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THE FUTURE OF THE MISSOURI FILM OFFICE
(below is an excerpted version of an article written by an attendee of a meeting regarding the future of the MO Film Office.)
Wednesday, August 31st marked the first official meeting of the Missouri Film Commission at the State Capital in Jefferson City to deal with the repercussions of the now shuttered Missouri Film Office, whose doors were forcibly closed due to budget cuts on June 30th.
Using an impressive and even futuristic video conferencing system that linked Rm. 510 in the Truman Building in Jefferson City to St. Louis and Kansas City simultaneously, key film industry players from across the state took part in a cautious - and sometimes contentious - discussion as to where the film industry in Missouri is headed.
With no quorum present, the meeting proceeded rather informally and was lead by Bill Lennon, the current chairman of the Missouri Film Commission. In brief, Mr. Lennon explained that due to ongoing budget cuts the film commission offices were closed and the principal duty of providing information and support to film production companies had been reassigned to the Department of Economic Development.
A bit of debate obviously followed, with the key arguments being that the budget had to be cut somewhere, but that it is economically irresponsible not to maintain an active office for what is a clearly an active state-wide industry. Many felt that the Department of Economic Development had it in for the film office, while the DED maintained that they aren't anti-film, these are just tough economic times and the governor is legally required to balance the budget.
David Kerr, director of the DED, was present and explained that his office is continuing to maintain the website for the film office, and they are now handling any incoming calls. Film production inquiries to the DED are directed to an appropriate DED agency in the (hopefully) appropriate part of the state. By his own admission, Director Kerr said that while sometimes they can make direct and efficient recommendation to an outside producer, at other times they have neither the experience or the database to properly refer filmmakers and producers.
Jerry Jones, former director of the film office, was present and explained in greater detail that his network at the film offices had consisted of a variety of contacts in many different offices and locations, all with specific knowledge in various areas. He detailed that in some areas of the state, there are filmmakers with knowledge and data, in others it may be a city office, and in yet others it may be a tourism office. It really depended on what a production's needs are. Mr. Jones said that very often filmmakers needed a location or a look, but didn't know where that was and depended on the film office for that recommendation and guidance.
It was then decided among those officers present that filmmakers' needs might be better served if the Office of Tourism were to take over the duties of the film office. It was generally felt that the tourism offices around the state were more familiar with locations and individual production-related offices than the DED was. This idea will be discussed further among board members and possibly be voted upon in the future. MOMMA, the Missouri Motion Media Association, also agreed to assume some of the film office responsibility as well, if needed.
Make no mistake about one fact: the Missouri Film Production Tax Credit still exists, and the amount for the year is still 4.5 million dollars. This lead to some debate over the potent issue of the viability of the methods the DED uses to determine potential economic impact when granting a tax credit.
Traditionally at the DED, a tax credit is more likely to be granted if the business can return economic benefits on a dollar-for-dollar basis. With traditional "brick and mortar" businesses that deal in more conventional trade, industry, and retail, the results of a tax credit grant are more easy to track. In film production, the very nature of the production and its unique expenditures makes the economic impact more difficult to track, but part of this is affected by what tracking method an agency uses to make the calculations. The DED uses the traditional REMI method which is adequate for most businesses, but does not take into account the significant "additional spend" and multiplier conditions that usually accompany a film production.
The DED stood its ground on the use of the REMI method, but it did offer up one concession, though many at the meeting considered it an empty gesture: the DED would no longer look for a 1-to-1 return on a film tax credit, but would be willing to accept a "50 cents on the dollar" return. While encouraging, this is still little help as the DED currently estimates the economic impact of the average film to be around 12 cents for ever dollar, so there is still a long way to go in finding a more common ground. The DED also contended that with a large production like UP IN THE AIR the financial benefits were diluted on the state level because so much of the production's spend took place in St. Louis. Mr. Kerr suggested that if cities such as St. Louis wanted to continue to attract these productions and utilize the tax credits that they could figure out how organizations and offices at the city, county, and private level could shoulder part of the cost of the film tax credit.
Finally, there was concern expressed that in addition the film office closure, Missouri failed to attend the last Locations Expo in California. These combined issues may have lead to an impression that film in Missouri is effectively "dead in the water". Although this is obviously not the case, Missouri filmmakers may have to work hard in the near future to attract attention back to the state.
It was generally agreed that the remaining funds in the film office, which are now transferred to the DED, should be used in the future to send a representative to the Locations Expo to ensure the production community at large that Missouri is still viable when it comes to film production. Additional meetings are now being scheduled to deal with reassignment of the film office duties, with additional meetings to take place in the hopes that a film specific director might be hired on at the Office of Tourism.
The DED is using the existing Missouri Film Office online database as a resource.
Please take a few minutes to add or update your name and your listings on the website:
http://mo.reel-scout.com/crew_login.aspx
- written by Pirate Pictures | 
