By Michael White

Hollywood studios are moving ahead with plans to make and sell movies in China, a sign the industry’s push to expand in the third-largest film market will proceed without being slowed by a federal inquiry.
News Corp. (NWSA), owner of 20th Century Fox, this week bought a stake in Beijing-based Bona Film Group Ltd. (BONA), a movie producer and distributor. DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA) Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Katzenberg and Robert Iger, Chairman and CEO of Walt Disney Co. (DIS), this month reaffirmed initiatives in China.

Hollywood’s interest in China has grown with the country’s plan to build state-of-the art theaters and upgrade its film industry, moves that would also help fuel studios’ local theme- park and live-entertainment businesses. The country is letting in more foreign films, sharing ticket sales more equitably and encouraging ties to local producers. Reports last month of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry raised the question of whether studios’ progress would be interrupted.
“It’s hard to slow anything down in China,” said Dan Mintz, CEO of Beijing-based DMG Entertainment, which is working on “Iron Man 3” with Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company. “Of course, you are careful about doing business and who you are doing business with.”
The SEC sent letters to studios seeking information about dealings with certain officials, and possibly inappropriate payments, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Studio officials decline to discuss the inquiry, some citing confidentiality rules. The letters were sent by the SEC in March, the New York Times reported earlier.
SEC spokeswoman Florence Harmon also declined to comment.
Anti-Corruption Measures
Studio chiefs are moving forward because they’re confident strict anti-corruption policies are being followed, said Michael Perlis, a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney now with Locke Lord LLP in Los Angeles.
“I am sure senior management, by and large, assumes they’ve got procedures in place and they’re being complied with,” Perlis said in an interview. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they are.”
Disney’s decision to co-produce the Marvel film, announced in April, attests to Hollywood’s willingness to stake some of its biggest projects in China, one of the world’s fastest- growing markets. Box-office sales there increased 35 percent to $2 billion last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America, the industry’s lobbyist.
“China is a top priority for us,” Disney’s Iger said on a May 8 conference call with analysts and investors.
Chinese Market
Disney, based in Burbank, California, operates a theme park in Hong Kong and is building another in Shanghai.
With the right film, the Chinese market can be lucrative. The government in February increased the number of foreign films it lets in each year to 34 from 20, according to the MPAA, and studios will get 25 percent of the box-office receipts, up from 13 percent previously.
James Cameron’s 2009 “Avatar,” the top-grossing movie in history with $2.78 billion in global sales, took in $182.2 million from Chinese audiences, according to researcher Box Office Mojo. As of May 1, a 3-D version of his 1997 blockbuster “Titanic” had collected $134 million in China since it was released there on April 10, according to Fox, the international distributor.
The film-finance community, which lends to producers based in part of foreign distribution contracts, is starting to take China more seriously.
‘Top Three’
“China used to be a zero in terms of forecasting,” said Jeff Colvin, a senior vice president and head of film finance in Los Angeles for Comerica Inc. (CMA), the largest U.S. lender for independent movies. “Now it can be a top-three market after the U.S. and U.K.”
This week, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. said it was buying a 19.9 percent stake in Bona Film, sending the company’s U.S.- traded shares to a one-year high.
Bona Founder and Chairman Yu Dong said in April he was interested in making “Avatar 2” with Fox. Cameron told the New York Times in an interview published May 5 that he was exploring co-producing the movie’s sequels in China. The May 14 statement issued by Bona and New York-based News Corp. didn’t mention specific projects.
DreamWorks Animation said in February it will form Oriental DreamWorks, a Shanghai-based joint venture to develop entertainment projects in China that will include theme parks and live productions.
The company will own about 45 percent of the venture, with the rest held by China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd.
Hollywood Math
Generally, studios’ internal rules for doing business outside the U.S. are about as strict and sophisticated as any in the U.S., Perlis said. Even so, The SEC historically has been suspicious of Hollywood accounting methods, he said. That suspicion may have contributed to the decision to open the inquiry he said.
“The SEC has routinely been suspicious of Hollywood because their view is that Hollywood plays by its own rules,” Perlis said. “There was always the sense that cash didn’t find its way to where it should have.”

BY JOE COUTURE, THE STARPHOENIX

REGINA — Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud apologized in the legislature for comments he made earlier this week about supporters of the province’s film and television industry.

“Well I think from time to time, you have a poor choice of words when you’re making speeches or talking to groups out there,” he said in an interview after question period. “This was certainly one of those times. I learned early in this game, if you screw up, you apologize.”

