taxes, the more they can put toward the film’s content.
Isacson’s production team arrived in the state last week to begin auditioning Iowans for supporting roles. Producers are hiring local talent for supporting roles and using unknown California actors for title roles, which will also cut costs.
Iowa Film Office Director Tom Wheeler said the state’s large incentives are drawing people who wouldn’t otherwise come here. The rewards are so good compared to other states that it can sound “too good to be true,” he said.
“South Dakota” is the third project to use the new tax incentives. Others include Becky Smith’s “Duck Farm No. 13″ set in McGregor as well as Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s “Sugar” that was filmed in Burlington and Davenport.
Wheeler anticipates more people will consider shooting in Iowa, as local production companies build up stocks of cameras, lights and other equipment and as local talent deepens. He plans to tout Iowa’s incentives at a trade show next month in Los Angeles.
The film incentives are also boosting work for Iowa actors. Deb Copeland manages Copeland Creative Talent, a talent agency in Des Moines. Last week she sent out a call for actors needed for about two dozen supporting roles in “South Dakota.”
“We’re getting more attention with the help of the film incentives,” Copeland said. “All of a sudden, we were getting lots of calls, and I thought, ‘My God, are we that much better than other states?”‘
For now, a buzz is building in Earlham. Producers have met with local school board officials to discuss plans for filming.
“There are going to be ancillary economic benefits for the community, even if it’s people buying gas or stopping to have lunch at the places downtown,” said Superintendent Michael Wright.
Isacson, the writer and director, said it’s the ideal setting for his story.
“It’s that perfect Midwestern small town that Americans have fantasies about,” he said.
Posted 22 March, 2008 in MA News
By Gerry Tuoti
GateHouse News Service
Posted Mar 10, 2008 @ 11:18 AM
Taunton —
Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese’s decision to film his latest feature in the city has garnered wide local attention, but the move is just the latest in a Massachusetts movie trend, many industry analysts say.
“Massachusetts is among the top incentive states in the country,� said Christine Peluso, principal at Tax Credits LLC of Piscataway, N.J., a leading national company that works with tax credits in the film industry.
The state’s recently expanded film tax credits are the primary force behind Hollywood’s interest in Massachusetts, she explained.
When the Commonwealth expanded its film tax incentive package last July, “the lid blew off,� said Nick Paleologos, the executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office. Boston benefited early on, but the rest of the state is now starting to catch up.
“When film makers are coming through a second time, they’re discovering there’s a whole state there beyond Boston,� he said, adding that he was very happy Scorsese picked Taunton as a location to film the upcoming feature “Ashecliffe.�
Massachusetts offers diverse array of settings that Paleologos said rival those of any other state.
“If you drew a 30- or 40-mile circle around Boston, or really any point in Massachusetts, there’s beautiful locations and diverse locations,� he said. “There are sea shores, mill towns, urban, rural, suburban.�
He said his office encourages location managers and scouts to take a look at settings all across the state.
Massachusetts is one of several states to recently pass incentives to attract the movie industry.
Several years ago, a large number of production companies began filming extensively outside the United States because countries such as Canada and New Zealand started to offer rebates and tax credits to them.
“$10 to $20 billion a year was being lost to production outside the U.S.,� Peluso said. “We were feeling the economic effects here.�
To capture some of that “runaway production,� some states started to offer similar incentives to bring business back to the United States. Louisiana was among the first.
“Relatively speaking, Massachusetts was not the first, but it was actually early,� Peluso said.
Massachusetts first approved a film tax credit in 2005. That year, before the credits went into effect, one movie filmed in Massachusetts, bringing in about $6 million, Paleologos said. In 2006, the first year the new regulation was in effect, two movies brought $50 million into the state. Last year, eight films brought in $125 million. This spring, a half-dozen features are filming in Massachusetts, including Scorsese’s “Ashecliffe,� which is being shot at Whittenton Mills, Taunton.
“Really what those numbers translate into is jobs, jobs, jobs,� Paleologos said.
Beyond that, cities that host a movie shoot often receive an economic boost.
“They’re eating, drinking, buying stuff,� Peluso explained. “There is an injection of capital.�
Paleologos agrees.
“It’s been quite impressive,� he said. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to see that money being spent in Taunton�
Mayor Charles Crowley also predicts that the filming of “Ashecliffe� will pump some money into the city.
“I think local hotels, restaurants and caterers are going to benefit,� he said.
The film, which stars Hollywood heavyweights including Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley, will also “help put Taunton on the map,� the mayor said.
Crowley downplayed suggestions that Scorsese was drawn to Taunton by the state film tax incentives.
“A lot of people are trying to claim credit for this,� he said. “They’ve been looking quite awhile for this.�
He said the Whittenton Mills complex, which was shown on national TV news coverage of the 2005 Whittenton dam crisis, likely caught someone’s eye. David Murphy, owner of Whittenton Mills, deserves the credit, Crowley said.
State Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, who supported expanding the incentives, said the tax credits have had a strong impact on the state.
“To capture a piece of that industry in Massachusetts helps us economically, it helps us culturally, it helps us diversify our base economy and it helps communities like Taunton along the way,� Pacheco said.
