NEWS
Posted 30 July, 2010 in NC News
Courtesy of Wilmington Regional Film Commission:
That’s right. Almost three times better to be exact. Now you can earn up to $20 million in refundable tax credits per production. It’s simple…..spend your money in NC, file a tax return, and receive a check. No audit fees, no broker’s fees, no waiting in line. Just a guaranteed refund of 25% on what you spend. With the addition of fringe benefits and per diems as qualifying expenditures and the elimination of the corporate income tax on the incentive, the NC incentive just got better.
Combine this improved NC incentive with the benefits already found in Wilmington, NC: EUE Screen Gems 10 soundstage campus, over 800 local crew from all disciplines, great locations, and a temperate climate. Now you see why hundreds of productions have been here already. Don’t you want to be next?
Contact the Wilmington Regional Film Commission, Inc. to find out more about how your next production can be hassle-free and cost effective………and 25% less.
Posted 7 June, 2010 in NC News
Introduced by the House, this bill enhances the competitiveness of the existing tax credit program by increasing the per project cap from $7.5 million dollars to $20 million dollars; allowing all compensation to qualify instead of just the first one million dollars paid to each individual; allowing pension, health and welfare along with per diems, stipends, and living allowances paid for work performed in North Carolina to qualify.
July 13th, 2010 UPDATE (Below) Courtesy of Cast & Crew The Incentives Program:
Two bills have been sent to the Governor for her signature. The first bill increases the per project cap for a feature film to $20 million dollars from $7.5 million dollars; eliminates the 15% and alternative credit; establishes a 25% film incentive; expands the definition of qualifying expenses to include employee fringe contributions, including health, pension and welfare contributions; and includes per diems, stipends, and living expenses paid for work being performed in North Carolina as qualifying expenses. The qualifying expenses are subject to audit by the Secretary of Revenue before the credit is allowed. The second bill eliminates the 6.9% corporate income tax on the amount of the incentive earned by the production company. As a result, the production company is now able to realize the full 25% of qualifying expenses.
The Governor is expected to sign the bills soon.
Posted 7 March, 2010 in NC News
NORTH CAROLINA – Effective January 1, 2010 North Carolina has approved legislation to increase its refundable credit to 25%. There is no yearly cap or application approval process, but there is a $1 million per hire cap and the state imposes an add-back provision, which effectively reduces the net rebate to a few points less than 25%. Producers are also required to file a state tax return.
Posted 31 January, 2010 in NC News
http://www.thelocationguide.com/news_detail.aspx?src=czech&id=348&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Email&utm_content=939293684&utm_campaign=TheJanuaryLocationReport+_+olilkt&utm_term=WilmingtonNorthCarolinaasalocationforfilming
Posted 3 December, 2009 in NC News
Information provided by Cast and Crew.
Effective October 1, 2009, the Department of Revenue has amended the regulations to provide that the following are exempt from sales and use tax: sales to motion picture firms of cameras, film and props or building materials used in the construction of sets that are used in the actual filming of movies for sales, lease or rental; and sales of chemicals and eqipment used to develop and edit film that is used to produce release prints. Previously, the regulation provided that such sales were taxable at the rate of 1%.
Posted 9 August, 2009 in NC News
From Daily Variety
Legislation ups tax credit to 25%
By PETER CARANICAS
North Carolina is poised to up the ante in the competition for film production, after its state senate passed legislation boosting its refundable tax credit to filmmakers from 15% to 25%.
Under the terms of the bill, any film, TV show or commercial that spends a minimum of $250,000 on North Carolina goods, services and salaries would qualify. Above- and below-the-line expenditures are covered. The legislation would make North Carolina more competitive with nearby states like South Carolina and Georgia, which offer breaks of up to 30%.
Governor Beverly Purduehas 10 days to sign the bill.
“Chances are good that she will,” says North Carolina Film Office director Aaron Syrett. “She pushed hard to get this done.”
Following her signature, the higher tax breaks would go into effect on January 1, 2010. Syrett says it’s not yet clear whether projects begun in 2009 and finished in 2010 will qualify. “It depends on how you read the language,” he said.
