Alabama building film profile as low-budget hub
Alabama in the southern US is building its profile as a production hub for low-budget filming following a record-breaking year.
By Nick Goundry 28 Feb 2019
Alabama in the southern US is building its profile as a production hub for low-budget filming following a record-breaking year.
In the 2018 financial year, the state approved filming incentive support payments of around $19m, the highest in its history, according to figures from state authorities.
Nearly 150 separate productions spent a collective $63.5m across the state over the course of the year, averaging out at expenditure of around $430,000 per shoot.
Alabama offers a 25% cash rebate as a filming incentive to out-of-state producers, though the programme’s annual fund is capped at a relatively low $20m, meaning the incentive is suitable for low-budget or short shoots.
Upcoming higher-profile shoots are set to include gothic western The Devil All the Time, which will double Alabama locations for Ohio and will feature Marvel stars Tom Holland and Sebastian Stan.
Son of the South has Spike Lee on board as an executive producer and will tell the true period story of the white Alabama grandson of a Ku Klux Klan member who ended up being inspired by civil rights activists in the spring of 1961.
Other high-profile, low-budget films to have shot in Alabama in recent years have included Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning feature Get Out (pictured) and Ava DuVernay’s civil rights feature Selma.
The production landscape in the American south is dominated by Atlanta, about 200 miles from Alabama state capital Montgomery, where many of Hollywood’s big-budget productions shoot.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Alabama.
Main page image: FreeImages.com/Noel Abejo; Article image: Univeral Pictures
Nearly 150 separate productions spent a collective $63.5m across the state over the course of the year, averaging out at expenditure of around $430,000 per shoot.
Alabama offers a 25% cash rebate as a filming incentive to out-of-state producers, though the programme’s annual fund is capped at a relatively low $20m, meaning the incentive is suitable for low-budget or short shoots.
Upcoming higher-profile shoots are set to include gothic western The Devil All the Time, which will double Alabama locations for Ohio and will feature Marvel stars Tom Holland and Sebastian Stan.
Son of the South has Spike Lee on board as an executive producer and will tell the true period story of the white Alabama grandson of a Ku Klux Klan member who ended up being inspired by civil rights activists in the spring of 1961.
Other high-profile, low-budget films to have shot in Alabama in recent years have included Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning feature Get Out (pictured) and Ava DuVernay’s civil rights feature Selma.
The production landscape in the American south is dominated by Atlanta, about 200 miles from Alabama state capital Montgomery, where many of Hollywood’s big-budget productions shoot.
See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in Alabama.
Main page image: FreeImages.com/Noel Abejo; Article image: Univeral Pictures
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