North Carolina Ups Film Incentive To 25%

COMMENTS (39)

• Looks like it’s time to abandon CA. to work in my profession. Too bad the chuckleheads in the CA. legislature don’t realize it’s a net gain for the local economy where production takes place, even with the rebates.

  Comment by Outa Here — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 11:06am PDT  Reply to this post

• Smart move for production comapanies and hell for the Hollywood worker but isn’t that always the way. Next up, public option heathcare will eventually wipe out our cherished motion picture medical coverage. Any doubters out there?

  Comment by Above and Below — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 11:33am PDT  Reply to this post

• NC, LA(new orleans) MI, all realized what the people here in the so-called entertainment capital of the world didn’t: serious incentives attracts serious work. I agree with outa here…I think the only thing L.A. leads in the production of, is liars and assholes. They got the market cornered on THAT shit. I wish I could afford manhattan now; I’d go back right fucking now. Taking a hard look at new orleans..nice central location….

  Comment by Sean — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 11:51am PDT  Reply to this post

• If you have a family, be careful in relocating for these things. I know a producer in Orlando who moved there several years ago because of all the proposed TV work. Now, he’s stuck in TV news with no where to go but out of state if he wants to do scripted TV or film.

  These incentives are big one year and often aren’t sustained from year to year, with facilities being abandoned after the incentives are over because the business only comes for the incentives and then goes back to L.A. or shuffles elsewhere when the incentives finished.

  Arizona is a great example of this. There have been good years and bad years in Arizona due to incentives, so you’ll find studios built there during the good years and then abandoned and turned into warehouses or left to decay afterwards. The talent pool also is slow and behind, which means you have to bring in people from L.A. who work more often to just keep the quality up.

  Another producer I knew had done all the numbers for incentives across the world, and he said that only a few were ever worth it once you combine all the extra travel and headache involved.

  So, buyer beware.

  Comment by Working Actor — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 11:52am PDT  Reply to this post

• Trickle down economics at work.

  Comment by awesome — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 12:17pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’m very happy for NC on passing this… It is a great place to work and they have a fantastic crew base. I’ve worked a lot in Wilmington and the only negative for me is having to change planes in Charlotte or Atlanta (I live in LA)… Which brings me to the bigger issue of how California has failed exponentially in keeping the Film and Television business in the State… It is a shame and quite frankly, embarrassing that such a large number of crew people have to be away from their families or completely relocate to stay working. I know life is tough for most – but this inability to pass “meaningful” or even “competitive” incentives is just another example of how poorly this State is run… Moving on…

  Comment by corndawg — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 12:35pm PDT  Reply to this post

• With the opening of the huge new facilty in Plymouth, Mass next year, you can slowly hear the sounds of film production go silent in LA. What a shame.

  Comment by esb — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 12:36pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Well, I have to say, this could hurt more than just LA. What it might do is escalate this “war of incentives” that seems to be raging around North America right now. No film community is going to be immune to this constant “upping” of the stakes.

  Comment by Original Joe — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 3:17pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Well, California is having a statewide yardsale today so they may not be up for tax breaks right now.

  Comment by Craig — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 5:08pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Pssht. 25 percent is nothin’. Georgia’s got 30 percent if the filmmaker is willing to put a GA logo on the back end of the credits. 20 percent with nothin.’

  Comment by Cribbster — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 5:54pm PDT  Reply to this post

• And Outa Here, it’s not necessarily true that it’s a net gain. Mississippi actually LOST money last year because they were too generous. The lost millions. All of this will reach a tipping point and states will begin to back off.

  Comment by Cribbster — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 5:56pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I suspect this post might offend or even anger those that live in L.A. but I have to ask—What’s the big deal if no movies were made in Hollywood? Tell me, does a local grip in Wilmington really make any difference to a finished film than one using a local grip from North Hollywood? California has priced itself out of the film and tv production market and I say “good!” Why shouldn’t the inflated budgets and ridiculous salaries benefit any city, state or municipality ready, wiling, or able to draw film and tv shoots to them? This ought to be a wake-up call for the California legislature but alas it will not. The chuckleheads in Sacramento will bitch and moan about runaway productions but have only themselves to blame. So to any producer that’s thinking of taking advantage of great tax breaks elsewhere I say, “good! go! spread the wealth around.”

  Comment by Um, Really? — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 6:25pm PDT  Reply to this post

• once long ago the film industry was based in new york.

  one day in the future they’ll say “you know kid, once they made movies in hollywood.”

  Comment by the glory days are over, pal — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 6:53pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I think the problem in California, and other states that have been slow to get on the tax-credit/incentive bandwagon, is that politicans have been afraid to give the appearance of giving preferential treatment to film-production that they don’t give to other businesses in their states.

  State legislatures and governors have to begin thinking of film production as TOURISTS who come from elsewhere to spend money in their states. There’s really little difference between tourists who come in from out of state and stay at hotels and resorts that then have to hire staff, contract for services and buy goods and raw materials from local vendors, and film production that hires and buys directly.

  States whose economies depend heavily on tourism tend not to find financial incentives for that industry politically unpalatable, and so should not when it’s explained to other businesses why film production should be given the same leg-up. Until that happens, California and many other states will continue to look up from the bottom of a hole that was dUg largely through their own inaction.