At a breakfast in Moose Jaw on Tuesday, Bjornerud commented about a rally of film supporters at the Legislative Building the previous day. Led by Kim Coates, Saskatoon-born actor and star of American biker gang TV series Sons of Anarchy, many with the group had travelled from Saskatoon to Regina on motorcycles.

“It almost looked like Hells Angels that pulled in, in front of the legislature, because about three-quarters of them were on Harleys that looked like they cost about $35,000,” local media quoted him as saying. “They didn’t look that hard up to me, but then, I’m a little biased.”

Bjornerud also said at the event that, “It’s one of those things that seems to take all the time in the news and it’s a big, big issue out there, but I think when you get out in the real world, there’s not near as many that are quite as concerned.”

“The minister yesterday in a speech to the public put out mistruths that characterize an industry in a way that is false,” NDP culture critic Danielle Chartier said after question period, in which she confronted Bjornerud about his statements.

“I’m glad the minister’s apologized. Am I satisfied? I think this government needs to get back to the table with the film and television industry.”

In hindsight, Bjornerud said Wednesday he wouldn’t have uttered the statements about the Hells Angels, expensive motorcycles or “not being that hard up.” In the legislature, Premier Brad Wall said the minister made the right choice in apologizing.

But Wall came under fire Wednesday, too, for a letter of support he wrote for film industry efforts south of the border last year. In that document, he wrote that, “Saskatchewan’s film industry has experienced incredible growth in the past 25 years.”

He called the sector “a vital component of our province’s growing economy and, as such, boasts globally competitive tax credit incentives through the Saskatchewan film employment tax credit program.”

“What’s changed, of course, is that the growth has unfortunately fallen off significantly and what’s changed was we had brought down a budget in the context of significantly less income from corporate income tax and certainly we had to make decisions in the budget to balance the budget that were difficult,” Wall told reporters on Wednesday. “This is one of them and one that we stand by.”

Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Bjornerud+apologizes+film+industry+rally+remarks/6633773/story.html#ixzz1v62tAhze

By Richard Verrier

As California lawmakers mull whether to extend funding for the state’s film tax credit program, rival New York City is crowing about having another record year for TV production.

New York City Film Commissioner Katherine Oliver said the city was on track to have its busiest year yet for television production, touting a half a dozen new TV series whose pilots were filmed in New York.

The pilot pickups, announced in the annual spring television ad sales event known as the upfront market in New York City, include the ABC shows “Gotham” and “666 Park Avenue” and the CBS dramas “Golden Boy” and “Elementary.”

With the addition of the new series, most of which are expected to be shot in New York, an estimated 25 or more episodic TV shows are scheduled to be filmed in the city this year, topping last year’s record of 23 shows.

“As television and cable networks present their schedules for the fall 2012 season, more and more producers and writers around the country have realized that New York City is the best place in the world to make television,” Oliver said in a statement. “Mayor Bloomberg and I congratulate the shows and everyone who will be working on them.”

The statements are certain to irritate local film industry officials who’ve been urging lawmakers to extend funding for California’s film tax credit, which is scheduled to expire next year, through 2018. A state Assembly committee this week approved a bill that would do just that, but its prospects are uncertain as the Legislature grapples with a $16-billion deficit.

News Corp. is purchasing a 19.9 percent stake in China’s Bona Film Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:BONA), a movie distributor and producer, as it looks to position itself in a fast-expanding market and grow its China film footprint.

Films in China hold great promise — box-office receipts rose 28.6 per cent last year to 13.12 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) alongside a 40 percent increase in the number of cinemas to 2,803, according to CMM-I — but foreign companies are frustrated since the film industry is tightly regulated, with production and distribution licenses handed out sparingly.

The new deal comes as China slowly liberalizes its film sector to allow more foreign participation. News Corp, which owns Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox, plans to use Bona to strengthen its foothold in the booming Chinese film market, where it distributes some US-made films but has made little headway with local content.

Stan Abrams, a Beijing-based IP lawyer and blogger at ChinaHearsay, looked into the risks of the investment given the complicated structure of Bona and the risks of investing into China via a VIE.

News Corp is not exactly purchasing equity in a company that holds those licenses, but rather investing in a Cayman Islands holding company that owns several entities in China that have, in turn, contractual relationships with the PRC-national-held entities that have the licenses. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’re already thinking VIEs (variable interest entities). And you’d be right, that’s exactly how Bona Film Group is structured and how it is able to tap into offshore equity markets.

