Hollywood, RI

A great article in the ProJo on the state's tax credits for film, tv, and commercial productions.

The issue at stake is whether tax credits extended to film and TV production companies really are good for RI. The article challenges the assumption that these credits encourage enough spending within the state to justify them. (The article also takes some shots at the quality of the films being made here: the Wesley Snipes/Cybill Shepherd vehicle Hard Luck went straight to video, Katherine Gregg writes, and Hard Luck Productions has since dissolved.) The problem is that much of the production cost of the films, TV shows, and commercials filmed in RI has been spent outside of RI.

New England states are so small--Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have a combined population of about 14.5 million people and just one city with over half a million people--that one wonders if each state alone has the resources to fulfill a major production company's needs. Perhaps a NE revenue-sharing agreement would be a good idea.

All this talk really makes me want to see Underdog.