Last July, Gov. Deval Patrick and the state Legislature expanded the tax credit. Under the previous law, credits were limited to $7 million per film and applied only to films costing $250,000 or more. The expanded law removed the cap and lowered the $250,000 floor to $50,000, for purposes of both the income tax credit and the sales tax exemption.
“The film tax credit has been one of the Legislature’s most successful methods for motivating the industry to make Massachusetts the backdrop for numerous movies,� state Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, said recently. “With larger productions waiting in the wings, this modest investment will be a greater enticement for the film industry to choose Massachusetts over other states.�
Peluso put the Bay State into a national perspective.
“What Massachusetts did, this is very typical,� she said. “Something passed. They saw some economic effects, then they expanded and improved it.�
Another factor that makes Massachusetts attractive to film makers is the extensive crew base available in the state, Paleologos said.
“Beyond California and New York … you’d be hard-pressed to find another state with a crew base as talented as we have,� Paleologos said.
He said evidence shows the film tax incentives are giving a boost to the state economy. Over the past 12 months, the IATSE Local 481, the union that represents most film industry workers in Massachusetts, has seen its membership increase 40 percent, he said. Jobs in the industry include set painters, decorators, generator operators, electricians, carpenters, prop designers and others.
There are also signs of long-term investment into the film industry in Massachusetts.
Former Paramount Studios executive David Kirkpatrick, is working to open a film studio in Plymouth. His plan is to have Plymouth Rock Studios up and running in two years.
Many state and local officials have already shown support for the plan.
‘‘There’s a lot of excitement about this project,’’ said Murray, the state Senate president.
Murray, who lives in Plymouth, said state funding is available to help pay for infrastructure improvements, and the studio would rank high on the priority list.
‘‘We need to spend the money where we’ll get the biggest bang for the buck and this would be a pretty good bang,’’ she said.
With the state tax credits, a studio in Plymouth would likely get a lot of work, Paleologos said.
“I think there will certainly be enough interest to keep a state-of-the-art sound stage busy for a long time,� he predicted.
Peluso called the Massachusetts film tax credits one of the most successful incentive packages in the nation. The state did a good job of balancing local economic interests, production concerns and marketability, she explained.
“In the end, it’s got to benefit everyone,� she said.
“What Massachusetts did in 2007 was improve it in production,� Peluso continued. “It is one of the best in the country. They got it right.�
GateHouse News Service contributed to this report.
gtuoti@tauntongazette.com
Posted 22 March, 2008 in RI News
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, March 23, 2008
By Michael Janusonis
Journal Arts Writer
Bill and Angela Ryding, of Warwick, have found a post-retirement movie career working as extras on movies such as Underdog and 27 Dresses.
The Journal / Bob Thayer
Rhode Island had the New England playing field to itself when its new state tax-credit program attracted such Hollywood projects as the Brotherhood TV series and the Wesley Snipes movie Hard Luck to Providence in 2005.
Since then, Massachusetts and Connecticut have taken note and created tax-incentive programs of their own.
“Massachusetts saw our success and created their film-incentive law in 2006, which failed to have an impact in their state,� says Steven Feinberg, executive director of the Rhode Island Film & Television Office. “So they went back to the drawing board and copied our law and raised the ante slightly in 2007. Connecticut also copied our law in 2007, but instead of our 25-percent credit, they raised their credit to 30 percent.�
Karen Senich, the acting executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, in Hartford, which oversees the state’s film division, says that besides Connecticut’s more generous benefits to filmmakers, productions need to spend only $50,000 in the Nutmeg State to qualify, rather than the $300,000 required by Rhode Island’s law. This has meant a resuscitation of Connecticut’s film division, which she says is in the midst of going from a staff of one to a staff of four.
(Rhode Island has an executive director, a full-time paid assistant, a part-time Web designer and two unpaid college interns. The budget for the film office is $273,464; $213,255 is for personnel expenses and $60,209 is for operating expenses. Feinberg is paid $82,700 a year.)
“It’s about the economy, about creating jobs,� says Senich, who points to such big-ticket productions filmed in Connecticut after the tax credit went into force as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Harrison Ford, Revolutionary Road with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with Amber Tamblyn and America Ferrera.
Already the state has pledged $26 million in tax credits to 64 productions. However, Connecticut recently revised its law so outside venders wouldn’t be the principal beneficiaries, and the Rhode Island Division of Taxation has proposed doing the same here, taking the position that an expense only counts toward the credit if it is performed, purchased, provided or rented by a Rhode Island resident or vender. In Connecticut, as of Jan. 1, 2009, only 50 percent of expenses “incurred outside the state� will count toward the calculation of that state’s 30-percent tax credit. After Jan. 1, 2012, “no expenses or costs incurred outside the state and used within the state shall be eligible for a credit.�
Nick Paleologos, head of the Massachusetts Film Office, in Boston, reports much the same kind of success in attracting filmmakers to the Bay State since its new and improved tax-incentive program went into effect. Ten films were made in Massachusetts last year. That was up from two in 2006 and includes Pink Panther 2, The Box, Bachelor Number Two with Dane Cook, 21, The Women with Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Bette Midler and Candice Bergen, The Lonely Maiden with Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy and Christopher Walken, and The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington.
There were so many films that Paleologos says one of his biggest headaches was “just trying to make sure that one film crew wasn’t bumping into another.�
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