Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Film How to Bring Tennessee More Movie/TV Business? Incentives Meeting Today at Belcourt
Posted by Jim Ridley on Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 7:17 AM
One of the biggest concerns in Tennessee's film industry is how to compete for work with states that offer lucrative tax incentives to land film and TV projects. Not just goliaths like New Mexico, which dangles a 25 percent tax rebate as well as interest-free loans up to $15 million per project, but also neighbors such as Georgia and North Carolina.
Of course, matching tax rebates is difficult when the state doesn't have an income tax. Instead of transferable tax credits — i.e., selling off your state income-tax rebate to an entity that can use it — Tennessee offers cash rebates up to 32 percent of a production's in-state expenditures, from a film-incentive fund that once totaled $20 million. Reports as recent as November, however, had it down to about $4 million.
Members of the local film community will meet at 12:30 p.m. today at The Belcourt to discuss ways to lobby for a lasting, competitive film incentives package — and to talk about what that package might entail. The meeting is hosted by Laray Mayfield, a full-time Middle Tennessean who's better known as David Fincher's longtime casting director from Fight Club through The Social Network, along with Belcourt managing director Stephanie Silverman and marketing director Hayley Waddey Hall. The meeting is expected to last about an hour.
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You'd be surprised how much work my dad has had in New Mexico painting old prisons to look like they're new, or building new prisons on top of old prisons and then painting them so they look old again. I'd say Ashley is on to something.
Ashley's right — the empty prison facility has resulted in a ton of local film work. Maybe that's what Murfreesboro should do with the old Middle Tennessee Medical Center facility — movies and TV shows are always looking for hospitals.
Keep in mind that all of those usually short duration, jobs brought into Tennessee with television and film tax incentives are largely being filled by out-of-state crew and talent...I would be interested in how the Tennessee Film, Entertainment & Music Commission plans compared with that of both the Canadian government and Canadian provinces.
@Elmer
That reminds me of how sorry I felt for every NYC-based actor when "Law & Order" got cancelled.
@Elmer: The current Tennessee incentives package hinges on in-state hires and spending, and the one that's said to be pending almost certainly will include the same. Look at the cast and crew list for COUNTRY STRONG, for the most recent example, and you'll find plenty of local names both before and behind the camera.
@Ashley: The other night, PBS had a Broadway salute to Stephen Sondheim, and the one common item on almost every performer's resume was LAW & ORDER. That's the kind of range I admire — a hard-boiled cop and a singing candle.
