Alaska Film Incentive Push

Follow up for Alaska Peeps:

Thank you for all the congratulations and encouragement notes from home! You are all amazing. There were some questions related to the FB post as to what I mean about Alaska Film Incentives, and more specifically how to help get filming up north to my home town. (posting here since it’s too long for FB)

What is a film incentive package? It’s an invitation from the state for film industry to do work within the state. For X amount of dollars spent in the state on the project, the state will return X% at the end of the term. (State of Oregon is 26% return with a max cap of X. Washington is 30% no cap, etc.)

When Mark (producer) and I met with the Alaska State Governor’s Business Development Office, we pitched the idea of legislation for Alaska to hang their shingle out for film industry collaboration. Most states with a good film incentive program see significant boosts in economic growth, industry and infrastructure. For example, Georgia has a film incentive with no cap, which draws in all the Disney and Marvel films to studios built just for this purpose and after the percentage is paid back to the studios from the incentive program, Georgia still sees a massive injection from film profit.
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                According to Deadline on March 30, 2022, the state of Georgia pays out about “$900
million a year” in tax incentives, “which has turned Georgia into one of the nation’s top
filming destinations.” The Georgia.gov website notes “the film and television industries
in Georgia generated $9.5 billion in 2018, but the economic impacts extend much
further. Countless jobs are created in the process.”  (clip from Mark’s memo)
 
Granted, this is on a massive production scale for Disney and Marvel films, however, it all boils down to $$, right? Because of the cost of getting TO ALASKA and the higher cost of goods, services, etc. And lack of infrastructure—The production dollar is half value up North.
 
This is why so many franchises film in Romania and other countries where there’s infrastructure and the dollar goes 4X farther. Having a competitive film incentive program will allow Alaska to net some of that cash, and build economic diversity (as other economies dwindle or lessen). It’s a security strategy.
 
For my part, I am paying Mark out of pocket to build guardrails and suggestions for this legislative package. He’s agreed to it because 1) he’d getting paid and 2) he believes it will help further my goals with the project and my desires for development as he coaches my label forward 3) he gets to be a part of building something cool for the state and the film industry as a whole. (Plus, I think he enjoys the challenge!) That all said, I can’t afford to out of pocket him for the Alaska project for long. I’ll take my best shot at getting the door cracked, but my plate is full, funding is limited, and it’s not a hill I’m ready to die on.
 
In short, this is a good faith effort only, not a crusade. Because it has to be built from the Alaska side. The port of call, or docking station as it were, has to be ready for the projects to come in, queue up and do business. (Contacts and suggestions on how to participate below)
 
Why is filming in Alaska important to me? Because it’s home. Because I was afforded community, tribe, family and a great network of people as I wobbled my way through this dream. My kickstarter supporters from Valdez (and other areas) were the reason Murder of Crows hit shelves as soon as it did after nearly 120 rejections from publishers and agents.
 
Many of the scenes in my books are directly inspired by locations and views in Alaska. It’s essentially written to be the fantastical representation of the life I got to live out as a kid in the wild. It’s also likely, I would not have left Alaska had the opportunities been available to me for the growth and expansion of my education and career at the time. All these and more are reasons for filming back home if possible. Pay it back if I can, right?
 
I have not sold Pillars of Dawn to a producer or studio yet. I’m waiting for the right situation, and until then, I’m squatting on my rights. I’m buying time for AK to get their shingle out so that I can ask for a good faith effort for filming in Alaska if there is a comparative cost within a certain percentage of profit margin to do so. Again, I won’t die on the hill, but if I can show there’s a cost-effective profitability and a win/win for the studio and the state—I’ll have been able to say I made the effort and did my best. The rest will be in the hands of business folks to hammer out the details, so I can get back to the writing, right?
 
If The Pillars of Dawn is supported by a willingness of the State of Alaska to do business with Hollywood, well, I’ll be a happy happy creator. So happy, I’d probably just give it away--but don’t worry, the attorney won’t let that happen.
 
