What's wrong with this picture? Parts of 'Dirty Grandpa,' starring Robert DeNiro and Aubrey Plaza, were set in Daytona Beach but shot in Savannah, Georgia.
Credit Lionsgate Films
What's wrong with this picture? Parts of 'Dirty Grandpa,' starring Robert DeNiro and Aubrey Plaza, were set in Daytona Beach but shot in Savannah, Georgia.
Advice to
Florida
's recent film school graduates: if you want to make a living, pack up and move to another state.Two
Florida
film schools are on The Hollywood Reporter's list of 25 best in the country: the film programs at
Florida
State
University
and the Ringling College of Art and Design. But film industry advocates warn that if any more big-budget movies leave
Florida
, the negative impact on the state's film industry will be, well,
epic.
Part of the problem is that the state's incentive program for film and television is tapped out. In 2010, the Florida Legislature set aside nearly $300 million in tax credits for film, TV and video production to be awarded only after production had wrapped. It was supposed to last for five years, but about 312 projects (some of them blockbusters like "Ironman 3") stepped up for a piece and the fund ran out of money quickly.
(Click the graphic below to enlarge.)
Credit Film Florida
Although those 312 film and TV productions added nearly $4.1 billion to Florida’s gross state product, attractive tax incentives from other states are increasingly driving production out of Florida.
The fact that film versions of stories set in
Florida
are being shot everywhere but in the
Sunshine
State
has outraged many in the state's film industry. Perhaps the most galling loss to Florida film advocates was "The Unknowns -- Talent Is Colorblind" now shooting in Georgia. The movie tells the story of
Florida
's Highwaymen, a group of black painters who sold their own landscape paintings along highways during a time when Jim Crow laws forbade African-Americans from exhibiting at galleries.
"This should have been done here in
Florida. T
his is where all of that took place," says Michelle Hillery, Palm Beach County deputy film commissioner and president of Film
Florida
, a nonprofit entertainment production association.
Two Republican state senators, Nancy Detert of Venice and Jack Latvala of Clearwater, are seeking to include a film and TV incentive reform package in the Senate's economic development bill. The package would replace the old program, which sunsets on July 1..
And what does
Florida
stand to lose if legislative action isn't taken soon?
Hillery says film and TV projects that decided to shoot outside of
Florida
have cost the state more than $650 million in lost revenue.
"Our legislators will be sending a very clear message to our state that it doesn't care about these types of jobs," she says.
Copyright 2020 WLRN 91.3 FM. To see more, visit WLRN 91.3 FM.
Years ago, after racking her brains trying to find a fun, engaging, creative night gig to subsidize her acting habit, Chris decided to ride her commercial voiceover experience into the fast-paced world of radio broadcasting. She started out with traffic reporting, moved on to news -- and never looked back. Since then, Chris has worked in newsrooms throughout South Florida, producing stories for radio broadcasts and the web.
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