Currently Maine film workers and enthusiasts are lamenting the recent failure of LD 1449, An Act to Expand Tax Incentives for Visual Media Production. But I say good riddance. Tax incentives do not create a film industry. Filmmakers create a film industry.
The goal of tax incentives is to make it more affordable to make films. The question is, for whom. Hollywood studios that import their talent and take it with them when they leave provide a short-term boost to the local economy, but this gain is neither steady nor sustainable, and it does nothing to increase the viability of Maine’s local film industry.
A tax credit for Maine investors financing Maine films would do much to advance the industry here. However, that was not the case with LD 1449, which would have enabled investors in California to receive a tax credit for a film shot in Maine using actors and crew members from out of state. The bill also proposed a wage-tax rebate in the form of 10 percent of wages paid to out-of-state employees and 12 percent for local employees. Under this structure, the incentive for producers to hire Maine film workers rather than importing workers from Hollywood is negligible.
Who would have been eligible for these tax credits? Any qualifying production company with a budget of more than $250,000. Large Hollywood studios have no problem meeting this qualification; however, a typical filmmaker starting out (almost every filmmaker in Maine) would be hard-pressed to secure this level of funding for a film.
Cities such as Austin, Texas, have created thriving film communities anchored by local filmmakers and production houses. Robert Rodriguez (“Spy Kids,” “Sin City”) chose to stay in Austin to make films because the community supported local artists. Because of filmmakers like him, Austin has become a prime film destination. Productions are shot there on a constant basis, and the film community is continuously employed and generating millions of dollars for the state and its taxpayers.
Other states, such as Massachusetts, offer tax incentives and desirable backdrops at the expense of investing in a local film industry. The result is a large pool of unemployed film workers waiting for the next Hollywood production to roll into town and throw them a bone.
How can Maine support its filmmakers and grow its fledgling film industry? Maine investors should give serious consideration to funding private-equity films created here. Of course, filmmakers need to do their part by putting their best projects forward and asking for that help.
Since most artists are not businesspeople, and most businesspeople are not artists, someone needs to help filmmakers and investors come together to create projects that succeed both artistically and financially.
If Maine can find a way to help filmmakers acquire the funding and support they require to make their films, the state could become a pioneer in the film industry, attracting not only one of the most profitable arts in the world but also the talent and creative minds that make it.
It’s time to quit thinking of ways to attract successful movie companies from afar by handing them big bags of cash on their way out the door and start cultivating the creativity that is already here. Trailblazing of this caliber is what Mainers are all about.
Memphis Hough is a filmmaker who intends to shoot his low-budget thriller, “In the Woods,” in Maine this year. He may be reached at memphis@vacationlandpictures.com.