DC is more known as a political stage than as a movie soundstage’especially right now with the shutdown drama’but our city has a significant film and video industry right here making movies, documentaries, and all kinds of digital film products. According to a recent report, the local film and video industry supported 1,877 full-time jobs and digital products 314 jobs in fiscal year 2012’compared with only 266 jobs credited to filmmakers outside DC. This data was included in DCFPI’s recent testimony to the DC Council on why DC should not spend so much time and tax dollars on attracting Hollywood to the District and instead invest in our homegrown talent.
A few highlights:
Investing in the local film industry will likely produce more long-term, sustainable jobs than luring out-of state filmmakers with tax breaks. For fiscal year 2014, DC allocated $4 million dollars to the Film Economic Incentive Fund, which offers tax rebates to out-of-state. The fund is intended to be an economic development tool, boosting DC’s film industry and creating jobs, but past spending has amounted to little gain for the District.
As the report notes, many of the jobs created when a filmmaker comes to town are temporary and disappear when the set is packed up. Instead of subsidizing out-of-state filmmakers hiring locals for the limited amount of time that they are in DC, the wage and spending data lead to the conclusion that tax dollars are better used to support local filmmakers.
For example, in 2012, the local film and video industry accounted for $160 million in total labor income and digital products an additional $26 million, compared with only $18 million for out-of-state filmmakers.
Competing with other states for films will prove ever more costly. More than 40 states across the country offer incentives to lure filmmakers to their jurisdictions. As often occurs with state and local economic development subsidies, the cost of winning has risen as the competition for filmmakers has increased and states outbid each other for films. To remain competitive and continue bringing in films, DC will likely have to sustain an ever increasing incentive fund. This takes away from money that could be used for schools, libraries, and services for needy families.
Supporting local filmmakers will keep them from leaving the District. By not supporting local filmmakers, we are encouraging them to seek out-of-state tax incentives elsewhere. In fact, a filmmaker at this month’s hearing explained that he took his crew elsewhere simply because it was more affordable for him to do so. If we truly want to build talent in the film industry, we need these filmmakers in DC, hiring DC residents, for DC films.
