Author: Luke Crawford
As of Jan 1 2015 upstate New York has the strongest TAX incentive in the country with the additional 10% given to certain upstate counties on top of the strong 30% tax incentive that mostly NYC already profits from.
That 40% is higher than both Georgia and Louisiana who greatly profit so much from their 35% tax incentive that has helped them get more work than Hollywood over the past few years.
Buffalo should take advantage of this!
There are a lot of film industry union members already in the area as well as many industry professionals who live throughout the country would love to “come home” to work, myself included.
However the best way to do this is to go after lower budget Indy movies that would not dry up the well of the money allocated for the additional 10% incentive… like a say Tom Cruise movie would.
There are many other things that Buffalo would need to do, to making movies in the area successful. This includes making a strong appeal for Indy directors and producers to use the wonderful resources in the area, finding local investors to fund young artists, tapping into the booming Toronto film industry, and not making a media spectacle of anything shooting in town that will turn off producers and directors to working in the area!
(Example: Don’t make the same media mistake (which was made) and caused the loss of the chance to have Bruce Almighty shoot the entire film in WNY.)
Here is a link to the NYS tax incentive for the film industry.