The government could declare the contractual arrangements invalid, which is one of the most significant risks of using a VIE structure.

One of the biggest risks, Abrams said, was in personnel — Bona CEO Dong Yu holds the important connections in China.

As regulation slowly loosens, more Hollywood studios can be expected to explore opportunities in China, but while restrictions do remain, VIEs are likely to be the main initial investment structure.

Tevita Vuibau

THE licensing of audio visual agents is making a cleaner service for local film service providers and incoming productions alike.

The Audio Visual Agents Licences were introduced earlier this year to ensure services provided were of international standard.

They also monitor the activities of licensed audio visual agents and eliminate those operating without licences.

Film Fiji acting chief executive officer Florence Swamy said the licences were needed by all local companies already registered as service providers.

“All registered local film production services providers, production houses, equipment suppliers and other key professionals and contractors that service film production companies, will now need an Audio Visual Agents Licence,” said Mrs Swamy.

She said those working directly with film companies would also need an Audio Visual Agents Licence.

“This will allow for streamlining; creating a cleaner process for service providers and incoming productions alike.”

She said these licences would have numerous benefits not only for locals, but for the country as well.

“A smoother process means a better and most assuredly, recurring business for Fiji. The requirement for licensing will promote good business practices and will show Fiji in a very professional light.”

Mrs Swamy said all licensed agents would be listed in a directory to provide easy reference for productions looking for local service providers.

“Licensing will also ensure that local contractors get appropriately compensated for their services and the production can be assured that they get the service they’re paying for,” she added.

By Mark London Williams

The IA,” according to organizer Peter Marley, “has become more political than it was in the past.” Marley was speaking over Mother’s Day weekend on a podcast at the redoubtable FXGuide website, more or less officially announcing an initiative that broke last week via the arrival of a website: Namely that after years of talk on the subject, IATSE is openly recruiting visual effects workers to come join a union.

It’s a propitious moment for such a move: FX extravaganza The Avengers reached the billion dollar box office mark this weekend, meaning all those freelancing digit wranglers in all those post houses are, perhaps, the most critical components to the future of studio box office.

At the same time, we’re also just a few days past May Day in a spring where worker and working class sensibilities have upended top down-imposed “austerity” programs in both French and Greek elections, and an emboldened sense of worker and citizen rights – encapsulated stateside by the “Occupy” movement.

So if the IA is more political than it has been in the past (or at least, since the 1930s), it wouldn’t be surprising. The times lend themselves to it.

Towards this end, the IA launched a website to inform and cajole many digital laborers toward union membership. You can find it at http://vfx.iatse-intl.org/. Among its front page mission statements is the admonition that the IA is “uniquely qualified to represent freelance employees. Most of our members work for multiple employers during the course of a year. For these workers it is critical to provide health and retirement funds that are portable.”

In a way, that’s the crux of the entire “spring fever” gripping the globe: All work, now, is “portable,” and transient and probably temporary. We have seen the postproduction workers, and they are us. How does one organize in a such a climate?

Steve Kaplan is an organizer for IA’s Local 839 – the Animation Guild. Many of those workers are, ironically, already unionized in a time where, in the age of rendering, the dividing line between “animation” and “every other movie” is becoming increasingly blurry.

Kaplan applauds the efforts to organize FX workers, telling Below the Line that “839 is in the unique position of representing the craft that is closely related to visual effects. Arguably, computer generated imagery is the natural technological progression from hand-drawn animation. Many of our members use the same skills, techniques and tools that are found in visual effects shops around the world. As 839’s organizer, I can say that we stand behind the goals of the International and regularly support their efforts when we’re called upon to do so. I am proud to be working with International representatives Peter Marley and (West Coast IA rep) Vanessa Holtgrewe in supporting the organization effort in place at Sony Pictures Imageworks.”

Of course, organizing Imageworks – which Kaplan refers to specifically – would be of great importance to IA’s efforts, as they occupy the “elite” strata of post houses, also famously occupied by facilities like ILM and Weta.

Would those workers want to organize? Would they need to? And what of the middle tier shops, and the workers in tech-savvy, union-deprived locales like India and China, who, seemingly, will always take “outsourced” work flowing toward the lowest hourly wage? Would they organize if it threatens the business model that keeps them employed?

On top of which, how will the IA be able to handle its own internal contradictions, given that the “I” stands for “International,” when the needs of workers in Vancouver and London (where they already have decent health care provided by their governments) conflict with those in Los Angeles or San Francisco?

