Written by new-contact on Feb 11, 2010. Posted in Incentive News

New film incentives could boost Alaska productions

New Alaskan incentives could result in more productions choosing the US state, as crews shooting in remote areas during the winter months could receive a 44% tax credit.

Alaska is a popular setting but few productions actually shoot there and the Alaska Film Group puts this down to the previous lack of filming incentives.

Films as diverse as vampire horror 30 Days of Night, supernatural drama The Fourth Kind and romantic comedy The Proposal have used locations like New Zealand, Bulgaria and even Massachusetts as Alaskan doubles.

Matt Szundy, of Alaska’s Ascending Path Productions, cites an image problem: “The biggest challenge is to get producers to understand that Alaskans don’t all live in igloos up here!”

He added that stunning locations are available only a short plane or helicopter ride from major cities such as Anchorage, commenting: “The best bet is to hire a reliable and experienced local to help cut unnecessary and pointless production costs.”

Dave Worrell, of the Alaska Film Office, said locations such as rainforests, volcanoes and even arctic sand dunes are available to filmmakers, while the tax credit is attracting more feature film and TV production interest.

He added: “We field calls daily about shooting in Alaska - and since the credit can apply to television and commercial production in addition to feature films, those inquiries are for a variety of productions.”

Shooting permits can cost as little as $50 a day, while the state’s northern latitude means the summer months produce nearly 24 hours of sunlight a day. Local resources include a range of production and post-production facilities based mainly in Southcentral Alaska, a region that includes Anchorage.

The scale of the new incentives could result in more productions choosing Alaska, especially as Mr Szundy believes the state can double for places such as many areas of South America, the Himalayas and Russia.

In addition, the Alaska Film Group said the state is looking to increase its marketing efforts to encourage more production companies to shoot there, although Mr Worrell added that only limited marketing is possible as the result of a small budget.