The original estimate for The Pillars of Dawn first season production cost was just under 80MM. We’ve re-written, tweaked, and reformatted the first season to try and hit a 50MM margin. This was a frustrating process and I admit, I didn’t enjoy it all that much. However, I absolutely understand the reason and the point of the exercise. It’s also 100% probable that once the IP sells, they will re-write it all again to their own budget metrics.
 
What does that mean? For example: if I were to have four scenes on jagged, snowcapped mountains in Alaska that would cost 1MM to film on location. They may re-write two of those scenes to take place in the desert so it can be filmed in New Mexico at half the cost, then do the rest on green screen and CGI in the mountains to save the money. That’s just business. It also explains why so many movies are re-written several dozen times and for such ridiculous reasons. A great script can be butchered for the profit margin and not resemble anything of the original work. Chances are, the original script writer is the one who gets blamed for the bad film. But I digress.
 
My attempts to get the budget into this range is really a play for keeping the material within the heart of the story. Meaning, if I am the one that breaks the timeline, and rearranges the scenes for budget, location, etc. It’s more likely going to stay within the scale and scope of the intent of the work—AND I know where to break the plot/relationship/structure points, so they can be lined up again later down the line. That’s not to say a showrunner wouldn’t do the same thing, but as I’m the one who built the world it’s just faster and easier for me to knock it out, then let someone else polish and make it workable. After all, I’ve been working this story world and these characters since 2001. I can unpack it and repack it in my sleep. (assuming I have time to sleep)
 
Essentially, the budget change for the re-pitch process allows more studio options for us to shop the package, as many of the streaming services and even some of the larger studios have a max cap on production costs. For example: when talking with the representative from one company, he LOVED the work and the story and really wanted to talk more—but his mandate cap on acquisitions was 50MM.
 
These numbers are not sofa-crack numbers. They’re still funny money to someone like me who used to wait tables to pay for publishing expenses. Yes, I used tips to buy paper, printer toner and hire editors and such. So a 50MM cap or a 80MM original budget is all like, whatever, to someone like myself. But to an industry with gears built this big, I have to write and plan and arc into that scale in order to be competitive.
 
Which brings me back to Alaska! The governor’s office let us know that it would need to be a grass roots program from my former regional reps in order to be brought to floor in January 2023. I set about emailing the mayor of Valdez – no response. The regional rep – no response. The region Senator – a response! Then a month of email tags and not synching up with Senator Shower, unfortunately.
 
Mark is now in charge of communications with Senator Shower, as Mark has all the important information and the valuable expertise on film incentive packages and the process to get it rolling. It will be easier for Mark to speak the language than for me to fumble through it. And it’s easier for me to chat up people back home and ask for support and engagement in the idea of a bill for film incentives.
 
How to help and what you get from it!
 
That said, it would be super beneficial for Valdez and other regions to hop on board and let your voice be heard if you’d like these opportunities to come North. Do you want productions up North? Would you like the extra financial security of another industry being incentivized to do work in state? Would you like to help set the guardrails of what are acceptable codes of conduct for productions while they’re in your back yards and living rooms? (I know I would)

I’ve agreed to push on this button until the end of this year (then I’ll be budgeted out). The state session sits in January 2023 and if there isn’t a package proposed at that time, I’ll step back and let others have the helm for some other project some other time. That’s four months to try and make spaghetti stick to the wall.
 
If you want to weigh in: call your reps. If you want to have a say: get in touch with your regional members. If you want to make noise: post about it on social media. (good bad or otherwise—all noise contributes to the conversation)
 
If you’d like to be involved personally and sit in on the discussions, hit me up via the webform on my contact page and we’ll get together for a chat. Thank you, as always, for hanging in on this wild rollercoaster adventure. It’s never dull!
 
CONTACTS: For Alaska Region Inclusive of Valdez
Valdes City Leadership page: https://www.valdezak.gov/132/City-Council
Representative George Rauscher:   [email protected]
Senator Mike Shower: [email protected]
Alaska State Legislature page: https://akleg.gov/
 
 
P.S. I’ve noticed that emails are easy to dismiss—but a call to the reps office, number listed on the website—get’s an answer right away 😉
 
Up next: State of Oregon.