In his podcast interview, Marley also discussed whether unions going after presumed “trade violations” – in the form of incentives, (by which we mean government subsidies) – should be something that unions fight in the same way they take on “piracy.”

But that would mean, of course, taking on governments themselves, and their tax policies, and to some degree a country’s own social structures. A country that doesn’t imagine itself policeman to the world is, by definition, freer to devote resources to subsidies that attract various kinds of businesses to its shores.

It would also mean conflicts between workers who have jobs in those places where there are subsidies, and those in places where there aren’t.

Those contradictions are summed up by VES Chair Jeffrey Okun, who talks of the Visual Effects Society’s own role in such organizing (or lack thereof) when he says that “the only way the VES can get involved in a meaningful way is if someone takes the work off the planet.”

Which would kind of be a visual effect in itself. The point being that VES has workers everywhere – from union-prone Los Angeles, to union-less Bangalore. So whose interests are going to be best served?

Yet if the “Prague Spring” of Occupy and its discontents has said anything, it may be that it’s time to consider that a rising tide may, in fact, lift all boats. Whether the IA can make that case in every back bay and lagoon where workers wrangle digits, remains to be seen.

But as Marley observed in the podcast, the “entire entertainment industry is a freelance industry and we all know that.”

And in a world where every industry and worker are, ultimately, “freelance,” it will be fascinating to see to what degree that work, which is technologically cutting edge, can be similarly cutting edge in terms of workplace organizing, and how benefits flow to the workers themselves.

Emma Kingdon and Andrew Lewis

A new incentive for film-making was introduced in January this year with the coming into force of section 12O of the Income Tax Act, No 58 of 1962, which provides an attractive tax exemption for filmmakers in respect of all income tax on film profits for a ten year period commencing on the date of completion of the film.

When this provision was first released in June 2011 for public comment, the National Treasury proposed scrapping the controversial and awkward tax allowance provided by section 24F of the Income Tax Act, which it declared as a “deadweight loss”, not only because it had failed to provide any incentive for the production of films in South Africa, but also because its complex provisions “created fertile ground” for tax schemes as opposed to genuine film productions. The proposed effective date of the scrapping was 1 January 2012.

However, while welcoming the new section 12O, the public commented that to eradicate the section 24F film allowance altogether would be unfair and overly harsh in a number of respects.

First, investors who had already invested in films on the understanding that the current section 24F allowance would apply but had yet to claim the benefit, would lose out. Treasury accepted this concern and instead of scrapping section 24F, it amended it so that films which commenced principal photography before 1 January 2012 will remain under the ambit of section 24F, in respect of expenditure incurred before 1 January 2013. Films which commence principal photography after 1 January 2012 will fall under the new regime.

The other concern dealt with by Treasury was that film investors should not be denied the ability to deduct from taxable income the total loss they make in respect of qualifying films. Treasury acknowledged this point and introduced limited protection in the form of a deduction from income of the net loss associated with acquiring the exploitation rights (being the rights to use or give permission to use the film) in a qualifying film after a period of two years has elapsed from completion of production. However, no loss can be claimed if the loss stems from borrowed funds, as the relief is intended only to benefit those who are “at risk”. Furthermore, if use is made of this deduction, no exemption can be claimed on income in respect of those exploitation rights thereafter.

The new regime has the intention of providing a proper enticement to filmmakers to produce South African content, by exempting from income tax all gains made from the performance of a qualifying film. (Gains made from guaranteed payments, such as minimum guarantees paid by distributors irrespective of performance of the production are not exempt from income tax.) Accordingly, to qualify for the benefits under section 12O the production must have been approved as a domestic production (in terms of a scorecard yet to be released) or a co-production (in terms of one of the approved co-production treaties) by the National Film and Video Foundation.

The production must also qualify as a feature film, documentary (or documentary series) or animation in terms of the Department of Trade and Industry’s guidelines for the South African Film and Television Production and Co-production Incentive. This means producers of short documentaries (other than those in large IMAX format), reality shows and short television series will not enjoy this exemption, which is unfortunate given the demand for such content on local television channels and the significant value to be found in format rights.

The new regime also seeks to promote the investment of risk capital, and therefore focuses on initial or pre-production investors. However, investors who come on board after commencement of production, but before completion of the film in order to address a budget shortfall, can claim the exemption as long as the funds they invested were not used to compensate pre-production investors.