Productions shooting in North Carolina include The CW’s “One Tree Hill” and the just-wrapped indie feature “Road to Nowhere,” directed by Monte Hellman.
Posted 3 August, 2008 in NC News
Governor Mike Easley recently signed HB 2436, which expanded the North Carolina film production tax credit. Qualified expenses now include (1) up to $1,000,000 paid to highly compensated individuals and (2) the cost of production-related insurance coverage obtained on the production, except for insurance purchased from a related member. The production must also file an Intent to Film form with the North Carolina Film Office, as well as acknowledge in its production credits both the North Carolina Film Office and the regional film office responsible for the geographic area in which the filming occurred. Lastly, the sunset date for the film credit is extended to January 1, 2014.
Posted 14 October, 2007 in NC News
Jordan Kerner: One on One
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04 Oct 2007
Ben Wolf | Staff Writer
There are going to be some changes around here.
At least, there will be if Jordan Kerner, the new dean of the School of Filmmaking, has his way. With sweeping changes planned for the film school’s curriculum, identity, funding and even the state’s film incentives package Dean Kerner will definitely be leaving his stamp on the campus community.
Kudzu Gazette: What brings you to NCSA?
Jordan Kerner: As a sophomore at Stanford in my spring quarter I was pre-med and I took an elective course from a man named Jules Dundees. Jules was the communications films professor and he taught a course on mass communications in society. He was played by Robert Downey Jr. in “Good Night and Good Luck� and as an executive vice president of CBS News he and Fred Friendly and Edward R. Murrow brought down Joe McCarthy by doing a series of four broadcasts. In class we watched those four broadcasts and previous to that I thought I was going to become a doctor and then run for senate and then the presidency and then fix health care because politics has always motivated me. Professor Dundees was someone who really changed my life that way. Much to my parents’ chagrin I left medicine and became a political science and film major.
What I noticed about Stanford’s film school was that there were two film courses and everything else was film theory, they were really trying to teach critics and teach people to teach film theory and I wanted a dramatic narrative course. So for 30 years as an alumnus I tried to get them to adopt what I called the “Conservatory of Narrative Film.� I’d gone to the president a few times and a lot of people in the business agreed with me.
To make a long story short, it was those instances that caused me to want to become the head of a film school in some manner. I never thought of doing this now in my life. When I’d be offered something I’d say call me back in ten years. I wasn’t ready to do this. I’ve got three films that are getting ready to be on the deck. The chancellor was incredibly understanding and felt that he wanted a film professional in this job so any time I had a film that went I could go do it. And he pre-approved all of my preexisting project contracts. I said if I could I would try to stay here one hundred percent in the fall and then if this film happened in the winter I would take a few students with me on rotation. You know, producing students be with me, directing students with the director, cinematography students with the cinematographer, editors with the editor, and try to get maybe two or three different cycles of students so that we could give them a great experience in New Zealand or Australia. Not just as an intern who would Xerox and make photocopies but would actually be at every rehearsal and then later we’d figure out all the credit. So I’ve always wanted to be able to form the curriculum of a film school.
KG: So what attracted you to NCSA was the freedom the chancellor offered you?
JK: I wouldn’t have even thought of coming here other then coming here as a guest artist last November and there was a very high quality of questions coming from the students. I felt that the students were really motivated and that it was a really great campus. I knew that in some way I wanted to be involved. I maintained an email relationship with Patsy (Seiler) and I didn’t know the chancellor at that point or really anybody else, I knew of Dale (Pollock). I was getting ready to send them a letter to tell them that if they wanted me to do a producing seminar I would be interested, I’ve done them at USC and AFI and at UCLA.
Then they contacted me in January with the offer and I thought, ‘Wow, but call me in ten years’ sort of. They called back a few times and finally got me on the phone with the Chancellor. We had a number of conversations and then Sam Neil, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, called me and in a sense they made me the proverbial offer you couldn’t refuse if you wanted to do this and be a producer.
