Once upon a time, it was possible to market a film destination based on the beauty of your locations, the depth and quality of your film infrastructure and your charming, persuasive personality. Those days are (largely) gone. Today, there’s rarely a phone call you’ll receive that does not open with the words: “What incentives do you offer?” How you answer that question can determine how successful you are in attracting in production to your area.
Incentives are financial inducements that are applied by governments all around the world to attract and retain businesses – for aerospace to energy to biotech – within their jurisdictions. Generally speaking, incentives are used to attract companies to an area to stimulate the economy, create high paying jobs and boost tax revenues. Many different kinds of incentive programs have sprung up for film makers – they range from Tax Credits to Sales and Usage Tax rebates to Skills Development programs. However, every Incentive Program has the basic intention of saving the producer money on non-essential items (like Tax!) so that he/she can spend those savings elsewhere in the production. And it the value offered by these savings is sufficiently enticing to make the producer spend revenue and create jobs in your destination, then your incentive is on its way to being successful. Or not.
Given the importance, Incentives are now a big part of our consultancy business – be they national, state or city-wide in nature. We can help you understand the Operational Considerations of an incentive, as well as the Policy Considerations that support it. We can help craft an incentive programme that is attractive to the international industry, generates jobs and stimulates small businesses, increases tax revenue and does not simply provide corporate gifting to Hollywood. We do this by ensuring that the incentive is crafted to address direct concerns in the host community, and ensure that monies are spent wisely and within the framework of public finance management provisions.
So if you’d like to create a film incentive, contact us today through the Contact form.