Arizona considers new $30M film industry plan (Phoenix, Williams: fit in, 2015)

[i'm not a cookie]

http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerq...incentive.html

Has anyone heard of this in the news/know about the CURRENT status of this case because I know there was talk about this a while back? It does aggravate me that these films that are supposed to be shot in Arizona and they shoot in inland Southern CA or New Mexico. Just saw the movie in theaters this weekend about the Mexican drug cartels based in Phoenix area and they filmed the whole thing in Albuquerque, I was asked if Phoenix was "that ugly" and I tried to explain to him that they didn't film it in Phoenix but rather a dumpy suburb of Albq, they also had a lot of people in the film talk with a heavy southern accent(and that's not the only film to do so), hollywoods portrayal of Arizona is pretty inaccurate, it makes me wonder if this is due to the lack of ability to film in our state.
Do you guys think that Arizona has the potential to maintain an Entertainment industry/would it be good for the state?

[ajonesaz]

I remember when we had the film credits almost a decade ago and there was a lot of filming in the valley. I would love to see them back, not only do they bring money but they also bring some civic pride. I remember them filming the Kingdom at Williams Gateway a while back. They built an entire middle eastern city out in the middle of nowhere, it was a pretty cool sight.

[Colt AZ]

Filming outside of Arizona is laughable when the premise is to portray Arizona. New Mexico and California bear little resemblance to Arizona, and there are no other states that seriously come all that close. Filming in Canada, Europe or elsewhere would make the entire shoot a farce, IMO.

Since Arizona has a history with the film industry, there should be guidelines put in place as to "if you truly need to have Arizona be the background in your film, then by all means you should film in Arizona". Arizona is a HUGE place.

[i'm not a cookie]

And I figured since we are only a 45 min flight or 5 hours drive(with my driving lol) East of Hollywood we could serve as a close and cheap place to film movies based in middle east or even based in other parts of the country, EX. They filmed Taxi which is based in Manhattan in Downtown Phoenix believe it or not a couple of years back when filming was semi prevalent here.

[cjseliga]

Originally Posted by i'm not a cookie

And I figured since we are only a 45 min flight or 5 hours drive(with my driving lol) East of Hollywood we could serve as a close and cheap place to film movies based in middle east or even based in other parts of the country, EX.

It all comes down to incentives and tax credits and even though AZ is relatively close to Hollywood and SoCal, they just don't have the tax credits other states like New Mexico, Georgia, Michigan, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania have. North Carolina just lost a ton of TV and film projects because they drastically reduced their tax credit to near nothing, so all those projects just moved to Georgia, which is becoming the new Hollywood and has one of the best incentives/tax breaks in the US for filming.

EUE/Screen Gems own the largest US studio complex outside of Los Angeles in Wilmington, NC, where they have filmed over 300 films and numerous TV shows, and it's now basically sitting idle with little to no work. Georgia just finished building Pinewood Studios (the same famous Pinewood Studio company that is located outside London) south of Atlanta, and will be one of the largest studio complexes in the country, if not already.

[stevek64]

Although this was written back in 2009, it shows how competitive it all is between states(and Canada) to lure in filming:

TV, film jobs leave California in a rush

"There are 35 other states that have incentives."

Not sure where it all stands today but I would hope if AZ competes, they only do so if the state/local cities/regions can make some profit in various ways if tax incentives are used and not lose money in the end.

And not sure what happened in regard to this move:

California condom rule has porn industry eyeing move to Arizona | Fox News

Guessing there are no tax incentives being given here.

[azdr0710]

as cjseliga suggests, it's all about money.....

various state and local "film offices" have existed in Arizona for decades.....as the economy rises and falls and the politicians come and go with their various priorities, these film offices prosper and wither.....as with any city and state fighting and competing for industry to locate in their place, so goes the film industry here.....

doesn't matter to most viewers if a movie was filmed in the correct spot, except possibly to starry-eyed local boosters who loudly exclaim in a huff that place isn't (fill in the locale).....many, many movies are not filmed in the "correct" location.....