Cut! Filming in Florida just got less attractive
Marian Wertalka
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/525299.html
Posted on Thu, May. 08, 2008
Cut! Filming in Florida just got less attractive
BY DOUGLAS HANKS
A golden age of South Florida moviemaking is upon us, but experts
don't expect it to last much longer. In fact, they give it about seven
more weeks.
That's when dramatic cuts to Florida's film subsidies take effect,
hollowing out a $25 million fund credited with making 2008 a banner
year for both production work and celebrity sightings.
Broward and Miami-Dade counties report a record number of movie and
television productions since 2007, double the decade's last high-water
mark. Film offices point to about $50 million in local spending from
the productions in both counties this year. But with only $5 million
to dole out for projects shooting after July 1, local film offices are
bracing for lean times.
''The studios and even the big independents can't ignore the
incentives they can get elsewhere,'' said Elizabeth Wentworth, who
recruits productions for the Broward Alliance, the county's economic
development arm. ``Next year all of our figures are going to be way
down. We can count on not getting anything major.''
That would be a big switch from the current crop of A-Listers in town to film.
Miami became a major paparazzi battleground two weeks ago when singer
John Mayer arrived for a romantic weekend with Jennifer Aniston. She
settled into an extended Miami stay for her starring role in Marley &
Me, a movie set in South Florida and slated to receive $1.6 million in
state subsidies in exchange for spending nearly $11 million locally.
Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger also were spotted killing time in South
Beach between location shoots in South Florida this spring.
Their movies (I Love You Phillip Morris and Chilled in Miami) were
based elsewhere, but cash incentives helped lure producers to shoot
some scenes in South Florida, said Jeff Peel, director of Miami-Dade's
film office.
''Jim Carrey would not be here without an incentive,'' Peel said.
``That's the way these things are done.''
LATE TO THE GAME
Florida entered the film subsidy wars late, offering producers nothing
as recently as five years ago. Other states, notably Louisiana, New
Mexico and South Carolina, have been helping pay production costs as a
way to lure both big-budget features and television shows their way.
This week, the Los Angeles Times reported ABC was moving its hit Ugly
Betty show from Los Angeles to the Big Apple to take advantage of New
York's beefed-up $65 million incentive program.
A top executive at Burn Notice, a drama set in Miami awarded about
$4.2 million in state subsidies, said the cable show would have filmed
elsewhere if not for the cash.
''That is unequivocal,'' said Bob Lemchen, vice president of scripted
programming for Fox Television Studios, which produces the show for
the USA cable network. ``You'll notice the other two shows on
television set in Miami -- CSI: Miami and Dexter -- don't shoot in
Miami.''
SUBSIDIES PUSHED JUMP
Florida's program launched in 2004 with a meager $2.4 million fund,
and by 2006 it had grown to $20 million.
The $25 million budget for the current fiscal year -- which ends June
30 -- coincided with a surge in South Florida productions: Miami-Dade
said 46 movies requested permits in that time, up from 21 in 2005 and
four in 2003.
But lawmakers, facing a $4 billion budget shortfall amid a statewide
real estate meltdown, pulled back the subsidies amid widespread cost
cutting.
Though Florida's film office contends productions generate spending
worth seven times their subsidy amounts, ''it's kind of tough to be up
there lobbying when the person in front of you is trying to secure
money for their Meals on Wheels,'' said Robert Parente, head of
Miami's film office. ``You feel sheepish.''
Florida will reimburse 15 percent of the money movies and television
shows spend in Florida, with a 5 percent bonus available for
productions filming during hurricane season. Family-friendly projects
(no swearing, no sex and no smoking) also qualify for another 2
percent rebate.
The region seemed to have little problem attracting production work
before the state subsidy program. Movies linked to Miami -- The
Birdcage, Scarface, There'sSomething About Mary -- paid their own way,
as did the Miami Vice television series and 2005 film.
But the spread of film incentives this decade will leave Florida at a
disadvantage in what state film commissioner Lucia Fishburne called a
``commodities game.''
''Of course, people are going to go where it can make the biggest
difference in their bottom lines,'' she said.
As the only major Florida show returning for a second season, Burn
Notice gets first priority for next year's $5 million fund and
considers its subsidies secure. But should there be no government
money for the second half of 2009, agent Michael Westen may find
himself leaving his Coconut Grove environs for elsewhere.
''Our worry is Season Three,'' Lemchen said. ``This is a very bad
thing for us.''
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Marian Wertalka
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