There's always a question whether govenment incentives to bring business are worth it or not. Florida used to be the third top film destination before the state cut the icentive program. Now it's not in the top 20. Florida once hot for film, TV production. Now, Florida's not in Top 20
Yea this is a very painful issue for those interested in the industry, especially with the industry blowing up in Georgia. If we can ever hope our daughter moves back East, it would be in Georgia. Very frustrating. The Hillsborough Film and Digital Media Commission under Tyler M has done a good job attracting commercials and low budget horror to our county. But overall, Florida matches up to Georgia in this arena about as well as it does in CFB and Senate elections.
I think it’s more than just the incentives, it’s DeSantis’ attitude towards the industry and business itself. In Florida you can be certain the governor would want to have the final say in what movies and tv shows could be made in Florida to make sure it wasn’t too “woke” for him.
In general I think throwing money at business is stupid, but if you are going to do it, it should at least be cool like this instead of some sweatshop Amazon warehouse or some dumb tech company HQ.
The legislature let the incentives expire in 2016, before DeSantis even ran for governor. I doubt he will be in a rush to make them happen again, but its really nothing to do with him.
Re-read my post. I wasn’t referring to DeSantis in the reference to incentives, but his attitude toward businesses, specifically those he considers “woke.”
Yep, there was a stretch where the Florida House in particular was very against business incentives (while this particular change even predated Oliva’s term as Speaker, trying to get rid of incentives that “picked winners and losers” was one of his big focuses).
We'll see ... some Republicans have reintroduced bills to revive incentives in the house and senate. While DeSantis is a culture warrior, the state GOP exists primarily to funnel public money to the private sector, we'll see what priorities win out there.
FIFY: While DeSantis is a culture warrior, the state GOP exists primarily to funnel public money to select private sectors.
It's actually pretty funny that movie set in Florida would be filmed in Colorado... Never been there, but I can't imagine it looks the same...
This is certainly not a front burner issue for incentives. I suspect the ROI is just not worth it. Hence dropping the incentives in 2016.
At least the Walking Dead was like "well we're filming in Georgia, might as well set it in Georgia." In the 2000s Eastern Europe was a big filming location, so Romania was a stand in for the Deep South in movies like Cold Mountain. Pretty wild!
Literally true of every incentive given to business, especially publicly financed sports stadiums. If it was about actual ROI (rather than PR about bringing jobs and revitalization) no one would do it.
This stuff is cyclical. Here in Wilmington we are called "Hollywood East". Iron Man 3, The Hunger Games, The Crow, Cape Fear (named after our coast).A walk to Remember and many many others were filmed here. Dawsons Creek, One Tree Hill, Matlock, Eastbound and Down etc were located here. Screen Gems has a huge studio here and we have one of th largest underwater sets in the world. Wilmington is listed as the #2 place for film professionals to live. (For small/mid market film cities) Yet every few years people complain that the industry is gonna die based on lost incentives. Yet 2022 was an all time huge year. You cant drive anywhere in the city without some road being closed for filming. Celebrity sightings are common. My point is, it seems to always be a political game with the incentive thing yet the industry always cycles back strong here. We have a historic downtown for buildings and scenes. Great beaches.. rivers.. marsh etc so movies need our varied geography. They always will. Incentives help I'm sure, but they dont seem to be some end all, be all that politicians will scream about.
There are good and bad incentives. Some are with it others are not. I agree with you on billion dollar sports stadiums.
Will you admit you were wrong if he strengthens the incentives that he had nothing to do with ending prior to his election as governor?
The assertion is not wrong. It is by definition impossible to measure, opinion, and likely correct. You are mindlessly defending the indefensible.
Incentives are stupid, if not inherently corrupt. So I might actually agree with the original legislature for letting them expire. Problem is if someone else is doing them… I guess you lose out. Although if you assume these are “bad deals” for taxpayers anyway, are you really losing out? The only time I really see the logic is in blighted areas, areas that actually *need* re-development might take some $$$ to grease the wheels. Otherwise it’s mostly just going to be taxpayers subsidizing someone’s ROI.
