\n\tMovies and TV shows that shoot in San Francisco are eyeing an expanded tax credit program to lure more productions to film in the area, in a tit-for-tat race to host Hollywood.<\/p>\n
\n\tMayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday signed legislation updating the long-running but antiquated film incentive program. Under the new version, productions will get a 20 percent rebate on qualified spending and a full rebate on city fees up to $1 million.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a statement, San Francisco Film Commission executive director Manijeh Fata said the changes \u201cmark a turning point for our city\u201d in boosting the local economy with money from the entertainment industry. She added, \u201cThis is about more than attracting productions \u2014 it\u2019s about driving meaningful local spending and supporting the San Franciscans who power this industry, from our union crews and independent filmmakers to the small businesses we rely on every day: camera and lighting houses, caterers, drivers, security teams, hotels, restaurants, and neighborhood merchants.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSan Francisco\u2019s tax credit program hasn\u2019t been updated since its creation in 2006. With the changes, it now offers a 10 percent rebate on qualified spending (no above-the-line costs) on the first $1 million and a 20 percent rebate on spending above that figure. Up to $1 million in savings on fees, including permits, police services and use of city property, are also being provided.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn recent years, fewer movies and TV shows have been shot in San Francisco, opting for locations with more lucrative subsidies. Under the previous version of the program, productions were required to shoot at least 55 to 65 percent of principal photography in the area and were only given a rebate on city fees up to $600,000.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cAs localities across the state compete to attract more film production, San Francisco must stay in the game,\u201d said Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman. \u201cStrengthening our film incentive program will keep jobs in San Francisco and help ensure this important economic activity doesn\u2019t bypass us.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tProductions that have shot in the area include Josephine, A Man on the Inside and The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Josephine director Beth de Ara\u00fajo said the incentives were vital to shoot the film in the city, her hometown. \u201cHaving Josephine\u2019s world premiere at Sundance served as a reminder of what\u2019s possible when a city invests in its storytellers,\u201d she said. \u201cThese updates to the incentive will open the door for even more SF filmmakers to create affordably and authentically.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tA Man on the Inside producer Morgan Sackett said that shooting in the area was surprisingly easy, which \u201chasn\u2019t been historically its reputation,\u201d while stressing the city\u2019s \u201camazing backdrop to tell a story.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe plan, Joe Talbot, director of The Last Black Man in San Francisco, said, is to make San Francisco a \u201cgreat film city again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Movies and TV shows that shoot in San Francisco are eyeing an expanded tax credit program to lure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[70326,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-174148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-production-news","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}