Film Commission Touts Success of Incentive Program

When putting together the budget for feature film “You Again,” the producers priced what it would cost to shoot in California but also in Vancouver, Atlanta, and Massachusetts. The locales outside the state looked favorable financially but receiving tax breaks to stay in California is what kept the $20 million production here, said Mario Iscovich, the executive producer. The added benefit of staying in California was having access to experienced crews who were tiring of working on out-of-town productions, Iscovich told a group of about 100 people attending the California Locations Reception hosted by the California Film Commission “They were thrilled to work on the movie even though our salary rates were rock bottom,” Iscovich said. In its first year, the incentive program gave financial assistance to 73 films and television series. If not for the credits applied toward income, sales and use taxes feature films that participated in the program would have gone out of state, said commission director Amy Lemisch. The City of Santa Clarita hosted 16 of the incentivized productions, with the city subsidizing basic permit fees. The city’s program is complementary to what the state offers, said Jessica Freude, of the Santa Clarita film office. “We are seeing the benefits and we want to do everything we can to keep production here,” Freude said. For the first quarter of the 2010, overall film, television and commercial production was up 18 percent when compared to the same period a year ago, according to statistics compiled by FilmLA, the not for profit agency that coordinates on-location filming in the city and county of Los Angeles and other areas. Those numbers do not include filming on studio soundstages. For the first three months of the year, there was a total of 11,087 permitted production days handled by FilmLA. The biggest increase came in commercials, which leapt to 2,034 permitted days from 1,266 permitted days in the first quarter of 2009. The film commission will have another $100 million to dole out for incentives for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. The office will accept applications starting June 1 for productions that begin shooting in July or later.