Suggestions for a NEW Film Tax Credit Program - SENT

My previously posted "Suggestions for a NEW Film Tax Credit Program" has been sent to Senator Dotzler via Certified Mail and he's received it. We shouldn't leave it at that though. We should be thinking about how we might get an Iowa film industry off the ground, tax credits or no tax credits.

We've been going under the illusion for so long that it is impossible to have film production in Iowa as a going concern that we're too easily willing to let things go back to the inactive state that things have been in for way too many years. When the film incentives were running (before Culver froze everything) we had a few hints that something could actually happen here. There were a few Iowa-based feature films attempted (too few if you ask me). There were films made that didn't fit into the stereotype of the kinds of film possible in Iowa: There was a film that had a scene where an Iraqi village was recreated. They didn't go somewhere else to do it. They built that set right within our borders. There was another film (alas not completed) that had a pirate ship set - the sort of thing you expect in Hollywood, London, Rome, ... anywhere but here. So there is at least a glimmer of hope that we could start something here in Iowa whether our state legislature decides to expedite the process or not.

I've been noticing a few people that I had worked with on films who are diverting their attentions into other activities, perhaps to fill the hole that was created when films decided to pack up and leave. I know I'm among them. I've been directing my attention toward building ventriloquist figures for fun (hopefully) and profit (gawd! I hope so). I think all of us would gladly return to film if the right kind of opportunities arose (and I don't mean just volunteer type projects). Let's put our heads together and find a way to find a self-sustaining way to make movies and TV shows.