*Emma Kingdon, consultant, corporate and commercial practice and Andrew Lewis, senior associate, tax practice, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr

Love-struck teenagers, angry parents, rowing couples: Somali youth tired of seeing their homeland portrayed as a war-torn famine zone have started making films to show a different side to their country. “The world knows Somalia for war,” said Adirahman Ali Suge, a 19-year-old writer and film director, part of a group of refugee Somali film makers in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. “But we have love stories and drama to tell too.” Several films have been made so far along with a few soap operas. They are either in Somali, English or Swahili-the main language of east Africa-and net a few thousand dollars in profits at the most.

The shoe-string budget films of “Eastleighwood” — named after Nairobi’s bustling Somali district-is a world away from its namesake Hollywood, India’s Bollywood or Nigeria’s Nollywood-Africa’s biggest film industry. In central Africa, Nollywood movies are the only ones sold by market vendors as “African movies”, with the Nigerian productions dubbed into French in such countries as Cameroon and Gabon. In Kenya, Nigerian films are also a hit-many of them broadcast on terrestrial networks-but face competition from Bollywood due to a historic large Indian population. However, Suge, who fled Somalia as a child shortly after the start of civil war in 1991 — still ongoing today-sees the similarities.

“I like to watch Bollywood movies, with all their singing and dancing, and that is in our films too,” he said, speaking as actors rehearsed the latest drama, set in a small shop plastered with posters of Indian movie stars. “In Somali culture, when a man and women love each, they sing to each other,” he added. “Love is something all over the world: we have it, they have it, so you really shouldn’t be surprised.” The aim is to portray a “normal” Somalia than the usual television footage dominated by war, rebels and hunger.

Cameraman Abuker Yusuf cites the Hollywood film “Black Hawk Down”-the story of the 1993 battle between US troop and Somali fighters in the capital Mogadishu. “Of course there is fighting in Somalia, that is true,” said Yusuf, aged 24, who fled Mogadishu for Ethiopia a decade ago, before later moving to Kenya. “But the films show normal life too, our daily lives.” Somalia’s war is far from over-regional armies are battling Al-Qaeda allied Shebab insurgents, while aid agencies fear a slip back to catastrophic humanitarian crisis that saw famine zones declared in several regions last year.

‘Films important for peace in Somalia’
But Martin Gumba, a Kenyan director who in 2010 helped set up the youth groups to make films and act, believes the fledgling industry is important for young people to look towards a more peaceful future. “People need a platform to tell their own story, to allow their hopes and dreams,” Gumba said. “Mainstream media is not a fair representation… you hardly ever see Somalia images unless it is of conflict, hunger or piracy.” But the film makers have to be careful. While hardline Shebab appear to be on the backfoot militarily, the extremists remain influential and have outlawed the watching of films and football, as well as clamping down on non-religious music. Films are screened in public in Eastleigh, before being sold on DVDs, with some copies of the movies being taken back to Mogadishu following the Shebab’s pullout from fixed positions there last year.

“There have been private screenings in Mogadishu, but small ones because people still fear Al-Shebab,” said Gumba. “Some people don’t like it and you have to be careful… but it is the voice of a people showing the better side of their country.” Sales of the DVDs are raising money for Eastleighwood’s first feature length film, which is currently in the planning stages, with filming hoped to start later this year. The planned film, titled “Green Oasis”, revolves around a family hit by drought and conflict and how they are forced to migrate. The hoped-for budget is a stunning 100 million Kenyan shillings (about one million euros) and its backers hope to raise the money from private financiers and film institutes.

Some of the Somali films have been broadcast on Kenyan television stations but profits in general are however held back by a different form of a problem that Somalia has become infamous for in the outside world: piracy. “It is a big issue,” Gumba said, adding that pirated copies of the films circulate a week after the films are released. Filming is done in Eastleigh’s muddy streets and amid the crowded high rise buildings here, with actors weaving in and out of the crowds at the street markets selling fried spicy snacks, heaps of bananas and piles of melons. “The people here look Somali, they are Somali,” said actress Hibo Abdi, waving at the busy pavements crowded with women dressed in the flowing and colourful dresses and headscarves worn in Somalia.”When we want to set a scene in Mogadishu, then we go to a slum area to make it authentic,” Suge added. “But conflict is the background-the story is of life.” – AFP

The British film industry is set to receive millions of pounds worth of extra Lottery money under a new five-year plan unveiled today.