KG: The school has a name for itself as a production heavy, hands-on school that focuses on independent production. The changes you’ve mentioned seem to suggest that won’t be the case for long. What will NCSA’s film school be known for in the future?
JK: What I hope it’s known for is that great storytellers come from NCSA whether they’re in the independent world, or the studio world, whether they’re on HBO, doing music videos or Google or Apple ads, that stories are being told. When you say it’s known for production heavy graduates and independent orientation what you essentially just described is the New York Film Academy, which is a trade school, because they’re known to do independent film and are production heavy. My worry was that the school was becoming a trade school and that’s not the job of a university in my mind. The job of a university is to train minds to think and to be critical thinkers. So from my standpoint if I can take the first two years, keeping a film production course, and a critical studies course, same in the second year and then the possible addition of a specializing course in the winter trimester and another in the spring. So, one whole year of survey and then the first trimester of your second year. Your winter and spring trimesters you might decide to take directing and cinematography, or editing and producing, so very much like what we have now just not so much.
When I say cutting back I really want to make the room for stronger liberal arts courses. Dean Miller has great courses right now and he’s been very open and forthright about wanting to hear what we have to say so he’s sending Dean Wright and another faculty member to serve with our committee so that we can do it together, we can start having courses in short stories, courses that are fascinating in terms of critical thinking. Psychology and abnormal psychology are two of the most important courses you can take as a director or a writer or a producer. So that’s what I’d like people to get out of this program.
KG: What’s funding these changes? There’s this rumor about the title of the school…?
JK: Well, I’ve raised a lot of money for politicians in my life, for political causes, I never have a problem asking for money for something I believe in. The school hasn’t, in my mind, had a great development department. The chancellor is building a terrific development department, people raising funds for NCSA and not just hitting up local businesses for donations. There are a lot of companies that when they understand what they’re giving money for they have no problem donating money. So I have to say to them If I can get the film curriculum and I can get the film school working in a certain way I think that I can go to Phil Anschutz, Sumner Redstone, any one of those types of people who have billions of dollars and who, at that point in their lives, are all preoccupied with their place in history and having a lasting effect or what they’re associated with. If I can give them an orientation to the kinds of films we’re making here, films that have value and worth, I can sit them down in a room and show them three or four films that were done this year with this new program and say, ‘These are the kinds of films we’re making, wouldn’t it be great to have this become the Turner School of Film’ or ‘The Anschutz School of Film.’ That’s the big endowment that I’m looking for, that’s the big picture.
Dean Kerner speaking at the Chancellor’s Convocation last month
Allen Aycock
The second part of this is the state. The way I see my job here in addition to performing my duties for the school is to create a relationship where NC becomes a film centric state again. It was twenty years ago when they built Wilmington. There have been a lot of television shows and a couple of independents but there haven’t been the big studio films that bring hundreds of millions of dollars in to the economy and there’s a reason for that. The reason is a few years ago when all the productions were being done in Canada or New Zealand someone in Louisiana got the bright idea that if we give a rebate that’s much higher then everybody else’s, everyone was at ten percent, if we give a twenty five percent rebate with no cap we think we can attract a film business here. Well, they’ve attracted a film business there. Now they have ten, twelve, fifteen films a year shooting there right now. All of a sudden New Mexico got the same bright idea. Nine to eleven films shooting in Albuquerque, they don’t even have the hotel rooms for them.
Now when you’re a state you say, ‘My gosh we’re giving 25 percent back to these rich studios. How do we get it back?’ There’s income tax. All of our people are working, all of these people we’re educating to be filmmakers here in North Carolina, the state taxes their income thirty percent, forty percent, if you start to run the numbers you see that the state is actually making five or six or ten percent on their investment of giving the rebate and they’re increasing the employment in their states. They’re increasing the use of hotels, they’re increasing the use of restaurants, they’re increasing the use of, God forbid, gas stations. Everything benefits. There are all these secondary and tertiary benefits. So I’m going to be working with the state film commissioner and working with senator Linda Garrou and another senator from Greensboro. We’re all going to be working with the governor to sign a bill for a 25% rebate with an unlimited cap.
