Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

They've got lights, they've got cameras, they just need a sweet deal

A proposed incentive might reel filmmakers, their lights and cameras back to Florida.

By CHRISTINA REXRODE
Published February 14, 2007

There must be some movie buffs in the governor’s office.

Under a  proposal from Gov. Charlie Crist, the state could offer up to $75-million per year in incentives to producers considering shooting their movies, TV shows and music videos in Florida. That’s nearly quadruple the current limit of $20-million.

Across the state, the proposal has the film industry in high spirits. Florida, they say, has the infrastructure, the track record and the good weather to attract entertainment business, but it’s been losing out as neighboring states have crafted generous tax breaks for studios.

“Once it came down to the almighty dollar, they started taking their productions elsewhere,” said Krista Soroka, the Tampa film commissioner.

Traditionally, Florida has ranked No. 3 in the film industry, behind California and New York. Insiders say Florida’s informal ranking has probably slipped in the past six to eight years, but they aren’t sure by how much.

Paul Sirmons, the state’s film commissioner, said he knew of at least two companies that moved from Florida to Louisiana specifically for the tax breaks there.

“We’re the third-largest state in the country for number of film students that are graduated, and we need to have jobs for them,” Sirmons said.

Louisiana — along with Georgia, North Carolina and several other states — has no cap on the incentives it can offer to the entertainment industry. So even if the Legislature agrees to boost Florida’s incentive limit to $75-million, the state will still have a comparatively small deck of cards to play with.

Still, it’s a big increase in a short period. When the Legislature first funded the incentive program in 2004-05, it set a limit of $2.4-million.

Film commissioners are also excited by the multiyear commitment of Crist’s proposal, which would allot $75-million per year for three years. Currently, regional film commissioners have to guess how much they’ll be allowed to offer in incentives from year to year.

That doesn’t sit well with producers looking for a place to film a TV show for several years, or executives who don’t plan to start working on a movie right away.

“When we know what kind of money we’re dealing with more than a few months out, that’s going to put us in a much stronger negotiating position when we’re dealing with Mr. Producer Man from L.A.,” said Jennifer Parramore, the Pinellas film commissioner.

The state says it gets a return of $6.60 on every dollar it puts into the incentive program. Hillsborough County — mindful of those benefits — created its own “film closing fund” a year and a half ago with $100,000 per year.

Robert Sterrett III, a producer who moved to St. Petersburg from the Los Angeles area about a year ago, said he was thrilled by the governor’s commitment to the entertainment industry. But he said that the state’s requirement that studios spend at least $850,000 before they qualify for the incentives means that small filmmakers lose out.

Burial at Sea, “a skateboarder horror film” that he made here last summer, cost $300,000.

Another local producer, Jim Fitzpatrick, has visions of the bay area as a mini Hollywood. Last year he moved back to Seminole, where he grew up, after 20-plus years of writing, directing and acting in Los Angeles.

Fitzpatrick said he can produce a movie here for one-third or one-fourth of the California price tag, partly because California’s film crews are unionized.

He was upbeat Wednesday afternoon after signing Antonio Tarver for his upcoming movie Scouts Honor. (Tarver, for the uninitiated, is the former lightheavyweight boxing world champion, and also Rocky Balboa’s nemesis in movie No. 6, which hit theaters in December.)

Scouts Honor, a family film in the spirit of Home Alone and Spy Kids, revolves around some pint-sized heroes fighting a gang of bumbling motorcycle thugs portrayed by NFL players.

It begins filming around the area on March 26.

Christina Rexrode can be reached at crexrode@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8318.

[Last modified February 14, 2007, 21:22:43]