Washington state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles noted during a recent committee hearing that the Twilight film series about vampires has drawn legions of fans and plenty of tourism revenue to Forks, Washington, the movie’s setting.
“The irony with Twilight is that most of the filming was done in Oregon, and the new film is being shot in British Columbia,” Kohl-Welles said at the February 7 hearing.
In presenting a bill to renew and expand the main tax incentive for the state’s film industry, Kohl-Welles recalled a statement she has made previously about the industry: “our vampires should stay in Washington state.”
A number of other movies set in the state have also been filmed in B.C., not only because the areas have similar geographies, but also because of the competitive advantages B.C. has developed during 30 years of filmmaking.
It’s set in Washington’s Kitsap County, but 2004’s Walking Tall was entirely produced in B.C.
AMC’s new TV series, The Killing, is being filmed in Vancouver, but is set in Seattle.
Kohl-Welles hopes the new bill, which was originally introduced by another state representative in January, can tip the balance so that when a movie is set in Washington state, it will be filmed there.
“So many [films and TV series] are just shot here momentarily for some footage such as the Space Needle in my district and then everything else is filmed in other states or in our biggest competitor to the North, Vancouver British Columbia,” said Kohl-Welles. “I find this intolerable.”
The bill would renew the motion picture competitiveness program (MPCP) until 2017.
The program, which was created in 2002, would also be expanded. The cap amount on its available tax credits would be increased to $10 million by 2014 and its definition of “motion picture” would be increased to include projects shot for digital distribution platforms like video on demand.
Amy Lillard, executive director of Washington Filmworks, which is a non-profit organization that has administered the MPCP since 2007, doesn’t think Washington state’s and B.C.’s film and TV industries are in direct competition.
She noted, for example, that B.C.’s industry is much larger, more established and receives more government support than Washington state’s.
As a result, the two jurisdictions are generally looking to attract different projects.
“B.C. has been doing the film incentive thing longer than we have,” said Lillard, “and [the province is] really attracting series and tent-pole movies.”
Tent-pole productions, which are larger projects, support a studio’s smaller productions.
Said Lillard: “Whereas our focus, largely because of the size of our fund, [is] really concentrating on the independent film between $2 million and $10 million.”
She said the state’s incentive fund is the third smallest in the U.S., although its 30-day turnaround for providing incentives makes it an effective program.
“There are 44 states in our country that have incentives in place,” she said. “You have to have an incentive to be competitive.”
Since 2007, 59 projects have tapped the MPCP. They spent approximately $55 million in Washington state.
Although those figures only represent projects that have accessed the MCPC, they represent the lion’s share of the state’s film and TV industry.
In contrast, more than $1.3 billion was spent on film and TV productions in B.C. in 2009.
The BC Film Commission expects to release 2010 statistics about B.C.’s industry in mid-March.
BC Film commissioner Susan Croome told BIV that the start of 2010 for the industry was slow compared with 2009, but activity picked up around May, “and we were very busy through to the end of the year.”
She said the Olympics last February threw some of the feature films off their business cycles in B.C.
The province’s production services tax credit for foreign films was increased in February 2010 to 33% from 25% of qualified B.C. labour expenses.
Croome said incentives are still key to attracting producers, but that they’re only one of the factors weighed when film locations are being scouted. She added that B.C. first started attracting film producers 30 years ago because of its scenery.
“We continued to learn our craft from L.A. and develop our own expertise. And then we grew our infrastructure. So now we not only offer spectacular locations, we have world-class cast and crew, a million square feet of studio space and all of the equipment suppliers.”
Like Lillard, Croome downplayed any neighbourly competition between Washington and B.C.
“We keep our eye on what our client is looking for; we generally don’t keep our eye on what other jurisdictions are doing.”