KG: The school here runs on rumor so if you could just confirm or deny a few things that would be great. There’s talk of changing the name to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts?
JK: Yes, I’m a huge proponent of that. We are the University of North Carolina, we are funded by the University of North Carolina. It’s a misnomer to call ourselves anything other than the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to me. It doesn’t make any sense to be hiding the fact that we are a part of one of the greatest university systems in the country.
KG: There’s also a rumor, a personal one, about your home here in Winston being more environmentally friendly than others?
JK: No, let’s put that rumor to rest. We’re using as much post-consumer product as we can. We’re investigating the contractors in Virginia because there isn’t a contractor here that can put a photovoltaic roof on my house, which makes me insane. And I applied to the city to have grey water. Do you know what grey water is?
KG: No, I don’t.
JK: We wanted to take all of our water from our sinks, our laundry and our showers and have those go down one set of pipes in to a cistern in our backyard that cleans the water and then there’s a pump in that cistern that pumps it out and irrigates our land. In California they pay you 55% of the cost that it takes to do this. The state of North Carolina would not allow me to do it because you have to be zoned agricultural and have 125 acres. We’re going to have to work on that. We weren’t allowed to do the things that would make an environmentally friendly home.
KG: I also hear you have an impressive wine collection?
JK: I do.
KG: Including a bottle from the last supper.
JK: (laughs) That’s a lie. But my wine collection is all in Los Angeles. It’s too hot to ship it right now. I don’t know if we’re going to ship everything, we’re going to ship about 400 bottles to start with. We don’t yet have a wine cellar in our house but it’ll be built hopefully within the next couple of months. Once it hits November it’ll be cool enough to ship. I have about 2,000 bottles. It’s my complete obsession and hobby.
KG: What are your favorites?
JK: I went from being a lover of French Bordeauxs, left bank Bordeauxs, to California pinots, California cabernets and because I shot three movies in Australia I’m now nuts about the shiraz in Australia and the sauvignon blancs in New Zealand.
KG: have you checked out any of the local wines?
JK: I’ve started to.
KG: Thank you for your time, Mr. Kerner.
by BASHIRAH MUTTALIB
This time it’s a wrap. North Carolina’s Gov. Mike Easley signed House Bill 1522, making official the state’s 15% refundable tax credit on goods, services and labor for film and TV productions.While the delay of the bill — originally skedded for passage last year (Daily Variety, June 15, 2005) — may have temporarily stymied production, the state still reaped $300 million in film and TV production revenue last year.
“This legislation is critical to strengthening the movie and television production business in North Carolina,” Easley said.
It is also designed to keep the state in step with regional neighbors like South Carolina, which also offers a healthy 15% rebate.
With the bill’s signing, some productions have “refocused their sights on us now that the picture has changed,” according to Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission.
North Carolina film and TV production revenue increased nearly 22% last year and accounted for 22,000 jobs, according to the state’s Dept. of Commerce.
Columbia Pictures’ “Talladega Nights” was shot in Charlotte and Rockingham last year, and the WB’s “One Tree Hill” — which moves to the CW for its fourth season — is lensing at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington.
* * *
Rocky Mountain High … Montana. That state’s expansive landscape has become more accessible to film production with the Big Sky on the Big Screen Act, an incentive package initiated by Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
The act, a first in the state’s filming history, offers a 12% rebate based on Montana labor hires and applies to the first $50,000 in wages paid per resident.
Productions can also take an 8% rebate on qualified expenditures for production budget costs, including but not limited to hotel and lodging, production equipment rental, fuel costs, expendables, lumber/construction materials, vehicle rentals and food and catering costs. The incentives apply to all types of film, video or TV production.
Montana has no sales tax, which can also be a significant factor in on-location shoots.
“The state and federal tax incentives, coupled with an able crew base, a willing film office and diverse locations, will make Montana a heavyweight contender in the fight to attract production money back to the United States,” said Christopher Cronyn, film producer and vice chair of the Montana Film and Television Advisory Council.
Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117948261.html
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