An Arkansas film company now shooting in North Little Rock is the first such company whose investors can receive tax credits for their pocketbook reassurance, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Thursday.
Hutchinson said Mortuus Pater Pictures, with its first feature, Antiquities, is representative of the efforts to keep homegrown talent in the state.
Like other states, Arkansas for years has offered financial incentives to out-of-state film companies to bring their productions here. Hutchinson said he supported those efforts, but also called them short-lived. "The key now is to keep that talent here," he said.
Producers of Antiquities, a comedy written by Graham Gordy and Daniel Campbell, both of North Little Rock, will wrap up 22 days' worth of filming today in North Little Rock. They've also been shooting in Little Rock, Eureka Springs, Jacksonville and Hot Springs.
[PHOTOS: Inside look at "Antiquities" set in North Little Rock]
Hutchinson joined the film's cast and crew at Galaxy Furniture Store in downtown North Little Rock on Thursday morning to promote the film and its production company. The Galaxy store has been a major set for the film for the past two weeks.
Because of exterior filming there Thursday night, one block of the southbound lane of Main Street was shut down at 6 p.m.
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said by telephone Thursday afternoon that he didn't expect any traffic problems and that the movie was supported by all the businesses along the route. "Everybody here is happy to have them," Smith said.
The city paid $6,000 to Galaxy owner Wayne Hogan for the film's use of his store. "For 65 to 80 people to have jobs, that makes a difference in their lives, and it makes a difference in our economy," Smith said.
Hogan's store is a mix of office furniture on one side and antiques and collectibles on the other. While filmmakers primarily focused on the antiques side of his shop, they've worked with him in letting office-furniture customers stream on in, Hogan said.
Gordy, Campbell and the film's executive producer, Gary Newton, created Mortuus in 2013.
The film's $700,000 budget is funded entirely by Arkansas investors, said Newton, whose paying job is at the nonprofit Arkansas Learn. Most of that is funded by First National Bank of Fort Smith and its chief executive officer, Sam Sicard.
"We started this as an act of love to bring movie production to Arkansas and make Arkansas an exporter of created content instead of an exporter of content creators," Newton said.
The film company's investors will be able to participate in the state's equity investment tax program, which is administered through the state Department of Finance and Administration.
One tax credit is equal to 33 1/3 percent of the amount invested. The income-tax credit earned may be used to offset 50 percent of the investor's Arkansas tax liability in any one tax year. Any unused credit may be carried forward for up to nine years.
The tax credit was first aimed at investors in technology, such as software developers, Newton said.
In a report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Department of Finance and Administration said it had approved tax credits for investors of $22.6 million in 23 projects that would create 641 jobs. The average hourly pay for those projects is $36.04, the department said.
Arkansas, in 1983, was one of the first states to offer an incentives program to film producers. For every production dollar spent in Arkansas, the company was refunded a nickel. The program expired in 2007.
After two years of the state not having an incentives program strictly for filmmakers, Arkansas lawmakers in 2009 passed the Digital Product and Motion Picture Industry Development Act.
Because of all the homegrown talent and the number of Arkansas employees, Mortuus Pater Production is eligible for that program as well. It provides a 15 percent tax rebate on all qualified production expenditures in Arkansas and another 10 percent rebate for having a certain number full-time residents of Arkansas among cast members and the technical crew.
Sixty-five people make up the cast and crew for Antiquities, and about 50 are Arkansans.
A production company must spend at least $50,000 within six months in connection with one project. The incentive includes commercial productions.
The program went unfunded by the Legislature its first couple of years, then provided $1.6 million in incentives to seven different production companies the next couple of years.
Filmmakers also have other avenues for help.
In 2011, then-Gov. Mike Beebe dipped into his discretionary fund to give $1.4 million toward the production of the highly acclaimed film Mud, which was shot primarily around Dumas and Stuttgart. Otherwise, it would have been shot in Louisiana, Beebe said then.
According to the Department of Finance and Administration, Hutchinson used his office's quick-action closing fund in the 2014-15 fiscal year to provide $349,020 to Greater Productions Inc., a Fayetteville company that filmed and released Greater, the 2016 movie about Brandon Burlsworth, the late Arkansas Razorbacks football player. The production company behind The Last Ride, a film about the last days of Hank Williams, received $142,000 from the fund.
This past fiscal year, the same fund was used to provide $770,000 to the makers of God's Not Dead 2, which was filmed primarily around Benton. Greater Productions Inc. also received another $60,219. Another filmmaker, All The Birds LLC, received $75,360.
Business on 11/11/2016