Ohio boosts filming incentive support

Ohio in the north-east US has boosted its filming incentive support in a bid to raise its production profile.

By Nick Goundry 1 Jul 2016

Ohio boosts filming incentive support
Carol filmed in Ohio

Ohio in the north-east US has boosted its filming incentive support in a bid to raise its production profile.

The state’s annual film fund has been doubled to $40m and the base tax credit rate has increased to 30%, while a previously limiting $5m per-production payment cap has been removed.

“The changes to Ohio's incentive will help us bring thousands more jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to the state, and is one more step toward making us more competitive with other states that are leaders in media production, like Georgia and Louisiana,” said Ivan Schwarz, president of Greater Cleveland Film Commission.

While the increase is great news for Ohio, the filming incentive is still far less than what is on offer in the main US production hubs. Schwarz added that he had actually pushed for an annual fund of $75m and he will seek a further increase in the next budget cycle.

“We've got $29m worth of films already in the queue, so if we had stayed at $20m, we would've had to turn them away,” Schwarz told local news outlet Cleveland.com. “We ran out of money last October for the current fiscal year.”

Ohio is already a popular filming location, particularly as a double for the east coast. Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis movie Miles Ahead and Todd Haynes’ romance Carol (pictured) both used Cincinnati as a period New York, while Marvel’s first Avengers movie doubled Cleveland for modern-day Manhattan.

The boosted filming incentive will help build Ohio’s appeal to middle-budgeted features. It will also bring more short-term shoots for major studio movies like Vin Diesel’s action sequel Fast 8, which recently wrapped a few weeks of filming in Cleveland.

For more on filming in Ohio see our production guide.

Images: The Weinstein Company

“The changes to Ohio's incentive will help us bring thousands more jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars to the state, and is one more step toward making us more competitive with other states that are leaders in media production, like Georgia and Louisiana,” said Ivan Schwarz, president of Greater Cleveland Film Commission.

While the increase is great news for Ohio, the filming incentive is still far less than what is on offer in the main US production hubs. Schwarz added that he had actually pushed for an annual fund of $75m and he will seek a further increase in the next budget cycle.

“We've got $29m worth of films already in the queue, so if we had stayed at $20m, we would've had to turn them away,” Schwarz told local news outlet Cleveland.com. “We ran out of money last October for the current fiscal year.”

Ohio is already a popular filming location, particularly as a double for the east coast. Don Cheadle’s Miles Davis movie Miles Ahead and Todd Haynes’ romance Carol (pictured) both used Cincinnati as a period New York, while Marvel’s first Avengers movie doubled Cleveland for modern-day Manhattan.

The boosted filming incentive will help build Ohio’s appeal to middle-budgeted features. It will also bring more short-term shoots for major studio movies like Vin Diesel’s action sequel Fast 8, which recently wrapped a few weeks of filming in Cleveland.

For more on filming in Ohio see our production guide.

Images: The Weinstein Company

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