  Comment by A.L. Hern — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 8:19pm PDT  Reply to this post

• These states don’t seem to be able to grasp that these are highly skilled jobs, and the people who do them are also following their jobs as they migrate. Most of the on set people used to work in LA, so these incentives do very little to ease local unemployment, as most of the workers they are subsidizing weren’t in Louisiana, the Carolinas, AZ or Michigan three or four years ago. These crews are mostly staffed by California transplants, so all the subsidies are really doing is subsidizing the local hotel industry. No incentive has ever created a job, it just moved where the jobs around, mostly at the expense of the California workers whose family situations kept them from relocating.

  Comment by cricket — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 8:24pm PDT  Reply to this post

• While it totally sucks that states as well as nations are getting sucked into this race to the bottom to out-incentivize each other, the state of California’s going to have to step up to the plate, along with its cities & counties.

  Comment by mheister — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 9:10pm PDT  Reply to this post

• What I don’t understand is why Hollywood needs, wants, or expects tax credits to continue making movies in Hollywood. Shouldn’t these folks be happy to pay higher taxes to finance all the social programs California offers to its residents, both legal and illegal? They’re asking the rest of the country to pay higher taxes for one program or another, but when it comes to their own backyard, well, not so much. Now don’t get me wrong: I don’t blame other states trying to lure away the business to increase their coffers, but it does seem somewhat hypocritical that the folks in Hollywood don’t want to play by the same rules. I mean, to read this commentary you’d almost think that tax cuts, tax breaks, TIFs, etc. were a good thing and a way to spur economic activity in an area desperate for such a cash infusion. It will be interesting to read defenders of tax cuts (or rebates, or whatever you want to call them) for them, but not for you. I can’t wait. Have at it.

  Comment by Jim — Friday August 28, 2009 @ 10:57pm PDT  Reply to this post

• when can actors leave? I’m packed.

  Comment by Amy — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 12:10am PDT  Reply to this post

• Hollywood/film industry = Detroit/auto industry.

  Comment by Jack Davis — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 5:46am PDT  Reply to this post

• Let’s get real – the idea that California can bring back business with their own tax incentives is a joke. Businesses of all stripes have been fleeing California for over a decade because of the high taxes, the ridiculous level of state regulation and other oppressive burdens on businesses. The only way the state could pay incentives is to raise other taxes, which mitigates any imaginary benefit.

  If you want jobs to stay in California, get the politicians to stop wasting money, stop treating businesses like an enemy and lower taxes.

  Comment by Mars — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 6:53am PDT  Reply to this post

• Only 25%? That may have been competitive 2 years ago, but now many other incentive states with more efficient and reliable programs are far beyond that. Louisiana, for one, increased theirs to 30% plus an additional 5% for instate labor.

  Also, fellow producers: don’t forget that most of these incentives are based on “in-state spend.” That means if a state is new to the game like NC, your savings will be significantly reduced because the state won’t have any crew or infrastructure and you’ll be shipping everything in. Talent, expendables, equipment, EVERYTHING.

  Comment by Mike — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 6:55am PDT  Reply to this post

• Is anyone picking up on the hypocrisy of the creative community, which unfailingly supports tax-and-spend politicians, then runs for the state that offers tax incentives? Is it “good for us, but not good for the little people?”

  If you lower taxes on something, you’ll get more of it.. if you raise taxes, you’ll get less of it. Like work, business, and productivity. It’s not a right or left issue… it just is what it is.

  Comment by Gary Bryan — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 10:02am PDT  Reply to this post

• I work in the VFX industry, at a high level, and these jobs are being swept out of CA faster than mosquito in a tornado. The U.K. is offering upwards of %47(!!!) to do all film and post-production work there. Big VFX Studios like Imageworks, Digital Domain, etc. are shrinking as competition moves oversees or out of state.

  Big Media are sending work to India and China to get more bang for the buck in post effects. Trouble is, there is NO training for these people over there, and the final product suffers and ends up costing just as much to get looking right.

  I for one, am having to ‘rethink’ all of it as I take work out of state and country just to survive. LA feels more and more like a wasteland every day.

  So much for the ‘film’ part of the ‘film business’.

  It’s all shifting. ALL of it.

  Comment by reddbear — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 11:02am PDT  Reply to this post

• Sean, it’s my experience that most of the Liars and Assholes in Hollywood are scum that came here from somewhere else.

  If you couldn’t make it in New york or LA, you’ll probably fail in New Orleans as well. Maybe it’s time to face reality.

  Comment by good riddance — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 11:21am PDT  Reply to this post

• This is why I live and work in NYC. It’s the place for film. The talent (both on-screen and off) is already here. And I get to take the subway to work (no traffic). Plus, New Yorkers are generally not assholes. We may be a bit “abrupt” – but that’s usually just because you’re blocking the sidewalk. Most of us are pretty cool.

  Yes, Manhattan is too expensive for the average crew person. People, ever heard of Brooklyn or Queens? It’s where all the stages are anyway.

  Comment by G. — Saturday August 29, 2009 @ 11:30am PDT  Reply to this post