By W. Jeffrey Frizzell
Tough economic times have taken their toll, and after months of searching, the funding for the Hampton Roads Film Office ran out on June 30.
This is worse than just bad timing considering the legislation passed in this year’s General Assembly, which gives incentives in the form of grants and tax credits to production companies to bring their projects to Virginia.
That will provide Hampton Roads the best chance in many years of landing major productions, which brings in additional jobs and creates even more economic impact. However, without local financial support, there will no longer be a proactive single point of contact to bring those dollars to the region.
What will Hampton Roads lose?
The HRFO opened its doors July 1, 2006, in partnership with the Virginia Film Office as a division of the Hampton Roads Partnership.
During those four years, according to the VFO, production in the Hampton Roads region annually accounted for an average of $124 million in economic impact and $9 million in direct state tax revenue.
Most importantly, it has created over 750 jobs annually to taxpaying citizens in Hampton Roads.
In these four years the HRFO has:
- Helped bring in production companies from out of Virginia to produce their films, television shows, commercials;
- Provided a single contact for coordination between production companies and the municipalities and venues of Hampton Roads;
- Worked with local production companies to help their business;
- Worked with colleges, universities, private and public schools on their film programs and education of their students;
- Provided pro bono work to local nonprofits;
- Provided much needed jobs to the Hampton Roads community; and
- Helped elevate the region’s profile on a national and international stage.
I feel so strongly about this community and the economic impact of the film industry that I have decided to keep the HRFO open and continue to perform the duties of commissioner on a limited, volunteer basis while trying to find a sustainable source of funding.
If you have questions or, better yet, solutions please feel free to write or call me. Your comments and support would be greatly appreciated.
W. Jeffery Frizzell is commissioner of the Hampton Roads Film Office. Reach him at FilmOffice@HRP.org. Letter to the editor printed in The Virginian-Pilot’s Sunday Forum on July 11, 2010.
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July 11, 2010 at 9:45 pm (UTC -4)
Film tax credit aims to put state in spotlight
By Danielle Walker, Inside Business (danielle.walker@insidebiz.com)
July 9, 2010
Last year, an Arab reality television show, “Safari,” was taped in False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach. More money is now available in Virginia for tax credits for film.
Last month, Gov. Bob McDonnell signed two bills intended to stimulate interest in Virginia among film production companies, totaling $4.5 million in funding.
The new film tax credit program will initiate $2.5 million in funding at the start of 2011. In addition, the Motion Picture Opportunity Fund was amended, raising the fund from $200,000 to $2 million for 2011.
With more film production incentives for the state, differing viewpoints have emerged about whether the tax credits will make a long-term difference locally, and whether tax credits in the industry have a history of working at all.
Jeff Frizzell, director of the Hampton Roads Film Office, said he believes that while Virginia’s incentive program isn’t huge in comparison to other states, the new legislation will help put the commonwealth in the game.
“I don’t know that it will substantially change [the Hampton Roads industry] in the short term, but in the long run it will,” Frizzell said.
He said the popularity of “runaway production” projects in the ’80s and ’90s, when U.S. film projects were shot in other countries, primarily Canada, led to a rise in states taking up new tax incentive legislation in this decade.
“Once incentives took place, the first question production companies asked was where the incentives were,” said Frizzell, who explained that production companies often rewrite scenes so they can be shot in an economically attractive location.
“People who understand the viability of the business get it,” he said. “People write scripts around incentives.”
Because of the new legislation, Frizzell said that Virginia now has at least “a chip in the game.”
Mark Robyn, a staff economist at the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that educates the public on tax policy, thinks lawmakers may be sugarcoating the gains tax incentives will bring.
“In the case of Virginia, with a relatively modest program as compared to other states, there’s no way you’re creating long-term jobs,” Robyn said. “If a film company comes to town and hires a crew, that’s not really a job created.”
The gains that tax incentives bring are often exaggerated and job creation in the industry is hard to define, Robyn said.
“Really, what they’re doing is shifting jobs from one state to another,” Robyn said. “For the nation as a whole, you’re not gaining anything.”
As to whether the tax credit could make or break production company interest in Virginia, he said that if there were no credits in Virginia, films would still be made here. The issue isn’t whether film tax credits work, but whether they are worth it.
“I won’t say it hasn’t increased the films made in some states,” Robyn said. “It’s a question of what better use could that money be put to?”
Doug Miller, a professor in Regent University’s cinema and TV department, thinks there’s another aspect to the new legislation that could positively impact the Hampton Roads region. The new bill promotes more than just Hollywood, big-bank feature films, he said, and incentives could play to the local film industry’s strengths.
“For this area, it all depends on what film companies are looking for,” he said.
If they’re looking at a range of media productions, including television and smaller budget projects like documentaries and independent films, then Hampton Roads and Virginia might be a good fit, he said.
Last year, an Arab reality television show, “Safari,” was taped in False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach.
In 2007, the John Adams mini-series was taped in Colonial Williamsburg and brought in $80 million in revenue for the area. The state offered $1.2 million in incentives for the HBO production.
A recently released independent film, “Desperate Escape,” was filmed solely in Hampton Roads and brought $780,000 in spending to the region. The feature film was shot in Suffolk on the outskirts of the Dismal Swamp.
While Virginia may not have the big budget or funding programs that other states have, Frizzell said that the state can tap into its unique qualities.
And the issue of film industry workers being attracted to the area but later moving on to film industry meccas like L.A., New York and Atlanta, doesn’t concern him.
If the tax credits can’t make up for the cost of shooting in these higher-demand locations, then there’s no point in going there, he said.
In February 2009, California passed legislation for a $500 million tax credit in the film and television industry, to last five years. The fund was started to lure back production companies that left the state to film elsewhere.
The incentives also offered a 25 percent tax credit for TV series relocating to the state.
In 2008, popular ABC sitcom “Ugly Betty” moved its production location from Los Angeles to New York.
Frizzell said the combination of Virginia’s lower cost of living, which equates to less spending for production companies, and the new tax incentives, could make a substantial difference in the local industry.
“People are naturally going to migrate to other places,” Frizzell said. “This is not the production capital of the world, so people will still want to go to L.A. Everybody is there. But some people want to live here.”
http://insidebiz.com/news/film-tax-credit-aims-put-state-spotlight
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