Orange County is dipping its toes back into the filmmaking waters, courting production companies with a buffet of incentives aimed to shine a spotlight on Central Florida once again as a prime location for movie magic. As reported by FOX 35 Orlando, the county's new incentives come after Florida scrapped its statewide film program in 2016, which shifted the tides of production toward more financially welcoming shores, like Georgia, causing Florida's former glory as the third favorite destination for film producers to fade into the background.
So now, local moguls are rallying behind the comeback story, convening a group that met recently to suss out a strategy for wooing filmmakers back to the sunny climes of Orange County and in a statement reported by FOX 35 Orlando, John Lux, the Executive Director of Film Florida laid it out plainly, "Too often people assume that with nice weather and nice locations that are good enough, but this is a business, and businesses go where they get the best return on investment, and right now Florida is not that, and that is what we are trying to change." The county's hopes are high, and they're not leaving it up to chance, marking the calendar for a public meeting of the Orange County Film Incentive Workgroup, slated for the not-too-distant Wednesday, September 11.
The details of the orange-tinted carrot being dangled in front of production companies were elaborated by WFTV, to play ball with Orange County, production outfits will need to pump at least $400,000 into the economy, shoot a minimum of 60% of their projects locally, and source at least 55% of their cast and crew from within the community, which, if they can tick all the boxes, sees them pocketing financial incentives, but here's the catch - the county has its eye on the fine print, issuing the rewards only after verifying the promised spending. It's performance-based, alright, but it's also a back-patting measure after the fact.
Hope is a powerful thing, as expressed by Hope Bellamy, a key player in the local industry, "If we can bring a small chunk of funding to Orange County we can start it to where other cities and counties can capitalize off what we’re doing," she mentioned, as per WFTV report.
