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Fewer Tax Incentives Means Fewer Films In NC

Wilmington has seen fewer film deals since the state reduced tax credits.
Allen Forrest
/
Flickr
Wilmington has seen fewer film deals since the state reduced tax credits.
Wilmington has seen fewer film deals since the state reduced tax credits.
Allen Forrest
Wilmington has seen fewer film deals since the state reduced tax credits.

Filmmakers have spent less and produced fewer projects in North Carolina in the past two years.

That's when the state changed its film incentives program to a capped-grant program. Before the change, state taxpayers offered credits to filmmakers with a project cap but no statewide limit.

Johnny Griffin is the director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission. He markets the area to film producers. Griffin said the Wilmington area has seen fewer projects since the change.

"It goes back right now quite honestly to the film incentives that are offered," he said. "That is the number one thing that clients talk about. It's the number one thing that helps them determine where the projects go."

Georgia has become a bigger competitor for the state. Georgia has a tax credit incentive similar to the one North Carolina offered before 2015.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio

Liz Schlemmer is WUNC's Education Policy Reporter, a fellowship position supported by the A.J. Fletcher Foundation. She has an M.A. from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Media & Journalism and a B.A. in history and anthropology from Indiana University.