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Minnesota film tax credit bills could bring movie, TV production boom to Northland

(duluthnewstribune.com)

Could Duluth become the next Hollywood?

Maybe, if bipartisan film tax credit bills pass in the Minnesota House and Senate this year to incentivize production companies to choose the state as a filming location.

The proposed incentive would create a transferable tax credit of up to 25% on in-state purchases for production of movies and TV shows. More than 30 other states currently have some sort of film incentive in place, which is a huge motivator when production companies plan where to shoot projects.

“An incentive program like a film credit is the only way to build a thriving industry in Minnesota because so many other states and countries have implemented film credits,” Sen. David Tomassoni, of Chisholm, an author of the Senate bill SF 1986, said during a Senate tax committee meeting Thursday morning. “Due to their success, it’s now a necessary condition for attracting large projects.”

Philip Gilpin, executive director and CEO of Catalyst Story Institute in Duluth, said the company moved to Duluth in 2018 because it looked like the state was close to getting this incentive. A colleague of Gilpin’s at HBO told him that if Minnesota had film incentives, he would’ve chosen to shoot $100 million worth of productions here in 2019.

By: Laura Butterbrodt

Continue Reading at duluthnewstribune.com

Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw Back Jewish Story Partners Amid Time of Racial Reckoning

(hollywoodreporter.com)

“There is nothing like storytelling to foster connections,” the iconic Hollywood filmmaker says of expanding the range of stories around Jewish lives with the new film foundation.
Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw want to tell more Jewish stories on the screen, but not for entertainment or escapism.

The Hollywood filmmaker and humanitarians offered seed financing through their Righteous Persons Foundation for Jewish Story Partners, a new film foundation unveiled Thursday, to be led by filmmaker Roberta Grossman and former Sundance senior programmer Caroline Libresco.

The goal is to tell more social justice stories and expand the range of stories reflecting Jewish lives. “There is nothing like storytelling to foster connections and help us understand life’s deepest truths. We are especially proud to help establish this initiative — which will make visible a fuller range of Jewish voices, identities, experiences and perspectives — at a time when social divisions run painfully deep and mainstream depictions too often fail to reflect the Jewish community in all its complexity,” Spielberg and Capshaw said in a joint statement as the new film foundation, headquartered in Los Angeles, was unveiled.

Jewish Story Partners has $2 million in launch financing also from the Maimonides Fund and the Jim Joseph Foundation. Grossman will serve as producing director and Libresco becomes artistic director to support Jewish stories that challenge established positions and confront difficult realities.

By: Etan Vlessing

Continue Reading at hollywoodreporter.com

Could Mogul Productions Become the Bitcoin of Film Financing?

(backstage.com)

As we close the book on this film awards season and look ahead to the next, Mogul Productions (from Emmy-nominated producer David Cormican) is looking way beyond that. The platform, which just officially launched in March, began with the impetus to decentralize both film financing and power from Hollywood’s long-standing gatekeepers. Cindy Cowan, head of project procurement, spoke with Backstage about how early career filmmakers can take advantage of Mogul’s game-changing support and why she isn’t scared of the old guard’s resistance: “People are just not in the capacity to be ripped off anymore.”

For those who don’t know, what is Mogul Productions?

Mogul is a decentralized film financing platform, which means that it basically uses blockchain to finance films and engage fans [with] all the screenplays that we ultimately pick, and the way that financers can get their money back. If somebody doesn’t understand blockchain, it’s a way to actually protect financers in a way that they haven’t been protected before. Any dollar amount is put into a chain—imagine a gold chain—and whether you put in $20, $200, $2 million, your money comes out at the same time along the chain. So there’s no possibility of doing what the old studio systems used to do: kind of hiding money or ripping people off or saying, “Sorry, all this money went into marketing. There’s nothing left.” Because even the marketing money—any money whatsoever—has to go into the chain.

By: Casey Mink

Continue Reading at backstage.com

The streaming wars have a winner — in this real estate sector

(marketwatch.com)

Hollywood was running out of studio space even before the pandemic hit.

Now after a stay-at-home year, appetite for streamed entertainment, including original content, is surging. So, too, is demand for high-quality soundstages, creative labs and production offices.

How much are consumers bingeing? COVID-19 fueled a 74% year-over-year increase in streaming-video demand, according to an October report from CBRE Americas Research, a commercial-real-estate services firm.

Netflix Inc. NFLX, +0.17%, Apple Inc. AAPL, +2.43%, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.61%, the Walt Disney Co. DIS, -0.54% and its Disney+ and Hulu platforms, and other streaming companies that also create their own shows — not to mention legacy film studios, network television and advertising interests — have needed every last inch and more of an estimated 11 million square feet of production space in a handful of North American cities. 

“Content is king,” said Spencer Levy, senior economic advisor at CBRE. “It’s only getting more important and getting more diverse.”

Viewing habits may ease up once consumers venture back into restaurants and sports arenas, but the 24/7 streaming trend, with watching on the go and across multiple devices, is expected to stick.

By: Joy Wiltermuth

Continue Reading at marketwatch.com

Australia Extends Production Incentives to Help Local Industry

(variety.com)

The Australian federal government has extended two key film and funding initiatives. These are expected to help the country’s screen production sector remain active and continue to recover from the disruptions caused by COVID-19.

“The highly effective A$50 million ($38 million) Temporary Interruption Fund will be extended for a further six months, to provide coverage for productions that commence principal photography prior to 31 December 2021,” said Paul Fletcher, federal Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, on Sunday.

In a second move, Fletcher said: “The Morrison Government will also retain at 40% the Producer Offset rate for feature films with a theatrical release. In addition, as announced last year, the Government will raise the Producer Offset rate from 20% to 30% for other eligible formats such as drama and documentary content for television and streaming platforms.”

By: Patrick Frater

Continue Reading at variety.com