.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} Steve Schott estimates that his production company lost between $200,000 and $300,000 by choosing to make the feature film “The Final Season” in Iowa instead of a state that offered tax incentives to producers. In addition, filming was delayed as the production team tried to find investors willing to support a film in a state that would not offer them a tax deduction.

Still, the producers chose to make the movie in Iowa to stay true to its storyline about two baseball coaches from the small town of Norway and to inspire growth in the state’s film industry.

The making of “The Final Season” has helped raise awareness for two bills under consideration in the Iowa Legislature that would offer incentives competitive with neighboring states to entice more filmmakers to Iowa. Those in the industry believe these incentives are crucial to nurturing the film industry and would be an important economic generator.

“Plainly and simply, the production industry is concerned about the bottom line,” said Tom Wheeler, manager of the Iowa Film Office in the Iowa Department of Economic Development, “and if money will go farther in another place, they’re willing to compromise locations.”

“These are financial incentives that are going to bring more investment to Iowa, probably bring more production companies to Iowa and are going to allow existing production companies to grow and do more business,” said Kent Newman, president of the Iowa Motion Picture Association and writer, producer and director with Full Spectrum Productions.

Marty Jorgensen, executive producer at Applied Art & Technology, believes film productions are a growing business. His firm often works with corporations, but would like to do more feature films after working on “The Final Season.”
Photo by Duane Tinkey

The House Ways and Means Committee passed H.F. 814 (now H.F. 892), on March 29 with a 23-1 vote. It is the furthest a film incentive bill has gone in the three years the House has considered film incentives, and Rep. Mark Davitt, an Indianola Democrat who sponsored the bill, is confident that it will come up for debate this session.

If passed, the legislation would provide a 25 percent tax credit on local expenditures for purchases, rentals and services needed for qualified movie projects. It also offers investors a 25 percent tax deduction on their investment. The film must have at least a $100,000 budget to qualify.

The other bill, H.R. 680, would provide sales and use tax wavier on expenses for products and services. This bill is still in the House Ways and Means Committee.

Over the past three years, Davitt said, the bills have been rewritten substantially and Wheeler said it has taken time to teach people about the need for the incentives.

However, Iowa Legislators who visited the set of “The Final Season,” Schott said, “got to see the benefits to the community firsthand by talking to the people who were supplying goods and services to us.”

The producers of “The Final Season” spent close to $1 million on goods and services directly related to the film, booked more than 3,000 hotel room-nights for the cast and crew, and rented more than three dozen cars, trucks and vans. Schott also estimated that the crew spent another $300,000 to $400,000 on entertainment, food, alcohol, travel and purchases during the six to 10 weeks they were in Iowa.

These figures do not include the economic impact of tourists who may visit Norway and the Cedar Rapids area to see the locations where the movie was shot. “These tourism dollars,” Schott said in an e-mail, “should more than offset the fiscal impact that a tax incentive will cost the state.”

Supporters point out that the tax incentives do not take funds from the state, but rather lower the amount of taxes producers and investors pay. If the state is able to attract more productions with the incentives, it will benefit from the amount of goods and services producers buy and the number of people they hire, they say.

Instead of looking at the 25 percent tax credit, Newman said, “we need to focus on the other 75 percent, all this money that’s going to be spent in Iowa.”

Iowa is one of about 10 states that do not offer incentives. The two bills in the House would provide incentives that are competitive with those offered by neighboring states like Illinois and Minnesota, Wheeler said, and would level the playing field for attracting projects.

“We need this just to be competitive,” Newman said, “and that’s primarily for attracting the big-budget productions that these days can be done and are done anywhere.”

The concept of offering incentives started when producers began filming in Canada, Wheeler said, when the American dollar held more value than the Canadian dollar. When the value of the Canadian dollar began to rise, the Canadian government offered incentives to entice Hollywood producers. Around the end of the 20th century, California’s film commissioner, who understood the Canadian incentives, went to New Mexico and started a program, he said. The idea that the state could compete with California, and other popular filming locations, like New York City and Miami, attracted other states to try to compete for movies as well.

Iowa’s film industry today is a small but growing sector of the state’s economy.

Marty Jorgensen, co-founder of Applied Art and Technology and a former president of the IMPA, said there are a large number of local production companies in Iowa, but many work with corporations on projects such as commercials, training videos and internal communication projects. Being involved with a feature film like “The Final Season,” which Tony Wilson, a partner at Applied Art and Technology helped produce, is rare.

“A feature comes in and ripples through the economy and that attracts a lot of attention,” Jorgensen said, “but that same kind of activity goes on all the time here in Des Moines.”

Wheeler estimated that on average, Iowa film projects have a budget above $100,000 once every other year, and part of the reason for setting a minimum to receive incentives is to encourage local productions to reach that mark. Newman believes the incentives also will lead to more creative work being done in Iowa.

Those in the industry also see the incentives as part of the solution to Iowa’s job shortages in the future.

The IMPA is looking to collaborate with schools and universities to help train people for film industry jobs and encourage recent college graduates to stay within state. Not only would more films in the state create jobs that would encourage professionals to stay in Iowa, but also increase Iowa’s base of technical experts, which producers are looking for when they film in a new location.

For “The Final Season,” Schott said, the producers had to bring in a director, photographer and production designer, but the majority of the cast were Iowans.

Newman also believes the incentives will be the catalyst for future development of Iowa’s film industry. He knows of two proposals to build movie studios in Iowa, including one on a 100-acre tract of land, pending approval of the incentives.

But this legislation alone may not be enough.

The Iowa Film Office, which used to have three full-time employees, has dwindled to one person working with a much smaller budget since the early part of this decade. Newman said that more funding would allow Iowa to better compete with surrounding states that “have pretty sophisticated departments.” Schott said the department used to be able to travel to big film festivals attended by major producers and production managers, but doesn’t have the funds to do that now.

If the bills don’t pass this year, Wheeler said, the department would continue to work within its means. The Iowa Film Office has created a guide for local officials to use when fielding inquiries about making films in their communities, as well as a film production guide that directs people to various resources.

Newman said the IMPA will continue to encourage its members and other supporters to contact their legislators in hopes that an incentives bill will pass next year.

“It’s bringing performing arts, film and video production to a higher level,” Newman said. “It’s happening in our communities all over the state and we’d like more people to be a part of it.”