I’m often asked how or why studios choose to film where they do since so many movie and TV shows set in one location are filmed somewhere else.
My answer is always the same – incentives, incentives, incentives. Since it’s pretty easy to manipulate just about any environment (especially when you throw a little CGI in the mix) producers will usually film in the state that offers them the best tax breaks.
At the annual Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) Locations Show, which was held last week at the L.A. Convention Center last week, 180 Film Commissioners from around the world gathered to tout their community, and incentives, to the film industry.
“It used to be people wanted to talk about the locations in the state where they might film,” said Amy Lemisch, executive director of the California Film Commission “Now we spend almost the entire time talking about our incentives.”
New York State, which can also offer studios skilled labor and an established infrastructure, has benefited greatly from their tax incentives program. Currently, New York is second only to California among U.S. states in film and TV production and has seen the money spent by productions rise from $600,000 in 2004 to $1.5 billion in 2011. That included money spent by 90 feature films, 24 TV series, and 21 pilots, many of which were set in other locales.
New York allocates about $420 million a year in tax credits to lure those productions.
New Mexico, North Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana have also been able to lure more productions to their states thanks to increased tax incentives. Michigan on the other hand has seen a significant decrease in productions choosing to film there after they decreased their tax incentives.
So, the next time you wonder why more movies aren’t filmed in your area, you thank your local film commission. for not offering better incentives.
Well it’s not necessarily the film commissions fault. These incentives are extremely costly and often are not worth it in the long run. New York gives away $ 420 Million dollars per year to get all those productions!!
That is true, it doesn’t always pay off — that is part of the reason why Michigan cut back (though they’ve recently added back some of the incentives). And it is a major commitment, New York has been building their film industry literally since the medium was invented so there is a lot to consider — the only point I was really trying to make is that movies are filmed where they are due to $ in 9 out of 10 cases…..