Persistence of Vision

Marriages of convenience between production companies and places eager for the investment and exposure a film brings are all the rage right now. Georgia--the scene of The Legend of Bagger Vance and The General's Daughter--offers a production tax credit of up to 30 percent, a move that state residents hope will lure filmmakers who have defected from the Peach State in order to take advantage of incentives in New Mexico and Louisiana. Hawaii, which enjoyed its best year ever as a film location in 2007, leaves nothing to chance: Its attractive tax incentives have generated more than $200 million in direct spend since they went into effect in 2006. In 2007, Hawaii hosted the filming of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and a number of other projects.

And most spectacularly, given the dollar's difficulties against the euro, there is Ireland, which is offering grants of up to 20 percent of the Irish production budget for films produced or co-produced by Irish filmmakers:

the Irish government's Section 481 tax incentive, supplemented by the Irish Film Board's international production fund, is helping to support a rise in both Irish productions and international co-productions.

Section 481, which can be applied for by an Irish production company only, offers producers up to 20% of a project's Irish budget -- with a maximum of e50 million ($78 million) -- and is available to both film and TV productions; it's in place until 2012.

Perhaps most importantly, the coin is paid out on the first day of principal photography. That means producers can receive up to $15 million on the first day of filming.

In addition to the government tax incentives, the Irish Film Board can invest $1.2 million in any given project in equity finance, with discretionary powers to raise that sum to $1.5 million on a case-by-case basis.

The result has been a number of announcements in recent months of high-profile projects being set up as Irish co-productions or coming to Ireland to shoot.

"That bottom-line figure producers receive from the tax incentive and the IFB is allowing us to compete internationally and with our closest rival, namely the U.K.," says Irish film commissioner Naoise Barry. "The IFB is a film sponsor, not a producer. It relies heavily on the quality of Irish production companies that are co-producing these film and TV shows."