The Maine Movie Workplace says they wish to know find out how to finest entice studios and ensure Maine-set motion pictures are filmed within the state.
AUGUSTA, Maine — In a world the place filmmakers love making motion pictures set in Maine, how does the state be certain that they’re really filmed in Maine?
Steve Lyons directs the Maine Workplace of Tourism, which runs the Maine Movie Workplace. On Wednesday, the movie workplace wrote an announcement that it employed London-based agency Olsberg-SPI to “full a radical audit of the state’s present movie manufacturing capability, its strengths, weaknesses and constraints… in addition to alternatives for future progress.”
“It may also give us some concepts of the place our gaps are; so we will look and see, ‘Nicely, what do we have to do to work with the trade to, kind of, fill these gaps,”‘ Lyons advised NEWS CENTER Maine Thursday.
One of many largest gaps is incentives, and Lyons admitted Maine’s present incentive program was one of many lowest within the nation. For productions costing greater than $75,000, it presents crew wage reimbursements between 10-12 p.c, in addition to a 5 p.c tax credit score for manufacturing spending.
Matt Delamater grew up in Maine’s lakes area and is the chief monetary officer of Oxbow Brewing. He is additionally an actor with 28 IMDB credit to his title and counting. He stated the movie workplace works exhausting for individuals like himself, who wish to see extra productions come to his state.
“As a working actor, I don’t see any purpose why Maine can’t be one of many prime producers of wonderful movies,” he stated. “And, as you already know, Image Maine is the group that’s actually working on the market these days to essentially unfold this message.”
Erik Van Wyck is a former actor and present filmmaker who has lived in Maine since 2015. He helps lead Image Maine, which advocates to enhance the state’s movie trade and incentivize extra initiatives right here.
“No one’s gonna come right here and shoot the Avengers, and we don’t need that, we don’t want that,” Van Wyck stated in an October interview, as he did in a 2021 interview with NEWS CENTER’s Rob Caldwell. “However, there are many movies that hit that candy spot by way of the inducement package deal that Image Maine is proposing, within the 2-5 to 2-6-million-dollar [budget] vary.”
Lyons is ready for the audit outcomes, that are anticipated in June. To those that would possibly query giving tax breaks to movie firms, he stated extra motion pictures shot in Maine means extra native jobs and extra money left right here after the lights flip off.
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