7 States to Set Your Movie In
Louisiana. Georgia. California. Alaska. Illinois. New York. Massachusetts. Per a recent article in Studio System News, these are seven states with the best film and TV production tax incentives. Here is an example from the article:
LOUISIANA
No Program Cap or Expiration Listed
Incentive: Thirty percent for films and TV series with a $300,000 minimum spend.
Special Notes: Additional five percent tax credit limited to first $1,000,000 of resident labor.
SSN Insight: This is the End, 22 Jump Street, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes all took advantage of Louisiana’s sweet 30 percent tax credit, which, according to Film LA, has helped make the state the number one shooting location in the world, outpacing California, Canada, and the U.K. Not everyone’s happy though, especially since the $168 million given in 2012 could have been used to fund schools, fishing and oil businesses. “There is no question that it is having an economic impact, but it is getting very expensive,” says Robert Scott of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, a nonpartisan think tank. But in 2012 alone, film and TV producers created 15,184 jobs and spent $717 million in the state, up 85 percent from 2010.
You think they shot This is the End, 22 Jump Street and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in Louisiana because they wanted the crew to eat good gumbo? No, the decision was based on money and access to professional crew members, most of whom have been drawn to Louisiana because of the amount of production work there… which has been driven by the extremely generous tax benefits.
So when you sit down to write a spec script set in the United States, perhaps you consider these seven as potential settings. Conversely states you might want to avoid:
Since 2012, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin have all curtailed or eliminated their programs. News hit last week that North Carolina, a popular filming destination where Hunger Games were shot, failed to renew their program for next year.
File this under putting on your producer’s cap when developing your story.
For the rest of the SSN article, go here.
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