'Buffalo' first in film rebate program

A Salt Lake-based film production company will get up to $250,000 from a special state fund designed to boost Utah's film industry.

On Thursday, the Board of Business and Economic Development approved an application by Salty Pictures Inc. for the production of "Buffalo Dreams," a made-for-TV movie. The film, which will focus on the friendship of a teenager and Navajo boy, will be shot at Antelope Island, Skull Valley and a local ski resort.

ABC Cable Networks Group, owned by The Walt Disney Co., is fully funding and licensing the production, which will be shown as a "Disney Channel Original Movie" in early 2005.

The move by the board is the first time a film company has been awarded the newly created incentive rebate. In the past, incentives were granted primarily to businesses offering permanent jobs, relocation or expansion plans in Utah.

But a sagging Utah film industry has prompted a new approach.

"The incentive is a big part of why we looked to place the movie here," Dan Scharf, director of business affairs for ABC Cable Networks Group, told the Deseret Morning News. "These incentives are becoming a big part of the decision-making process as to where to produce the movies. With Utah deciding to make this program, it became an incentive to come here."

Don Schain, producer for Salty Pictures, said Utah's incentive program is the single most valuable program in boosting new film production.

"There was a time when Utah ranked regularly in the top five or six states in the country as far as film production," Schain said. "Over the last five years, there has been considerable attrition — because of Canada, because of New Zealand, because of South Africa."

As other states started offering incentives, Schain said, it became critical for the Utah Legislature to step up to preserve any kind of remaining film industry in the state.

Mary Ann Hughes, vice president of production, finance and planning for The Walt Disney Co., told the board that production incentives largely determine where movies will be shot.

"We have certain locations that are under our radar screen," Hughes said. "You are really only competing with a couple of other locations."

Those other locations include New Mexico, Louisiana and Canada, who all offer aggressive incentives, she said.

Hughes added that new film production has a huge multiplier effect.