Tom Wheeler trial finally underway

After being delayed 4 times at least, the trial of Tom Wheeler looks like it may be finally beginning, according to this article on WHO-TV's website:

http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-film-head-court-date-20110804,0,6415666.story

There seems to be a feeling from many people that the idea of this trial is to "throw Tom Wheeler under the bus" and leave higher-ups of his from the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED) and members of the Culver administration, including former Governor Chet Culver himself, unscathed by the scandal with total blame assigned to Wheeler. We'll have to stay tuned to see how all of this plays out. Besides the Tom Wheeler trial, there are 3 other known trials that have been reported by the press.

Here's My Letter, Where's Yours?

I just sent a letter to all of our representatives and senators in the Iowa legislature requesting that they re-establish the Iowa Film Office with adequate funding, adequate staffing, better supervision, and away from the disfunction of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. I'm not really sure if my letter will be very effective all by itself. When it comes to swaying legislators numbers matter. If I'm the only one writing letters it is possible that they might think I'm the only one interested in this issue and that they can safely ignore me. If all of you write them, on the other hand, it might get their attention.

There really isn't any excuse not to write, not if you care about working in film without having to take up residence in another state. The film tax credits might be in suspended animation right now and possibly remaining so until the court trials are over with but there is certainly no reason why we can't have a film office to support what little film production activity can happen. And it is not necessary that you write each and every legislator like I did. All you need to do is to write the state representatives and senators who work for you. Who are they? Perhaps these two links will help. Both of these pages contain the email addresses of those who represent you in the legislature.

Representatives
http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/house.aspx

Senators
http://www.legis.iowa.gov/Legislators/senate.aspx


So here is my letter (Where's yours?):

Dear Representative/Senator __,

During the previous terms of Governor Branstad, the Iowa Film Office helped to increase the number of motion picture and television projects brought into Iowa. Before it was established, hardly any productions were shot here. After it was established this number increased noticeably but not as much as it could have, given that, even then, the office was understaffed and underfunded.

Under the last Film Office director we got a good idea of the promise of film in Iowa as well as the potential pitfalls given poor management and underfunding. While there may be no incentive program operating right now, there is still a need for an Iowa Film Office in its role as a representative of Iowa to producers, both out of state and locally.

Film in Iowa is not necessarily bad and the Iowa Film Office can definitely do good for the state under the right circumstances. For this reason I am asking you to consider reinstating funding and staffing for the Iowa Film Office. With adequate funding and staffing it might be possible to iron out the problems that existed and more closely focus on the role and services that it can provide. I'd also ask that it be moved to a different department than the Iowa Department of Economic Development (perhaps the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, as Governor Branstad had suggested) and that it be directly supervised by the Governor's office for maximum accountability. We all know what happened when IDED supervised it and I would hope that we could avoid a repeat of that.

My hope is that you will restore enough funding to the Iowa Film Office so it can operate efficiently, staff it with enough people for it to function, move it to another department so it is not tampered with and put it under the governor's direct supervision so that it is accountable.

Respectfully,

David Thrasher

Positive News?

In the Des Moines Register article linked below, candidate for governor, Terry Branstad and others are open to revising the Iowa film credits. Chet Culver. the incumbent, of course is still committed to ending them.

"Branstad, others open to revise film credits"
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100913/NEWS10/9130317/1007/news05/Branstad-others-open-to-revised-film-credits

One idea mentioned in the article which is troubling if you think about it is to limit the credits to films with "Iowa-type stories" such as "The Bridges of Madison County". This, although it would make sense to legislators who still consider the Film Office to be part of tourism, would not make a lot of sense in regard to the practical realities of attracting film and television productions. In case the legislature hasn't checked, most stories are not set in Iowa and to limit it to this state would limit the films shot here. It would also chase away films that could be shot here because of locations that are similar to other areas of the country. It would set Iowa back even further than it was before the film credits when the only productions that would even consider shooting here were those that needed either a small town location or a farm. Considering the fact that the movie "Aaseamah's Journey" built an Iraqi village set on Iowa land, this idea of limiting film awarded credits to those Iowa-centric stories lacks imagination.

Hopefully the film credits will return, will be written well, and run correctly without any limited ideas hampering their effectiveness like this "Iowa stories only" idea.

Should Iowa Film Tax Program Get Second Chance?

Here is a news story on KCCI-TV's website about film incentives resuming for existing projects and the general situation. There is a text version of the story along with video for it:

http://www.kcci.com/news/24915843/detail.html

Culver comments in a clip included in the story, "We're not going to be taken for suckers, people unforgivably exploited that program." I ask, did any of the people who got jobs on the films that shot here and got paid for it feel like suckers? Did any of the hotels where film personnel stayed, or local businesses that sold to the films feel like suckers? Governor Culver was obviously sleeping on the job as any problems with the program developed and now that he's been shaken from his slumber he is "hrumpf!" outraged, simply outraged that anyone would dare take advantage of the holes that he and the legislature so nicely provided for them. Rather than admit mistakes and attempt to fix them he would rather freeze and then try to kill the program since it appears too taxing on his intellectual capabilities to find a way to fix the problems and make it work.

Iowa "Blacklisted"

Here's a link to a news story on the WOI-TV website where they have talked to Neil Wells:

http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13108181

He says that Hollywood has blacklisted Iowa. I doubt it is much of an exaggeration considering how everything has been handled by Governor Culver and other officials.

Are We Doomed? Part 2

Gene just quoted an article from today's Des Moines Register that inferred that Terry Branstad would probably not be supporting film tax credits. Here is a link to the article so you can read it for yourself:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100818/NEWS09/8180366/Branstad-would-cut-Iowa-Department-of-Economic-Development

Where does that leave us? Talk about us being between a rock and hard place! If the incumbent is re-elected and a new film bill comes up we know we can probably count on him getting out the old veto pen and Culverizing it. If Tweedledee is the choice, he'll probably be grasping at that same writing instrument. Some choice!

I'm planning to do a symbolic vote myself and do a write-in for Tom Wheeler. At least we know he is for film and it might send a message to both the winner and the loser of the election that we're here and we mean business.