Lawmakers worried by shrinking film industry

A flagging movie industry has some worried that the state has lost its edge in drawing filmmakers to Utah.

On Friday, a legislative standing committee passed out a bill that would create a motion picture task force to try to figure out why Utah's motion picture industry is apparently struggling.

Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park, sponsor of SB240, told members of the Senate Workforce Services and Community and Economic Development Standing Committee that Utah's motion picture industry has shrunk dramatically, losing out to places like Canada and New Mexico.

"It's dropping off precipitously, and we want to know why," Allen said.

Production dollars in Utah, the actual money spent by a producer in making a motion picture, hit $92.2 million in fiscal year 2003, down 14 percent from $107.3 million a year earlier, according to Leigh von der Esch, director of the Utah Film Commission.

And von der Esch predicts that 2004 production dollars will drop to $46 million, a nine-year low.

Tim Nelson, executive producer of Salt Lake-based New Movie Corp., said tax incentives offered by Canada and New Mexico are too good to pass up.

Nelson estimates he saved about $300,000 to $400,000 by filming a recent production in Montreal.

"And that's a low-budget production," Nelson said. "We're doing everything we can to keep production here. But we're looking at the alternatives."

Nelson added that Canadian companies are luring filmmakers across the border by offering co-venture deals in which they cover half of production costs if the film is made in Canada.

In New Mexico, Nelson said, the state is offering up to $7.5 million in interest free financing up to five years for qualifying productions.

"There isn't any financial incentive for investment here at all," said Nelson, who added that reality television shows, containing no intrinsic social value, were another reason the industry was suffering.

"When you have the Elizabeth Smart movie-of-the-week being filmed in Nova Scotia, they're going there for the bottom line," said Anne Sward-Hansen, president of the Utah branch of the Screen Actors Guild. "I've been an actress 27 years. I've had a career in New York and L.A., and I've been working here since 1999, and this is the first year in 27 years I have not been able to make a living."

Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, said it appeared the lack of an incentive to film in Utah was punctuated by a disincentive of audits conducted on film companies.

The message: "You don't want to come to Utah unless you want an audit."

A separate piece of legislation, SB190, would grant a sales and use tax exemption of production costs for films shot in Utah.

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