The funding is one of a raft of measures revealed by the British Film Institute in a government-backed plan which is focused on developing homegrown film production.
Other measures in the plan also include film restoration and boosting film education, as well as developing audiences and increasing the choice of films which are shown in cinemas outside of London.
BFI director Amanda Nevill said that more could be done to increase the amount of non-mainstream films shown across the UK – but added the popularity of British productions was increasing.
‘If you look at the last ten years, the average market share for British films in cinemas has been about six per cent,’ she told BBC Radio Four. ‘Last year it was 13 per cent.’
The rise is attributed to the success of such productions as The King’s Speech and The Inbetweeners Movie, both of which were among the biggest films of 2011 in the UK.

Other UK productions to fare well at the box office so far this year have included The Iron Lady and the ghost story The Woman In Black – a sequel to which is being planned – while forthcoming Bond film Skyfall is also expected to be a big hit.
This year the BFI is set to invest £28.2million of the Lottery funding into film production, with a further £17million spent on education and audiences and £3million on heritage and restoration.
A further £1million will be invested into the UK’s international film festivals, such as those in Edinburgh and Sheffield.
Meanwhile the British Video Association welcomed the moves towards making a wider range of films available to audiences, saying it would help to combat piracy.
‘As the voice of the sector which oils the wheels of the film and TV production engine, the British Video Association is delighted that the Government’s goal is to promote access to any film on any platform at any time,’ said the BVA’s Lavinia Carey.
‘Making people more aware of where they can get their favourite films and TV programmes legally in the digital world is hugely important, as is the work to minimize copyright theft with all those involved in delivering film to audiences.’

By Duane Marsteller | The Tennessean

It has a good opening sequence and the potential to become a sleeper hit, but certainly not the makings of a summer blockbuster.
That’s the Middle Tennessee film industry’s initial review of the state’s latest effort to attract more movie projects to Tennessee. Several in the industry say it should boost development of small, low-budget or independent projects though it likely won’t help the state compete for star-studded productions right away.

The changes “finally give our industry a solid foundation from which to grow,” but don’t expect “a sizable difference” in the near term, said Jan Austin, founder and executive director of the Association for the Future of Film and Television, based in Nashville.

The state took steps to free up roughly $2 million a year for Tennessee’s film incentive program; it also streamlined the program’s rules and eligibility criteria.

Previously, only those productions with a budget of $1 million or more were eligible for a combination of grants and tax credits equal to 32 percent of qualified expenditures within Tennessee. Now, projects with budgets of $200,000 and up can get grants equal to 25 percent of their in-state expenses.

“We recognize the importance of the film industry not only to the economy of the state but to the welfare of countless Tennesseans whose livelihoods depend on it,” said state Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, who sponsored the measure to free up more money for film incentives. “This new program simplifies, streamlines and strengthens our commitment to the film industry.”

The industry long has urged the state to improve its film recruitment efforts, saying incentives were too complex and restrictive to work well. As a result, Tennessee consistently lost major projects to neighboring states, said Curt Hahn, chief executive officer of Film House Inc., a Nashville film production company.

But the recent changes will make Tennessee more competitive for projects in the $200,000 to $2.5 million budget range, he said. He called that “a smart move” because lower-budget productions spend more of their money where they film, while larger productions tend to import cast and crew and likely won’t be enticed by the revised incentives.

“These new incentives will not come close to what Louisiana and Georgia are doing, and large studio movies will continue to bypass Tennessee as a result,” Hahn said. “But at least these new refocused and streamlined incentives will bring a number of new films to Tennessee in the coming months and years, helping to sustain the industry and keep more of our crew base here.”

Going after indies

While Tennessee has awarded or pledged $13.2 million in film incentives since starting its program in 2006, Georgia awarded $48 million in a recent 12-month period and Louisiana subsidized $390 million in 2011 alone.

Scott Hallgren, president of Scootman Music Productions, a music composition and production studio in Nashville, hopes going after small productions pays off with an economic boost for those who work in film.

“Indie projects are a great way to go, given the number of film/TV/Internet distribution options available these days,” he said. “I’m in Baton Rouge (La.) for a few meetings right now, and the number of indie projects being developed and worked on here is astounding.”

Lou Chanatry can relate. The Nashville director, cinematographer and owner of Quantum Pictures estimates that three-quarters of his recent work has been in the Atlanta region. He attributes that to Georgia’s hefty incentives pulling in a lot of business that he hopes can soon be drawn to Tennessee.

“We all have to go where the work is, and frankly, up until now we haven’t been able to hold a candle to the states that surround us,” Chanatry said. “Hopefully that will start to change now.”