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Filmmakers rally at Capitol for even playing field
Minnesota's film industry is losing out to other states because its incentive programs for movie makers lag behind other states, including Wisconsin. That's the message from filmmakers and crew members who rallied at the Capitol Rotunda today. They made the case that some of the most creative people in Hollywood are from Minnesota, but they're for the most part unable to ply their crafts in their home state. "It's all about jobs," Lucinda Winter, who heads the Minnesota Film and Television Board, told a crowd of film technicians, writers and directors. "It's all about bringing dollars to Minnesota," she remarked, "It affects restaurants, retailers, lumber yards, people who earn extra income having their homes rented for locations." And there are the jobs, for a business that is highly labor intensive. A standard production requires make-up artists, electricians, wardrobe persons, art directors, production coordinators and many of the behind-the-scenes crew members such as gaffers, grips, drivers and other production assistants. "We're losing jobs to states like Wisconsin, Iowa, North Carolina and it's not because they have better crews or better location," said one veteran technician at the rally who said things are slower now than anytime in his 20 years in the business. "It's basically because those states have a comprehensive jobs programs in the form of incentives. We need desperately to catch up." Big budget films such as Johnny Depp's John Dillinger movie "Public Enemies" and George Clooney's "Leather Heads" are both set in Minnesota but filmed in other places. Currently the Coen brothers are planning to film "A Serious Man," a movie in Minnesota about a character who lives in St. Louis Park. And yet, according the film board, the film's prospective distributors are asking the state to chip in some financial assistance. That will come from tourism money that previously rerouted from the film board to tourism, so it won't take an act from the legislature. Rebate no longer baits them Minnesota's current law offers film production companies at 15 percent rebate on money spent inside this state while making a movie for theatrical and video release. The "Snowbate" program at one time gave Minnesota an edge over other states, but it has been eclipsed. And the Film Commission's annual appropriation from the legislature is $650,000 through the state's tourism budget, and only $350,000 of that remains. Wisconsin, by comparison, offers movie makers that spend at least $100,000 in the state a 25 percent rebate. And Wisconsin has no cap on how much it will dedicate to spending on such rebates. One sign at the rally read "Come Back Clint Eastwood," an apparent reference to the actor-director's film "Gran Torino" project which he's expected to shoot in Michigan. That state has a 40 percent rebate on any expense above $50,000. Independent filmmaker Julie Rappaport, who heads the production company Smokin' Yogi Visions, lamented the number of Minnesota expatriates in California. "There were 200 Minnesota production people that just attended a wonderful party called Ice Pack in Los Angeles," Rappaport said, "Those 200 people should be at home, to be with their families and they should have work here." She knew was preaching to the choir, in a way, people who are unemployed or at best underemployed in Minnesota's current film industry climate. "This is a skilled profession and it shouldn't be migrant work." Lawmakers are being asked to change Minnesota's law, to offer at least a 20 percent rebate, known as the "Snowbate" to make the state more competitive. Bills pending in both the House and the Senate would also increase the Snowbate program budget to $1 million for one year. Minnesota is also among only three states that does not offer a rebate for films being produced for on-line distribution, which is another issue some at the rally want to see addressed by the legislature. They argue it's a win-win for the state because of the money being spent in the local economy on goods and services, some of which are taxable and drive up revenues for the state's troubled coffers. If nothing changes, the brain drain will continue. As film student Ezra Stead put it, "When I graduate and other people at my film school graduate, we're moving to LA because there's not enough work here." "And I think we change that in the next few years and maybe keep some of our sons and daughters here."
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